‘Men at Large’ challenges Black men to lose two million pounds

Singing duo has national campaign for better health

Edgar “Gemini” Porter knew he was in trouble.

“Last summer, I was urinating every two hours and experiencing severe abdominal cramps,” recalls Porter, one-half of the R&B singing duo Men At Large, who at the time weighed nearly 500 pounds. “I was in so much pain that I drove myself straight to the hospital.”

Porter found out that being obese had brought on the onset of diabetes. “The doctors kept me in the hospital for 16 days and put me on a liquid diet,” said the rotund singer. “They said if I didn’t change my lifestyle, I was going to die.”

Porter immediately began exercising and eating healthy. “I exercise 15 to 20 minutes a day. I do jumping jacks to get my blood circulating or I might go out and walk around the block a couple of times. Everything I eat is either baked, broiled, or boiled. I eat a salad twice a day. I use a light dressing or light oil and I stopped using real sugar: I use Equal or Splenda.”

Now 90 pounds lighter, Porter and his singing partner, Dave Tolliver, launched a national campaign to urge African American men to lose two million pounds.

Statistics indicate that over 69% of all Black men are overweight and 40% of all African American men suffer from high blood pressure compared to 27% of White men.

Eight percent of all African American men have diabetes, nearly twice the number as White men.

Both Porter and Tolliver said that watching family members struggle with weight and diabetes also inspired them to spread the “gospel” of health. “A lot of our friends as well as the guys in our crew are big men,” said Porter. “We began to look around and noticed that a lot of friends and younger people in our families were either overweight, diabetic, or had high blood pressure. Our families believed in feeding us when we were coming up, but people need to be aware of the seriousness of what we’re eating because it’s killing us off.”

“My mom died of heart failure from being overweight,” said Tolliver, who at one time weighed 500 pounds, but lost 150 pounds through gastric bypass surgery three years ago.

Porter’s family also struggled with health-related issues. “My mom and grandmother passed away from diabetes before they were 56,” said Porter, who said his great-grandmother also suffers from diabetes. “One of my earliest memories was when I was five years old. I watched my grandmother die while taking her diabetes medicine.”

“We try to make people aware of the severity of the obesity problem in our community. We need to change our eating habits by eating more vegetables and fruit, eating less fried stuff and drinking plenty of water,” said Tolliver.

Tolliver, who said that the duo was discovered by the late Gerald Levert, said that since losing weight, his health is much improved. “I can breathe better now,” he said. “There’s less pain in my joints and back.”

Tolliver agreed that the Black community needs to be more enlightened about health-related issues. “It’s obvious that we’re not being educated in our communities about how to take care of our health,” said Tolliver. “So we made it our goal to educate adults and children about the different health issues affecting our community.”

The duo, whose CD, “Back on Top,” released on the Cousan/Universal Records label, said that they plan to educate the public about obesity and weight loss in each city they visit. “We know that we will be before a largely Black audience on tour and that we will be able to speak out on a lot of Black radio stations and to newspapers about these problems. It suddenly became clear to us that we will have an audience to really make a difference in an area that has far greater impact than our music,” said Tolliver.

Educating youth about health is also the mission of the duo, who are planning to launch the nonprofit Sweetheart Foundation and talk to schoolchildren about the importance of exercise and eating healthy in schools throughout the United States.

And each vocalist said that the next time they hit the stage, they’ll both be sporting a slimmer physique. “Our personal goal is to lose 100 pounds each,” said Tolliver.

Readers who would like to know more about the losing two million pounds campaign should go to myspace.com/menatlarge or vibe.com and search on Men at Large or call Al Nolan at .