A post in my Facebook news feed today ominously warned that TWELVE EXCESS CALORIES a day will pack on a pound in a year! That’s two Saltines! Comments included thanks for the “wake up call” and a joke about breath mint consumption. In my book I call this “Magical Math.” It’s a popular fallback on …
Category: weight loss myths
The Paradox of the American Body Image
American culture is riddled with paradigmatic paradoxes in weight and weight loss, body image and body images. Trying to wrap your brain around them may twist your thoughts into knots. What comes to mind first is the immense value our culture puts on both physical beauty AND indulgent food. They cannot realistically co-exist! Yet, we …
Fad Diet Friday: “Thinking Thin”
This week’s fad diet book review is about “Thinking Thin,” the premise that somehow your biology and genetics will be trumped by simply thinking like a thin person! Wow, better than magic! You know it’s bad when a diet book tries to convince you you can’t think correctly. Click to view Fad Diet Friday: “Thinking …
One Weird Old Post: Weight Loss Hype
Burn fat with these five foods! Cut down belly fat with this one weird old tip! Foods that kill belly fat! You’ve seen these ads on the Internet a million times. You know they can’t be true, but you want to hope…maybe? You can’t resist looking! I never have been able to find out the “one …
Are There Double Standards for Weight Loss Diets?
Does a vegetarian ever say, “It’s a special occasion, I’ll have the prime rib!” Do vegans think it’s good for the soul to have a pint of Ben & Jerry’s now and then? Would Kosher Jews believe that God is sure to forgive them for an occasional nosh on something as delicious as bacon? Do …
Realities of Weight Loss Surgery
Today I saw a blog comment that felt like a dagger to the heart. I monitor a great many blogs through RSS feed. This comment was to a physician’s post about weight loss surgery on a gastroenterology blog. The person commenting was bemoaning a significant regain following weight loss surgery, “My problem is, I thought it would always …
Escaping the Trap of Weight Loss Myths
This weekend I saw a desperate Facebook post, crying out for bacon. The poster was on a “seven-day nutritional cleanse,” intended to banish all cravings for what she called “unhealthy things.” Given that this plea for bacon appeared on day four of this seven-day “cleanse” and her cravings had her most definitely in a tight …
Is Losing Weight as Easy as (not eating) Pie?
If someone told you being a millionaire was really fabulous and showed you scenes of wealthy people living a pleasure-filled life, would you become all inspired and motivated and say “I’m going to become a millionaire too!” And off you go, filled with inspiration and motivation to do…um, what exactly? This example may sound ridiculous …
Takes One to Know One: A Weight Loss Book by a Former Fat Person
A recent book buyer admitted when she first saw my book she initially thought, “Oh great, another skinny person telling me why I’m fat.” Then she read about me and made a purchase! (and thank you so much!) Part of why I wanted to write Powerful Hunger was because I am also sick of the …
Is there a big secret to successful weight loss?
At this year’s WordCamp Chicago, I had the pleasure to meet Jennette Fulda, author of Half-Assed: A Weight Loss Memoir. Click here to find Jennette’s wonderful book on Amazon, more about it in a bit. Jennette told me that after the publication of her book Half-Assed, chronicling her 200 lb. weight loss, people always asked her …