Customer Reviews

Diets Don't Work: Now You Can Become "Naturally Thin" Step-By-Step When All Else Fails

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3 star:		(5)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book changed my life. I dieted (aspiring dancer and all that) from age 12 to age 28, when I stumbled upon this book. From age 12 to 28 I gained 30 pounds (105 to 135). After reading the first few pages of the book when I was 28 (1988) I had a revelation. And I stopped dieting. I am now 43. I weigh 110. It is hard to learn to accept yourself and refocus your life. You must drop the priority "if only I was thin." It's not that important. When I read the book I could not believe the part about the woman only eating part of a chocolate mousse. Believe me its true. Dieting damages your natural system of satiety. It takes about ten years to heal. When you are healed (and you will be if you stop dieting) you do not know if there is chocolate in the house. You can eat it. Or not. You can even eat a lot of it. I'll eat a big bar when I want. When you are healed and your satiety is fixed there will be times when you just don't want any. I've had chocolate go grey because it was forgotten. You owe it to yourself to heal. Life is much better. The important rule I retained is *only eat delicious food*. Now can't you live with that?
Remember: The 1200 to 1800 calorie diets that women go on correspond to the figures of starvation published by the World Health Association. Symptoms are: inability to concentrate and a general slowing down of the body (to save energy). And we expect starving people in the west to be productive?! Dieting is a barbarous practise similar to bloodletting for fever.

Stop dieting. Join the world. The ten years you need to heal will pass anyway.

This is a practical book in the spirit of the writings of Geneen Roth and others who emphasize self-trust in eating. What's great about this book is that it's a workbook format that enables you not just to read about the philosophy, but to put it into practice and discover the ways that it has practical significance in your life.

When I first read this book, I completed the entire thing, writing directly in it (as the author recommends), and I put it into practice in my life as well. After reading it and following the recommendations, I lost 30 pounds that I have not put back in the 5 years since I read the book. After about six months of following his advice, I started to habitually experience cravings for foods traditionally considered healthy---lots of fruits and veggies, salmon, that sort of thing.

In the years following this change, my cholesterol also went from over 250 to well below 200, although I didn't work directly on changing the composition of my diet. I just ate the foods asked for by my body. The composition of my diet did change, but not by force. It was a natural shift, and my diet also continued to include foods Not traditionally considered healthy (such as Orange Chicken from Panda Express---a sugary, deep-fried concoction).

The down side is that I didn't carry the advice through entirely. I would like to lose more weight, but I haven't followed through completely in that I still use food when I am feeling exhausted and for entertainment. To let go of the way I've used food for my entire life has been hard. The changes in my diet (craving healthier foods and so forth) has remained, however, and I've never gained back the weight I lost using this approach.

The up side is that this book gives you the opportunity to choose to live differently. During the time I lost weight with this book, I did so without becoming more obsessed with food and exercise, but less obsessed. Other times I've lost weight, I've done so feeling more and more like who I am is not to be trusted. This offers an approach that has the potential to *solve* your weight problem, rather than only treat its symptoms.

I bought this book in a last ditch effort to lose weight. I have to say, when I began reading , I couldn't put this book down. I kept nodding my head and saying "that's me exactly!" I didn't even mind doing the excercises. They made me face realities that I knew existed but didn't want to see. This book made me understand that being fat was more of an emotional factor than a physical one. I began to eat out of true hunger,and in the last 6 months I have lost 56 pounds. I'm still working on it, but with the info I learned in this book, I know I'll never be fat again,because this time, I didn't diet(they don't work)I changed my life.

If you are ready to free yourself from the enslavement of calorie or
fat counting or excessive exercise - this is the book for you!
"Diets Don't Work" explains in simple language why diets
fail to help people achieve their weight loss goals. It includes
written exercises to help you crystalize your desires and reasons you
are overweight. By helping you delve into your inner self and by
teaching you the skills that naturally thin people naturally do, this
book can put you on the road to losing your excess weight and keeping
it off without dieting! The book covers topics such as how naturally
people stay thin, four things overweight people never do when they
eat, the main reason why you eat to much, the diet mentality and more!
This book is in its 14th printing and is the revised updated version
of the original "Diets Don't Work" book. It was printed in
1996. Another book by the author "Diets Still Don't Work"
was published in 1990 after the release of the original "Diets
Don't Work" book. The books cover essentially the same
information with only a few variations, so you really need purchase
only one or the other. I recommend this book if you are tired of the
diet roller coaster and want to live a naturally thin diet free life!

I started my first diet when I was just old enough to say diet. I continued riding the diet roller coaster for the next 25 years of my frustrated life. My frustration and all my life's woes can easily be traced back to my issues with my weight. Everything became about weight, diets and eating. I could tell anyone the calorie content of anything. I thought that was a gift. It really was a curse. I know this now. I saw diets don't work in the book store years ago and thought YES that is SO ... TRUE!!! I believed in the philosophy of the anti diet for a very short time but did not, could not, and would not allow myself to trust myself, so at first it did not work for me. Now, about 4 years later I picked up this book again, and decided to read it over one more time. One thing I knew for certain was that diets had failed me again and again and again making my life totally miserable. I felt if I could just succeed in making myself thin than I could master anything, but I could not lick this problem. It lingered on and on. I also knew that I noticed thin people everywhere eating pizza, ice cream and cookies all around me, whereas my chubby compatriates were suffering silently with their rice cakes. I thought something's rotten in Denmark. How is it possible that thin people seemingly eat whatever they want and don't gain weight? Then it finally clicked once and for all. DIETS DONT WORK!!! Tell your friends. Tell the world. Diets cause overeating, obesity, depression, self hatred, failure, food obsession............This book and others like it that I have read have literally saved me. I have only been following this for 1 week. It's true. It may sound nuts that I am so convinced after a week, but I am sold. In just a few days I have not deprived myself of anything, and remarkably the things I thought I wanted so much like "a whole cake" or an entire pizza were not actually things I wanted. I found myself reaching for a banana! A Banana! Can you believe? I had thought vegetables and fruit were some kind of punishment, but when you're not eating them to diet or lose weight you find yourself actually wanting to have them. It is so unbelievable. One week and I am completely sold. Thank you Bob Schwartz. YOu are a life saver. Now when I hear people talking about atkins, the zone, weight watchers,.....I just laugh. I don't bother telling them what I have learned, because I think it takes a lifetime of dieting before you can possibly give up on diets all together. They'de just never believe me is all. I am so glad to have my life and sanity back.

This book contains the only original thought to penetrate the fitness and diet industry. The author works from a medical rather than a behavioural model. In other words, he works towards curing your mind of the desire to overeat, rather than treating the symptoms of overeating. The one drawback is that because this is a workbook, you probably won't want to share your copy with your friends. However, the exercises (not aerobic, but mental) work, and if you do them all, you will either lose weight or realize that you don't need to.

Bob Schwartz is easy to read, the book is inspirational, and also the hardest diet you'll ever have... it makes you clear out the mental gunk in your head. He espouses being gentle with yourself, and he also lets you decide where your happiness lies... he definitely is a must read! I have tried others, and this book works!

Bob's approach is life-altering. The process is intense. He poses questions where thoughtfulness and instrospection evoked are more meaningful (and can be more successful) than any eating or diet program. In understanding and dealing with the perpetual battle with food, this book and the Diets Don't Work philosophy should be on the very forefront of our personal and societal fight with weight and food! Read it again--and again, like I did.

This book will force you take an honest look at yourself and the real reasons why you eat & stay overweight. The workbook format is a challenge - it really forces you to think & to do an honest assessment of your attitudes toward food & WHY you eat.
I learned a lot about myself & found the interactive format to be helpful & forthright.
It's about time someone addressed the subject of WHY we eat instead of what we shouldn't eat. Usually, diets are limiting & once we're off them, bad habits return. This never gives us the opportunity to nip the problem as its source, whether it be our mental or emotional dependance on food & the rituals we create around it.

This book shows you why you eat too much. It helps you to see a new way of looking at food and life. It is wonderfull. It does not stress exercising like an earlier reader implied.(The book does say that exercising is good for you, but NOT to do things that make you uncomfortable.) And it does stress being happy, to forget about obssessing about food, and get on with life. He stresses being happy. I think that the reviewer has not even read the book, or he would not have said that.

Very good book, I learned alot, and it feels so good to not think about food so much anymore!!