Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight [Paperback]

Linda Bacon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 2010

Fat isn’t the problem. Dieting is the problem. A society that rejects anyone whose body shape or size doesn’t match an impossible ideal is the problem. A medical establishment that equates “thin” with “healthy” is the problem.
The solution?

Health at Every Size.

Tune in to your body’s expert guidance. Find the joy in movement. Eat what you want, when you want, choosing pleasurable foods that help you to feel good. You too can feel great in your body right now—and Health at Every Size will show you how.

Health at Every Size has been scientifically proven to boost health and self-esteem. The program was evaluated in a government-funded academic study, its data published in well-respected scientific journals.

Updated with the latest scientific research and even more powerful messages, Health at Every Size is not a diet book, and after reading it, you will be convinced the best way to win the war against fat is to give up the fight.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dr. Linda Bacon, a nutrition professor and researcher, earned her doctorate in physiology from the University of California–Davis. She also holds graduate degrees in psychology and exercise science.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: BenBella Books; Second Edition edition (May 4, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1935618253
• ISBN-13: 978-1935618256
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.3 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,896 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Linda Bacon earned her doctorate in physiology, specializing in weight regulation, from the University of California, Davis. She also holds graduate degrees in psychology, specializing in eating disorders and body image, and kinesiology, specializing in exercise metabolism, and has professional experience as a professor, researcher, psychotherapist, exercise physiologist, and consultant.

She is currently a nutrition professor in the Biology Department at City College of San Francisco and serves as an associate nutritionist at the University of California, Davis. Linda also has an active private consulting practice, advising health care professionals and institutions on strategies for implementing Health at Every Size. She is cited regularly in print, radio and television media.

Considered to be a leading expert on weight regulation, Linda has published her ground-breaking research in top scientific journals. Her book, Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight, has received great acclaim and is in its second printing. She is also a popular and compelling public speaker.

With a rare dual perspective combining academic expertise and clinical experience, Linda is adept at providing a link between scientific research and practical application. This enables her to bring authority and compassion to her writing, speaking and teaching. Additionally, she is a healthy, fit and dynamic role model for the ideas she presents. Her personal difficulties with weight regulation and experience in overcoming them provide important perspective and inspiration for her work.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 67 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Be Prepared to Have Your Ideas about Health Challenged April 14, 2011

By Shaunta Grimes

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This week, when we were in Las Vegas, I finished reading Dr. Linda Bacon's book Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight.

Bacon didn't coin the term Health at Every Size (HAES), as she points out in the book. It was a movement before her involvement. But she has written a book that spells it out in a very readable, understandable way.

Health at Every Size starts with a discussion about the social and cultural myths surrounding weight. She talks about how at different times in the last century, women's magazines have had articles about how to GAIN weight, instead of how to lose it. Maybe the most important lesson in the book is how the weight loss industry, which includes government agencies, lies and manipulates statistics in order to make us believe that if we are fat, we are going to die.

1.) We're all going to die. Skinny does not equal immortal. (In case you were wondering.)

2.) The Center for Disease Control helped to design the `obesity crisis' with false statistics.

3.) The act of trying to obtain a `perfect' weight causes far more health problems than the act of trying to be as healthy as possible at your current weight, whatever that may be.

The first part of this book, for me anyway, felt like a battle cry.

The next part of the book talks about Health at Every Size and how to implement it into your life.

I'll admit something here. I skipped ahead to section two. And I was confused. Because I was looking for menu plans and concrete steps to follow. I've read a lot of diet and `life style change' books, starting with Susan Powter and ending right here. They all have steps to follow.

This book doesn't break HAES down that way, and at first I was confused. Because-well, how am I supposed to do this if you don't tell me how? Where are the charts? What about a training schedule or a list of HAES friendly snacks?

Then I went back and read from the beginning. (This was one of those times that my penchant for reading books backwards didn't work out for me.)

Turns out that HAES isn't a diet. I was a little slow integrating that information, because I actually knew that going in. It isn't a fitness plan. It isn't anything other than a validation, permission to treat yourself well right this minute. So Bacon's section two talks more about easing yourself out of what may well be a decades long addiction to dieting. It gives you permission to exercise because it's fun and feels good, or even as training, rather than as a punishment for the sin of being fat. To enjoy whatever food you want to eat-literally, whatever food-without putting a moral judgment on it.

HAES breaks down like this:

1. Love yourself. Yourself today, not yourself 10 or 50 or 150 pounds from now. Your body is just your body, it is neutral morally.

2. Eat good food, eat what you want and enough of it, and stop when you're full.

3. Move because it feels good, it is good for your health (yes, even if you never lose a pound) and it's fun.

Deceptively simple, right?

Bacon does talk some about set points and how you may be keeping your body above its comfortable weight by eating past when you're full and avoiding exercise. I was impressed, however, that she didn't turn this into a weight loss book.

Eating well and moving your body moderately will improve your fitness and your health-even if your body never gives up a single pound.

If you're anything like me, you have so many years of `accepting' that your health and your weight are intricately tied, that turning that off is really difficult. It's one thing to say "I can be fat and still fit" and another to believe it deep down. Even in the face of evidence that it's true. Even knowing that feeling like you have to thin before you earn being fit is a response to cultural conditioning.

You can buy this book on Amazon for about $10. You might be able to get it from your library. However you get it, prepare to have your ideas about your body, you culture and yourself be challenged.

76 of 80 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book for your doctor, too! October 30, 2008

By Debora Burgard PhD

Format:Paperback

As an eating disorders specialist, I see the problems caused by our culture's myths about weight and worth. Dr. Bacon has written a well-cited and persuasive book that teaches us that the real prize is health and well-being, at any size. How can you love the body you have? How can you focus on caring for yourself in your daily decisions and in the way you choose to live in the world? Many of us healthcare providers who understand that diets don't work, and that healthy people come in a range of sizes, now have this terrific book to recommend to our patients. And for the healthcare providers who don't yet know the research about the possibility of health across the broad range of body sizes, the book can educate and guide them in how to provide supportive, collaborative, and weight-neutral healthcare. I'd recommend you have this book in hand next time you go see a new healthcare provider!

61 of 66 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read! October 20, 2008

By dbaseII

Format:Paperback

This book is the BEST researched book about obesity and weight management I have EVER read. It is extremely well cited and quite eye opening about what science REALLY says about obesity. Very comprehensive, the author covers the history (and politics) of the so called "obesity epidemic", as well as the risks (and non risks) of obesity. She straight talks in the book, and I love that. Finally she presents a plan for being healthy and fit which is doable for anyone regardless of size. This is such a fascinating book, I couldn't put it down. I have read many books on this subject but Health at Every Size is DEFINITELY the best of all the books I've ever read. It's a must read for anyone who is interested in the science of obesity and also in a healthy lifestyle (without having to "lose weight") and a must have as a reference in your library.