Customer Reviews

Hungry for More: A Keeping-it-Real Guide for Black Women on Weight and Body Image

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Robyn McGee's HUNGRY FOR MORE is a guide to help African-American women make informed choices when deciding to live healthy and lose weight. Ms. McGee's book begins by telling readers about her sister, Cathy, who underwent gastric bypass surgery, but whose heart wasn't strong enough for this type of surgery and she died trying to find a quick and surefire method to lose weight. Cathy is one of many African-American women who are opting to have gastric bypass after many years of yo-yo dieting and trying everything imaginable to lose weight. Ms. McGee advocates losing weight in a slow manner with changes in eating habits, behavioral modification and exercise. She wants to give African-American women and women of color options for long-term weight loss and this book is a testament for her sister.

With nine chapters, an introduction, forward and afterword, the author covers many phases on living healthy and weight loss. In Chapter Two, "From the Motherland to Mickey D's", discusses how African-Americans have gradually become obese over time, especially in a culture of sedentary life. Chapter Four, "Digging Our Graves With Our Forks", examines the ways depression, racism and sexual abuse have contributed to obesity and how important dealing with these issues can change the continuum. And the final chapter, "Generation Triple XL", looks at the overweight problems of African-American children. Although I only highlighted a few of the chapters, this book has a wealth of usable information.

HUNGRY FOR MORE is informative and gives us the history of obesity in the African-American community as well as statistical information to validate the author's findings. With several case studies, she is able to convey her information from an individual and emotional standpoint. She makes her findings easily relatable and the options are fully explained. She also includes other reading materials to review as well as movies that feature each topic she explains in her book. One message made very clear in this book is that readers must learn to love themselves and they are more than just a number on a scale. Even if you choose or gastric bypass is your only option, this book gives you enough information for you to research this surgery so you know enough to ask the right questions and make an educated and informed decision. However, she offers so much more in ways of losing and maintaining weight loss that can easily be incorporated into anyone's lifestyle, if that is what he or she wants to do.

Reviewed by Cashana Seals
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

This is a very important book in light of the Hollywood media showing all the celebrities that have supposedly had successful GBS, like Al Roker and Carnie Wilson. What the media doesn't show is the down side to the surgery such as the possibility that even though these people have had weight loss surgery, they can always gain the weight right back or in Robyn's sister's case, lose their life..since black women are among the leaders in obesity, this book is an especially important one for them as it is reported in the book that more and more African American women are having cosmetic surgery as well as the stomach surgery. The writer did an excellent job in giving out important information about this surgery and at the same time one can feel her pain over losing her sister...I predict this book will do well!

Wow! I really enjoyed reading this book. It is wonderful! Having gone from chubby to obese more than once, I was particularly interested in how this author would handle the subject and to her credit she never hit a false or patronizing note. The advice was solid but never condescending. What I particularly liked was the fact that there was no "one size fits all" reason for being fat, overweight, obese etc. It is my personal belief that with most people it involves a varying combination of factors with each person having their own particular mix. Ms. McGee delineated each "reason" with skill, knowledge and compassion and gave excellent advice as to where to go to get help and counsel. Plus it's a good read to boot! Any way it got me to thinking about some long overdue changes that I needed to make personally and after hemming and hawing mightily, I have lost 15lbs. It's a good start.. Thank you!

I just couldn't put this book down! From start to finish, this book is captivating, informative, and also entertaining. It reveals the weight-loss struggles that many ethnic women of today are faced with and what we can do to overcome them and love ourselves and our bodies without having to seek many drastic and often fatal measures. Any and all women can benefit from reading this work of genius!

Ms McGee paints a portrait for us. By experiencing the loss of her sister due to gastric bypass, she explores alternative means of weight loss. She points out behavior modification, and many other means as a weight control solution, rather than drastic measures such a gastric bypass. People obviously do not realize the tremendous risk involved, and only see the hype on TV and magazines as a quick fix.

Hungry for More serves as a guide to help African American women make informed choices when deciding to loose weight and live a healthy lifestyle. Robyn gives us a reality check when she tells us about her sister, Cathy, who underwent gastric bypass surgery, but died when her heart was not strong enough to handle this type of quick weight-loss surgery. The book is chock full of medical facts and plenty of resources and references. There is a very informative discussion on obesity in minorities and raising obese children that really makes you think about the issues. The book also has many personal stories from people Robyn interviewed. Obese women must realize that the weight did not go on overnight and cannot be removed over night. Robyn advocates loosing weight slowly and exercising, while changing eating habits and behavioral modification. Most of the information is what we have heard before--it just needs to sink in. I especially enjoyed "Rob's Recommendations" at the end of each chapter. When it comes to loosing weight, Robyn definitely wants us to keep it real!

All I can say is wow, wow, wow. I just finished Hungry. You spoke to a problem that is huge, no pun intended. Unfortunately we, as a society, focus on the outside manifestation of the inside pain.

One in four women are sexually abused or traumatized, or currently in an unsafe relationship. Health care providers who themselves have not dealt with their own issues can make the problem worse.

If there is no understanding of self, it's hard to promote self care for patients. I appreciate working in the atmosphere I work in at the Health Department where I don't have to rush with my patients. It's always interesting what is revealed behind closed doors. I will be recommending your book as reading for some of my patients. Even if weight is not an issue, love and acceptance of self usually is for most women. It's an on going daily process. Keep spreading the information and take care of yourself.

THIS BOOK HAS SHOWN ME ABOUT MY OWN WEIGHT STRUGGLES,AND THE DYNAMICS OF WEIGHT LOSS AND BODY IMAGE.

Thank you!!! After reading the book, I realized that there is no quick fixes, and that I must be willing to take the time, do the research, and ask questions about this surgery. I've choosen a sensible plan for weight loss, and will not miss a weekly meeting, and will continue the journey to a body image and weight that's right for me.