Customer Reviews

Lose Fat with Fat Balance: How to Lose Fat, Lose Pounds, and Lose Inches with a Simple 10 Step Fat Loss Plan

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This diet book provides the reader with a step-by-step approach to eating, losing weight and keeping it off. I enjoyed the new take on motivation and its importance for a success diet and exerise routine, though I believed this section (the first 5 chapters of the book) was bogged down. I did like the way he introduced a character to represent each chapter and a separate step key to weight loss. The best information in this book is the realistic approach he offers. The author Kevin Jones shows the reader common mistakes such as living in fantasy weightloss land and the slippery slope advertisement of instant gratification weightloss. I found the formulas Jones provides to be unapplicable for lack of a better word because I don't want the complication of formulas when working out. I just want a directed and individualized system that will work. Overall I believe this book is good for someone who wants a complete weightloss approach.

Sure its another diet book, but its not just a diet book. I usually hate diet books, I just would rather have a more hands on approach (perhaps that is why I am suckered into all of the workout DVDs) but this book has changed my mind. So I probably will still not like the majority of diet/weighloss books but I definitely like this one. I didn't think motivation for dieting was important. Boy was I wrong. The author Kevin Jones takes his time making the reader understand why a good foundational motivation is necessary if you expect to loss weight and keep it off. I'm sure I'm like the majority of people who make a new years resolution to lose weight and keep it off. But with Kevin's tools it seems possible. He not only preaches why being motivated is important but gives the reader questions/exercises to determine if they are motivated or ready to commit, etc. If your resolution was to lose weight, once again, I recommend you pick up Kevin Jone's book, it can help you acheive your goals.

NOTE: I received a free review copy of this book directly from the author.

Don't let the title of this book fool you--this is not a "diet" book. Rather, author Kevin Jones presents a comprehensive, step-by-step approach to weight loss which incorporates changes to both diet AND exercise. The "F.A.T." in the title of the book is actually an acronym which refers to Frequency, Amount, and Type. Again, this is applied to both diet (e.g., frequency of food intake, amount of portions, and types of foods consumed) and exercise (frequency of working out, amount or length of each exercise session, and types of activities included in the fitness program). Throughout the book, Jones emphasizes the concept of achieving FAT Balance in order to attain the desired results.

The first five chapters, or Steps 1-5 of the program, focus mainly on motivational issues. Jones talks about identifying your key motivations for weight loss, avoiding the promises of instant weight loss gratification (or what he calls "weight loss fantasies"), recognizing the basic rules of weight loss, and finally, taking charge of and making a commitment to your weight loss. To be honest, I found much of this information to be a bit redundant, but that may be because 1) I am not actively trying to lose weight myself, and 2) I was already very familiar with the basic nutritional and fitness concepts presented (e.g., Body Mass Index, Resting Heart Rate, etc.).

Step 6 is where Jones finally begins to get into the heart of his theory. This is where he first talks about the FAT Balance technique in greater depth, applying this strategy to making dietary changes. Although some of the information which Jones provides appears in other diet books, such as his healthy substitutions chart, it is his emphasis on striking a balance between frequency of eating, amount of food, and type of food that is unique. In the following chapter, Step 7, Jones applies the FAT Balance theory to exercise as well. He makes a distinction between Primary Exercise--natural physical activity that everyone does each day--and Supplemental Exercise, which usually means specific cardio and strength training work. Altering either of these in your routine accounts for the "T" in the FAT Balance; Jones provides five total combinations of FAT that are considered effective physical activity. In Step 8, Jones explains how to use the Fat Balance program in three Phases: Launch, Connect, and Cruise. Although there is some very helpful information in this chapter, such as the Hunger Scale, I think that readers might find the various formulas for determining their Connect Weight, RMR, and more to be unnecessarily complicated. The final two steps/chapters center around enjoying and maintaining your weight loss by personalizing the program to meet your own needs.

To better explain the ideas presented in each chapter, Jones introduces 10 fictional characters. Each of these characters represents one of the steps on the path to weight management. For example, Gina is Step 1, Get Motivated; twins Isobel and Iris come later, to illustrate Improve Diet and Increase Activity, respectively; and finally, Mary is presented in the last chapter as an example of how to Maintain Your Weight Loss. In general, the use of these characters is fairly effective, as it allows Jones to provide personalized examples and makes for more engaging reading. I did think that Jones took the idea a bit too far, however, in that he included a 12-page Epilogue with "where are they now?" stories for each character--this seemed somewhat ridiculous to me given that their stories were entirely made up. Similarly, I thought it made little sense to have the included recipes (about 50 total) organized by character; I would have much preferred to have ALL the recipes organized by type. On the other hand, I did have the opportunity to try one of the recipes, for "Mouth Watering Oven Fried Fish," and it was quite good, even meeting with my husband's approval.

Overall, this book is definitely a worthwhile read for someone wanting a comprehensive approach to weight loss. The FAT Balance concept is a solid, easy-to-apply strategy which will assist the reader with making the necessary life-long changes in the areas of both diet and exercise in order to achieve permanent weight loss. Although I did find the author's use of fictional characters to be a bit over-the-top at times, they do help to make the book easier to read and to add interest. If you want to lose weight and need a motivational boost, then I would recommend this book.

The title is catchy in the sense that it gets read as FAT Balance Diet and almost all the struggle of those who are trying to lose weight is with the FAT in their body. The author has imaginatively created an acronym from that simple word. F.A.T. stands for Frequency, Amount and Type. And it is applied to Food and Exercise, the two key factors that affect our intake and expenditure of calories and thus decide our weight.

An innovative approach of using life stories of ten different people to explain the important concepts of life style management (weight and fitness management finally comes to that only) makes the book very readable. In fact, I liked the stories more than the following explanations, which are readable but appear like lecturing at places. I felt that the life stories could have been expanded a little more and the points incorporated therein.

The book is edited and printed well, except for one error on page 102 (Iris decides to take stairs instead of elevator and not as written).

The book comes with a glossary, 50+ recipes (mostly American since the book is meant for US readers though the principles are useful to others too) etc. and is a good value for the money.

I would have preferred to see this as a hard-cover book and also as an e-book, with links to an online journal. The food pyramid illustrations and a few other graphs could have been in color to get the message better across. The book is a good read as it is.

That in spite of good advice from many people including US government, nearly 65% of people are overweight indicates that life-style management has become a big issue in USA. It is hoped that this book will help some of them regain the control over their lives.

This entertaining weight loss book gives a new approach to losing weight that is both fun and enjoyable; a weight loss book that is actually fun to read, which is not an easy feat. The ten step approach in which the author, Kevin Jones has created is a great step approach that will make the person trying to lose weight feel that their goal is more in reach and accessible if the steps are followed. I also love the recipes that were included in the book, I like new recipes that I can make and feel good about eating. A book well worth reading and one that will motivate you and feel like you can achieve your goals without making yourself miserable.

This weight loss book by Kevin Jones gives a new fresh view on losing weight. I like the way the author uses fictional characters to model the action plan, makes reading a weight loss book fun and unique to any I've seen before. The humorous way in which the book is written makes it unique and less "boring" than other weight loss books. The motivators in this book really help you feel motivated and want to change the way you feel about yourself and weight loss. I would definitely recommend it to anyone up for trying a new way to lose weight and feel great!

This Book gives you all the tools you need to be successful at losing weight. The 7 keys to motivation are helpful to helping you succeed in losing weight- Skill, Desire, Clarity, Knowledge, Pain, Pleasure, and Belief. The book gives you a breakdown of each of these and helps you to see what direction you may need to take to stay focused on your weight loss journey. This book is an easy read, and has easy steps to follow, not to many rules, but just a simple breakdown of how you can get the most of losing weight, by choosing to make the right decisions with food and exercise. This book left an impression on me; that losing weight and being healthy is a lifestyle and should not be look at as a temporarily way to be on a diet.

It is true that FAT in foods make us fat. This book shows 10 simple steps for us to reduce fat in no time with not too many restrictions. The steps are easy to understand and easy to follow. This book really helped me a lot and I believe it will help lot of people. The fact is reducing fat is not an easy job and hard to do without proper guidance.

I am great at crash diets but I hate them because I always gain the weight back. So far the system in this book seems to be something that is sustainable for me. I have tried lots of "lifestyle diet" but always seem to be 30 lbs more than I want to be and can never stick to them. If you are anything like me in that regard you really want to try this book. It is so worth it if you can even incorporate a few of the lifestyle changes. I already feel more energetic.

While most diet plans will all claim that theirs is the one that will allow you to shed those unsightly plans and keep them off this particular book will actually follow through on its promises. With a ten step approach, the F.A.T. Balance plan actually makes it truly simple to plan how you want to approach your diet and workout routine.

If you take the plan one step at a time, you won't be disappointed and the book is written in such a way I found it very easy to believe that this time, I was actually going to succeed where I had failed before. I would recommend this book to anyone who is sick to death of working hard to get the weight off only to find themselves piling it back on.