Customer Reviews

Naturally Thin: Unleash Your SkinnyGirl and Free Yourself from a Lifetime of Dieting

5 star:		(166)
4 star:		(48)
3 star:		(37)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(52)

 

 

I felt very conflicted by this book. A lot of the advice was the sound advice that you've already read in all those women's magazine and seen on TV. You know, things like "calories in need to equal calories out", and try to eat a balanced diet, etc. Then the rest of the book teaches you neurotic, eating disordered behaviors.

Bethenny talks about how you shouldn't have to settle for a filling, healthy meal, when what you really want is a steak. Go ahead and order the steak, BUT you can only have 3 bites. Yep, 3 bites, she repeats that over and over again through the book. I don't know how you're supposed to live off of 3 bites. I can just imagine how concerned my friends and family would be if they saw me ordering food and then only have 3 bites. So what do you do with the rest of your food? You either A) throw it away B) pawn it off on your dinner companions or C) take it home and make your kids eat it. Frankly, I know a woman like this and I dread being around her whenever food is involved. She's constantly trying to pass off her food on everyone, including drinks (which Bethenny recommends). It's one thing if I'm like, "wow, that looks good", but I've never shown any interest in her meal. If I wanted to eat it, I would have ordered it! Then, if she does try to get some bland healthy meal, she stares at what I ordered, and begs for some. It's rude, annoying, and I hate going out to eat with her.

Next, Bethenny talks alot how when you're on a "diet" you act neurotic about food and obsess. Then she gives tips like, never eat a whole bagel, take half a bagel and then pull the bread out of it and eat only the crust. Same goes for english muffins. It also annoys me that she says repeatedly that she learned these eating habits from living in Italy. I'm a thin Italian woman and I EAT food.

Well, I guess if you ever wondered how these celebrities stay so thin, this book is the harsh reality. She gives a list of what she ate for 3 weeks as an example of how she lives. Here's one of the days: breakfast was 1/2 cup of coffee (couldn't possibly drink a whole cup!) and half of a egg white veggie omelet. Lunch was miso soup, glass of chardonnay, 2 prawns, and arugula salad with mushrooms. Dinner was a medium greek salad, a "skinnygirl" margarita, a couple chips with a small scoop of guacamole and roasted vegetables. Snack was a small handful of blueberry granola and almonds. I added that up to about 778 calories, and it's probably less than that since she never actually finishes food. Keep in mind she also exercises quite a bit.

While some of the advice in this book is solid, like "sit down to eat, eat slowly", the rest is actually quite unhealthy and eating disordered. Maybe Bethenny is confusing "naturally thin girls" with anorexics.

Save your ten dollars. Here is the book in a nutshell. Eat whatever you want as long as you don't go over 800 calories a day...drink water...exercise as much as you can...DO NOT call it dieting. There you go...you are free!!! After all it is only food.

Loving this book! Previous reviewers have said the book is about anorexia...not sure where anyone got this, obviously they did not read the whole chapter, let alone the book. This book is all about, "have your cake and eat it too"! I think some reviews have misrepresented the book in the anorexic accusation, where Bethany writes to not deny yourself of anything, but just have one or two bites. She isn't suggesting this for all foods, just the more decadent and fatty foods. Go ahead have a whole chicken breast, but instead of the whole cheesecake, have only a few bites until you satisfy the craving. This book is not about deprivation, it is about moderation, and what a refreshing book it is! Great common sense concepts, who knew being "naturally thin" could be so simple? We all tend to complicate things, this book gives you the tools to turn your life around. I am already down 4 lbs, and very optimistic that the tools I have learned from this book will be life altering! No more Dieting!

There are a lot of negative reviews about this book, throwing out the A Word [anorexia], and full of people making a big stink about how Bethanny advises people take just a few bites of food. But here's the thing: if you want to lose weight, you basically have to decide what you want to sacrifice - quality or quantity.

By that I mean you can either choose to eat lots/large quantities of food, but it has to be low-cal healthy stuff [veggies, air-popped popcorn, fat free dairy, lean protein, nothing fried/sweetened/fatty, etc.]. In this case, you're sacrificing quality - meaning you're limiting (or eliminating) richer, tastier foods in favor of getting to eat more. This plan is great for those who like to consume in bulk.

The other option is to sacrifice quantity [this is the route Bethanny seems to advocate], meaning you can eat whatever you want, but must stick to small portions. I've observed that this is actually how most of my thin friends eat/drink. I used be jealous because they appeared to be able to eat whatever they want (and they do), but the difference is they stop when they're full (what a CRAZY concept, right?) and they're never the ones to have that second piece of pizza/cake/fried chicken.

All that to say, you can moan and complain all you want about Bethanny's portion-minded way of indulging but I guarantee that you will never find a weight loss book that's going to tell you that you can eat whatever you want, as much as you want because it simply can't be done.

Getting back to the book itself . . .

Pros:

-Encourages you to indulge in the foods you want (in moderation). This is key. Deprevation almost ALWAYS backfires when it comes to weight loss/dieting. As I always say "Woman shall not live on rice cakes alone".

- Requires you to eat mindfully. Years of dieting can cause people to forget how to listen to their bodies. Getting re-familiar with hunger and fullness is important and can help you eat the proper amount of calories for YOUR body, as opposed to how much your friends/husband/kid/neighbor eats.

- Bethanny shows you a sample of what she eats in a given week/weeks. It's a good example of a balance of healthy foods and less healthy ones.

- There is freedom is not being on a "diet" and not having to cut out any food altogether.

Cons:

- For those of us who have struggled with our weight for years, and especially people like me who battle binge eating, the concept of having say, 3 bites of a brownie is almost laughable. After all, if we had the restraint and discipline to stop at a half a bagel, we probably woulnd't be heavy to begin with. I imagine leaving some (or most!) of your food on the plate is something that would require LOTS of practice.

- She oversimplfies the impact of emotional eating and throws out only one brief sentence about getting professional help if you binge eat. This is CRUCIAL because if you are not in a sound place emotionally and psychologcially, all the other advice in the book becomes a moot point. It's almost impossible to take a balanced approach to eating if you're a wreck on the inside.

- This was the biggie for me, and the main reason [I think] why people cry anorexia over this book: Bethanny's food journal. While it's a good mix of healthier foods and treat foods, she doesn't eat anywhere CLOSE to a healthy amount of calories for a grown woman. My three year old neice quite likely consumes more calories than Bethanny does. Now I'm sure being in the public eye means that Bethanny is under pressure to be a few sizes smaller than the average [healthy] woman because well, thin is in, and the camera adds ten pounds. But the average woman reading this book is likely not an aspiring reality star, model or actress and doesn't need to subsist on merely the amount of food that falls off the table at a small dinner party.

My advice/verdict/summary? Fill up on healthy food, top it off with a few bites of the more indulgent stuff, be active as much as your schedule allows, and seek help if your emotions are getting in the way of making better choices for your body.

Since losing my own weight I rarely look at diet books anymore, so I'm not sure what drew me to this one, although it might have been the title. I've never thought of myself as "naturally" thin, so I think I was intrigued by the idea that there might be effective strategies I could add to my arsenal of healthy weight maintenance tools. I was right, and there was so much more. This book has been an inspiration and a revelation for me. Everyone assumes that because I'm thin now I must not have any food issues, but that's not true. I wouldn't have been overweight to begin with if I didn't have issues, and while my journey of losing weight went a long way towards resolving some of those, there were some ways in which I traded one unhealthy compulsion with another. I grew to fear certain foods - anything I viewed as "bad" - and was developing an unhealthy way of seeing food as an enemy, whereas in the past, I went to the other extreme and viewed it as a friend - eating for solace, etc. Both views are wrong, of course. Food is not your enemy OR your friend; it's just food. Sounds like a no-brainer, but it's amazing how much psychology plays a role in how and what we eat, and we're not even conscious of its influence most of the time. I was making myself unhappy with my food anxieties, under-eating, over-exercising and obsessing, and it was time to reassess what was going on in my head.

I should mention that this is a review of both the book, Naturally Thin, and the companion audiobook, Skinny Girl Rules. I spotted the book in the bookstore, paged through it, and ended up speed-reading almost the entire thing right there in the store (I'm sure the author and the store would have preferred I buy it!) I did buy the audiobook, though, and downloaded it to the iPod. I've listened to it about 4 times already. It's precisely the same as the book, word for word, just without the sample menu plans and recipes that comprise a third of the written version.

One thing Frankel stresses is that we're all naturally thin, because natural thinness - i.e., healthiness (the word "thin" has some negative associations, I think, so I prefer `healthy', `slim' or `slender') - is not so much genetic as it is a frame of mind, and a way of living your life. "I don't care what your mother, sister or grandmother looks like," she says . "It doesn't matter." I wouldn't have agreed with that before losing weight myself, but I do now, for the most part. Genetics do play some part in our height, body type and frame, but it plays a much lesser role than we think when it comes to fat and pounds, and there's no excuse for blaming your weight on bad genes (as I used to). She outlines 10 basic "rules" such as "your diet is a bank account", "you can have it all, just not all at once" and others that sound shamefully basic and unimpressive at first blush, but really flesh out and become epiphanies when she drills it down and you start to re-program your own mind. That's exactly what she says she did, and what she wants other women to do - re-program themselves into the "naturally thin" women we incorrectly think only certain people are blessed enough to be.

There are a few points I disagree with, primarily the issue of calorie-counting, which she advises against. I am whole-heartedly supportive of calorie counting when you're trying to lose weight. You don't have to, but it's important to at least understand that it will always come down to calories, whether you count them or not, and if you want to make absolutely sure you're eating the right amount, calorie counting - at least for a while until you get a feel for what different foods `cost' - is essential for knowing you're getting it right.

Overall, however, I think this is one of the best `diet' books I've ever read, and I put quotes around the word because it's all about not dieting, or at least not viewing it that way - as some sort of restrictive, punitive lifestyle. I have no weight to lose anymore and have kept my weight off for several years now, yet this book showed me that I had more to learn about myself, our culture, and food. Frankel's fresh, innovative viewpoint has been immensely helpful for me, so I can just imagine what it will do for anyone who does want to lose weight. Definitely recommended.

I'm seeing alot of mixed reviews on amazon from loved it to hated it. I think this book clicks for some and not for others but it really did change my life. I think this book is for people who need to normalize their relationship with food. I have never been able to keep sweets in the house before, I binged and then starved myself and while im in the range of a healthy weight I weighed a bit more than I wanted to and spent way too much time obsessing about food/diet/weight. Sure some of the book is common sense but its written in a way that really changed my thinking. I stopped "hurting myself with food" which I had never even ackowledged doing before. I also had never noticed how processed food was affecting me in wanting more sweets but as soon as I started eating "real food" and smaller portions I became much more in tune with what I actually needed to give my body. As an emotional eater it didn't really matter how hungry I was, I would eat until I could not anymore, giving myself tons of digestion problems. I would beat myself up for hating to excercise and feel guilty for things for giving in to my cravings. As soon as I read the book I began to re-tune my body and the weight came off really quickly but I was still enjoying everything I wanted. It was so painless and I lost about 15 pounds. Now I'm a size 6 and I think thats right for me, I don't really worry about being smaller or a different size anymore. I decided I was no longer going to torture myself promising to go to the gym and then not wanting to and skipping it and feeling guilty. I quit working out. And I was not going to torture myself by saying I shouldnt have eaten whatever I just ate. Now I go to yoga when I feel like it and walk everywhere in between. I have chocolate when I feel like it (which is so much less often) or pasta or chicken or whatever I feel like (just not all at once as Bethenny says). I fix dinner at home, or eat out with friends, it doesnt matter because it requires minimal effort, I just pay a little more attention to enjoying my food and making it an experience. This no guilt, no diet really worked for me and I did find my inner skinny girl which I would never have guessed was there. It was worth every penny, I highly recommend it.

I bought this book after attending one of Bethenny's Skinny Girl Night Out performances. I had been on weight watchers for 3 weeks at the time with success but I knew I would go crazy counting points for the rest of my life. Naturally Thin reads like Bethenny is talking directly with you. The content is simple, and mostly common sense. It could definitely be more concise for an easier read, however the antidotal information and humor kept me reading. I don't think this book will work for people that need a lot of structure in how they approach food, however it is perfect for the busy woman who just wants an easy and flexible guideline. What I found most impressive about the book was that I have a background in health, science, and basic nutrition; however I hand't quite been able to integrate that information to my diet. That is exactly what this book is about, simple ways to implement simple guidelines. While I have significantly increased my activity level and exercise regularly, I attribute the 36 lbs (and counting) I have lost in about 4 months to following the rules of her book. I highly recommend!

I LOVED this book and have already lost 10 pounds (in 2 mos) by heeding her advice. I found it witty and engrossing, like talking to a funny girlfriend who totally has your back and wants you to succeed. Something clicked for me when the author wrote "It's just food" in the very enlightening section on "Food Noise". I realized how much power we (women) give food. I found much of the book psychologically liberating - food (i.e. obsessing over calories, fat grams, my body,etc) was ruling over so much of my time and thoughts, time I could spend LIVING. This book is different in that respect - it addresses what is going on in your mind, not just the factual stuff like calories in vs. calories burned, which, yes, IS in this and ALL other diet books, as the negative reviewers keep repeating as if this makes the book invalid. An author cannot assume knowledge on the part of the reader. I didn't mind being reminded of this simple fact - it helped me feel in control of my weight, being re-armed with this basic but crucial information.

The author talks about training yourself to be satisfied with smaller amounts of food. Her "Law of Diminishing Returns" was worth the price of the book alone -- Genius! I also loved her "Cancel Your Membership in the Clean Plate Club". How many of us raised in the 50's and 60's were shamed into overeating because of the "starving children in India/Africa"? (How is my eating too much going to help them?) She is right about how ridiculous portions have become in America - a bagel used to be tiny - now they are as big as your head. BTW, I have ALWAYS pulled out the insides of bagels & French bread - (empty calories) - and the crust is the best part - so I thought it amusing that other reviewers were so offended by this advice.

I have to say I am appalled at the negative reviews on this site warning of "eating disorder" promotion - no wonder men call women hysterical. Some of you admit you haven't even read the book. This site is for book reviews, not personal vendettas. Clearly many of you are RH of NY viewers who dislike the author, Bethenny Frankel, and so dash to your computers, furiously typing misleading, uninformed "reviews". Naturally Thin is best seller for a reason. Those of you who are "grateful" to the hysterical eating-disorder-obsessed "reviewers" for saving you from spending $9.60 on this book: I suggest you hurry to your local library and check out "Naturally Thin". Read it with an open mind and you might be surprised at the refreshing feeling of freedom when you next sit down at a restaurant and open a menu. No more fear, no more obsessions over your fat thighs - "It's just food"! The book felt a big pep talk with a ton of practical, helpful insights, such as navigating a party buffet.

I must clear up untruths in many of the negative reviews: yes, the author says she takes "just 3 bites" of her personal favorite, "FATTY steak", but she also says she FILLS UP on salads, veggies, healthier appetizers like crab cakes, etc. The point is, allow yourself permission to eat anything you want (versus denying yourself something forever - I mean who could live without chocolate cake?) - but savor just a small amount of it, and fill up on fiber-rich, healthy choices. (I love onion rings and used to split an order with my husband. Now I have just three, every time. I really enjoy those 3 onion rings, and feel really good about myself for being in control.)

Frankel states many times that she is NOT telling you to eat like her, but to follow your own Food Voice. I love that she printed an honest food diary - she made some bad choices, as we all do. None of this, "I eat 1 oz of turkey for my midday snack every single day" crap you often read in celebrity diet plans. I admire that she is truthful, even admitting what she ate the morning of a hangover - SHOCKING! :-)

Another untruth stated by "reviewers" who wrote that Frankel exercises constantly to keep thin: She specifically says she does NOT exercise much anymore (due to her very busy career). And as for the criticisms of her alcohol intake, if I were in my 30's, with a hot career, living in NYC where NO ONE DRIVES, I most certainly would have cocktails a few nights a week!

I can't wait to get my copy back from a friend I loaned it to so I can read it again. Naturally Thin is a must read for any women serious about getting to and maintaining a healthy weight. You will never think of food the same again.

I don't know what everyone's problem is with this book. I just ordered it for my Kindle and have been reading it and am finding the book to have honest, sound advice. I am really wondering how many people have actually read this book cover to cover that are posting the negative reviews.

This book is NOT about calorie counting. Nor is it about taking three bites of food. It's about learning to manage your weight using common sense. Listening to your body, and not doing dumb stuff. For example the whole "Bank Account" concept really has nothing to do with calorie counting. The point that the author was trying to make with this first rule is that if you eat pancakes for breakfast, don't eat pasta for lunch! Eat a protein! Eat vegetables! If you know you are attending a party in the evening, make sure you fill up on fruit and veggies before you go. It's really that simple.

I'm not one to leave reviews, but I just wanted to post this in case anyone out there is debating on purchasing this book. It's well worth every penny. You will NOT get an eating disorder from reading this book. It's a great, quick read, and offers unique and helpful tips on how to eat without driving yourself nuts.

This book is an odd combination of some excellent advice, and descriptions of painfully constrained and obsessive eating habits.

For context, it's important to note that (in my opinion) the author is a good 20 pounds underweight, and you don't get that way by eating normally. The cover picture doesn't really show it, but you can see how thin she is in unretouched photos like these:

[...]

Frankel's 10 rules are basically sound, but she takes them too far. For example, "Taste everything, eat nothing." This is essentially good advice, but it's overstated. I'd put it this way, "Taste everything, feel obliged to finish nothing." That's a principle I've found very helpful and freeing in my own life, especially at parties and buffets. But Frankel really does mean the "eat nothing" part - in spirit, if not literally. She recommends spoiling your appetite before going out, then filling up on raw vegetables and ordering appetizers rather than an entree. That's not a recipe for enjoying your food!

The weakest part of the book is the chapter on emotional eating and bingeing. She describes it as a "habit" to break (emotional eating involves much more than habit), and her advice is, "You have to decide to stop doing this." If it were that easy, there would be no emotional eaters! (A step-by-step method to stop emotional eating is the subject of my own book, "Normal Eating for Normal Weight".)

I liked the first half of the book with the rules better than the second half with the 7-day eating program. I recoil against tips on how to fill up on minimal calories versus how to nourish yourself with healthy delicious food. Healthy eating lets you achieve a normal weight as a side effect, rather than by obsessing on calories. She *says* this book is about healthy eating, but really it's about minimizing calories.

Here's a bizarre piece of advice from the "Day Four" chapter (context - she advises never to eat a whole muffin or bagel): "Every time I eat a bagel or a sprouted grain English muffin ... I *scoop* it. That's my word for pulling out all that extra bread from the middle of my half bagel or English muffin. I don't need it, and you don't, either. Don't think this sounds obsessive. it's not; it's just sensible, and a perfectly reasonable way to enjoy a bagel while cutting out a lot of the calories."

That's not "obsessive"? Oh yes, it is! If you ask me, the "right" way to eat a bagel is to prepare it for maximum deliciousness, mindfully savor each bite, and then stop when you've had enough - which will be sooner than you think if you're paying attention. Your body can be totally trusted to tell you when that is. You don't need all these tricks unless you're trying to undereat - which in fact is what she's doing.

Frankel spends an awful lot of time thinking about the calorie content of everything she eats. It's not necessary. You can trust your body wisdom to tell you what and how much to eat. The only obstacle is emotional eating, which you *can* overcome.

Supposedly this is not a diet book, but in the end it is because it's about eating to minimize calories and lose weight rather than eating to be healthy. The true non-diet approach is to eat for health, and let normal weight follow naturally from that. Still, the book does contain nuggets of good advice, along with a sprinkling of healthy-looking recipes.