Fight Fat After Forty: The Revolutionary Three-Pronged Approach That Will Break Your Stress-Fat Cycle and Make You Healthy, Fit, and Trim for Life (Paperback)

~ (Author) "I spend quite a bit of time in airports between flights, and I've found through the years that I've spent much of my waiting time..." (more)
Key Phrases: egg stretch, arm shoulder stretch, stress fat, Toxic Stress, Toxic Weight, Alarm Hormone (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you're a woman over 40, you are undergoing physical and emotional changes, declining metabolism, fat deposits at your waistline, decreased energy, mood swings, food cravings--do we need to continue this list? Now pile on chronic, long-term stress (which the author terms toxic stress), which hits women between 40 and 60 and leads to self-destructive eating behavior. "Uncontrolled or toxic stress keeps the refueling appetite on, thus inducing stress eating and weight gain," Peeke explains. The stress triggers are constant, so the body never gets to turn off the stress response. The weight gained from this chronic, toxic stress--toxic weight--settles inside the abdomen and is associated with heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Peeke explains the association between stress and fat gain, and describes the stress/eating cycle ("the itch you can't scratch"). Then she teaches tools for "regrouping": formulating and following a contingency plan of nutrition, exercise, and self-care. Next are suggestions for a nutritional plan tied to stressful times of the day and an explanation of food needs after age 40. In the final chapters, Peeke nudges us to exercise to relieve stress, reduce body fat, and benefit overall health. Peeke is a highly regarded scientist and clinician who studies the link between stress and fat at the National Institutes of Health. She's also Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and works with Vice President Gore as the Medical Director of the National Race for the Cure for Breast Cancer. --Joan Price --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Nutritional expert Peeke, who has just completed three years at the National Institutes of Health studying the relationship between stress and fat, here reveals what she found. Expect tons of publicity on this one.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 014100181X
• ISBN-13: 978-0141001814
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #29,157 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

143 of 147 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How I cut my stress and lowered my blood pressure without Rx, June 12, 2000

By	carrie - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fight Fat After Forty (Hardcover)

It took me years of failed dieting and finally two years of therapy to discover that the root of my weight trouble was caused by low self-esteem which led to excessive spending. I wish I had read this book years ago along with the other book mentioned, "SIMPLE MONEY SOLUTIONS," by Nancy Lloyd. Each book has shown me unique ways to control the "excesses" in my life and slim down my debt and my waistline. My blood pressure has also dropped (without the use of medication) because I no longer feel stressed all the time and I am finally HAPPY!

78 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Man's Perspective on Fight Fat After Forty, May 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Fight Fat After Forty (Hardcover)

While the book may be aimed at women and uses case histories from a number of Dr. Peeke's women patients, the larger lesson is about fat and stress and that is not just a woman's issue. I'm a marathoner, running seven races in the last 15 years. I slowed down my training and stopped competing in races when work and travel took up more and more time. That drop in exercise, along with natural aging and a slowing metabolism made me a prime candidate for the "toxic weight" that Dr. Peeke talks about. I know I'm at higher risk for heart disease and diabetes and her book has been a wake up call for me to get back into exercise and put into effect the good lessons she writes about. I'm paying attention to my "carb clock" and watching what I eat after 5 pm. I'm finding ways to fit exercise back into my life and that includes trips to a gym for planned strength workouts with a trainer, a direct result of her lesson on "make time for yourself." I recommend that men don't let the case studies about women get in the way of the good information in this book.

98 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just buy this book and end the "dieting nightmare"!, August 25, 2000

By	A grateful reader from New Mexico (New Mexico USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fight Fat After Forty (Hardcover)

To sum up this review- just go buy this book! If you found this book as part of a frantic search for another "diet miracle"...you may have just found it- only in a very different form! For me, the diet books and plans were part of my desperate search for the answers as to how I could manipulate the food, move my body and suddenly (and quickly) escape this burden of fat and unhealthiness.

I instinctively knew as I committed to each diet, exercised until I dropped and obsessed about food, something was very wrong with this entire drama. Was I just born with defective will-power? Was my metabolism so slow that a cookie meant no jeans for a week? I just could not find a medically sound explanation as what in the world was going on and why I kept failing. Being smart, well-educated and tenacious wasn't enough. Having tried so many plans and having purchased an entire library of books... nothing had changed and I was still lost as to how to fix it. The "fat experts" and medical community had let me down and I had no idea what to believe. Every Monday morning I would pledge a new insane plan of attack!

"Fight Fat After Forty" IS the answer to this dieting insanity and could be anyone's escape from "dieter's hell". Dr. Pamela Peeke has tackled this dilemma from a scientific- "let's figure this mess out" approach. She actually used "women" in her studies and has based all of her findings on what she and her associates discovered regarding the vicious cycle and patterns of weight management. You will learn exactly what is really happening to you and why the "dieting game" is so destructive and unproductive! This book is really for any woman or man interested in a healthy lifestyle regardless of age.

For me, this book explains so thoroughly and accurately the "whys and hows" of my body and why I was compelled to participate in the crazy rituals around food and exercise.(It is so liberating to finally get it!) Dr. Peeke refuses to merely reproduce a diet plan and exercise sheet. The food alone was never really the problem. There is no magic food plan or exercise regime. It is simply a balancing act dealing with real food, specific exercise, hormonal balance and stress management coupled with positive thinking that makes up a solution that actually works.

The subtle key to this book lies in how it teaches you the paths to changing one's thinking, eating, body movements as well as how to recognize and CHANGE how one deals with STRESS. Dr. Peeke guides you through the science as well as each part of the plan helping you design a new "lifestyle" that will meet your needs. Your finished plan will be a practical one that you can adhere to indefintely and will stay realistic far into the future. NO MORE FADS!

Through these chapters, you will learn so much about yourself. How many of the past "diet books" cared about your specific needs or explained the science behind their plans? Some common questions Dr. Peeke addresses include- why am I so tired all of the time? Why can't I stop eating after a meal? Why does food calm me down or keep me going? Dr. Peeke explains, for example, the complicated link between your chronically stressful day and that empty gaze into the fridge as one begins another evening "feeding frenzy". IS ANY OF THIS SOUNDING FAMILIAR?

The book goes into great depth regarding these links between stress, hormone changes and how we (especially women) cope with life's stressors. Can one really expect to be healthy, well fed and nurtured when many of us have put ourselves last on our priority list? We all need some sense of reward in our lives of a job "well done". For many of us that reward is food.

I caution you not to skip through the book and find the "diet plan and exercise regime". This is a packaged deal and without the UNDERSTANDING as to what is going on- this will become another diet book treating the symptoms without a diagnosis or solution. In fact, you will stay as stuck as before with no clue as to how to gain back your health and sanity permanently.

I sincerely thank Dr. Peeke for ending my "dieting nightmare" where I have been stuck for a very long time. I have already lost weight, have more energy, but most important, I have lost that insane panic driving me to decide what am I going to do next. I don't wake up every morning promising this time to stay on a new plan...for I now have one that works for me. Isn't that what we were all looking for?