Big Fat Lies: The Truth About Your Weight and Your Health [Paperback]

If you've ever looked at height-weight tables in your doctor's office or calculated your body-mass index from a formula in a fitness magazine, and realized that you're technically overweight, this book is for you. Not only does it expose the highly flawed methodology used to calculate those ideals, it also argues that you can be fit at any weight. In fact, the author asserts, being heavier is actually better for you in some ways: statistically, you have a better chance of living a longer life if you're both active and on the heavy side. But there's the rub: being heavy in itself is no virtue. Exercise and healthful eating are still the keys to vitality and longevity. It's just that weight control has been unrealistically foisted upon us by the insurance and fashion industries, making us miserably concerned with girth when there's often no need for worry. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

It seems that anything society decides is conventional wisdom sooner or later gets debunked. Happily, such is the case with many of our ideas about body fat; hence, this book exposing the ostensible facts about fat. Gaesser presents a wide range of evidence to make his overall point that much of what Americans think is true about fat and its threat to health is not. Bowing to conventional wisdom, not only do people undertake diets and other therapies to achieve unachievable results, some make themselves less healthy by losing too much weight or become obsessed with what is actually "good fat" --the provocative term Gaesser uses for the subcutaneous fat usually found on the hips and thighs, which is "biochemically better suited to taking fat out of the bloodstream" --where fat is most dangerous--than is the other, "bad" fat. Unfortunately, excess good fat is also harder to get rid of, and, alas, the cosmetic offenses of good fat are harder to overcome. For those wishing an informed, even enlightened approach to controlling body fat, this is essential reading. Mike Tribby --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Fat can be fitl This is the first paperback edition of BIG FAT LIES which was published in hardcover by Fawcett Columbine in 1996 and has been unavailable for several years. Here's proof that people can be overweight and still be fit and healthy. Gaesser, an exercise physiologist, presents scientific evidence that there are benefits to body fat. Optimal health and fitness are the results of light daily exercise and a complex - carbohydrate eating plan that aims for an average of 20 percent fat. Authoritative, clearly-written, and crucial reading for anyone who wants to take concrete steps towards improving their health, no matter what their size. "A thorough and compelling synthesis of the medical literature that challenges the common beliefs that "thin is best" and "weight loss improves health".

Glenn Gaessar Phd is a professor of exercise physiology and faculty advisor tot he Cardiovascular health and fitness programme at the university of Virginia, USA. He is the author of three books.