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

by Pamela Peeke

Book Overview

It's a fact: stress makes you fat. Renowned clinician and scientist Dr. Pamela Peeke goes beyond diet and exercise with a lifestyle program that shows women how to stop being diet "POWs" ("Prisoners... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 014100181X
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Don't diet - change your eating schedule

I would bet there are tons of women like me who have gained weight eating the way I did, not much food during the day and compulsive cravings at night. Duh, why didn't I figure this out. I'm smart. Heck, I've purchased and read every diet book out there. Dr. Peeke's book and approach to eating works and it works effortlessly without crazy diets. I've lost over 20 lbs in 2 months without dieting. I merely changed my eating schedule to get most of my calories in before 5pm, no starches after 5pm and no food after 8pm. I even cheat at night a bit by having a piece of fruit or an ice cream bar occasionally. The big surprise - I'm not hungry at night - no cravings. Why? Because I'm eating properly and often during the day, starting with breakfast. Like most people, I'm not always hungry in the morning, but I make it a point to eat a good balance of protein, fat and carbs every 3 hrs from breakfast on until 5pm and I feel wonderful, no hunger, no wild cravings. Normal eating, normal living, no dieting, no binges. This is so easy, so liveable and the weight is dropping steadily. Buy this book, follow the advice and you will lose weight while eating well. Such a simple change, but what a difference. I can't imagine not eating like this now. It's so nice to feel satisfied and not experience the compulsive night cravings any longer. This is a lifestyle strategy I can live with forever; only wish I had bought her book sooner.

Just buy this book and end the "dieting nightmare"!

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 ad

An Excellent Resource

As a certified personal trainer specializing in women's health and lifestyle managment, I have found Dr. Peeke's book to be an invaluable resource. The information about the link between stress and weight and the three-part approach for leading a healthy lifestyle has been useful and applicable to all of my clients, not just those in the forty-and-over age catagory. I have recommended this book to several of my clients, co-workers and friends who have also found it to be extremely helpful in their efforts to develop more centered and healthy lifestyles. In the first section, Peeke presents historical and scientific information about stress and its physiological impact on the human body in a manner that is interesting and easily understandable. Her humorous and sensitive approach and her use of real-life examples allow us to feel we are not alone in our stuggles with stress and weight managment. Furthermore, Peeke teaches us how to identify our personal stress profile, recognizing that, as individual human beings, a standard cookie-cutter approach does not work.I was most impressed by the section of the book where Peeke talks about regrouping. Unlike other books I have read about fitness, weight loss and lifestyle management, FFAF includes a "back-up plan" for what to do when life throws a curve ball. Peeke recognizes that we WILL make mistakes along the way and fall of track. She explains that it is okay not to be perfect and we need to accept and embrace our imperfect selves.Peek goes on to provide reasonable and manageable approaches to changing eating patterns and habits. Once again, her real-life examples help make this information more understandable and applicable to us as readers. As a personal trainer, I am appalled by how much misinformation there is about nutrition among my clients and even my colleagues. It is refreshing to see that FFAF includes accurate and appropriate guidelines for nutrition. I found the information on portion sizes and how to navigate the "Cortizone" to be particularly useful in addressing my clients' nutritional issues.I applaud Peek for the chapter on weight lifting and exercise. Too often women who are forty and over are afraid to lift weights and don't realize the benefits of strength training. Peeke explains how weight lifting is important for increasing metabolic rate and preventing osteoporosis. I was also glad to see Peeke included information on flexibility training. Stretching is so important, particularly for injury prevention, and it is often left out of exercise regimens.FFAF presents profound insight about the roots of our stress and how it is linked to eating and weight gain. It provides a "game plan" for dealing with stress and eating when the going gets tough and teaches us to be gentle with ourselves and accept that we are not perfect. I would highly recommend Peeke's book to any woman who is seeking an effective and reasonable approach to c

What was really keeping me overweight and how I overcame it

We diet, lose weight and gain it all back again. Why? Like so many people my weight issues weren't totally about overeating. They were intertwined with issues about self-esteem and, of all things, money. It took me years to realize this but once I did I was finally able to lose the weight and keep it off. I found a combination of three books that helped me put an end to my self-defeating habits: "FIGHT FAT" has helped me with my final weight issues."NECESSARY JOURNEYS," by Dr. Nancy Snyderman helped me finally resolve my leftover anger and feelings of failure following my divorce."SIMPLE MONEY SOLUTIONS," by Nancy Lloyd helped me finally end my overspending and love-hate relationship with credit cards. My debts are now under control, I feel like a weight has been lifted and I'm almost down to my college weight. These three books have changed my life like nothing I've ever tried before. They could work for you too. You have nothing to lose but those unwanted pounds.

A Man's Perspective on Fight Fat After Forty

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.