Naturally Thin
Lasting Weight Loss Without Dieting
by Jean Antonello, RN, BSN
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Pub Date Jul 11 2017 | Archive Date Apr 30 2018
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Description
Are you looking for a proven method for lasting weight loss without the pain and struggle of dieting?
For the past three decades, individuals from all over the world have successfully applied the Naturally Thin® approach to achieve lasting weight loss and recovery from weight problems, eating disorders, and disturbed eating patterns.
Naturally Thin: Lasting Weight Loss without Dieting shares the latest information about permanent weight loss using an approach based upon the biological principles of adaptation, which is the core of the nursing curriculum at the University of Minnesota.
In this sequel to the groundbreaking INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER How to Become Naturally Thin by Eating More, which has sold more than a quarter million copies, you will learn:
–Why diets backfire 95% of the time
–A body-centered approach to hunger/fullness signals
–The only true appetite suppressant
–How going hungry sets you up to overeat later
–How dieting actually sets you up to gain weight
–The first step you must take to become NATURALLY THIN
–How to stop your cravings for refined carbs and sugar
–Why you can't lose weight and keep it off
–How to stimulate your metabolic rate by eating more
A Note From the Publisher
The topic of dieting often inspires emotional reactions, strong opinions, heated arguments, and intense despair even among dietitians! Dieters struggle with vague and contradictory information, destructive prejudices, wild and unscientific remedies, and many superstitious misbeliefs. In our culture dieting remains a hot topic because its traditional approach to weight reduction is destined to failure.
That's why we've called this book The Anti-Diet Book. It exposes two fallacies of the traditional weight-reduction diet:
1. People are overweight because they eat too much
2. People overeat primarily because of their emotions.
These approaches to weight problems are not only erroneous, they have perpetuated the problem. This Anti-Diet Book deflates another common belief: naturally thin people are just lucky. In a way, this is true. Those who never gain weight have managed to avoid the vicious cycle of dieting and overeating, but it is wrong to assume that they are the only ones, the favored few, who can enjoy freedom to eat. Anyone can.
This book describes exactly how an individual can be forever freed from the traditional diet cycle and its devastating effects on the body and psyche. The freedom to satisfy hunger signals by eating real food is the privilege and responsibility of every individual, and it leads to a natural, adaptive, lean body weight.
"How to Become Naturally Thin by Eating More" explains how you can be permanently freed from dieting and overweight. It is a process. The process is not fast, but it is dramatic, particularly to those involved in it. Those who have never suffered from overweight cannot imagine the profound relief that those who follow this recovery plan experience.
This book exposes the real reason that people are overweight and sometimes eat too much. It teaches parents and caretakers how to prevent and treat overweight in growing children. Naturally Thin describes the true place that emotions have in the problems of overeating and overweight. Naturally Thin exposes the overwhelming physical cause of overweight and explains why people are totally helpless to overcome it without the new insights of the Anti-Diet approach.
Naturally Thin answers the painful questions that overweight dieters have secretly asked for years: Why am I still fat when I'm dieting most of the time? Why do thin people seem to eat and eat and never gain? Why do I gain when I'm trying so hard not to eat? Why do I feel out of control when I go off a diet? Why can't I stick to a diet? Why do I always gain lost weight back? There are answers to these questions. These answers will make real sense for a change, a permanent change in you.
MY STORY–
Today, when I tell people that my book is about
obesity, I almost always get a surprised look and this reaction, 'You're not writing from experience!" They can't imagine me fat. Besides, I eat so much! I certainly wouldn't qualify as a good dieter! I act and look just like a naturally thin person. I eat anything I want whenever I want. I don't worry about my diet or my weight.
My clothes always fit. I enjoy wearing a bathing suit. But it wasn't always so.
ADOLESCENT PANIC LED TO MY FIRST DIET–
Like so many women, I started dieting in high school.
After gaining a little thigh padding from hormones, I panicked. Thus began my diet history of over fifteen years. My weight fluctuated between 118 and 194 during that time, including pregnancies. Most of the time I maintained twenty to thirty pounds of excess fat. Maybe this doesn't sound obese to you, but I believed I was very fat, and I was very depressed.
THE THEORY OF ADAPTATION –After high school, I went to the University of Minnesota to study nursing. My love for science and people attracted me to the nursing profession, but my education alone did not solve my personal weight problem.
I learned much about the human body and mind with coursework in biology, anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and psychology. But the focal point of my whole nursing education was the Theory of Adaptation. All the scientific knowledge I gained fit somehow into this fascinating concept of a human being's ability to adapt to diverse and changing environments. It was this Theory of Adaptation which would eventually lead to the answers to my own weight problem, but I saw no connection while I was in school or for some time afterward.
LOOKING FOR SOMETHING BETTER –
Throughout high school and college I had tried to lose
weight many times with many different diets. But five years after I graduated from nurses' training, I began to look for a better solution to my chronic weight problem. I
was still overweight and dieting, off and on. By then I had had five years of experience in clinic and hospital nursing and was settled into the area of nursing called Medicine. "Medical" units in hospitals include most chronic diseases, including metabolism and nutrition disorders. Working as a charge nurse there, I had started to form some general theories and concepts about obesity but I was still far from a practical explanation or solution.
I WANTED A CURE–
When my search for a solution intensified, I knew I did not want another diet. I wanted a cure. I wanted to be free of diets as I had known them. And I had known them most of my life. I longed to be naturally thin, but I believed it was impossible for me.
You see, I thought the world was divided into two huge groups: natural fats and natural thins. I was certainly a member of the former. It was so easy for me to gain weight, so nearly impossible to lose. How could I turn my heavy-duty body into a lean machine? Was it even possible to bridge that vast chasm between the two worlds of fats and thins? These questions motivated my research.
THE SEARCH FOR A SOLUTION–
I started a small diet clinic where I shared my ideas and gathered more information. I read everything I could find on nutrition, obesity, and diets. I began to talk with people. I interviewed fat people, thin people, medium people, dieters, people who couldn't diet, people who couldn't gain, people who never tried, and people who never stopped trying.
REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPT –In all this interrogation, one particular concept emerged that revolutionized my ideas about obesity. It is this: Obese people, one and all, described feeling out of control during binges. They certainly wanted to be thin. They sincerely and persistently tried to stick to a diet. They had willpower. They were motivated by many important things—health, job, marital relationship, social acceptance, and self-esteem. In spite of these pressures and their own determination, they all reported that at some point in their dieting, something seemed to take over and sooner or later they went berserk—off the diet, on to eating. But never just normal eating. This post-diet eating was urgent, compulsive, excessive and out of control. It seemed that there was nothing they could do to stop it once it got started.
I, too, had experienced this many times. I began to think about it and gradually associated this experience with the Theory of Adaptation. In time, I concluded that the only force stronger than my desire to be thin (since that was my strongest conscious desire at the time), was my body's instinct to survive. This was the turning point in my understanding of obesity.
THE KEY: SURVIVAL–
In school I had learned that survival was the compelling force behind the human ability to adapt to environmental changes. The instinct to survive has a very powerful influence on people as well as animals. It propels and motivates behaviors, even controlling them under certain circumstances. In other words, our physical drive to survive is so powerful that it will actually override our conscious choices if these choices threaten
our survival.
In a way, our bodies sometimes take over the controls, and we act or react on an instinct level. Under the influence of these powers beyond our will, we are out of control. Obese people, then, were accurate when they described feeling out of control during binges. And what was in control during these eating orgies? Their bodies, their survival instincts.
More questions followed. Why would the body provoke overeating in an already overweight person? What role does fat play in aiding survival? How does the body interpret the traditional food-restricted diet? With the answers came even more understanding. The puzzle pieces began to fall into place.
THE LAST DIET –As I applied the new insights to my own eating
patterns, I stopped dieting-. I began to listen to my body's signals for food. I began to eat more quality food more often, and I stopped trying to burn it off with exercise. The changes I experienced in getting off the diet/binge cycle were very, very gradual because it took me so long to break my dieting habits. I spent two years deprogramming myself (without guidance) from fifteen years of diet misinformation which had conditioned me to fear eating even the most healthful foods.
Inside, I still thought food made me fat. I kept trying to control my eating, off and on, and as long as I did, the diet/binge cycle kept going and my body kept my fat on me. Gradually, though, my weight went down as I improved my eating habits and eliminated my not-eating habits. Finally, I leveled off on the low side of the normal range for a woman my height. Unbelievable!
NATURALLY THIN–
I have been naturally thin for over ten years. My body had the potential to become permanently and naturally thin all the while I was dieting, but I never gave it a chance. I wasn't eating well, and I wasn't eating enough.
After my third baby was born, it took my body only three and a half months to return to my normal pre- pregnancy weight. I had gained forty pounds and only lost eight with the birth, so three and a half months is quite fast. Many people, knowing about the baby, asked how I could have regained my slender shape so quickly. "I did it by eating a lot of good food whenever I had the urge," I admitted. They didn't believe me. By the time you finish this book, I hope you will.
Advance Praise
AMAZON REVIEWS - 5 STARS
by Lani Muelrath
"When I first encountered Jean Antonello's work over two decades ago, it was on the heels of 30 years of dieting, yo yo-ing weight, and trying to manage my weight, food, and eating with one regimen after another to lose weight.
Once I read How to Become Naturally Thin by Eating More, it was like being shifted into a new thinking framework around food, fuel, eating, and my body. With great relief along with great fear - which I was able to navigate with mindfulness practices - I plunged in.
Lo and behold, I now find myself having sustained a 40 - 50 lb weight loss from my highest weight for nearly two decades. More than that, there is a freedom with all of it and a healthy, happy relationship with food eating and my body.
In Naturally Thin: Lasting Weight Loss without Dieting, Jean has synthesized and elaborated upon the best of her previous works. It is a fundamental manual for anyone who wants to end this war with weight and bodies and disentangle themselves from the modern obsession with thinness and getting skinny at any cost.
When you befriend your body, and understand that it is doing the best it knows how and just needs your mindful attention, care, and assistance to function at it's best and restore your naturally healthy weight (my preferred term to the obsolete 'weight loss'), a whole new way of living opens up to you.
Highly recommended and thank you Jean for this fine new work.
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Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9780998947709 |
| PRICE | $16.95 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Debby M, Reviewer
A lot of great information presented to help living healthier and losing weight for good! I am excited to have this on my reference shelf!
Lori H, Educator
Good insights into how eating RIGHT, and eating ENOUGH, is far better than following the diet of the day. This is a common sense approach to eating and losing weight, backed up by science. The science parts, as always, are a little dry, but this book has some very valid points and is well worth the read. No more yo-yo diets! No more feeling guilty for eating real food! Thank you, NetGalley, for the arc!
Linda H, Reviewer
Naturally Thin
by Jean Antonello, RN, BSN
As both the holiday eating season and 2017 draw to a close, sharing a book on losing weight seems appropriate. So many of us focus on resolutions at this time of year, especially health related issues.
A little personal history: In the late 80’s I read the first book by Jean Antonello, RN, BSN, entitled How to Become Naturally Thin by Eating More. I remember successfully following the principles. Fast forward to a lengthy period during which, due to health problems, my concern was being underweight. Fast forward again to better health, but also to some life changes which resulted in an undesired weight gain. Recently I wanted to lose that weight, and I did lose some with a low carb diet, but then I hit a plateau for well over a month despite adherence to the diet and increased exercise.
In the back of my mind I remembered reading a book about eating, with a blue cover, written by a nurse, but that was not enough information for Google to help me locate it. As a book reviewer for NetGalley, I have an incredible number of books that I can request to review. Almost unbelievably, Jean Antonello’s new book popped up on my screen as I was seeking out answers for the plateau. Immediately I knew this was the same author. While I was waiting for my request to be approved, with names now in hand, I was able to find not only the new book, but also a picture of my original book which is now tucked away in a box in NM while I am in Mexico. I felt like I had just found the Mother Lode!
So what do I think of Jean Antonello’s theories and her revised book about 30 years later? It makes so much sense to my personal situation, and she has backed it up with years of research, working with clients, and eating according to the principles herself. She advocates listening to your body’s signals for hunger and for being full. She calls for eating real food and plenty of it. This is not a diet. You are encouraged to eat good foods and never let yourself get hungry which then results in bingeing. She refers to the season of adaptation a former yo-yo dieter needs to go through as “recovery.” You are in charge of your own eating for a change. The plan is based on the feast and famine physiology of our bodies. Dieting is counterintuitive to your body because when you hold back good food, then your body perceives a famine and does not want to let go of the fat. It also slows down the metabolism to protect us from starvation. Both of these things explain my plateau.
There is so much more theory and research in her book, which is written in a very user friendly style. The approach is not complicated, but it does require commitment, not to hunger as in a diet, but to listening to your body’s signals and not thinking like a dieter any more. Antonello debunks lots of dieting myths such as the blame game that is put on overweight people that they are lazy, have psychological problems, and lack will power. She does not guarantee the fast weight loss most diets promise. She does offer freedom from obsession with food and something that rarely happens with diets—you will eat like a naturally thin person and you will not regain the weight.
Obviously I am impressed with the book. I am going to implement the mindset changes, and I anticipate that this will be a gradual process. Will it work? I don’t know. This blog is primarily about education, books, and Mexico. I only occasionally insert personal posts, but I promise to follow up this one with information on my progress or lack of it. According to Naturally Thin, I can’t put a time table on that because everyone’s body is different. I like that viewpoint, and I like that she recognizes people as individuals.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Heartland Book Company for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Health, Nonfiction (Adult)
Notes: The Appendix includes a 31-Day Quick Start plan. These are motivational readings that reinforce the principles and help you make the mental changes necessary after years of being subjected to the dieting industry’s mantra of eating less. There is also a Reader’s Guide of questions for each chapter to help you focus on the principles in that chapter and apply them to your situation.
Publication: July 11, 2017—Heartland Book Company
Memorable Lines: (I probably highlighted half of this book in my efforts to absorb the plan. I have just cited a few portions here.)
When they diet, they force their bodies to quickly burn fat and at the same time create an increased need for fat for the future. This is why dieters always go off their diets—for the necessary restoration of the fat they’ve lost during the diet.
Just like going hungry regularly, eating a lot of poor quality food triggers the body’s survival response. Lousy food doesn’t satisfy the body’s need for nutrients.
…typically people eat too much and all the wrong stuff because they aren’t eating enough of the right stuff—at the right time.
Probably the most challenging aspect of recovery is the patience required for weight loss.
Laura D, Reviewer
Yes, it is that time of year, when we all start to think we can do better. We choose new goals. We look for experts to guide us. We are full of desire and optimism (or despair) and some of us are looking for miracle cures.
Jean Antonello is indeed an expert and she has some answers for us but she is the first to tell you that success comes only to those who take responsibility.
You must be ready, be willing to take the steps and learn the system. This is not a quick-drop weight loss plan. Results will vary for EACH individual and this is NOT a diet. It is a lifestyle system.
Much of the book discusses how the body works and why it stores fat. Why so many people who may have short term and even quick weight loss success often end up heavier after their diets. Many weight loss plans tell you obesity is a psychological effect tied to your emotions and your mindset will make all the difference.
This lifestyle plan is centered on the physiological causes of obesity. How and why the body is designed to store fat. This plan is about breaking the cycle, reprogramming the body's natural response.
There are basic lessons included, like learning how to read a label, acknowledge what you are feeding your body and learning to understand your body's communications. There are examples of other theories and weight loss plans and even a list of pros and CONS of this system. A ton of excellent information.
I did have to be careful and not twist some of the explanations for obesity (metabolism decrease and lack of movement motivation) to use them as excuses for not losing weight. I can not just claim that my body and my genetics are against me! That is not taking responsibility.
I accepted a copy of this book from Netgalley to review but the curiosity and opinions are my own. The desire to become healthier is my own. I am grateful for the author sharing her expertise.
Margaret-Mary J, Reviewer
For the first time in 57 years I finally get the whole feast/famine/why you need to eat on a consistent basis! Thank you, Jean Antonello, for finally FINALLY putting it in a way that I could understand it. This book makes the entire "diet" industry superfluous! Truly. Just understanding the reasons why classic diets don't work at keeping the weight off has been eye opening.
Cathy B, Librarian
As someone who has dieted and read many, many diet books, I have to say this is a bit of a different approach. More of a lifestyle change, not a quick fix. I enjoyed reading this and I think this will be a valuable book for many.
Debbie B, Reviewer
An inspirational dieting book on losing weight without dieting. The author gives tips and advice.
Gladys D, Reviewer
Finally a book that explains so well what happens to us during midlife, thank you! This isn't a diet, it's a life style change, it is healthy, You will feel better mind, body and soul. Going on my reference shelf.
V N, Reviewer
Very good book on dieting and very easy to read. The author expains how we get fat and stay fat. This really was enlightening. I enjoyed the way the author brings to light many things people have wondered about. Also included is how to read labels, understanding your body, etc. I thought the addition of people who have followed her suggestions are doing. I will recommend this book to people I know.Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.
Pamela J, Reviewer
Antonello presents good information in an easily digestible form (pun intended). I have never been obese, just ten or fifteen pounds overweight, but Anotello's principles apply to everyone. We all have a naturally healthy weight at which our bodies and mind thrives and for most of us, that weight is not what we consider skinny. Following Antonello's suggestions, however, will help you lose weight and drop down to your true healthy weight and learn to love it.
Christi F, Reviewer
There are moments in my weight loss journey where I knew what I was doing was wrong but there are so many more moments where I felt like everything I was doing was right. Since going through menopause I feel like I am doing that right now. I'm doing everything I've done in my past and nothing is working. Actually, I'm gaining and am the biggest I've ever been in my entire life at the writing of this review.
Naturally Thin by Jean Antonello was written for people like me; people who want better, want healthier, want this time to be the last time, and want to lose weight the right way.
From the moment I picked up this book I knew this was something different. Within the first few chapters I was saying, "Wow! That's me!" until it became redundant. You can tell from her writing that Ms. Antonello has been there and she knows what she's talking about. She discusses why our bodies are hard-wired to hold onto fat and where many diets have it all wrong. I love all of the stories included in the book from those that have been down this road before and their eventual victory. What they had to do to gain that weight loss freedom is very inspiring and encouraging!
My only complaint is that this book is a tad on the long side and the information, though helpful, can get a little repetitive, but this book is perfect when used as a reference or when you need motivation.
Naturally Thin is highly recommended for anyone who is done with yo-yo dieting, wanting to break the diet cycle, and is willing to put forth the effort to get onto the road to lasting health and weight loss. This book is not a magic pill or a plan that will have you losing 20 pounds in 24 hours, but it will instead help you break free from food addictions, off the diet mentality, and on to lasting weight loss and freedom, if you put what you read to practice.
Dawn W, Reviewer
Well informed, well written, answers to lots of questions.
denise w, Reviewer
#Dieting #NetGalley
publisher synopsis:
Are you looking for a proven method for lasting weight loss without the pain and struggle of dieting?
Since 1989, Naturally Thin® books, which have been featured in O, the Oprah Magazine and Reader's Digest, have been helping countless individuals achieve permanent weight loss without dieting.
"Naturally Thin: Lasting Weight Loss without Dieting" shares the latest information about permanent weight loss using an approach based upon the biological principles of adaptation, which is the core of the nursing curriculum at the University of Minnesota.
In this sequel to the groundbreaking INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER "How to Become Naturally Thin by Eating More," which has sold more than a quarter million copies, you will learn:
–Why diets backfire 95% of the time
–A body-centered approach to hunger/fullness signals
–The only true appetite suppressant
–How going hungry sets you up to overeat later
–How dieting actually sets you up to gain weight
–The first step you must take to become NATURALLY THIN
–How to stop your cravings for refined carbs and sugar
–Why you can't lose weight and keep it off
–How to stimulate your metabolic rate by eating more
For the past three decades, individuals from all over the world have successfully applied the Naturally Thin® approach to achieve lasting weight loss and recovery from weight problems, eating disorders, and disturbed eating patterns.
This book was amazing! It broke down common diets and tore them apart so you understand what is happening to your body, why, what is not working and how to change. It was eye opening to say the least. I cannot, cannot say enough great things about this book. If you have ever, will ever or know someone who will diet sometime in their lifetime, read this book first!!! It will help you so much. I will be keeping this one to read again and again.
Wonderful resource for life!
I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Nicole G, Reviewer
This book is a collection of tips and good ideas for losing weight. I am interested in maintaining my weight loss so it was helpful in that respect also. A few chapters explained methods that were the opposite of what I did to lose weight but I hope readers will understand that everyone's body is different and there are different ways to lose weight and stay at your goal weight.
Hilary S, Reviewer
A wonderful book that I rather imagine the diet industry dislikes intensely! The premise is to get back to a natural way of eating, eat when hungry (the first thing to do is actually allow yourself to eat!) and train yourself to need only the right amount of food. With no fad recipes, no cutting anything out, no making yourself ill trying to work out what is right and wrong with food, don't start starving yourself, make sure you keep hunger at bay - this I will re-read and start to do.
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Jodi Picoult; Jennifer Finney Boylan
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