The Overfat Pandemic: Exposing the Problem and Its Simple Solution for Everyone Who Needs to Eliminate Excess Body Fat

by Philip Maffetone, Lindsay Shaw Taylor (Foreword)

Research demonstrates that up to 76 percent of the world’s population—or 5.5 billion people—are overfat, defined as having sufficient excess body fat to impair health. This includes nearly 90 percent of Americans—one of the highest percentages worldwide. In The Overfat Pandemic, Dr. Philip Maffetone reveals common misconceptions regarding the real meaning of “overfat,” factors that helped cause this global pandemic, and ways individuals can remedy the situation with the proper food and exercise. Other major points in the book • The distinction between “overweight” and “overfat” • How normal-weight people can be overfat • Why those who exercise can still be overfat, including athletes • Why waist measurement is better than the bathroom scale • How individuals can take charge of their body fat • How the overfat pandemic can be remedied through simple lifestyle changes and without diets As little as 14 percent of the world’s population has a normal body-fat percentage, and that number may be shrinking. This book aims to curtail the overfat epidemic by exposing a decades-long problem and offering a research-based, practical solution to help prevent and treat it.

Genres: Fitness, Health, Nonfiction

202 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 12, 2017

Reviews

[Andreas · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you still need arguments why sugar is bad for your body then get this book. It's that good.

Actually the only thing that Dr. Philip Maffetone does is to point out the elephant in the room. I guess everyone knows people who are on a low-fat diet or do a lot of sport but are unable to lose weight. In most cases the simple answer is because of sugar, which the body transforms and stores as fat. Read the book to understand what happens and why we crave for anything sweet.

I know from my own experience how hard it is to resist. The chocolate will stare at you until you have eaten even the last piece. Or I go out for lunch and start feeling hungry after less than 2 hours. Something is definitely wrong here.

The book is written with a slightly aggressive undertone, e.g. the companies are called Big Sugar or Big Tabacco. In my opinion this is fully justified because it's disastrous what they do to our society. On the other hand you cannot even blame them as everything is focused on making profits. They just play the game...

As with all diets people will strongly challenge the findings of Dr. Maffetone. For decades carbohydrates have been praised as healthy and fat has been marked as evil. Carbs are everywhere and here in Austria it's hard to imagine a life without bread, pasta, pizza and potatoes. I guess it will come down to finding the right balance to keep food intake under control.

A personal advise: If you want to start somewhere, reduce sugar first (including sweets). These days I study the ingredients lists in the supermarket and think twice when a product contains more than 8-10g sugar per 100g.

If you care for your health then this book is for you.

P.S. Search the internet for "How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat" to understand why there can't be enough discussion about sugar.

[Maxine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a few of Phils articles over the last few years, and finally got round to reading this book.

I've been following Bright Line Eating since July 2019, so I'm already following the eating suggestions in this book.

I was reading this book mainly for more information to help me with my power walking exercise, as I train for Spartan races.

I took the MAF test, and realised that I have been overtraining slightly. I have been power walking at 4.3 miles per hour, knowing that my heart rate was exceeding my MAF zone of 114 - 124. I power-walked for 4 miles on a goal heart rate program, and my treadmill reduced the speed from 4.3 mph to 4.2mph which I maintained for the 4 miles. However, the incline was 0 for the last few miles.

Yesterday I did a long power-walk, 7 miles, and to maintain my heart rate at 124 or below, I ended up reducing the speed to 3.8 mph over the workout, with an incline of 1. This is significantly slower than my usual 4.3mph, which was frustrating. However, I'm prepared to give Phil's method a try for the next 3 months and see how I get on. Maintaining my training at this uncomfortably slow rate, should mean that my exercise is all fat burning, and my speed will increase over time. I'll be retesting every month.

I'm now awaiting the Big book of Endurance training and racing, to learn more.

[Shenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard of Dr. Maffetone when he was a guest on a trail running podcast in which he mostly talked about The Beatles and music. So I was curious to see what his solution was to eliminating body fat.

My biggest takeaway was the section on exercise particularly that anaerobic exercise isn't a fat burner at all, it burns whatever energy you have on hand. So really there's no need to push yourself to pain and exhaustion when it comes to working out. Better to exercise slower using the general 180-Age BPM heart rate formula. Eventually your fitness level will improve. The nutritional stuff about carbohydrates, sugars, junk food I already knew from other sources.

[MR JEREMY · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good advice, easy to read, understand and implement

I enjoyed this book. I’ve long been looking for a nutritional approach that was simple and effective and I think this is it. As with all things, it relies on our discipline in following the guidelines as given. However, I think Phil Maffetone makes a compelling case that we are not just overweight, in general as a population, but also overfat, and it is this overfatness, particularly around our middles, that can have such a deleterious effect.

[Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not going to follow everything I read in the book, but it was a fast read. Well-written. I may even try on of his recipes (with help, of course) and bring butter back into my cooking life. I liked his thoughts, that I've read in other books, about aerobic exercising over anaerobic and trying to stay completely off sugar.

[Federico Slebi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo sabemos , lo intuímos , pero preferimos mirar hacia otro lado. Los carbs y el azúcar representan la verdadera pandemia.