Losing the Last 5 kgs

by Susie Burrell

As most of us can attest, 5 kg is very easy to put on and live with. But if we set our minds to it, it can also be just as easy to lose and keep off for good! Nutritionist Susie Burrell shows that achieving a good lifestyle, food and exercise balance can make losing those pesky 5 kg a breeze in just a few weeks. Packed with user-friendly hints and tips, Susie will teach you how to eliminate the extra calories without resorting to extreme diets, medications or shakes. In her simple approach she will help you to focus not just on what you eat, but the psychology behind why you may be eating it in the first place. Learn how to get breakfast right, snack for success, eat out without piling on the kilos, what to do when you’ve overdone it and how to drink alcohol and still lose weight! With advice on exercise, psychological wellbeing and nutrition, this pocket-sized guide is the weight-loss bible for anyone who wants to lose those extra kilos the sensible way. Get ready to say goodbye to the last 5 kg for the very last time!

239 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 12, 2010

About the author

As one of Australia’s leading dietitians, Susie Burrell is known for her extensive knowledge of food, eating behaviour and weight control. Holding Honours degrees in both Nutrition & Dietetics and in Psychology, plus a Master’s of Coaching Psychology, Susie specialises in weight control for women during perimenopause and fuelling for top executive performance.

Susie is one half of Australia’s number one nutrition podcast, The Nutrition Couch. Over her career, Susie has worked as a paediatric dietitian at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, as a sports dietitian with several elite sporting teams including the Parramatta Eels, St George Illawarra Dragons and Sydney University Sport, and for 12 years was the resident dietitian with Channel 7’s Sunrise. As mum to twin boys, Gus and Harry, Susie is kept busy retrieving their rugby and soccer balls and building Lego houses.

Reviews

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I picked this book up after realising I had put on the oh-so-easy-to-put-on five kilos. This is really a collection of tips, ideas and suggestions for why you may have gained five kilos and the things you can change - both diet and lifestyle - to change it. It was good to get a good background on human physiology and how hormones can affect our weight. I found out it's often easier to lose 20 kilos than 5 kilos, as when you are looking to lose a small amount of weight you likely already have a pretty healthy diet and likely do some exercise. When losing small amounts of weight, you're measurements are more likely to change than the number on the scale, so it's important to not be discouraged by a scale that doesn't shift.

Then there are complications with our body's metabolism and how losing too much weight too quickly, can put a 'break' on the body's fat burning abilities, so you can unintentionally slow your progress.

The downside is, when you have a small amount of weight to lose - there are so many reasons why that may be the case and so many other reasons why you may be struggling to lose it. When it comes to small amounts of weight loss, nutrition gets complicated! This gave me a sense of discouragement and at times overwhelm when reading the book.

I tried a few of the recipes in here and found them tasty, healthy and easy to put together. I was surprised there weren't complete meal plans in this book - then I realised the author's website has a 'Shape Me' meal plan that has to be paid for.

That made me a bit annoyed, but I can see her meal plan is formulated based on your age, weight loss goals, gender and current activity levels. Since the author is a dietitian, she's likely aware that generic meal plans rarely work since they don't take into consideration age, gender and the amount of weight to lose - factors that will change the weight loss strategy.

Overall, a good overview, nice recipes - but you'd need to buy an additional meal plan to really put her ideas into action.

[Sadru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful

This book conveys the simple message in a meaningful way. Helps one to develop a mindset for better lifestyle quality.

[Belinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very plain, no-nonsense commonsense guide to losing weight. There's nothing new here - Burrell is an experienced dietitian, and she knows that diets don't work. Hence, her advice is all about everyday positive changes that can be made to facilitate weight loss.

This is a 3.5 star book for me. Its advice is good but the copyediting is quite sloppy (a small latte is 70 calories on one page and 140 a few pages later). The general guidelines as to the calories in meals are pretty useless (a chicken and rice stirfry is a "bad" lunch choice while pasta and meatballs is "good" makes no sense at all given the variation in portion size and ingredients) and Burrell is apparently unaware of the irony in railing against fake sugars but happily recommending low-fat dairy products, which frequently have added sugar to make up for the lack of fat. These are, however, balanced by good stuff like if you are feeling really deprived by not being able to eat your favourite meal, just eat it, but only eat it once in a while.

This doesn't add anything groundbreaking to the healthy diet debate but is a good solid reference. 3.5 stars.

[Nat Newman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid practical advice reiterating what I already know but need to reread occasionally.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting perspectives.