Fitness for Every Body: Strong, Confident, and Empowered at Any Size

by Meg Boggs

From body-positive Instagram influencer and content creator Meg Boggs, an inclusive and empowering fitness and lifestyle guide to inspire readers of every shape and size.

For years, Meg Boggs believed the narrative told to her by society: she thought that as a plus-sized woman, she could never be fit; she could never be strong; she could never love exercise; she could never be enough. But when Meg became a mom, she decided to rethink her preconceived notions and embrace her body for what it is, not what diet culture said it should be.

In Fitness for Every Body , Meg shares her personal story and inspires you to celebrate your own body for all its capabilities. Featuring a dozen step-by-step, full-body workouts, this book is more than a workout guide or a training manual. It’s a reminder that you’re more than just your weight, that you are stronger than you believe, and that just because you might not be thin, doesn’t mean that you can’t be an athlete. Your body is capable of doing incredible things—you just have to let it.

Equally uplifting and enlightening, this body-positive fitness guide will inspire you to love your body no matter your size and to approach food and exercise in a way that benefits both mental and physical health and wellbeing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Fitness, Bodies, Self Help, Audiobook, Womens

224 pages, Paperback

Published April 27, 2021

Reviews

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A combination memoir, weightlifting guide, and self-love manifesto, Meg Bogg's Fitness for Every Body is inclusive, supportive, and refreshing. I appreciated the information about intuitive eating and the great weightlifting rotations she included. I skimmed/skipped her discussion of pregnancy as it was not relevant to me.

It was wonderful to read a book by a fat woman for fat folx about reclaiming your space in the world, most particularly in fitness. I'm excited to try her exercise tips and look more into intuitive eating for my own journey and relationship to food.

[Amy Gold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Meg Boggs is a courageous woman who shares her personal story of fitness and so much more in order that others are able to relate and gain the strength to pursue their own version of fitness, positive self image and self love. This book is easy to read as the reader feels they are talking one on one with Meg. She gives us a success story and a story of true grit. I came away inspired and uplifted. Because of her, I understand intuitive eating better, too! Thank you to Meg, NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to review this incredible book.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I first noticed Meg on Instagram via Dr Joshua Wolrich. I saw a few of her videos and the first thing I thought was “Damn she is so strong!” This book is amazing. It really examines the damage diet culture has on women and how you can be any body size and enjoy fitness without the toxicity. Just from doing exercise each week it’s cleared my head and is helping mentally. The book is broken into different chapters; introduction, thin and fit are not the same, bodies post pregnancy, embracing fitness as you are, weight lighting, remembering your worth. I know she power lifts and those bits I skimmed but after looking at the exercises she posted I am interested in her 12 weeks of weights (something I recently incorporated into workouts) and exercises. She has pictures of the poses and different modifications to add as well. She has an extensive list in the back of the book in regards to books, websites, podcasts, apps, people on Instagram to follow. Recommended highly.

[Andie Dole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. The first couple chapters I was on board. Boggs's opinion on working out for the joy and power of it versus punishing yourself made me stop for a minute. She points out the lies and unhealthiness of the diet culture and proves you can be strong as an ox, capable of hard things, and loveable even when you're hefty. I was mentally putting this on my recommend list until she got into the self-love blather and declaring her truths all over the place and thanking her body that she lost me. As a believer in absolute truths and that my body is not a separate mythical goddess entity that needs me to give it a nod every now and then, I found the rest of that part of the book to be a bit nauseating. The lifting schedule toward the end of the book seemed reasonable and I will be giving that a go though.
The most important message Boggs had to share was that women do not have to be skinny to be loved or healthy, and often our obsession with thinness is actually what's unhealthy and could very easily be disordered eating. At the very least, it's a large time and mental energy drain, waiting and wishing for a certain number on the scale or tag on our pants to magically make our lives wonderful and help us feel better about ourselves. That's just diet culture trying to sell a program. Life is what you make it right now.
BUT, that lovey dovey gobbelty goop in the middle was annoying, so I'm gonna give this a 2.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fitness for Every Body: Strong, Confident, and Empowered at Any Size by Meg Boggs
Publisher: Tiller Press
Genre: Health, Mind & Body | Self-Help
Publication Date: April 27, 2021

Fitness for Every Body: Strong, Confident, and Empowered at Any Size by Meg Boggs is the book I needed today! I recently joined the No BS Weightloss Program by Corinne Crabtree (some of the concepts in this book are very similar to the program) and by reading this, I was able to see some of the concepts from a different angle and hopefully will be able to apply them better in my life.

I loved the author's perspective on health, fitness, diet culture, thinness not being the same as wellness, and exercise for the joy of movement (instead of punishment for what we ate or to give permission to eat something).

I found the section on intuitive eating to be fascinating. It was the enlightening and helped me understand the concept a little better. I loved the chapter on exercise and the questions posed to explore the relationship between exercise and fitness. I exercised like a beast in 2020 and didn't lose a pound...but what I gained was so much more. I gained strength and the mindset that I could overcome anything because of the challenges I faced in my exercise.

I love the poems & the artwork throughout the book. To me, I think they capture the emotional power behind this book.

I found the included workout program to be well thought out and easy to follow. There are also additional resources included at the end of the book, including books, podcasts, Instagram accounts, and websites.

I'm so grateful to Meg Boggs, Tiller Press, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Fitness for Every Body is an accessible, encouraging, supportive, and fun training guide by Meg Boggs. Due out 27th April 2021 from Simon & Schuster on their Tiller Press imprint, it's 224 pages and will be available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats.

This is a different, accepting, positive, and affirming take on fitness which has an inclusivity which has been sorely lacking in almost all the other fitness and training books I've ever read. This is emphatically not a "fat to skinny" fairy tale. The author compassionately relates some parts of her own fitness journey. I found some of her honest and open recollections of bullying and shaming to be moving and difficult to read.

Most of the book reads like an essay more than an actual fitness recipe guide (with the expected wafer thin models making it look effortless). The essay chapters are broken down thematically;the introduction includes a lot of honesty about Ms. Boggs' own outlook and journey. The following chapters talk about other stages/phases of life including honest assessment of where we are, motherhood (I -loved- this chapter), weight training, and more positivity.

I really like the author's positivity. I like that this is a book about healthy mental and physical well being for everyone. I like that it's an encouraging and sensible book. I also like that the book meets the reader where they *are* no matter what their previous successes or disappointments.

Four stars. This would be a great book for anyone wanting to improve their physical and mental health (and really isn't that most of us who are struggling with isolation and unhealthy habits from stress during the plague?).

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[Steph Carr (LiteraryHypeWoman) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I'd say this is an encouraging book for anyone just getting started on a fitness journey. It covers a lot of basics for lifting and her journey to overcoming mental limits.
However, while the title literally says every body, I had this feeling that the book wasn't fully meant for me in a variety of ways. This might not be the best pick for a curvy retired D1 athlete with no kids, unless you're looking for a lifting plan.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was received as an ARC from Tiller Press in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in that review are completely my own.

This book is for someone like me. We get judged everyday on our appearance rather in the real world indirectly or on social media and we see all these campaigns featuring fitness models and that is the measure we have to live up to. Fitness is not about how you look but how you feel and the improvement of you health that comes with it. Meg Boggs does a great job with explaining all of the different stages of development and the appropriate exercises that coincide with the ailment such as pain and pregnancy. It was very courageous of Meg to share her story and reveal the photos of her training.

We will consider adding this title to our R Non-Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

[Blaire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meg’s story is absolutely inspiring and i love following her account on instagram, but this book just wasn’t for me. i think it’s a good starting point for people who have never read anything about body positivity, HAES etc, but for me it was filled with a lot of vague information about things i already knew (of).

i should’ve guessed a lot of it was gonna be about pregnancy and postpartum, but it wasn’t included in any of the short descriptions so i forgot. needless to say it was a little too much for me, however, i totally see the importance of it for new mamas.

i think the worst thing about listening to this was that i don’t have access to the pdf with the training guide, which would be nice.

[Bookish Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

A FITNESS BOOK BY A FAT WOMAN THAT IS EVERYTHING YOU NEEDED.
It's this. The amount of wholesome encouragement, actual bodypositivity, and celebration of FEMALE BODIES IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES is off. The. Charts. And I'm here for it.
I might even attempt... Some of the fitness... Exercises... Sometime????
And if not, I feel more confident in my own body knowing this Badass Fitness Queen has my back.

[Abby Johnson]

This is a fantastic, body positive book that's about embracing your own fitness journey, whatever that means to you. Yes, Boggs concentrates on weight lifting because that's her jam, but if you've ever felt intimidated to go to the gym because of your body type or how you look, this book is worth picking up. She also writes about intuitive eating, joyful movement, and body positivity.

[Sofia Zavoli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Body Positivity and I love Megg’s take on it. I loved reading about her story.

I didn’t like all the ‘instructions’ to exercise, though. Not because they weren’t valuable, but because I’m fairly new to working out and still don’t get the lingo. It was kind of confusing.

[Kae · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW! I am so happy that I picked up this book. It is so nice to hear someone who is closer to my body size advise on fitness and health. I learned so much from this book in terms of equipment, supplements, workouts, workout terms and most importantly, experiencing it all with respect. I have always had a really bad relationship with exercise. I would probably go as far as to say that it was worse than my relationship with food, because I only ever did it out of punishment to my body. Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed the soccer games with teammates and the look on everyone's faces when they knew I ran that marathon in high school. But it was all for other people. I literally ran that marathon in high school because I thought that people thought I was too fat to do it (in my 160 lb frame, oh my sweet summer child). I did it because I thought that it would make my varsity coach proud of me because she would see me as worthy of her love like the other skinny athletic girls on the team, and not just a charity case. I broke down as the end of the year because she had this speech about how proud she was of me. It was exactly what I wanted and what I did it all for... so why wasn't I happy? Because I didn't do it for me. I was left empty. In healing my relationship with food, my body and my relationship with exercise, I now move in a way that celebrates it. It's hard to forget your old ways when you have been conditioned by yourself, your family, society to see yourself as flawed. This book was amazing because Meg describes that there are no such thing as flaws, just being and being all without judgement. I wish to read more from her and would welcome any suggestions from anyone about books similar to this! I love weightlifting and I am into this way of teaching! Recommend me all the books!!

[Christie Maliyackel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have so many thoughts. I loved the author’s rawness and honesty with her fitness journey and its constant up’s and down’s. I loved how she calls out everything we’re seeing, but not adequately addressing, as it relates to the toxicity of diet culture (especially with social media). I love the stats she includes - really makes you feel that “you are not alone”, for folks like myself who struggle with disordered eating and body dysmorphia. I appreciate her candidness (and the startling stats) around societal expectations that women “bounce back” post-pregnancy, a dangerous sentiment in light of everything else a woman’s postpartum body is dealing with.

I hope many women (and men!) read this book. If nothing else, I feel like it’s a call to action that we, as a society, can do better for the next generation, their self-esteem and confidence. It’s pretty disturbing what they’re up against, especially in this age of perceived perfection on social media. (There are stats about how the next generation feels about their body image in the book - pretty alarming.)

My favorite part of the book was on page 24, where she rattles off all the things society judges women for (i.e., wanting to / not wanting to lose weight, wearing too much / not enough makeup, dressing too sexy or too casually, getting Botox, not shaving, panty lines showing, bushy eyebrows, hair extensions, being too modest, being too sexy)… and how she wrapped that portion up with “for fuck’s sake”. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Why’d I pick this? The author was on Hoda and Jenna

[Caryn F. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book. I thought that it would have a lot of information about all kinds of different workouts for everybody to do. But it was pretty much all strength training. I kind of get it, because the author talks about how she hates cardio and only did it to try to lose weight, but some of us love cardio!
I did love the parts where the author talked about her experiences and how she learned to love herself just the way she is. But even that leans heavily on how amazing her body is because it grew her daughter, which wasn't very relatable for me.

If you're looking for an amazing strength training and power-lifting guide though, this is it! It has extremely detailed information about proper lifting form and great photos showing you how to do tons of different strength exercises. If you're looking for cardio workouts though, this isn't your book.

[ReadnliftwithShar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

As someone with an internal battle with wanting to be healthy versus wanting to give up I felt like the author did a great job with being brutally honest about fitness. She went into great detail about the highs and lows, the battles that women go through, and the importance of self love. I loved the excerpts from women whom given birth and their experiences with fitness afterwards. I also really liked the photos and guidelines and tips that were added. I am giving 4.5 stars because I feel like about 20% of the book was different workouts and movements. I do feel that the added information will be helpful for some people. Good work overall, I would recommend!

[Crystal Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meg Boggs knocked it out of the park with this book. I truly enjoyed every part. Will definitely be incorporating this training plan into my fitness for the love of movement in the near future. This book definitely made me open my eyes to things. It’s perfectly acceptable to be a plus sized athlete and being plus sized doesn’t make me less of an athlete. Reading this book made me want to focus more on doing this for the joy of doing them versus the number of calories that I can burn while doing to activity. I am planning a break up with the scale in the near future and will be reading more up on the anti-diet mentality. Thank you Meg for being a shining star in the community and helping others to not feel less…

[Sinead · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 3.5 star read for me but I rounded it up. I love Meg on Instagram and find her very inspiring. Parts of this book were very motivational and I enjoyed them. I skipped the part about motherhood etc because it’s not relevant for me but I wouldn’t mark it down for having that included.

For me it was the exercises and program that was included that I found disappointing. I was finally hoping for a fitness book that would concentrate on working out and exercises for the super obese and mobility impaired. And I felt this book didn’t work for that audience at all. Most of the stretches etc were floor based. Some modifications for exercises were included but no diagrams to show this.

Overall it wasn’t the book I hoped it would be but Meg’s personality shines across the page.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was fortunate to receive a copy of this book free of charge. I must say, this book is very aesthetically pleasing. The design is colorful and clean. The images and illustrations are bright and cheerful. The topics are are neatly written and organized. The author’s confidence shines through the print as she shares her personal journey with fitness. I enjoyed the workouts! I appreciate the sources being provided for the information shared in the book. This is the perfect book for those who are in the body positivity community! Meg Boggs has made me hopeful that being inclusive is the wave of the future!

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Every person who has a body should read this book.  It was an uplifting reminder that we are all humans, and that our bodies all work differently, but they are all amazing.  Meg Boggs is an inspirational writer who invites the reader into her journey to become someone who views their body as something to be proud of, not something to be ashamed of.  This is a powerful and necessary view for people to have, and we need more books like this.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book. But it I didn’t. Meg Boggs is a bad ass who unapologetically takes up space as a fat woman in fitness and I love that! But...A whole section on motherhood, postpartum, pregnancy and fertility?

At best, it alienates the millions of women who are not and will never be mothers (either by choice or circumstance)

At worst, it perpetuates the myth that motherhood is a virtue of womanhood and a transcendent experience.

Fitness for Every Body?

Fitness for Woman Identified Mothers, would be a more accurate title.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great athletic first timer book. The explanation of how the author got to the point of becoming fit. How its okay to look different than most gym rats and diet crazed women/men. This book fits the spot for most or all early exercisers to the most accomplished athletes. The addition of work out suggestions along with a slight mention of food intake/quality. Makes this publication a great one to have in a collection. Well Done Meg!

[Candy Sparks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meg Boggs wrote this book for all humans who struggle with their weight. We feel heard and valued. I loved the chapters on motherhood* and how raw they were. If you like swear words in your books then is for you! I was sad to see this book end due to needing more of her writing style. Read in 2 days 10 put of 10 recommend this book. 👍👍👍👍
*side note: I am a cat mom but I have seen so many of my friends struggle after giving birth and wanting their "pre-baby" weight back. This book helped me understand their struggle.

[Denise Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can relate to this book and the stigma involved in being “overweight.” I was thoroughly disturbed by the statistics she shared but I’m not surprised by them. We live in a culture that still focuses too much on what women look like and not who we are as people. I sincerely hope that this revolution continues and I’m excited to try the 12 week program she outlined.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my review.

[Tina H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meg is a great Instagram follow and her book showcases her friendly, empowering personality. This book is perfect for beginner lifters or those like me who are starting fresh after time away from the barbells. Her detailed training plans have photos for each of the moves and provide a great foundation. Throughout the book, Meg shares her own journey along with encouragement to love yourself just as you are.

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am new to weights. For the first time in my life I am using something other than my 5 pound free weights. As with every activity I do, my goal is to NOT injure myself. I found this book to be empowering and informative. Some sections felt a tad repetitive. I would guess they are words that a lot of us need to have pounded into our brains so it wasn't terrible. I think Boggs has a lot to share with the world and I'm glad she is being heard.

[Bree Sotirovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of the book was her why story. For me, I just wasn't into it. I wanted to get to the actual plan of action and how to use that to build the confidence and strength I am searching for. The second half of the book is magic. There are exercises that anyone can do at any level which I love. There are easy to follow directions with a picture of Boggs doing the exercise, also loved this aspect of the book!

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a sweet little book. I read it for the weightlifting plan because Meg is strong as hell and great at describing adaptations for different bodies. The rest was fairly intro-level body positivity, fat acceptance, and HAES. I'm sure the chapter about the intersection of parenting, exercise, and weight could be really useful to others. 3 stars for the body acceptance sections, 4 because the workout info + plan is great.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the approach to fitness Meg Boggs shares in this book. She talks about not assuming what your body can and can't do, but to actually try and see what it can do. I was motivated to try doing unmodified push-ups occasionally. The workouts she listed felt approachable and understandable to a beginner to strength workouts. It was a motivational and informative read

[Kelly Stein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read!!!!!!!!

This book changed my life. I hated my body, I constantly felt gross and told myself repeatedly I need to lose weight to be happy. Thank you so much Meg, for reminding me that my body is beautiful and amazing no matter the number or shape. I'm more confident than ever, happier than ever and I wear the damn swimsuit and rock it!!!!