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The F*ck It Diet: Eating Should Be Easy
From humorist and ex-diet junkie Caroline Dooner, an inspirational guide that will help you stop dieting, reboot your relationship with food, and regain your personal power
DIETING DOESN'T WORK
Not long term. In fact, our bodies are hardwired against it. But each time our diets fail, instead of considering that maybe our ridiculously low-carb diet is the problem, we wonder what's wrong with us. Why can't we stick to our simple plan of grapefruit and tuna fish Why are we so hungry? What is wrong with us We berate ourselves for being lazy and weak, double down on our belief that losing weight is the key to our everlasting happiness, and resolve to do better tomorrow. But it's time we called a spade a spade: Constantly trying to eat the smallest amount possible is a miserable way to live, and it isn't even working. So fuck eating like that.
In The F*ck It Diet, Caroline Dooner tackles the inherent flaws of dieting and diet culture, and offers readers a counterintuitively simple path to healing their physical, emotional, and mental relationship with food. What's the secret anti-diet? Eat. Whatever you want. Honor your appetite and listen to your hunger. Trust that your body knows what it is doing. Oh, and don't forget to rest, breathe, and be kind to yourself while you're at it. Once you get yourself out of survival mode, it will become easier and easier to eat what your body really needs--a healthier relationship with food ultimately leads to a healthier you.
An ex-yo-yo dieter herself, Dooner knows how terrifying it can be to break free of the vicious cycle, but with her signature sharp humor and compassion, she shows readers that a sustainable, easy relationship with food is possible.
Irreverent and empowering, The F*ck It Diet is call to arms for anyone who feels guilt or pain over food, weight, or their body. It's time to give up the shame and start thriving. Welcome to the F*ck It Diet. Let's Eat.
DIETING DOESN'T WORK
Not long term. In fact, our bodies are hardwired against it. But each time our diets fail, instead of considering that maybe our ridiculously low-carb diet is the problem, we wonder what's wrong with us. Why can't we stick to our simple plan of grapefruit and tuna fish Why are we so hungry? What is wrong with us We berate ourselves for being lazy and weak, double down on our belief that losing weight is the key to our everlasting happiness, and resolve to do better tomorrow. But it's time we called a spade a spade: Constantly trying to eat the smallest amount possible is a miserable way to live, and it isn't even working. So fuck eating like that.
In The F*ck It Diet, Caroline Dooner tackles the inherent flaws of dieting and diet culture, and offers readers a counterintuitively simple path to healing their physical, emotional, and mental relationship with food. What's the secret anti-diet? Eat. Whatever you want. Honor your appetite and listen to your hunger. Trust that your body knows what it is doing. Oh, and don't forget to rest, breathe, and be kind to yourself while you're at it. Once you get yourself out of survival mode, it will become easier and easier to eat what your body really needs--a healthier relationship with food ultimately leads to a healthier you.
An ex-yo-yo dieter herself, Dooner knows how terrifying it can be to break free of the vicious cycle, but with her signature sharp humor and compassion, she shows readers that a sustainable, easy relationship with food is possible.
Irreverent and empowering, The F*ck It Diet is call to arms for anyone who feels guilt or pain over food, weight, or their body. It's time to give up the shame and start thriving. Welcome to the F*ck It Diet. Let's Eat.
304 pages, Paperback
First published March 26, 2019
2221 people are currently reading
11316 people want to read
About the author
Caroline Dooner
13 books113 followersI write mostly about God now. I used to write about intuitive eating, then I became a rebellious libertarian during covid, which made most of my former readers hate me. Then I converted (back) to Christianity. Yes it's all been very strange.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,046 reviews
April 15, 2019
I honestly only made it about half way through this book - I RARELY don’t finish a book through once I begin. While I think the overall message of the book is well intentioned and there are some good pieces of information there are definitely parts that I found problematic.
1) she seems to feel strongly that binge eating disorder is not actually an eating disorder; only a biological response from restriction. I got the impression she thinks Anorexia is the only “real” eating disorder. This invalidates most of the population she’s trying to reach. And while the diet cycle absolutely contributes to BED there are also other factors and “eating more is your biological response” is a gross oversimplification. There is already enough tendency in the world toward anorexia is the only eating disorder, what we need is more awareness that eating disorders come in many forms.
2) I feel like there was a lot of fluff; the “physical part” was basically saying eat when you’re hungry 500 different ways and taking up 100 pages.
3) It’s not a novel idea, it’s basically intuitive eating (but claims to not be intuitive eating) regurgitated with far fewer scientifically based facts and a different name.
Also, just personal preference, I didn’t think it was broken out well. I found a 100 page chapter with only 1, maybe 2, natural stopping points a bit overwhelming.
1) she seems to feel strongly that binge eating disorder is not actually an eating disorder; only a biological response from restriction. I got the impression she thinks Anorexia is the only “real” eating disorder. This invalidates most of the population she’s trying to reach. And while the diet cycle absolutely contributes to BED there are also other factors and “eating more is your biological response” is a gross oversimplification. There is already enough tendency in the world toward anorexia is the only eating disorder, what we need is more awareness that eating disorders come in many forms.
2) I feel like there was a lot of fluff; the “physical part” was basically saying eat when you’re hungry 500 different ways and taking up 100 pages.
3) It’s not a novel idea, it’s basically intuitive eating (but claims to not be intuitive eating) regurgitated with far fewer scientifically based facts and a different name.
Also, just personal preference, I didn’t think it was broken out well. I found a 100 page chapter with only 1, maybe 2, natural stopping points a bit overwhelming.
June 8, 2019
** Note: I’m about halfway through the book. My review might change once I’m finished.
So far, this seems like an excellent book for people who fit into normal size clothing who torture themselves with diets and other food restrictions. It seems like a great book for people who strive to constantly look like photo shopped magazine models, or buy into the lie that we all need to be a tight size 4 to be happy.
It seems fairly useless, however, and perhaps outright dangerous, to those of us who have been or are more than 100 pounds overweight.
I was unwittingly on the fuck it diet for about five years. I ate whatever I wanted and gained over 120 pounds during that time. My cravings didn’t automatically diminish on their own simply because I had chosen, finally, after a lifetime of dieting, to indulge in them.
This book began on a high note. I loved the anecdote about the starvation study in the 1940s. I felt my disordered eating had been explained to me, finally. I thought, no wonder I always go back to binge eating. I’ve been dieting since I’m nine years old. Maybe I only gained 120 pounds back then because I wasn’t intentionally allowing myself the food. I was binge eating and then berating myself for it.
But I’m sorry, I’m not willing to try the fuck it diet if it means I might gain another 120 pounds, or more likely, more than that. If I had 10 or 15 or even 25 pounds at stake, I would go in. If I believed myself capable of stopping the cycle of binge eating if it were getting out of control, I would try. But the book doesn’t address this. Not yet, anyway. It doesn’t speak to me at all as a person whose life was once dramatically affected by my size. I am not willing to not fit into a movie theater seat, or to be able to climb the stairs to public transportation, or to dance at a friend’s wedding just to see if this thing might work out. I am not willing to spend thousands of dollars on an entirely new wardrobe because I might have to gain all that weight to break the cycle of fighting with food. I am not willing to risk the possibility of not being hired for a job I’m qualified for because there’s so much bias against overweight people.
No matter how much sensible information you throw at me, unless you address a situation like mine head on in a book as radical as this, you’re going to lose me. And you have. It’s a pity. And frankly, it’s infuriating that you would write a book like this and not make a point to discuss the issues of the dramatically overweight early and often.
So far, this seems like an excellent book for people who fit into normal size clothing who torture themselves with diets and other food restrictions. It seems like a great book for people who strive to constantly look like photo shopped magazine models, or buy into the lie that we all need to be a tight size 4 to be happy.
It seems fairly useless, however, and perhaps outright dangerous, to those of us who have been or are more than 100 pounds overweight.
I was unwittingly on the fuck it diet for about five years. I ate whatever I wanted and gained over 120 pounds during that time. My cravings didn’t automatically diminish on their own simply because I had chosen, finally, after a lifetime of dieting, to indulge in them.
This book began on a high note. I loved the anecdote about the starvation study in the 1940s. I felt my disordered eating had been explained to me, finally. I thought, no wonder I always go back to binge eating. I’ve been dieting since I’m nine years old. Maybe I only gained 120 pounds back then because I wasn’t intentionally allowing myself the food. I was binge eating and then berating myself for it.
But I’m sorry, I’m not willing to try the fuck it diet if it means I might gain another 120 pounds, or more likely, more than that. If I had 10 or 15 or even 25 pounds at stake, I would go in. If I believed myself capable of stopping the cycle of binge eating if it were getting out of control, I would try. But the book doesn’t address this. Not yet, anyway. It doesn’t speak to me at all as a person whose life was once dramatically affected by my size. I am not willing to not fit into a movie theater seat, or to be able to climb the stairs to public transportation, or to dance at a friend’s wedding just to see if this thing might work out. I am not willing to spend thousands of dollars on an entirely new wardrobe because I might have to gain all that weight to break the cycle of fighting with food. I am not willing to risk the possibility of not being hired for a job I’m qualified for because there’s so much bias against overweight people.
No matter how much sensible information you throw at me, unless you address a situation like mine head on in a book as radical as this, you’re going to lose me. And you have. It’s a pity. And frankly, it’s infuriating that you would write a book like this and not make a point to discuss the issues of the dramatically overweight early and often.
April 30, 2019
This book was phenomenal. I'm honestly going to read it a second time very soon. I also will be buying a physical copy so that I can highlight meaningful quotes. A very helpful read for anyone who has struggled with food and dieting. It's written in a sarcastic yet also scientific way and I cannot recommend it enough!
April 26, 2019
Book Reviewed by Stacey on www.whisperingstories.com
From the title and the synopsis, I was intrigued enough to want to read this book. Over the years my weight has crept up and I’ve gone from being this size 8 young woman in my early 20s to a size 16 in my 40s. In my teens, I had an eating disorder and I lived on one Mars Bar a day. I was exceptionally slim – In fact, I used to be called a ‘stick of licorice’ as I only ever wore black clothes and was super skinny.
However, from the opening in which the author talks about this book being for those that have spent years yo-yo dieting I wasn’t sure it was a book for me. You see I don’t diet as such. I have weeks where I might cut out sugar or wheat but my issue is that I have gotten into a cycle of not eating and this isn’t something that will ever be a quick fix. I don’t eat breakfast, rarely eat lunch and my first meal is often my evening meal and lots of people see those that carry extra weight as someone who eats rubbish all day long!
This book talks about how damaging yo-yo dieting is. It quotes studies that have been done on what not eating properly does to your body and highlights that being overweight does not mean you are not healthy and the same the other way around, there are some people who are slim and look healthy, yet they are not.
After the initial information about what dieting is doing to your body and your mind, the author then talks you through helping yourself to break that cycle and join The F*ck It Diet which comes in four parts – Physical, Emotional, Mental and Thriving parts.
I got part way through the Physical Part section when I came across a sentence that sent shivers down my spine. The author explains that to help you break the yo-yo dieting and to become a happier, healthier you, you need to eat and this means that you need to resist putting on weight. At this point, I will admit I kind of said ‘hell no’ and closed the book. I can’t afford to put on weight, truly I can’t afford a new wardrobe of clothes.
After a few days, I picked the book back up again and carried on reading. I understand fully where the author is coming from, it’s just scary to think about putting on more weight. This is a lifestyle change, not a diet. It speaks volumes about eating what you want to eat and listening to your body – Eat when you are hungry, don’t starve yourself.
Will this work for me, I doubt it as the damage to my body is done. For over 20 years I’ve eaten so little that I don’t know when I’m hungry. What I have done is to try to eat more. Sounds daft but it is hard work trying to force yourself to eat when you don’t want to but if I am to get my body out of the starvation mode that it has been in for many, many years then this is what I need to do.
It is a great book that is easy to read and simple to understand. It is broken down in small steps and you are made to feel at ease whilst reading it. I truly believe that those that do yo-yo diet need to read this book, it may just open your eyes and help you live the rest of your life happier with your weight.
From the title and the synopsis, I was intrigued enough to want to read this book. Over the years my weight has crept up and I’ve gone from being this size 8 young woman in my early 20s to a size 16 in my 40s. In my teens, I had an eating disorder and I lived on one Mars Bar a day. I was exceptionally slim – In fact, I used to be called a ‘stick of licorice’ as I only ever wore black clothes and was super skinny.
However, from the opening in which the author talks about this book being for those that have spent years yo-yo dieting I wasn’t sure it was a book for me. You see I don’t diet as such. I have weeks where I might cut out sugar or wheat but my issue is that I have gotten into a cycle of not eating and this isn’t something that will ever be a quick fix. I don’t eat breakfast, rarely eat lunch and my first meal is often my evening meal and lots of people see those that carry extra weight as someone who eats rubbish all day long!
This book talks about how damaging yo-yo dieting is. It quotes studies that have been done on what not eating properly does to your body and highlights that being overweight does not mean you are not healthy and the same the other way around, there are some people who are slim and look healthy, yet they are not.
After the initial information about what dieting is doing to your body and your mind, the author then talks you through helping yourself to break that cycle and join The F*ck It Diet which comes in four parts – Physical, Emotional, Mental and Thriving parts.
I got part way through the Physical Part section when I came across a sentence that sent shivers down my spine. The author explains that to help you break the yo-yo dieting and to become a happier, healthier you, you need to eat and this means that you need to resist putting on weight. At this point, I will admit I kind of said ‘hell no’ and closed the book. I can’t afford to put on weight, truly I can’t afford a new wardrobe of clothes.
After a few days, I picked the book back up again and carried on reading. I understand fully where the author is coming from, it’s just scary to think about putting on more weight. This is a lifestyle change, not a diet. It speaks volumes about eating what you want to eat and listening to your body – Eat when you are hungry, don’t starve yourself.
Will this work for me, I doubt it as the damage to my body is done. For over 20 years I’ve eaten so little that I don’t know when I’m hungry. What I have done is to try to eat more. Sounds daft but it is hard work trying to force yourself to eat when you don’t want to but if I am to get my body out of the starvation mode that it has been in for many, many years then this is what I need to do.
It is a great book that is easy to read and simple to understand. It is broken down in small steps and you are made to feel at ease whilst reading it. I truly believe that those that do yo-yo diet need to read this book, it may just open your eyes and help you live the rest of your life happier with your weight.
Read
March 25, 2019Intuitive eating but with more swearing.
August 15, 2019
I definitely agreed with a few things. I feel the human body is still a "caveman" body - doing anything possible to survive possible famine. I believe that if you overly restrict intake, your body will eventually binge, because it thinks it's starving.
I do not agree that the key to long term health is to just eat whatever the heck you want to eat, whenever you want to eat it. I did that - from 1999-2005. I went from 150 lbs to 210 lbs. One of the reasons I stopped was that my pants were getting too tight, so it's not like I reached some magical set point where I could be "healthy at any size" and love myself and just exist with food. No, I was STILL GAINING.
I definitely did not agree with the author's "this works for everyone" approach. What I've learned in my 35 year weight battle is that everybody is different and there is no magic bullet for every person. The author was able to reintroduce sugar and eat it intuitively without binging, cravings, etc. That is not my experience with sugar, even when I ate sugar/carbs whenever I wanted them, I always always always wanted more. If I didn't reach some kind of equilibrium in 6 years, when was it going to happen for me?
In case anyone is curious, I did lose 75 lbs back in 2005 and kept it off. I did it by radically changing my "normal" way of eating. I always order the small. I eat salads almost everyday for lunch. I don't drink soda. I focus on eating vegetables and protein and avoid processed foods. I'm mindful of everything I put in my mouth, until the end of time.
I do not agree that the key to long term health is to just eat whatever the heck you want to eat, whenever you want to eat it. I did that - from 1999-2005. I went from 150 lbs to 210 lbs. One of the reasons I stopped was that my pants were getting too tight, so it's not like I reached some magical set point where I could be "healthy at any size" and love myself and just exist with food. No, I was STILL GAINING.
I definitely did not agree with the author's "this works for everyone" approach. What I've learned in my 35 year weight battle is that everybody is different and there is no magic bullet for every person. The author was able to reintroduce sugar and eat it intuitively without binging, cravings, etc. That is not my experience with sugar, even when I ate sugar/carbs whenever I wanted them, I always always always wanted more. If I didn't reach some kind of equilibrium in 6 years, when was it going to happen for me?
In case anyone is curious, I did lose 75 lbs back in 2005 and kept it off. I did it by radically changing my "normal" way of eating. I always order the small. I eat salads almost everyday for lunch. I don't drink soda. I focus on eating vegetables and protein and avoid processed foods. I'm mindful of everything I put in my mouth, until the end of time.
July 27, 2019
I have never felt my blood boil reading a book! I see that others took away something from this with the ratings but I am not one of them. I hated this so much!!
What I took away was this: Your body knows the weight it should be at, so stop worrying about it and eat all you want. You will gain weight but eventually you will be full. That’s how I got here in the first place, Caroline!
This book should be under self help for body acceptance and be happy with changing nothing. Just do you. Ugh!
One ⭐️ for the humor.
What I took away was this: Your body knows the weight it should be at, so stop worrying about it and eat all you want. You will gain weight but eventually you will be full. That’s how I got here in the first place, Caroline!
This book should be under self help for body acceptance and be happy with changing nothing. Just do you. Ugh!
One ⭐️ for the humor.
November 23, 2020
Looking for HAES and scientific studies taken out of context? You’ve come to the right book.
My husband asked me many times if I wasn’t sure this book was actually satire.
This author:
-Recommends eating 3,200 calories a day, and states that eating 1,600 a day will put yourself in starvation mode, mentioning that the study was done on people who “walk 22 miles a week”, but failing to mention that **they were in work camps**.
-Says that I shouldn’t workout when I’m tired, because that’ll mess up my metabolism for reasons not stated or cited
- Randomly mentions eating probiotics, fermented food, and adrenal support supplements (what?) on a list of “ways to improve your health with no weight loss or gyms”, without mentioning this anywhere else
- Gives lots of love for health at every size and fat positivity
- Takes just about every single study out of context to use to their advantage, not to mention makes a lot of scientific based sounding claims without making any citations or backing up these claims. There could be multiple sources for any one statement, but instead they choose one, the one that vaguely supports what they are saying.
I’m pretty sure there’s no earthly way anyone would ever lose weight eating this way, so I’m not sure why they even bother calling it a diet. Actually, I’m fairly certain eating this way is a great way to ensure an early grave.
So, I’m giving this book half a star, because it is a book, that someone took time to write. I’m giving it a second half a star, for the first half of the chapter entitled, “The Mental Part”, for having some decent advice and talk about self love.
I can’t believe I made myself finish this trash. I was so angry about it I had to write a review.
Edit:
Be sure to check out what the author of the book thinks about this below!
My husband asked me many times if I wasn’t sure this book was actually satire.
This author:
-Recommends eating 3,200 calories a day, and states that eating 1,600 a day will put yourself in starvation mode, mentioning that the study was done on people who “walk 22 miles a week”, but failing to mention that **they were in work camps**.
-Says that I shouldn’t workout when I’m tired, because that’ll mess up my metabolism for reasons not stated or cited
- Randomly mentions eating probiotics, fermented food, and adrenal support supplements (what?) on a list of “ways to improve your health with no weight loss or gyms”, without mentioning this anywhere else
- Gives lots of love for health at every size and fat positivity
- Takes just about every single study out of context to use to their advantage, not to mention makes a lot of scientific based sounding claims without making any citations or backing up these claims. There could be multiple sources for any one statement, but instead they choose one, the one that vaguely supports what they are saying.
I’m pretty sure there’s no earthly way anyone would ever lose weight eating this way, so I’m not sure why they even bother calling it a diet. Actually, I’m fairly certain eating this way is a great way to ensure an early grave.
So, I’m giving this book half a star, because it is a book, that someone took time to write. I’m giving it a second half a star, for the first half of the chapter entitled, “The Mental Part”, for having some decent advice and talk about self love.
I can’t believe I made myself finish this trash. I was so angry about it I had to write a review.
Edit:
Be sure to check out what the author of the book thinks about this below!
April 22, 2019
As a registered dietitian, I read pretty much any book about healing one's relationship with food that I can get my hands on, and this is a must-read! It's well-researched, well-written, covers the physical effects of restriction *really* well, and digs into the all-important limiting beliefs we have about weight and our worth. I'm a huge fan of Caroline Dooner's writing and podcast, and this book is yet another one of her fabulous works. I'd recommend it to fellow professionals (even those critical of the non-diet approach- this offers great perspective), as well as ANYONE struggling with the diet culture norms that dictate our relationship to food and weight.
April 3, 2019
So, I have quite a bit to unpack in this one. I'll start with the good, and then move on to the critique.
I liked that this book challenges conventional wisdom. I agree with what Dooner states, because I've experience quite a bit of it myself. I was under an insidious amount of stress from two un-diagnosed mental health conditions. I didn't really eat. This went on for about seven years. I'm 5' tall, and I never weighed 100lbs until I hit the age of 20. According to BMI, I was 'healthy' in terms of weight. But I was suffering from severe anxiety, depression, and I was constantly sick. If anything went around the school, I caught it. Every. Single. Time. Now I'm about 50lbs heavier, and even though I'm 'obese' according to BMI, I've felt better than I have since I was in elementary school. I've gotten help for my conditions, and honestly I get sick maaaybe once a year, if that. But my doctors keep telling me that I'm 'packing on the pounds' and I should lose weight for my health. Dooner also tackled the fact that the diet industry is sort of shaping up like the cigarette industry in years prior. Cigarettes were considered good for your health, and the companies hid any evidence to the contrary, despite what it did to people, for the sake of profit. I feel like that's the diet industry today. Why are the BMI cut offs where they're at? Why 2000 calories in a day? Where did 10000 steps come from? Most of the are arbitrary numbers. I loved that Dooner cited her sources and I plan to follow up on those myself. I personally like to check an author's sources to see if I agree with their perspective on the article/information.
Now the critiques. These are 'bad things' so much as 'it could have been more'. I would have loved to see more citations from legit medical institutions. I mean, they are there, but there's some more 'pop sci' stuff too, like articles published in mainstream newspapers. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but news is about sensationalisation, not necessarily the most accurate, consensus driven and supported information. What grabs headlines more? 'Sugar has no noticeable effect on the human metabolism', or 'Sugar is more addicting than cocaine'? But again, Dooner was doing this research on her own and to be fair, most of the relevant information from institutions is stuck behind pay walls. I loved that Dooner mentioned the Minnesota starvation experiment, which shows that people who are 'over weight' and reach a 'normal weight' are actual in a mental and physical state of starvation. And we all know starvation isn't healthy. But I wish she would have also mentioned the Vermont prison weight experiment by Ethan Sims. We all assume that you gain weight because you eat too much and don't exercise enough, therefore diets and exercise fix it. We all know the latter doesn't help in the long run, but what if our whole premise is wrong? Sims ran this experiment with volunteer prisoners in a Vermont prison, where they were over-fed and kept sedentary in order to test the hypothesis. To sum up what he found, inmates had to eat between 6000-10000 calories a day to gain weight. Between twice and three times what we should eat. And even then, they could only gain 20% or so of their weight. It stopped after that, no matter how much they ate. And then when the experiment was over, the inmates didn't diet, they just went back to their normal meals, and they all returned to normal weight. Which goes to show those extra 500 calories ain't gonna do shit either way.
I'm hoping we see more books like this, with more recent science that is showing that weight is very much like hair color. We can try as much as we want to change it, but eventually it'll come back to what it originally was. Except in this case, too much famine can lead your body to becoming a great depression survivor who saves every single thing in case they need it later.
I liked that this book challenges conventional wisdom. I agree with what Dooner states, because I've experience quite a bit of it myself. I was under an insidious amount of stress from two un-diagnosed mental health conditions. I didn't really eat. This went on for about seven years. I'm 5' tall, and I never weighed 100lbs until I hit the age of 20. According to BMI, I was 'healthy' in terms of weight. But I was suffering from severe anxiety, depression, and I was constantly sick. If anything went around the school, I caught it. Every. Single. Time. Now I'm about 50lbs heavier, and even though I'm 'obese' according to BMI, I've felt better than I have since I was in elementary school. I've gotten help for my conditions, and honestly I get sick maaaybe once a year, if that. But my doctors keep telling me that I'm 'packing on the pounds' and I should lose weight for my health. Dooner also tackled the fact that the diet industry is sort of shaping up like the cigarette industry in years prior. Cigarettes were considered good for your health, and the companies hid any evidence to the contrary, despite what it did to people, for the sake of profit. I feel like that's the diet industry today. Why are the BMI cut offs where they're at? Why 2000 calories in a day? Where did 10000 steps come from? Most of the are arbitrary numbers. I loved that Dooner cited her sources and I plan to follow up on those myself. I personally like to check an author's sources to see if I agree with their perspective on the article/information.
Now the critiques. These are 'bad things' so much as 'it could have been more'. I would have loved to see more citations from legit medical institutions. I mean, they are there, but there's some more 'pop sci' stuff too, like articles published in mainstream newspapers. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but news is about sensationalisation, not necessarily the most accurate, consensus driven and supported information. What grabs headlines more? 'Sugar has no noticeable effect on the human metabolism', or 'Sugar is more addicting than cocaine'? But again, Dooner was doing this research on her own and to be fair, most of the relevant information from institutions is stuck behind pay walls. I loved that Dooner mentioned the Minnesota starvation experiment, which shows that people who are 'over weight' and reach a 'normal weight' are actual in a mental and physical state of starvation. And we all know starvation isn't healthy. But I wish she would have also mentioned the Vermont prison weight experiment by Ethan Sims. We all assume that you gain weight because you eat too much and don't exercise enough, therefore diets and exercise fix it. We all know the latter doesn't help in the long run, but what if our whole premise is wrong? Sims ran this experiment with volunteer prisoners in a Vermont prison, where they were over-fed and kept sedentary in order to test the hypothesis. To sum up what he found, inmates had to eat between 6000-10000 calories a day to gain weight. Between twice and three times what we should eat. And even then, they could only gain 20% or so of their weight. It stopped after that, no matter how much they ate. And then when the experiment was over, the inmates didn't diet, they just went back to their normal meals, and they all returned to normal weight. Which goes to show those extra 500 calories ain't gonna do shit either way.
I'm hoping we see more books like this, with more recent science that is showing that weight is very much like hair color. We can try as much as we want to change it, but eventually it'll come back to what it originally was. Except in this case, too much famine can lead your body to becoming a great depression survivor who saves every single thing in case they need it later.
July 27, 2019
This self help book is loaded with evidence based information on the effects dieting has on your body. I have spent so much of my life dieting. I always lose and gain and I get sick of thinking about it all the time. That's why I found this book so amazing. Eating SHOULD BE EASY!! Wow, this book is backed up with so much science, and it all makes sense. I HIGHLY recommend this book for all of you out there who are sick of the diet culture and industry and just want to know more reasons why you should STOP dieting and learn to love yourself as you are. Let your body do what it's going to do!
July 8, 2019
I probably could’ve written this book myself. I wish I had. I’ve been living The Fuck It Diet for almost a year now. I had to give up my dieting addiction. It was killing my soul and stunting my life. Amazing now I can call it what it was. A diet addiction. I’ve lived for the last 20 years of my life believing it was a food addiction.
Nah, I was just starving.
I did them all. I’m not kidding. Starvation, cabbage soup, Atkins’, South Beach, Weight Watchers x4 (because each time I was sure that this time I’ll be able to keep within my points and not starve and agonize over how I’d eaten all my points and would be having water popsicles for dinner) Nutrisystem x3 (because each time I was sure the food was better), LA Weightloss, 21-Day Fix, several rounds of the hcg diet (the worst thing I ever did to my body but 50 lbs lost in two months was worth it then), Ideal Protein, countless diet pills, and finally, keto. And these are the more mainstream diets.
Add to this two biblical-based weight loss programs, one of which I lost a lot of weight because I was waiting for hunger and eating only until satisfied, and never eating if my stomach didn’t growl. If I ever wanted food outside of physiological hunger, I was to pray to God to fill the void I was looking to food for. It worked for a while until I would want to eat birthday cake at a party but I wasn’t truly hungry. When I didn’t want to be rude, I’d eat it and then feel tremendous guilt and shame. I’d disclose it to people in my group and be further shamed for still living in “my sin.” If I had truly laid my sin down, I wouldn’t have eaten that cake.
Another biblical group has more grace but also rules. No more than a fist-sized portion of food as that’s how big your stomach is after all. Great. What happens though when you eat one bite past the portion? Immense guilt. Guilt which leads to bingeing.
My last foray into the biblical approach is what eventually morphed into my own version of the Fuck
it Diet. I just decided to live and eat regular foods and just let go.
My dieting has been a placeholder, a distraction, from the things I truly want to do. Oh, you’d like to write a book? Ha! You’ve gotta study up on recipes and go shopping for your meal prep. And then you’ve gotta spend your whole weekend prepping meals that are gonna taste like shit by Tuesday. No wonder I always felt so depressed. I always wondered why I had such dark and dismal feelings simply over food. Probably because my body knew it was about to starve - again - and was gearing up. I was tired of scouring a menu for one thing I could eat. And when I found it, it didn’t even sound food. Why even go out to eat? I can cook myself shitty food.
I’ve had body image issues my whole life for reasons I won’t go into here. But I’m taking control now. I still want to be thin because that’s how I like to see myself, but not because that’s what others want or expect of me. And I’m willing now to trust my body and give it what it wants and let it do its thing. I ride my Peloton bike because I feel stronger each time. Not because I must to lose weight.
This book gives me hope. I hope everyone reads it.
Nah, I was just starving.
I did them all. I’m not kidding. Starvation, cabbage soup, Atkins’, South Beach, Weight Watchers x4 (because each time I was sure that this time I’ll be able to keep within my points and not starve and agonize over how I’d eaten all my points and would be having water popsicles for dinner) Nutrisystem x3 (because each time I was sure the food was better), LA Weightloss, 21-Day Fix, several rounds of the hcg diet (the worst thing I ever did to my body but 50 lbs lost in two months was worth it then), Ideal Protein, countless diet pills, and finally, keto. And these are the more mainstream diets.
Add to this two biblical-based weight loss programs, one of which I lost a lot of weight because I was waiting for hunger and eating only until satisfied, and never eating if my stomach didn’t growl. If I ever wanted food outside of physiological hunger, I was to pray to God to fill the void I was looking to food for. It worked for a while until I would want to eat birthday cake at a party but I wasn’t truly hungry. When I didn’t want to be rude, I’d eat it and then feel tremendous guilt and shame. I’d disclose it to people in my group and be further shamed for still living in “my sin.” If I had truly laid my sin down, I wouldn’t have eaten that cake.
Another biblical group has more grace but also rules. No more than a fist-sized portion of food as that’s how big your stomach is after all. Great. What happens though when you eat one bite past the portion? Immense guilt. Guilt which leads to bingeing.
My last foray into the biblical approach is what eventually morphed into my own version of the Fuck
it Diet. I just decided to live and eat regular foods and just let go.
My dieting has been a placeholder, a distraction, from the things I truly want to do. Oh, you’d like to write a book? Ha! You’ve gotta study up on recipes and go shopping for your meal prep. And then you’ve gotta spend your whole weekend prepping meals that are gonna taste like shit by Tuesday. No wonder I always felt so depressed. I always wondered why I had such dark and dismal feelings simply over food. Probably because my body knew it was about to starve - again - and was gearing up. I was tired of scouring a menu for one thing I could eat. And when I found it, it didn’t even sound food. Why even go out to eat? I can cook myself shitty food.
I’ve had body image issues my whole life for reasons I won’t go into here. But I’m taking control now. I still want to be thin because that’s how I like to see myself, but not because that’s what others want or expect of me. And I’m willing now to trust my body and give it what it wants and let it do its thing. I ride my Peloton bike because I feel stronger each time. Not because I must to lose weight.
This book gives me hope. I hope everyone reads it.
Read
September 12, 2023Deleting my review as the author has come out as a bigot/terf
May 7, 2019
This book basically tells you to be comfortable in your own skin, and to not diet. She tells you to allow yourself to eat whatever you want and soon you will say no to the bad foods! What?! I could eat certain foods all the time every day and never get sick of them, that does not mean that I should. This way of life may work for some, but I would be 500lbs following this philosophy. I have found a diet that does work for me, and I can easily be healthy and lose weight on it. This book is a copout to not follow anything and be unhealthy.
December 23, 2019
I agree with Louise Colin's review from June 6th. Maybe I'm being harsh because I work in the medical field but I disagree with much of this book. I found it to be mostly arbitrary fluff, written for comedic relief rather than advice or guidance.
August 7, 2020
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars
This book definitely didn’t apply to me, which was pointed out by the author early in the book. It was for binge eaters and chronic dieters, of which I am neither. I liked that she said this in the beginning, marking it early as not a diet book. If it was a diet book, the author wouldn’t care if you were 100 pounds or 1,000, if you had an eating disorder, or if you even needed to lose weight. They would just want you to buy whatever they were selling, literally and figuratively. Sooner was very honest throughout the book.
This was definitely a fun, well-researched book. A little repetitive, but with a topic like this you often have to pound ideas into people’s brains. This book could be a little vague and too all encompassing, it could have almost been two separate books with different topics. But I guess, two for the price of one? I liked the myth busting about diet culture and the relation between health and weigh. I also liked that it was not only an anti-diet book, but a life style book.
All in all, I would definitely recommend if you want help getting out of a diet cycle.
This book definitely didn’t apply to me, which was pointed out by the author early in the book. It was for binge eaters and chronic dieters, of which I am neither. I liked that she said this in the beginning, marking it early as not a diet book. If it was a diet book, the author wouldn’t care if you were 100 pounds or 1,000, if you had an eating disorder, or if you even needed to lose weight. They would just want you to buy whatever they were selling, literally and figuratively. Sooner was very honest throughout the book.
This was definitely a fun, well-researched book. A little repetitive, but with a topic like this you often have to pound ideas into people’s brains. This book could be a little vague and too all encompassing, it could have almost been two separate books with different topics. But I guess, two for the price of one? I liked the myth busting about diet culture and the relation between health and weigh. I also liked that it was not only an anti-diet book, but a life style book.
All in all, I would definitely recommend if you want help getting out of a diet cycle.
May 4, 2019
Once upon a time, I was a Beachbody coach. And throughout that process, I loved getting healthy and helping others do the same - until I realized the pressure to be perfect and healthy was making me unhealthy. So I stepped back and said F*ck It - I did that for a full year. I didn't weigh myself. I worked out, but didn't stress if I missed a day or two or even a week... it was all part of me letting the perfectionist side of my health take a break. Today I can say I'm still healthy, and I'm a WHOLE LOT HAPPIER.
Reading The F*ck It Diet was just what I needed to hear right now. A great reminder that I'm making the right choice for myself and my mental AND physical health. Thank you, Caroline Dooner, for writing this book. It was funny and eye-opening and inspiring. If you're struggling with feeling like you are either 100% perfect with eating and working out or you're crap - read this book.
Reading The F*ck It Diet was just what I needed to hear right now. A great reminder that I'm making the right choice for myself and my mental AND physical health. Thank you, Caroline Dooner, for writing this book. It was funny and eye-opening and inspiring. If you're struggling with feeling like you are either 100% perfect with eating and working out or you're crap - read this book.
May 11, 2019
I am not really convinced that this book alone (without therapy from someone who treats eating disorders) would help a chronic dieter recover. However, the book has a great message, and perhaps for someone who's never had an eating disorder, it would help. I'd venture to say that most of the restrained eaters and chronic dieters I know would not be ready to hear a message telling them they might gain weight.
Books like this one are very important, and I wish more people understood that weight isn't something you can change all that much, without engaging in disordered behavior. My mom was a fat baby, a fat child, and a fat adult. There was no diet that was going to make her "normal" weight. All of her life she dieted, biked, swam, played tennis -- still fat. The only time she lost a significant amount of weight without regaining it was when she took Phen/Fen. She was never hungry and ate 1000 calories or less a day. Even then, she was still in a large body. The drug probably ended up killing her because she died of heart failure (Phen/Fen was taken off the market because it caused heart issues). Imagine if my mother had been told from day one that her body was just fine. She wouldn't have spent her entire life trying in vain to please society's idea of what her body should look like, and she might still be alive to enjoy her grandchildren.
Books like this one are very important, and I wish more people understood that weight isn't something you can change all that much, without engaging in disordered behavior. My mom was a fat baby, a fat child, and a fat adult. There was no diet that was going to make her "normal" weight. All of her life she dieted, biked, swam, played tennis -- still fat. The only time she lost a significant amount of weight without regaining it was when she took Phen/Fen. She was never hungry and ate 1000 calories or less a day. Even then, she was still in a large body. The drug probably ended up killing her because she died of heart failure (Phen/Fen was taken off the market because it caused heart issues). Imagine if my mother had been told from day one that her body was just fine. She wouldn't have spent her entire life trying in vain to please society's idea of what her body should look like, and she might still be alive to enjoy her grandchildren.
February 18, 2020
I don't feel like telling my story. Nor will I tell who should read this book or if you should try this or that. I'll just say that this book helped me. That I discovered it at the good time in my life because I don't think I would have been ready to hear the message before.
February 20, 2021
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars rounded up
This may not be a perfect book, but if you are looking for something body positive from a Health at Every Size (HAES) perspective, I do thing this is worth a read. It's basically arguing for intuitive eating, but also offers practical advice on overcoming things like fearing certain kinds of food and other restrictive practices, as well as working through your emotions rather than bottling them up, taking time for self care, and getting the rest you need. I definitely got some useful things out of it and I think this is a great book if you're ready to hear what she's saying. Fatphobia is a real thing and I think some of the reviews clearly reflect the very fear of fatness she talks about. For me, it was helpful and a good starting point for further reading.
This may not be a perfect book, but if you are looking for something body positive from a Health at Every Size (HAES) perspective, I do thing this is worth a read. It's basically arguing for intuitive eating, but also offers practical advice on overcoming things like fearing certain kinds of food and other restrictive practices, as well as working through your emotions rather than bottling them up, taking time for self care, and getting the rest you need. I definitely got some useful things out of it and I think this is a great book if you're ready to hear what she's saying. Fatphobia is a real thing and I think some of the reviews clearly reflect the very fear of fatness she talks about. For me, it was helpful and a good starting point for further reading.
May 1, 2019
I couldn’t finish it. It’s well written and I think the author means well but I just don’t agree with the subject content like I thought I would. I don’t think I’ve been mad at a book before! Maybe I’m missing the point (or maybe I haven’t got to that bit yet) but I don’t think telling people who have a food addiction to eat whenever they “feel” hungry is a good idea! I’m all for different viewpoints and opinions and I understand that we are more than our weight, and yes you can’t necessarily tell how healthy a person is just by looking at them, but I’m sorry if you’re ten stone overweight (and it’s fat not muscle), then you are not healthy (I think “Health At Every Size” is a dangerous concept).
July 31, 2019
“Life is too short to obsess over food.” True, but a vast oversimplification. I was initially intrigued by the “Fuck it Diet” concept but just can’t get on board with eating intuitively (or whatever the fit, thin Dooner wants to call it). Sounds like a bunch of hippy dippy baloney to me. Some folks will buy into this. I call bunk. Honored a second star because I respect the underlying message of self love. Still a “pan,” though.
October 9, 2019
This book is full of f*cks and also of some bullish*t talking and advices. The author made me believe that she doesn't trust herself or she is a big fat liar 🤥, except she is not fat, which means that she doesn't actually follow her own advices. This book doesn't teach you how to be thin or healthy. It basically tries to convince you to convince yourself that being fat and ugly and eating shitty food is OK, and you don't have to hate yourself for that. And all in all everything is fine if you ralax and eat and do not give a f*ck.
It has some good advices thogh, but all in all I don't see how this can help anyone.
It has some good advices thogh, but all in all I don't see how this can help anyone.
August 26, 2019
There are so many books better written on anti-diet, intuitive eating, and fat acceptance. The author openly admits to not being at all credentialed, yet it feels the whole time like she is selling you this book, this program, when there is no substance behind it.
Anyone struggling with dieting would need to read something else to make any change. This book covers (to some degree) What, but not How.
Recommend instead: Just Eat It, but Laura Thomas PhD.
Anyone struggling with dieting would need to read something else to make any change. This book covers (to some degree) What, but not How.
Recommend instead: Just Eat It, but Laura Thomas PhD.
April 1, 2019
Thank you to the author for writing this! Much needed in our society today. What a wonderful book
September 22, 2020
First of all this book should have been 100 pages or less. It's the same message over and over. Sure love you body and all that, have a good relationship with food...blah blah blah.
The inaccuracies of this is astounding. She cited a blog, A BLOG, for a source that sugar is merely correlated with diabetes. And if you go on a keto diet you become hypoglycemic. No! NO! That's not how it works! That's not how any of this works!
I would read and be pissed off. I couldn't go on any further. One can find a study that proves or disproves ANY claim. You dig through research and get an overall view. She clearly picked what she wanted to hear.
I am appalled anyone would rate this so high, especially a registered dietician.
The inaccuracies of this is astounding. She cited a blog, A BLOG, for a source that sugar is merely correlated with diabetes. And if you go on a keto diet you become hypoglycemic. No! NO! That's not how it works! That's not how any of this works!
I would read and be pissed off. I couldn't go on any further. One can find a study that proves or disproves ANY claim. You dig through research and get an overall view. She clearly picked what she wanted to hear.
I am appalled anyone would rate this so high, especially a registered dietician.
January 10, 2021
I made it to page 110, and I just can't finish this one. The author spends the first 100+ discussing why you can quit yo-yo dieting and eat whatever you want. It's very repetitive, with her rehashing what she said previously in a slightly different way. I skimmed the rest of the book (when do we get to the substance??), but even the sections on emotions and the mental aspect don't seem to delve too deeply into those topics. Dooner seems to think emotional eating doesn't really exist and is simply tied to food restriction. This book should be targeting a much narrower audience, ppl who yo-yo diet but who don't really have weight issues. For those who are overweight and have a more complicated relationship with food, and may need to actually worry about these things due to health issues, this is not the book for you.
December 20, 2020
This was the year that I stopped loving self-help books and all their bullshit platitudes.
I started reading this anyway thinking of it as falling more into the anti self-help genre.
But this is just an adaptation of Brain Over Binge and Intuitive Eating with minor tweaks and the F word.
The thing is, I can’t take this advice from a thin person. It doesn’t hit right. I’m sure Dooner’s intentions were good but as soon as I googled her image, my desire to finish this book evaporated.
I started reading this anyway thinking of it as falling more into the anti self-help genre.
But this is just an adaptation of Brain Over Binge and Intuitive Eating with minor tweaks and the F word.
The thing is, I can’t take this advice from a thin person. It doesn’t hit right. I’m sure Dooner’s intentions were good but as soon as I googled her image, my desire to finish this book evaporated.
June 8, 2021
This won't be for everyone but it was exactly what I needed right now in my life. I feel seen and grateful that Caroline wrote this book.
January 10, 2021
I initially heard about the F*ck-It diet from recommendations from various sources - Audible recommended it based on my current library, and an Anti-Diet Facebook group I’m in speaks strongly about it.
However - honestly I avoided the book for longer than I would have otherwise, because of the “diet” in the title. By this time I’d already broken up with diets, and this sounded like one of those “not a diet” diet books. “Eat all you want, never feel hungry, and still lose weight!”
This is not that book.
Instead, this book is all about the harm that diets do and looks at healing from that harm from a holistic perspective, including physical, emotional, and mental. The F*ck-It Diet book provides scientific evidence behind the claims that diets don’t work, a breakdown of how long we know this, and why diet culture is still SO pervasive. (Hint: follow the money.)
Much of the information included in the F*ck-It Diet, I already knew… as I said, this wasn’t my first foray into anti-diet culture. However, there was still some that was new to me, and so I’m appreciative of that. What I hadn’t expected was the inclusion of tools under each section, to help you work through your food issues, the ‘tapes’ in your head (that are really hard to break!) and some of the psychology around binging (spoiler: it comes from restriction). Again, I found some of these tools I was already using along my own journey (such as writing / “brain dumps”, and in which I’ve already started investigating my own associations and history and feelings around diet culture, fat-shaming, and the like).
Honestly, I think every woman needs this book. There are very, very few women that diet culture hasn’t touched, and I think to some extent we all feel the struggle. Dooner isn’t a fat woman herself but does cover that - her inherent thin privilege, as well as the importance of recognising your own privilege and the effects that has on you - as well as the importance of breaking down some of our deep-set biases by actively changing our exposure. She also mentions the “hijacking” of the “body positivity” term, as there are some groups/companies out there trying to use that for their own diet culture.
Overall I probably haven’t learned as much as someone completely new to the topic… but it was still well worth the read (or listen, as mine was an audiobook). I’ve already ordered a hard-copy so I can more easily refer to the tools, and have them in front of me to help me work through them.
I still have a lot of work to do within myself… but as Dooner points out, this isn’t a quick fix, nor is it a secret recipe to “not feeling hungry”. There is no such thing. We are human, and we need to eat to survive. *That* is the purpose of hunger - it’s not the nasty temptress devised only to sabotage us, as diet culture would have us believe.
However - honestly I avoided the book for longer than I would have otherwise, because of the “diet” in the title. By this time I’d already broken up with diets, and this sounded like one of those “not a diet” diet books. “Eat all you want, never feel hungry, and still lose weight!”
This is not that book.
Instead, this book is all about the harm that diets do and looks at healing from that harm from a holistic perspective, including physical, emotional, and mental. The F*ck-It Diet book provides scientific evidence behind the claims that diets don’t work, a breakdown of how long we know this, and why diet culture is still SO pervasive. (Hint: follow the money.)
Much of the information included in the F*ck-It Diet, I already knew… as I said, this wasn’t my first foray into anti-diet culture. However, there was still some that was new to me, and so I’m appreciative of that. What I hadn’t expected was the inclusion of tools under each section, to help you work through your food issues, the ‘tapes’ in your head (that are really hard to break!) and some of the psychology around binging (spoiler: it comes from restriction). Again, I found some of these tools I was already using along my own journey (such as writing / “brain dumps”, and in which I’ve already started investigating my own associations and history and feelings around diet culture, fat-shaming, and the like).
Honestly, I think every woman needs this book. There are very, very few women that diet culture hasn’t touched, and I think to some extent we all feel the struggle. Dooner isn’t a fat woman herself but does cover that - her inherent thin privilege, as well as the importance of recognising your own privilege and the effects that has on you - as well as the importance of breaking down some of our deep-set biases by actively changing our exposure. She also mentions the “hijacking” of the “body positivity” term, as there are some groups/companies out there trying to use that for their own diet culture.
Overall I probably haven’t learned as much as someone completely new to the topic… but it was still well worth the read (or listen, as mine was an audiobook). I’ve already ordered a hard-copy so I can more easily refer to the tools, and have them in front of me to help me work through them.
I still have a lot of work to do within myself… but as Dooner points out, this isn’t a quick fix, nor is it a secret recipe to “not feeling hungry”. There is no such thing. We are human, and we need to eat to survive. *That* is the purpose of hunger - it’s not the nasty temptress devised only to sabotage us, as diet culture would have us believe.
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