Product Description

Dr. Pamela Peeke's accessible program--based on original research at the National Institutes of Health--shows you how to lose toxic weight forever.

What is the cause of toxic weight?

It's a scientific fact: Chronic, uncontrolled stress makes you fat. But under Dr. Peeke's clinical guidance, her patients have removed what she calls toxic weight and now, through a multilayered program, readers will learn how to identify their own stress profile and reverse the thickening of their waistlines by beating the "toxic stress" that causes it. This dangerous toxic stress triggers the release of hormones that cause fat to settle inside the abdomen (causing the "apple" body shape), alter metabolism, damage the immune system, and let loose cravings for foods that make that little black dress feel like a tourniquet.

How do you fight toxic weight?

Using case studies, graphs, quizzes, and mind-body techniques, Dr. Peeke goes beyond diet and exercise with a program that encompasses a woman's whole life, and tells you how to evolve from a diet POW (prisoner of weight) to a physically and mentally powerful, stress-resilient woman. She explores the biologic changes that bombard a woman as she enters midlife, debunks current dieting myths, teaches how to transform self-perception and achieve life-sustaining balance.

The forty million women on the brink of menopause can tailor this program to their individual needs and shed toxic, stress-induced weight forever by:

Creating an Individual Stress Profile: the way her brain and body physically respond to stress, the nature of her stress-reacting personality, and then how to become stress-resilient

Determining Body Type: the physiological factors unique to her--from height to heredity, metabolic rate and diet history--that make her vulnerable to toxic weight

Using the Three Sacred Templates. Stress-neutralizing thinking, stress-neutralizing eating, stress-neutralizing physical activity are tailored to help a woman of her profile fight toxic weight and toxic stress

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #86516 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-24
• Released on: 2000-04-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 300 pages

Amazon.com Review
If you're a woman over 40, you are undergoing physical and emotional changes, declining metabolism, fat deposits at your waistline, decreased energy, mood swings, food cravings--do we need to continue this list? Now pile on chronic, long-term stress (which the author terms toxic stress), which hits women between 40 and 60 and leads to self-destructive eating behavior. "Uncontrolled or toxic stress keeps the refueling appetite on, thus inducing stress eating and weight gain," Peeke explains. The stress triggers are constant, so the body never gets to turn off the stress response. The weight gained from this chronic, toxic stress--toxic weight--settles inside the abdomen and is associated with heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Peeke explains the association between stress and fat gain, and describes the stress/eating cycle ("the itch you can't scratch"). Then she teaches tools for "regrouping": formulating and following a contingency plan of nutrition, exercise, and self-care. Next are suggestions for a nutritional plan tied to stressful times of the day and an explanation of food needs after age 40. In the final chapters, Peeke nudges us to exercise to relieve stress, reduce body fat, and benefit overall health. Peeke is a highly regarded scientist and clinician who studies the link between stress and fat at the National Institutes of Health. She's also Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and works with Vice President Gore as the Medical Director of the National Race for the Cure for Breast Cancer. --Joan Price

From Library Journal
Nutritional expert Peeke, who has just completed three years at the National Institutes of Health studying the relationship between stress and fat, here reveals what she found. Expect tons of publicity on this one.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From The Washington Post
This book has far more brainpower than most diet books.

Customer Reviews

Fight Fat After Forty
This book is amazing! It is exactly the solution I needed! It explains, in detail, what is happening to my forty something body. My body has been changing for years now, and the weight has piled on and the old solutions just don't do it anymore. This book has helped me to understand that this has been going on for awhile and unless I change the way I treat my body, it will not get any better. It's not about DIET, but about what you eat and when you eat it. It's about recognizing when stress hits and navigating through it in a non-destructive manor. I now have hope and can't wait to begin this new journey. I realize that without my health and well being, I have nothing. Thanks!

Fight Fat Over Forty Explained and Helped a Lot
I'm a Stress Overeater over 50 and this book explains a lot. It also explains why it is necessary, not overindulgent, to continue with my twice per week personal trainer for upper body and core workouts (which I rarely would do on my own) and my twice per week long hikes. I have made other changes which have helped me slowly but surely "remove" the excess weight. If I don't do something perfectly, I don't stress over it, which helps in the long run. For some reason, this book made sense to me and convinced me of what habits I need to stop, continue, and do more of.

I also can spot stress undereaters, and I am now more compassionate than envious (the ones I know are thin and look good, but I know they are also stressed.)

Fighting Fat After Forty is validating!
I haven't even finished this book and I've lost 10 pounds. This is the first weight loss in 5 years for me and all I did was change the times I eat! Pamela Peeke is the first doctor to truly understand and work with how a woman's body changes during perimenopause and menopause and it really validates you as a person. You aren't nuts; you really are changing. I can't believe how motivated I am. This is a definite buy and a book that I will save and give to my own daughter.