Teenage Waistland: A Former Fat Kid Weighs In on Living Large, Losing Weight, and How Parents Can (and Can't) Help

by Ellin, Abby

• ISBN13: 9781586482282
• ISBN10: 1586482289
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-06-14
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

We've been inundated lately with books and articles about childhood obesity. Most offer cultural critique or nutrition and exercise advice in tones that are alternately appalled and patronizing. Few address the psychological, medical, cultural and developmental complexities affecting overweight kids. The truth is, many parents already know that Whoppers are fattening. What they don't know is how to effectively help an often discouraged, often reluctant kid on what will be a difficult, life-long journey.Abby Ellin, a journalist and former fat-camper whose parents' attempts to "save her" from fatness proved counterproductive, has had a lifelong interest in figuring out how they might have done it better, and an abiding compassion for overweight kids. InTeenage Waistlandshe shares the story of her own adolescent struggle with food and weight, and journeys with hope, skepticism, and humor through the landscape of today's diet culture. She visits camps and community programs, and talks to experts, kids and their parents, seeking to answer these questions: What can parents say that kids will hear? Why don't kids exercise more and eat less when they're dying to be thinner? What treatment methods actually work? Willpower, or surrender? Shame, or inspiration?Teenage Waistlandis ultimately clarifying and provocative for anyone who's ever wrestled with weight issues. One size does not fit all when it comes to weight loss, and the better we understand that, the more likely we are to be able to help our kids.

Author Biography

Abby Ellin wrote the "Preludes" column in the New York Times for more than three years, in addition to feature assignments. Her work has appeared in many major publications, from Time and The Utne Reader to Cosmopolitan. She now lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

acknowledgments	xi
introduction Fat Kid Blues	xv
chapter one Ho Hos in Paradise	1	(60)
chapter two Behavior Modification and Its Discontents	61	(25)
chapter three Mothers Against Fat Kids	86	(51)
chapter four The Myths of Willpower and Control	137	(25)
chapter five Honey, I Shrunk My Stomach!	162	(24)
chapter six Size Acceptance: Fat or Fiction?	186	(16)
chapter seven Inner Fat Camp	202	(17)
epilogue Weighing Grandma	219	(4)
a guide to resources	223	(10)
notes	233	(14)
select bibliography	247	(2)
index	249