Beyond Dieting

Book excerpt: This book opens with an overview of dieting and its relationship to self-esteem and body image. Here, the author explores the negative and destructive side effects frequently experienced by obese women as a result of dieting. Alternative interventions to dieting are then explored and the weekly Beyond Dieting programme, the core of this volume, is introduced. Subsequent chapters present an evaluation of the Beyond Dieting program (purpose, analyses, comparisons and variables of outcome) and a discussion of the characteristics of the sample study. The overall effects of the intervention and implications of the findings provide an illuminating perspective on the treatment of obesity – one that suggests striving for positive self-image rather than thinness as the key to well-being for obese women. For the many health practitioners caring for obese women, this perspective, with its practical application, will prove to be an invaluable resource.