Fit or Fat Woman, Covert Bailey

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	Fit-or-Fat Woman Covert Bailey and Lea Bishop Click here for other titles by Covert Bailey	Want to comment? Visit our publications message board, Picks 'N Pans.
Format: Paperback, 1st ed., 152pp. ISBN: 0395510104 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company Pub. Date: January 1989	Healthy Living members have recommended Covert Bailey's books as motivating and useful. Rissa listed these among those that she "actually learned something from and enjoyed." This title has not had universal praise, however. Publisher's Weekly was critical of it.
From the Publisher More than three million people have learned how to get thin and stay fit with the easy, workable Fit-or-Fat program. This woman's book brings a new angle to aerobic and strength-building advice, diet basics, and the particular social pressures women face. Special sections deal with depression, PMS, anorexia, and bulimia. As always with Covert Bailey's books, the science is right up to date, and the specific applications have been validated repeatedly with Bailey's audiences and workshop participants. The Fit-or-Fat Woman replaces the frustration of weigh-ins and diet gimmicks with fitness advice that works and feels good. Written in the same easy styles as the previous books in the series, it shows how to kick the "fat habit" permanently.
Other Reviews: From Publisher's Weekly (NOT a rave): Bailey and Bishop contend, reasonably, that being thin and being fit aren't synonymous. Rather, the percentage of fat in one's body is critical: the average woman's body contains as much as 22% fat, and lower levels are considered unhealthy. The co-authors survey the similarities and differences in men's and women's body builds, their respective metabolic needs and the dynamics of male and female weight loss and gain. They also repeat what we already know: women have a more difficult time keeping fit and trim. The familiar health benefits and psychological boon of exercise are discussed, as well as the problems--e.g., bulimia and anorexia--of overzealous dieting. Throughout, Bailey, a fitness workshop instructor, and Bishop, his assistant, plug his program for weight control, based on the one used at Bailey's Fit or Fat Center in Oregon. Far too much of the book is anecdotal, offering little scientific substantiation, and the authors' tone can be irksome (to women they advise, ``Most important, don't overlook the man in your life. He is your closest ally, your best buddy''). (May)