Carol Lay

I like Carol Lay's Story Minute comic, and I've picked up a couple of her collections and enjoyed those as well. So when I heard this was coming out, I figured I'd read it even though the subject matter (weight loss) didn't sound all that interesting.

It wasn't. At times smug and self-righteous, Lay talks about what worked for her (scrupulous calorie-counting and exercise) and the kinds of meals she eats regularly. This is every bit as repetitive as you'd expect, and she'll sometimes repeat information from previous chapters as well. She claims that the rigorous calorie-counting makes her not think about food much, but the kind of attention-to-detail required to eat a bite of anything seems more obsessive than freeing to me.

It's possible this isn't the kind of plan that would work for me, but really, the whole book didn't work for me. Congratulations to Lay, who managed to lose a bunch of weight and keep it off, but this book is far less interesting and insightful than I'd have expected of her. It's nice to look at, though.… (more)

This is a book worth reading, but it's also one that is annoying at times. The author seems to go overboard at times with counting calories and understanding the difference between a normal weight and truly overweight.

However, the advice she gives to those wanting to have an eating lifestyle that will result in weight loss then weight maintenance is sound. This advice basically boils down to count calories, stay fairly low in calories, and exercise. But the important part is to stick with it and understand that for overweight people, this is probably a lifestyle change, not something temporary.

It's nice to have a weight-loss book disguised as a graphic novel, but the content can get repetitive and the last portion of the book consists of calorie counts for various foods. I've read elsewhere that the author is 5'9" tall, and her ideal weight is 125. That is quite a low weight for someone of that height, so it's important to not get carried away like the author apparently is. But, if you read the book for an understanding of her main ideas, it can serve you well.… (more)