My two favorites are

Beck Diet Solution by Judith Beck--lots of good stuff about sabotaging thoughts that contribute to weight gain. Can be used with any eating plan.

Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink--fascinating studies about what in our environment stimulates eating--and how to use this information to modify our environment.

I don't know if this is true for anyone else, but if I have several self-help books stacked up by the side of my bed, it's usually a sign that I'm obsessing! A signal to back off on the reading and do something active.

Ok, yes, she is way outdated now but I read her book a few years after it came out. Susan Powter's Stop the Insanity and the one after it. I think there is another one too..?? Anyway, go read it. Everyone. It tells you that you don't have to drown yourself in water to lose, just when you do drink, try to always drink water, drink it more than you used to, etc. She also says eat as much as you want of allowable type foods, veggies, grains, all with sauces like soy, bbq, steak sauce, etc. So you won't be hungry. But you are still eating healthy.

She has a great analogy about ball point pens. She says if someone told us we couldn't have them .. then slowly we would become obsessed with obtaining them, stealing them, hiding them, using them in secret, etc. Anything you package up with a big pretty bow and say don't touch, then we want it. So when we do that with sweets, etc. it sabotages us because human nature makes us want what we can't have. So let yourself have a set amount of chocolate or whatever but don't eat a plate of chocolate for dinner.

I like this thread. I'm going to look for more books I need to get on here.

Thanks, Selina

In the 20+ years that I was obese, I actually don't recall reading a single, solitary "weight-loss" book. That began well after I hit my goal weight. Now that I've gotten to where I want to be, I find it interesting to hear other perspectives on and it helps to keep weight loss and health on the forefront of my mind.

But I do get your point. All the reading in the world isn't going to get the "job done". It's putting those thoughts, ideas and strategies into play.

So I combed through my bookshelves and, in no particular order, here's a sampling In my defence, most of these were bought at the second-hand bookstore...

The Thin Commandments/Gullo
South Beach Diet/Agatston
New Rules of Lifting for Women
The Eat Clean Diet/Tosca Reno
The Eat Clean Workout/Tosca Reno
The GI Diet
Potatoes Not Prozac
Foods That Cause You to Lose Weight: The Negative Calorie Effect/Barnard
Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat/ Moriyama
The MacDougall Program
The Metabolism System/Landry
Eat to Trim/Vedral
Eat More to Weigh Less/Ornish
Thin Within/Halliday
Dine Out and Lose Weight/Montignac
Your Fat is Not Your Fault/Simontacchi
Skinny B****/Freedman & Barnouin
Thin Tastes Better/Gullo
Life is Hard, Food is Easy/Linda Spangle
Laurel Mellin/The Solution
The Zone/Barry Sears
Feed the Fat, Burn the Muscle/Tom Venuto
All the “Fit or Fat” series/Covert Bailey
The Aitkens Diet and Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution
Protein Power/The Eades
Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet
Pritikin Diet
Thin So Fast/Dr. Eades
Thin for Life/Anne Fletcher
When You Eat at the Refrigerator Pull Up a Chair/Geneen Roth
Such a Pretty Fat/Jen Lancaster
Dr. Phil’s Ultimate Weight Loss Solution
YOU – On a Diet/Dr. Oz
SuperFoods RX/Stephen Pratt
Secrets of a Former Fat Girl/Lisa Delaney
Strong Women Stay Slim/Dr Miriam Nelson
Body for Life/Bill Phillips
Stop the Insanity/ Susan Powter

ETA: My current favs are The Thin Commandments and The South Beach Diet. Covert Bailey just makes sense. Didn't like Skinny B**** too much. Such a Pretty Fat was a really entertaining read.

I haven't read that many; I am trying to get my hands on some popular library books like In Defense of Food.

I did enjoy French Women Don't Get Fat, for what it is -- I mean, it was cheesy in the way you'd think, and it is for people who need to lose a lot less than I'm doing (just "take the stairs" once in awhile, etc). But I took some comfort out of it -- like that it's not freaky or anorexic to have a yogurt and a peach for lunch on a leisurely day. Just that things don't have to be big ... and in fact, shouldn't fill up a plate. Helped my mindset in a healthy way and I appreciate that.

Oh, and I'd love more podcast recommendations. Going to look up the Inside Out one.

I loved Skinny B. I have been vegetarian on and off my entire adult life, but this was the book that helped me go all the way! I am happily meat free and decreasing the amounts of egg and dairy, but not quite vegan yet. It is a process. I re-read this book whenever I am feeling sorry for myself or internally whining about not having meat.

Actually, reading is a lot more helpful to me now than it used to be. I used reading self-help books(of all kinds, not just weight loss) as a way to confirm my sense of being "broken"--that I needed fixing. I've done a lot of work on realizing I'm not permanently broken or defective, that I can change and heal. And with my OCD, reading was a way to ward off anxiety of obsessive thoughts about needing to do things perfectly. It's a relief to be able to go ahead and try some of the things in books, and learn to tolerate the anxiety that I wasn't doing it perfectly.

I didn't like Skinny B****, all I got from that book was how disgusting it is to be fat and how horrible it is to consume animal products and if you're fat you're weak and gross. No thank you!

The Beck Diet Solution Weight Loss Workbook.
The Beck Diet Solution.
The Complete Beck Diet For Life.

By Julith Beck.

WhitePicketFences: I was a little disappointed to read the author talk about how easy losing weight was by just being more active, unless you have more than 30 pounds to lose. Overall, I enjoyed the book and it made sense to me intuitively, but that limitation really took the wind out of my sails.

Nuxmaga, I think you put this really well. Growing up, most of my non-fiction reading has been surrounding weight loss, organization, self-confidence, depression, ADD, etc. But, I am slowing beginning to see that everyone has their own struggles. Maybe if I learn to live with mine and do the best I can rather than trying to fight against myself all of the time, it might find a good deal more peace in my life.

A few I have found helpful:
The Four Day Win by Martha Beck. A book about re-training your mind. thought it a bit "new-agey" for me personally, but the ideas were intriguing.

I'm currently reading The Longevity Diet by Brian Delaney and Lisa Walford. They are advocates of calorie restriction. I'm not sure I ever want to do that--but they do know their food! They made the distinction between satiety and fullness for me which I'd never thought about before.

And I love Dr. Andrew Weil: Eight Weeks to Optimum Health. It's just so sensible and intelligent. It's the first book that really motivated me to want to become healthy.

The Best Life Diet by Bob Greene. Another one of those sensible books. I have actually based my weight loss plan on his program in this book.

There was a video a few years back by Oprah called "Make the Connection." It was fairly inspirational as well.

Thanks for this thread. I'm making library requests like crazy!

Learning to recognize the critical voice(s) in my head, and writing them down, and seeing how it's all nested together has been crucial. The whole, "I shouldn't have eaten that. What is wrong with me? I must be a failure, and that means I am worthless. Oh, wait, I am judging myself. I need to stop doing that--why do I keep doing that? What is wrong with me?" and so on and so on. It's hard, but I'm finding more compassion for myself--and peace--I hope you continue on that road as well!

I have all the Covert Bailey "Fit or Fat" books and I still refer back to them for reference on body fat composition and assessments. I've read all of the South Beach Books. Also Gina Kolata "Rethinking Thin" and "The Low GI Diet Revolution". I love Gary Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories". It really opens your eyes up to the faulty assumptions that bad research can make and what it takes to change the conventional wisdom out there. I really want to read "The Longevity Diet" after watching Oprah on Tuesday. Not a diet book, but has anyone read "Deadly Feast"? Makes you want to grow your own produce and raise your own livestock. A real eye opener. Love all the "You" series by Dr. Oz. I also like anything by Dr. Pamela Peeke (Fight Fat after Forty) and Dr. Andrew Weil.

Ooo! Ooo! Ooo! I have a good one lol! Chicken Soup for the Dieter's soul! Reall awesome book full of personal stories to motivate you. The only other thing I'm currrently reading every day to motivate me would be 3FC's of course!