"You Just Need to Lose Weight"

And 19 Other Myths About Fat People

By: Aubrey Gordon

Narrated by: Aubrey Gordon

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

AN INDIE BESTSELLER

“One of the great thinkers of our generation . . . I feel fresher and smarter and happier for sitting down with her.”—Jameela Jamil, iWeigh Podcast

The co-host of the Maintenance Phase podcast and creator of Your Fat Friend equips you with the facts to debunk common anti-fat myths and with tools to take action for fat justice

The pushback that shows up in conversations about fat justice takes exceedingly predicable form. Losing weight is easy—calories in, calories out. Fat people are unhealthy. We’re in the midst of an obesity epidemic. Fat acceptance “glorifies obesity.” The BMI is an objective measure of size and health. Yet, these myths are as readily debunked as they are pervasive.

In “You Just Need to Lose Weight,” Aubrey Gordon equips listeners with the facts and figures to reframe myths about fatness in order to dismantle the anti-fat bias ingrained in how we think about and treat fat people. Bringing her dozen years of community organizing and training to bear, Gordon shares the rhetorical approaches she and other organizers employ to not only counter these pernicious myths, but to dismantle the anti-fat bias that so often underpin them.

As conversations about fat acceptance and fat justice continue to grow, “You Just Need to Lose Weight” will be essential to ensure that those conversations are informed, effective, and grounded in both research and history.

©2023 Aubrey Gordon (P)2023 Beacon Press

Critic reviews

“Will appeal to anyone interested in discrimination based on body size and other similar forms of systemic oppression.”—Library Journal, Starred Review

“An excellent tool for those working to end anti-fat bias. Perfect for fat and thin readers alike, ‘You Just Need to Lose Weight’ is smart and informative—and will spur many important conversations.”—Shelf Awareness, Starred Review

“Gordon tackles pervasive myths about fatness and provides the truth about them and the people they impact…[the book] couldn't have come at a more apt time.”—Teen Vogue

Aubrey Gordon is a gift

If the title or description of this book make you uncomfortable, this book is for you. If you have ever bought into, and repeated, any of the phrases used as the framing structure of this narrative, this book is for you. If you have spent much of your life on the dieting merry-go-round, this book is for you. If you have jumped off that merry-go-round and sworn off diet culture, this book is for you. If you exist, or have existed, in a fat body, this book is for you. If you have never lived in a fat body, this book is for you.

Where Aubrey Gordon’s first book, What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat, focused on the widespread structural ways that anti-fat bias is engrained in health policy, public planning, commerce, transportation, and sanctioned in social interactions, this new book picks apart a number of the most common phrases that tend to be given as unsolicited advice to fat people or brought up to justify anti-fat bias in interpersonal and systemic contexts. Gordon writes with with keen insight and a strong grasp of the available scientific research on weight loss and weight stigma. For those who know her work on the podcast Maintenance Phase, her voice and compassion carry through her writing as well. She deftly cites the ideas and research of other scholars and activists who have written about weight stigma and lived fat experiences, particularly where they intersect with race, class, disability, and LGBTQ experiences; and she encourages readers to seek out those voices and writings for themselves. Gordon’s background as an organizer informs this book as well: each chapter concludes with suggestions of ways to interrupt or counter each titular myth when encountering it in everyday situations among family, friends, the workplace, or in public. Each array of suggestions spans a range of tones and strategies, offering options that are more or less confrontational, or that range between setting firm boundaries to shut down the immediate harm and engaging in dialogue to educate and change minds.

Fat fab

She’s the best and so is this book. I have a kiddo struggling with an eating disorder and this has been enlightening even for someone who tries to fight fat phobia and biased systems daily already. Thanks lady!

So Important. Must read.

All humans need to listen/read this book as soon as possible. Aubrey is incredibly well researched and articulate among many other things. Her work is deeply important for humanity.

A Needed Perspective to be Heard

I appreciate the combination of scientific data and stories that coincide together. I appreciate that she advocates for understanding, acceptance, and social justice overall. Thank you Aubrey Gordon.

A great read!

I love the research that goes into all Gordon does. I will need to listen again and again because I can’t unlearn my biases otherwise. Thank you for creating this tool for change and opportunity for reflection.

Thank you Aubrey!

A honest, painful, beautiful listen. Thank you Aubrey for this book. I learned so much

I wish everyone would read this

this is good information, I wish everyone would read this book. to get some understanding on what fat people face, and also how people can stand up and make some changes

Aubrey Gordon is always a delight

This is a beautifully written and will researched guide to anti-fatness. I especially like the opportunities for action and reflection questions at the end.

Aubrey Does it Again! Highly Recommend

She always provides an engaging and nuanced take and this book is no exception

Very educational

Well-argued, and well-spoken. I learned many things I didn’t know before. Good book.