Jj Smith (2) (1970–)

I cannot recommend Think Yourself Thin by JJ Smith.

There are a lot of reasons; I wrote pages of notes before I gave up and wrote this review, anyway. This isn't the space for constructive feedback to help the author rewrite. It's the place for readers to determine if they want to read a book.

First off, I am the market for this book both personally and professionally. I have lost and gained weight multiple times in my life and have helped others with their weight loss goals. From those experiences, I am of the firm belief that our mindset has more to do with our weight than what we put into our mouths or how much (or little) we exercise.

Yet this book offers little actual advice, engagement or comfort. The chapter on spirituality - which I suspect was misnamed so as not to offend non-religious readers - spent the entire section explaining what spirituality is. Unfortunately, their definition of spirituality wasn't clear or accurate. At the end of the chapter, the suggestions to use spirituality to enhance our weight loss included - wait for it - "enlightenment".

I felt sorely disappointed with this chapter when it had a lot it could cover and accomplish. I said to myself after reading it, "Did I really just waste my time with that?"

For me, the author's tone felt mixed and jumbled. At times they speak from an authoritative viewpoint, quoting statistics, noting none of the statistics in a bibliography or footnote. In other places, sometimes in the same paragraph, they move to a more "let me tell you how it is" perspective. Which would be great if I believed for a second the author has ever struggled with their weight. Maybe they have? I saw no personal conversation about it.

Instead, what I read was a section on how society marginalizes how overweight people. I'm not sure why the author felt it necessary to tell overweight people this - when we obviously already know it intimately and live it every day. How about.... telling us what we can do about our weight problem, instead of telling us how horrible it is to be overweight?

I encountered no substance in this book, and a lot of junk science I couldn't find or back up on my own. Where I could find the resources, the author misquoted them or hadn't read the study to discern what was important. It was as if they'd taken a slew of poorly constructed blog posts of theirs and other people's and threw it into book format.

The premise of this book? Excellent. The performance? Abysmal. Which surprises and upsets me, considering the number of 5-star reviews I found on Amazon.… (meer)