Books like I'm With Fatty by Edward Ugel

A compelling biography of Susannah Cahalan's battle with encephalitis and the challenges of diagnosis and recovery.

A candid exploration of the societal attitudes and personal experiences surrounding body weight, addressing how stigma and medical discourse shape the lives of overweight and obese individuals.

A personal memoir that chronicles the author’s turbulent upbringing in a dysfunctional family, his experiences as an orphaned boy in residential care, and the resilience he develops while navigating the harsh realities of institutional life in New York.

An unconventional weight loss tale from an unconventional personality--magician Penn Jillette tells how he lost 100 pounds with his trademark outrageous sense of humor and biting social commentary that makes this success story anything but ordinary. Topping 330 pounds and saddled with a systolic blood pressure reading over 200, he found himself at a dangerous crossroads: approaching his sixtieth birthday, he needed a drastic lifestyle change if he wanted to see his small children grow up. Enter "CrayRay." A former NASA scientist and an unconventional, passionate innovator, Ray Cronise changed Penn Jillette's life with his wild "potato diet." In Presto, Jillette takes us along on his journey from skepticism to the inspiring, life-changing momentum that transformed the magician's body and mind. He describes the process in hilarious detail, as he performs his Las Vegas show, takes meetings with Hollywood executives, and hangs out with his celebrity friends and fellow eccentric performers, all while remaining a dedicated husband and father. Throughout, he weaves in his views on sex, religion, and pop culture, making his story a refreshing, genre-busting account. Outspoken, frank, and bitingly clever, Presto is an incisive, rollicking read.--Adapted from dust jacket.

Shauna Reid chronicles her journey from 25‑stone weight to a healthier life, detailing her early struggles, online blog launch, and international travels as she battles obesity.

**The 2022 Lammy Award Winner in Transgender Nonfiction** Exploring the intersections of Blackness, gender, fatness, health, and the violence of policing. To live in a body both fat and Black is to exist at the margins of a society that creates the conditions for anti-fatness as anti-Blackness. Hyper-policed by state and society, passed over for housing and jobs, and derided and misdiagnosed by medical professionals, fat Black people in the United States are subject to sociopolitically sanctioned discrimination, abuse, condescension, and trauma. Da’Shaun Harrison--a fat, Black, disabled, and nonbinary trans writer--offers an incisive, fresh, and precise exploration of anti-fatness as anti-Blackness, foregrounding the state-sanctioned murders of fat Black men and trans and nonbinary masculine people in historical analysis. Policing, disenfranchisement, and invisibilizing of fat Black men and trans and nonbinary masculine people are pervasive, insidious ways that anti-fat anti-Blackness shows up in everyday life. Fat people can be legally fired in 49 states for being fat; they’re more likely to be houseless. Fat people die at higher rates from misdiagnosis or nontreatment; fat women are more likely to be sexually assaulted. And at the intersections of fatness, Blackness, disability, and gender, these abuses are exacerbated. Taking on desirability politics, the limitations of gender, the connection between anti-fatness and carcerality, and the incongruity of “health” and “healthiness” for the Black fat, Harrison viscerally and vividly illustrates the myriad harms of anti-fat anti-Blackness. They offer strategies for dismantling denial, unlearning the cultural programming that tells us “fat is bad,” and destroying the world as we know it, so the Black fat can inhabit a place not built on their subjugation.

"Ted Spiker may be the coauthor of numerous bestselling diet and health books, but the man just can't resist a good burrito. Or a bad burrito. (He's also eaten a 76-ounce steak, asserted that his wife's post-pregnancy jeans were the best-fitting pants he ever wore, and was asked by his own childhood doctor if his "feminine shape" embarrassed him at the beach.) In Down Size, Ted takes readers on an inspiring, candid, and comical journey, exploring the art and science of weight loss through his own struggles as a pear-shaped man in a not-so-pear-shaped world, with research about food, exercise, and the psychology of losing weight. He reveals twelve truths about successful weight loss, in areas such as temptation, frustration, nutrition, and inspiration. Some truths: - Redefine the Definition of Data - Leave Behind Your Extra Gland - Think Process, Not Outcome - Train Shorter, Train Harder. Combining science, personal stories, expert interviews, and advice, Down Size is an entertaining, field-tested, and research-based look at how men and women can finally find the body they want"-- "In Down Size, Ted Spiker takes readers on an inspiring, candid, and comical journey, exploring the art and science of weight loss through his own struggles as a pear-shaped man in a not-so-pear-shaped world, with research about food, exercise, and the psychology of losing weight"--

"One woman's journey to find herself through juicing, veganism, and love, as she went from fat to thin and from feeding her emotions to feeding her soul. From the extra pounds and unrelenting bullies that left her eating lunch alone in a bathroom stall at school to the low self-esteem that left her both physically and emotionally vulnerable to abuse, Jasmin Singer's struggle with weight defined her life. Most people think there's no such thing as a fat vegan. Most people don't realize that deep-fried tofu tastes amazing and that Oreos are, in fact, vegan. So, even after Jasmin embraced a vegan lifestyle, having discovered her passion in advocating for the rights of animals, she defied any "skinny vegan" stereotypes by getting even heavier. More importantly, she realized that her compassion for animals didn't extend to her own body, and that her low self-esteem was affecting her health. She needed a change. By committing to monthly juice fasts and a diet of whole, unprocessed foods, Jasmin lost almost a hundred pounds, gained an understanding of her destructive relationship with food, and finally realized what it means to be truly full. Told with humble humor and heartbreaking honesty, this is Jasmin's story of how she went from finding solace in a box of cheese crackers to finding peace within herself"--

Kelsey Miller shares a candid memoir of her battle with obesity, disordered eating, and body image, and how intuitive eating, coaching, and fitness helped her reclaim physical and mental health.