My Review of Six Weeks to OMG Skinny w/Excerpt!

Wowsa! Talk about a book that throws away every diet tip or skinny rule you have ever heard! From making sure you eat breakfast in the morning, to not drinking coffee, or many small meals adds on the pounds, you have it all in this book. He does away with a lot of this thinking. I was ready to get rid of it when I first started reading it, but I hung in there and now I am not sure. Might put some things into practice and see how they work. You just never know:)

One thing I liked with this book was the way he formats it. He goes against all publishing and writing rules by the way he formats it. No pictures and it is all written in paragraph form. Kind of nice though. Then he basically asks you to reset the way you think about dieting and yourself. His humor is great and he has you laughing through part of it but in other parts he really makes you think. Why do we take these things as law when they often don't work? He brings up some good things and I have yet to try them out but I just might. I do want to lose some more weight and there are some good ideas in this book.

If you are looking for a different type of diet book, check this one out. It totally defies all your normal diet tips and brings in new ideas. Below I have included an excerpt so you can read some of the book yourself.

I received a copy of this book for my review purposes. I did not receive any monetary compensation. All thoughts are 100% mine.

EXCERPT FROM SIX WEEKS TO OMG

From SIX WEEKS TO OMG: Get Skinnier Than All Your Friends by Venice A. Fulton, used with permission from Grand Central Publishing.

HOW, HOW, HOW
“How fat do you think I am?”
“How much do you think I can lose?”
“How quickly do you think I could lose it?”

HOW FAT DO YOU THINK I AM?
Outside of a book, you might have asked this as “do you think
I’m fat?”. Some of you have an answer already, and some of
you could even be right. The majority won’t be. By the end of
the section, you’ll have much more confidence in the truth. For
many, this question is important because it leads onto the next
(“how much do you think I can lose?”). You usually want an
exact answer. Maybe you’ve already been given one from
someone else. Here’s the news. Listen to no one!

Everyone has opinions. Friends offer advice in blocks of five,
“you need to lose 10lbs / 15lbs / 20lbs”! A doctor will use
charts, a formula, or technical sounding words. And a parent
might just say “lots”!

FRIENDS AND FAMILY
The people you see often will definitely have strong opinions
about how you look. But being close doesn’t automatically
make them an expert. If anything, it makes them less likely to
come up with an accurate answer. Parents may negatively (or
positively) compare you to a brother, sister, relation, or even
themselves. This is wrong. Even within families, genetics and
habits vary, making these opinions simplistic.

For the same reason, the viewpoint of a close friend may also
not be of much use. And there’s always a chance they could
feel threatened by giving you an honest answer, and watching
your success as they feel left behind.

DOCTORS
Doctors are widely trusted to be experts on our health. As I’ve
said already, they’re actually experts at disease. A doctor
studies for 5 years or more, but they only spend a day on diet.
Better hope they weren’t sick that day! If you ask Doc for help,
they’ll be limited to using a few standard techniques. Firstly,
they’ll weigh you. I’ll talk about weighing later, but right now,
the scales aren’t important. It’s how a doctor uses them.
After reading your weight, a doctor will usually do one or two
things. They’ll get out a chart, they’ll ask you for your height,
and finally, if they’re feeling very scientific, they’ll bring out
their secret weapon: the calculator!

HEIGHT AND WEIGHT TABLES
If your doctor shows you one of these, it says they’re old school.
Height and weight charts were designed in the 1950s to help a
big insurance company decide if you were a health risk (to
charge more money for their insurance). They got updated in
‘83 and have since become full of color and funky graphics.
Despite these changes, the basic idea is wrong. The length of
your bones (your height) and the force you exert on Earth (your
weight), don’t explain everything.
Even people of the same height or weight (or both), can vary
massively in other ways. Some may carry more muscle, some
might have short legs or long collarbones, and all these sorts of
factors are things that charts can’t see. They’re blind to reality.
The point on the chart where height and weight meet, is a point
compared to another Jane’s points, i.e. they’re averages.
Averages are simply what are common. And when it comes to
health, common does not mean ideal.
Today’s charts divide everyone into neat little groups.
Underweight, normal, overweight, obese, and the scary
sounding, morbidly obese. They’re just words! They simply
make it easier for others to describe you. Height and weight
charts used to only be found in insurance company offices.
Gradually they made their way into doctor’s surgeries, then
gyms, and now they’re available everywhere. When you see
one, don’t bother looking. You know better.

BODY MASS INDEX
It’s amazing, you just need to take three normal words, stick
them together, and it all sounds so scientific! Body - Mass -
Index, or BMI for short. This is where you or your doctor gets
out a calculator. BMI uses mathematics to work out how much
mass you have compared to your height. Take your height in
meters and multiply itself. Then divide your weight in kilos by
that answer. Are you confused or bored? I’m both!

Just like the height and weight tables, there are charts which
work out your BMI. As with all charts, this doesn’t make the
figures any more useful. BMI also likes to divide itself into neat
little groups. Their categories sound like a mixture of the
classics, underweight, normal, overweight, and types of space
ship, Obese Class I, Obese Class II and Obese Class III. You
can see why they never became high school insults!

I now suggest that you forget all those categories, forever.

What’s strange is that we had forgotten them for years, over 150
in fact. BMI was actually invented in the 1830s by a Belgian
mathematician. He sounded like fun! When people started to
question the accuracy of height and weight tables, BMI made a
comeback. It may sound complicated, but it’s not different to
what we’ve seen before. And like height and weight tables,
BMI is everywhere.

The formula only works in the extremely under or overweight,
although by that point, it’s kind of obvious! Annoyingly, in the
commonest BMI group of normal, there’s the smallest amount
of accuracy. Doh! The reason its accuracy is so poor, is down
to an old friend, Average Jane. BMI figures came from studying
all the data from lots of Janes. By now you can see that if Jane
wasn’t ideal, and we measured lots of Janes, we could be very
lost! It’s time to add three letters, and say goodbye: RIP -
BMI. It’s too mechanical, and not personal enough to tell you
anything worthwhile. So, we’ve ditched tables and statistics,
and now you’re still thinking, “just tell me how fat I am”!
BODY FAT PERCENTAGE
I promise, it’s the last method to ignore! In the quest for more
knowledge about our bodies, science has apparently delivered
the ultimate statistic: your percent body fat. Sometimes it’s
called your body composition. Now out of all the measures
we’ve discussed, your percentage of body fat deserves credit for
trying. Maybe even a B+. Knowing how much of your body is
fat and how much isn’t seems a logical place to start.

To find this figure out, you can either pinch yourself (with giant
plastic tweezers), get dunked under water, have your breathing
analyzed, let electricity pass through you, or even get scanned
by a huge X-ray type machine. These methods vary in their
accuracy. They all give you a number explaining how much of
you is made from fat. The leftover percentage is the combined
total of your water, muscle, organs and bone.

Let’s assume that you got your body fat percentage measured
accurately. The results are in, and now what? Time for another
table, chart or opinion! Oh yes, they’ll always find a way back
to haunt you! All these are also made up by analyzing results
from more people. Depending on where you look, you will find
different meanings for your body fat percentage tests. There’s a
big problem. These meanings are meaningless!

Scientific research can tell you lots about body fat levels.
Olympic male athletes are less than 10% fat, women with 15%
or less stop having periods, and if you get below 3%, you’ll
probably never get out of bed again. Surprisingly, even body fat
percentage has problems. Say you have two people with 20%
fat. They could even be the same height. One might still have a
big tummy or thighs, and the other might appear to have a
balanced body.

This happens because of differences in muscle and fat cell
location, bone length and water content.
Your body fat percentage is like knowing the ingredient list for
a cake recipe. It can’t tell you how the cake will turn out.

The problem with body fat percentage is the same as all the
other methods we’ve looked at. They’re rarely accurate, they
only compare you to others, and they create numbers that just
scare you or give you false hope.

From a purely visual point of view, they’re almost laughable.
When was the last time you walked down the street, saw
someone who impressed or shocked you, and thought, “wow,
they must have a BMI of 19” or be “obese class III”! So, I think
by now you realize that modern measuring techniques can be
fun at most, but definitely a distraction from what we all go
back to in the end: how we see ourselves, how we see others,
and how we compare what we see.

The scientists who just read that are now pulling their hair out
in rage. They prefer to live in a world of exact data, research
and theory. That’s really not a world that most of us live in.
I’ve got a theory. We don’t do theory! So, what’s left? Oh,
that big question, “how fat do you think I am?”. Can you see
the answer yet? I just gave you a big hint. The answer has the
same number of letters as fat. No? It’s about what you see.
Don’t tear up the page or throw your phone! I’m simply
recommending that you rely on the most powerful, personal
and instinctive method of judgment available. Your brain.

You’re probably shaking it right now! The purpose of this
section is to hit home how important it is to trust yourself, and
to compare yourself to yourself. Okay, I can’t stop you making
comparisons with your friends. And besides, just read the
subtitle of the book!

But it’s crucial that you develop trust in what’s physical, i.e.
real. Doing this encourages self-honesty. Once you get that
and stop relying on others, you’ll know exactly when it’s right
for you to carry on as normal, or to push harder.

Some of you may have a habit of relying on what others believe,
either by asking friends, family or even online strangers what
they think of your body. I hereby give you official permission
to stop that! Right now! I said NOW!

And by the way, I’m not suggesting that you never weigh
yourself again. Used right, weighing scales are still a reliable
and motivational tool. There are other things that you can use,
and I’m sure that some of you already do.

THE MIRROR
Looking in this is probably the closest thing you can get to an
honest opinion from an outsider! If you use one, make sure it’s
neutral (doesn’t make you look skinnier or fatter than you
really are). And of course, always use the same one. If you
really want to get a good opinion of your body, don’t just look
at your front or side view. Get another mirror to see what’s
behind you. This isn’t encouraging you to become obsessed.
It’s simply inaccurate to ignore half your image!

If you can’t do that, visit a clothing store’s changing room. The
lighting’s often nasty, but it allows you to get detailed info on
your body’s overall look. Keep visiting the same store. And
no, you don’t have to buy anything!

CLOTHES
This isn’t as simple as it sounds. There’s probably nothing
better than being able to fit snuggly into your favorite pair of
jeans, especially if you’ve been struggling for a while. If you’re
using one pair for this comparison, it’s a great tool.
Unfortunately, those sneaky numbers have made their way
back into town: clothing sizes. They can be very misleading.
Fashion designers realize that we all like to fit the smallest size
possible.

Because of this, some will size their clothes large. Imagine
you’re facing a close call between two similar but different
brands of jeans. One’s a size 8 and the other is a 6. Wouldn’t
you be tempted to buy the feel-good size 6? You can also make
it more difficult for yourself by using an item of clothing that
changes size. Natural fabrics like cotton can shrink
dramatically, especially if you dry them artificially. Some items
can also dramatically loosen too!

So, to use clothes as a guide, keep some items aside that stay
constant. And don’t panic if you fit easily in one store’s jeans,
but really struggle into some from another. No one gains
weight that quickly! They’re just numbers.

PHOTOS
Digital photography using a phone or camera makes keeping
track of your progress easy. You don’t even require anyone’s
help. Just find a clever place to position a camera or tripod.
Photos in front of a full-length mirror work well too. To use
photos, you need to be consistent. That means taking them
from the same spot, having the same lighting (important) and
using the same camera. If you’re wearing a swimsuit or shorts,
keep those the same too.

So, you’re going to rely on yourself, the mirror, your clothes,
and maybe take some photos. As I mentioned before, weighing
scales are useful too. They get their own section. But for now, I
can hear you shouting another question!

HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK I CAN LOSE?
For some, this might be the second most important question
you want answered. And in fact, it’s the easiest one to answer.
But it will also be the most difficult truth to accept from the
whole book. Are you ready? Take a deep breath. There’s no
limit on how much fat you can lose. If you’re very fat, you can
lose a bigger total compared to those who have less fat to start
with. But everyone, and that means, e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e, can be
skinny. Yes, skinny.

Scientists and psychologists probably find that irresponsible. I
don’t care. I just want you to find it inspiring. If it’s making
you angry, I understand. We’ve all overheard conversations
and absorbed stuff that suggests being skinny isn’t for everyone.

“You really must realize that you’re not made like her”

“I guess I just have a super fast metabolism”

“Genes are the most important thing”
“Come on, look at your ankles”

If you hear something enough, you’ll start to believe it, make it
a fact, and finally you’ll live up to it. It’s wrong that so many
people do this and give up their dream of being skinny. It’s
time to wipe the hard drive! Being skinny is for everyone. It’s
healthy, it’s possible, and importantly, it’s how the human body
loves to be. While scientists and diet gurus have been studying
the differences between human beings, they’ve forgotten to
spend more time looking at similarities. And as it turns out,
there’s quite a lot.

We already have enough knowledge, which if properly
understood and used, can keep us skinny and healthy. This will
work for at least 99% of the population. Even those in the
other 1% can improve beyond their dreams. You might be
wondering how this can be true, especially as skinny success
seems quite rare. Human beings are part of the universe. And
that’s full of laws. The laws of physics, chemistry and biology
are three well-known ones.

You have never “failed” on any diet. Never! The diet has
failed to be properly designed and apply these basic laws.
Big difference. You’ve got to delete any sense of failu… Or
you’ll believe that you’re special in the wrong way and be “one
of those” who can’t be skinny. Don’t become another amateur
expert on genetics, i.e. don’t blame your genes!

HOW QUICKLY DO YOU THINK I COULD LOSE IT?
No one can deny that some people lose fat quicker than others,
and with less effort. This difference in speed causes people to
give up. The crucial thing to realize is that eventually, you can
look as skinny as you like. I sense that was too wishy-washy an
answer for you! Of all the questions, it’s the speed issue that
excites most. Maybe it’s the reason you chose Six Weeks To
OMG. I’m going to give you the best, honest answer I can.

In a way, I could have answered this via the previous question,
“how much do you think I could lose?”. But it needed a time
frame to be more accurate. In 6 weeks, you can lose between 10
and 20 pounds of fat. Not weight. That means, if you apply the
ideas of the book, you will lose fat at the rate of up to 3.5
pounds every week. If this disappoints you, hold up. Many
diets promise faster weight loss. But it’s weight, not fat.

Many people assume that fast weight loss is water loss. Nope.
When calories are slashed ultra low (or food choices become
really limited), most of the weight is muscle loss. And that’s a
natural disaster! Water loss is easy to fix. The body has built-in
mechanisms to keep you interested in water or watery foods.
Even if you keep ignoring your thirst, your body will make you
think again by slowing you down and making you physically
weak. Room temperature water can go from mouth to muscles
in under 10 minutes.
But muscles themselves take weeks, months and sometimes
even years to rebuild and recover from a sudden loss. And
during that time, you will suffer. Some of you might be
thinking, “so what, no one can see it, and anyway I look
skinny!”. Shrinking your muscles isn’t really a yay moment.
You can hide it from others, but your body always knows what’s
going on. Losing muscle is never a good idea.
In a cosmetic sense, you’ll have a slightly softer body. Maybe
you can deal with that. Next up, is the development of a
reduced metabolism. Finally, something to blame being fat on!
Muscle is where most of our food is “burned”.
Think of muscle as an oven. Shrink your oven, and you shrink
your ability to burn calories. And a smaller oven equals less
slices of pizza for you!

So, back to those 10 to 20 pounds. That works out to be a
weekly fat loss rate of roughly 1.5 to 3.5 pounds. Can you lose it
faster? Yes. I’ve seen faster fat loss in about 10% of people.
And, I’ve seen slower. What causes this variation? The
truthful answer is that I don’t know. There are so many factors
at play, many of which we haven’t discovered yet. And because
we don’t know what we’re looking for, I can’t suggest how to
improve them.

10 to 20 pounds of fat loss in 6 weeks is fast. It happens when
you get lots of things right. If up to 3.5 pounds per week sounds
slow, think how losing that week after week soon adds up. I bet
you didn’t even gain that fast! When people lose more weight
than this, they usually don’t look better. When you get 10 to 20
pounds of fat loss in 6 weeks (even if you’re 250 to start), the
changes you have made will be obvious to anyone. As in,
“OMG” obvious! Your clothes will fit better, with especially
good slimming around your waist (where fat can sit deep inside
you). Your face, neck and jawline will be less puffy. And you’ll
feel lighter, a feeling that’s so refreshing.

Okay, take a few moments to think about what you’ve read in
this section. It’s probably been thought changing, confusing and
even tiring. Be honest with yourself, and move to the next
section when you’re ready. That’s decision time!

GET THE SKINNY ON…

OMG 6 Everyone has an opinion but yours is always best

OMG 5 Forget about tables, charts, percentages or BMI

OMG 4 Weighing scales, the mirror and clothes are good motivators

OMG 3 You can lose between 10 and 20 pounds of fat in 6 weeks

OMG 2 Going faster could mean losing too much muscle (bad)

OMG 1 Everyone can get super skinny despite what others say
OMG! Start to trust in yourself and you’ll be rewarded!