A few weeks ago, I wrote this post that received a lot of amazing comments. One of the comments I received (from Emilie!) asked for anti-fat, body-positive resources. And I am more than happy to oblige! Here are a handful of books, podcasts, newsletters, and Instagram follows that have really helped me come to terms with diet culture and love my body as it is:
Maintenance Phase (podcast) – This is everyone’s go-to recommendation when it comes to an anti-diet, fat-positive resource, and for good reason. Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes are two excellent cohosts that dig into all things diet culture, from the fads to the books to recent research. It’s fascinating and Aubrey, as a fat person, brings a perspective to the show that we don’t often get in diet culture phenomena.
Virgie Tovar (Instagram) – I believe strongly that we must diversify our social media feeds so we’re not only seeing one type of person as we scroll. This means more people of color, more disabled people, and more fat people. Virgie Tovar is one of my favorite Instagram follows because she is just the most joyful human ever. Her feed isn’t about being fat and still living a normal life – she just lives her life without worrying about what people think. She takes up space, and we are all the better for it.
What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon (book) – I recently read this book, by the same woman who co-hosts the Maintenance Phase podcast, and it does an excellent job taking people into the lived life of a fat person. Aubrey is deeply vulnerable about her experiences as a fat person, from a doctor telling her to lose weight while getting treatment for an ear infection to a woman in the grocery store taking items right out of her cart to replace them with “healthier” options. This is a book that will make you feel seen as a fat person, but more than anything, it’s a book more straight-size people need to read to better understand what it’s like to live in a fat body.
Best Friends with Nicole Byer and Sasheer Zamata (podcast) – This podcast isn’t specifically about being a fat person, but I put it on here because I believe that Nicole and Sasheer do an excellent job discussing bodies and sizes and weight in a very healthy, positive manner. Nicole is a fat woman while Sasheer is straight size, and Nicole talks very matter-of-factly about finding clothes in her size and other things that affect her that her friend may not experience. The podcast can be raunchy at times, so fair warning, but if you can handle it, it’s a great way to expose yourself to hearing about the lived experiences of fat people in a very positive way.
Virgie Tovar’s Newsletter – The second Virgie Tovar resource on this list, and it’s a good one! I’ve been subscribed to her newsletter for a bit of time now and it’s always one of my favorites to open and read. She’s committed to ending our reliance on diet culture, challenging fatphobia, and calling out thin privilege. I mean, just take a look at the first sentence of her most recent newsletter: “Fatphobia – bigotry against people in larger bodies – is a form of socially sanctioned violence that can lead to trauma.” It’s these words that keep me coming back over and over again.
The F*ck It Diet: Eating Should Be Easy by Caroline Dooner (book) – While this book did not impact me in the same ways it did for other people, I’m including it on this list because I do think it will challenge the way you think about dieting, health, and restriction. The overall message of the book is this: We must stop living a life ruled by food restriction because we are so scared of being fat. Being thin should never be our be-all, end-all goal. Enjoy your food, delight in your cravings.
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay (book) – This book came out many years ago at this point, but it’s still one I think about often. Here’s what I wrote in my review of the book back in 2017: “[This book] is all about what it means to live as a fat person in today’s fat-phobic society. I could relate to so much of what she wrote in this book. I’ve had many of the same experiences, the same thoughts, the same feeling of wishing I could be that rah-rah-body-positive-all-bodies-are-beautiful person, but not exactly being there. And I think that’s what I appreciated most: this was not a book about body positivity, it was not a weight loss book. It is simply a book about what it means to be fat.” If you struggle with body positivity, this is the book for you.
Honorable Mentions (for the sole fact that I haven’t read or listened to these resources yet!)
- The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor – This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for many years now, and it’s really beyond time for me to pick it up. From Goodreads: “As we awaken to our own indoctrinated body shame, we feel inspired to awaken others and to interrupt the systems that perpetuate body shame and oppression against all bodies.”
- Reclaiming Body Trust: A Path to Healing & Liberation by Hilary Kinavey and Dana Sturtevant – Amy, a brilliant woman I met through blogging many years ago, highly recommended this book that digs into the heart of why diet culture hurts all of us, and I have wanted to read it ever since. From Goodreads: “In this book … invite readers to break free from the status quo and reject a diet culture that has taken advantage and profited from trauma, stigma, and disembodiment, and fully reclaim and embrace their bodies.”
- Food Heaven Podcast – Nicole recommended this podcast to me in the post I wrote about diet culture. It’s hosted by two registered dieticians who apparently have a very balanced view on nutrition. I added it to my listening queue!
- RD vs. BS – Another podcast I recently heard about, hosted by registered dieticians who break down the myths and truths of fad diets, supplements, and other pieces of diet culture.
Do you have any favorite fat activists to follow on Instagram? Or any other books, podcasts, or newsletters to recommend? I’m all ears!
everyone should read Hunger by Ms. Gay, absolutely loved it. The writing, the feels, and just her- she is amazing.
It’s so good! I am really glad I read it when I did.
I hope you like Food Heaven. What I love about them is that they are so inclusive of culture and size, and take things into account like food deserts, income, etc. It’s really refreshing. I think the first thing I listened to was an interview they had with the woman who does Mindful Closet, which is also a really great follow. I think one of the worst things about the “wellness industry” is that it can be really classist; ONLY buy organic, for example, or other rules that make being healthy seem really unattainable.
I loved Hunger! It was so good and Roxanne Gay is brilliant.
I read something else by Caroline Dooner and it turned me off so badly that I have not read that book.
I can’t wait to give Food Heaven a listen. Thank you for the rec!
Ooh, I didn’t realize Caroline Dooner had written other books! My main problem with it is that it’s not scientific-based or research-based… it’s just her personal experience, which is FINE, but not what I was looking for.
The F*ck It Diet fundamentally changed how I eat, but I think it was a matter of right place/right time. I can see how it would rub some people the wrong way and I just re-read it and it did not seem nearly as inspiring the second time around.
In terms of the science on why people can be healthy at every size, and lots of evidence debunking diets and other nutrition myths, I recommend Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison. It was excellent.
For a more personal story, You Are Not a Before Picture by Alex Light is a quick, but inspiring read.
I also read a book written by a local Canadian author called Project Body Love (Jessie Harrold). It’s a “lower budget” book – maybe even self-published – but at my point in my disordered eating journey, it was still helpful and supportive!
I also thought What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat was a great resource and a unique perspective that I hadn’t encountered in other books on the topic. Most people writing on this topic seem to fall on a straight-size spectrum and she is not and can speak personally to the challenges associated with a fatphobic society.
Thank you for all of these recs, Elisabeth! I’ve added all of them to my to-be-read shelf on Goodreads. 🙂
Thank you for highlighting these resources! I have been meaning to listen to Maintenance phase and this gave me the push to subscribe! One book I intend to read that is more relevant to those with kids is “Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture.”
Yay! You’ll have to let me know what you think of Maintenance Phase.
I also love that there are now lots of great resources about how to talk about diet and size with children. The best way to have a body-positive society is to start ’em when they’re young! And boys need to understand it just as much as girls.
Ugh, after struggling with body image issues my whole life, now I’m going through the same struggles with my daughter. She is a curvy girl! Sometimes she seems to have a healthy attitude (she told me the other day she doesn’t like skinny girls- not that I want to “skinny shame” anyone but I thought that was good- I spent my whole adolescence trying to be skinny and it was very destructive.) But other times I get worried, like when she weighs herself and will only eat dessert if she hasn’t gained any weight (no, no, no!!!) I’ve been trying so hard to tell her that our bodies don’t exist as something for other people to look at- and I think it’s kind of sinking in, but I’m not sure how much a 14 year old can really embrace that concept (since so much of their identities at that age are based on looks.) I’m not sure if she’ll read or listen to any of your recommendations, but I’ll check them out. Thank you!
It is so hard to be a curvy teenage girl because that body shape is just not celebrated in our society! I do hope some of it starts to sink in and I think having a mom like you, who models healthy eating habits AND celebrates all sizes, will definitely get her to where she needs to be. <3
Stephany! Thank you so so much for putting this wonderful resource together for us! I just started listening to Maintenance Phase, and am really interested in a lot of these books (and the ones mentioned in the comments too).
Yay! I’m glad it was so helpful for you. You’ll have to let me know your thoughts on Maintenance Phase!
What great resources, thank you for sharing them. The way we talk about weight and health in our country is so based in capitalism and making money, it’s depressing.
I am just catching up, haven’t been around much. Love the pics a couple of posts down of you and your girlfriend! Yay!
Thanks, J! It was fun to pull all of this together. 🙂
If you have kids in your life, I recommend Virginia Sole-Smith’s newsletter (Burnt Toast, https://virginiasolesmith.substack.com/); she also just had a book come out that I haven’t read yet, but it looks promising! (https://www.amazon.com/Fat-Talk-Parenting-Diet-Culture-ebook/dp/B0B1Y5TKLP)
I second Burnt Toast and I don’t think that you have to have or be around kids to appreciate it! Her newsletter and podcast were my first introduction to fat liberation and I am super excited to read Fat Talk.
Thanks for putting these resources together. I must admit, I haven’t read any diet/body positive books and I should definitely change that. I think it’s wonderful that it’s talked about and that are so many resources (and formats) out there.
Stephany, thank you so much for sharing these resources. I really, really appreciate it. I need to access several of them, to understand others and understand myself. Two of your Honorable Mentions sound like they would be excellent sources for me, as well as Aubrey Gordon’s book. Thank you, my friend. <3