Stop the Insanity by Susan Powter: A review

 

Stop the Insanity was written in the mid- 90's by the iconic, cropped blond haired motivational speaker and author Susan Powter, who gained her fame on late night infomercial's. Her concept of weight loss is low fat, portion control (at least in regards to fatty and high calorie foods) with exercise, exercise and more exercise. Her book is full of helpful motivation, history and a fair amount of anger towards her ex-husband.

Susan Powter's words are strong because she was once fat like many of us, even though there is a lot I don't agree with in Stop the Insanity. The history of her battle with being fat, about always feeling terrible, the self-loathing and commiserating with other women is powerful and motivational. She writes a lot about proper breathing, which didn't really do much for me, but for someone else it might. That all seemed pretty common sense to me. Ultimately, her diet is all about cutting calories and exercising more.

Her "breaking the system" concept is about eating an abundance of low-fat and fat-free foods and cutting most of the fat out out of your diet. She's definitely a fan of high volume, low calorie food. This brand of weight loss is highly effective in the short-term, but the real key and problem with overly aggressive regimens are there long-term efficacy. Your probably better offer in the long run making lots of small changes to your diet to cut calories and fat, while making bigger changes in your level of activity with the ultimate goal of being a runner, a cyclist, a swimmer, a hiker, a climber or any other form of lifestyle activity.