THE TOWN THAT LOST A TON: How One Town Used the Buddy System to Lose 3,998 Pounds... and How You Can Too!

The authors—a supervisor, nutritionist and marketing director, respectively, at Dyersville, Iowa's Mercy Medical Center, along with freelance writer Myerson—team up to outline their Fight the Fat Program, which originated in 1998 in Dyersville when Clemen and her colleagues discovered that 50% of local health problems were weight-related. The first 383 participants lost a total of nearly 4,000 pounds. The key to losing weight, the authors claim, is reducing stress, eating healthier foods and working with at least one buddy (if not an entire town). The program, which has grown to include more than 3,000 participants, is apparently working, with the buddy system making the crucial difference. Most of the tips included in this upbeat guide are old hat (don't forget to eat breakfast, write down what you eat and watch your portions) but the idea of sharing progress and failures with others on a team (or with one individual "buddy") will appeal to those who want to lose weight but haven't found the long-term motivation. Enticing recipes and "foods of the week," as well as tips for reducing stress (such as music, massage or gardening), make the book worth picking up, but readers should brace themselves for a battery of peppy exclamation points, tireless (and sometimes tiresome) optimism and dieting lore that will probably sound familiar. (Mar.)