Are there any novels about fatness/weight loss?

Making it Big by Lyndsay Russell. Not weight loss per se, but imagines what life would be like in a world where fat was beautiful - the protagonist becomes a model and is generally revered until she begins to lose weight.

I was going to mention Dietgirl too - it is parts of her RL blog and very inspirational.

I am reading Big Brother at the moment. Assign robe who is overweight I find her depiction of how weight gain and loss occurs really unrealistic.

Another one chiming in with She's Come Undone. Wally Lamb has such empathy with his female characters, and Dolores is completely unforgettable. One of my favourite ever 'escape' reads.

I came on to say, 'Thinner' but have been beaten to it! I suspect it's not at all the kind of thing you're after though!

Also beaten to, 'The Edible Woman' but imagine that's much more what you want.

In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner

I loved 'The Wife's Tale'. Lori Lansen is such a warm writer. It is a very self affirming book.

I enjoyed Pearshaped, but

the male character was such an absolute, total arse, I did not understand what she saw in him.

That's a general chick-lit failing though, the male characters are often two-dimensional and deeply unappealing.

I would second Good In Bed.

You could try 'The Wife's Tale' by Lori Lansens. Very much about weight, food and self-belief/confidence.

The Life and Loves of a She-Devil also has a focus on weight loss (as well as more extreme body modification).

Captain that was Judy Blume. Another great writer for teens.

Blubber ,
ooh I forget who wrote it, author also wrote Deenie & Are you there God, it's me Margaret

The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl it's a diary style book and it's honest and heartwarming.

Eating Myself, Candida Crewe

Pearshaped is about a woman who loves her food, works with food is a normal size but her boyfriend has issues with her size. The books looks at their relationship and her relationship with food.

I really like fiction books that deal with food. But I accept that this may not be exactly what you are looking for.

Am off to order the Wally Lamb book though.

A Matter Of Fat by Sherry Ashworth is a warm, funny book about a slimming group. Don't know if it's still in print, but you can probably get a copy on Amazon.

I would say don't read Big Brother if you are overweight and having a low self esteem day..there's some pretty hard to take stuff in there..

HEFT

BadCop

Great choice in 'She's Come Undone'-one of my favourites and I agree, an amazing piece of writing by a man about a woman.

The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg. Here is the Amazon blurb-

"Edie and Richard have been married for over thirty years, living in the Chicago suburbs. Everyone who knew them - even their own children Robin and Benny - agreed that Edie was a tough woman to love, but no one expected Richard to walk out on her, especially not in her condition. Edie is fifty-nine years old, she weighs 300 pounds, and her doctors have told her she'll die if she doesn't stop eating.As Richard is shut out by the family and seeks solace in the world of internet dating, Robin is dragged back from the city and forced to rebuild a relationship with her mother. Meanwhile Benny and his neurotic wife Rachelle try to take control of the situation. But have any of them stopped to think about whether Edie really wants to be saved?Written with sly humour, warmth and great insight, The Middlesteins is a novel about what it means to be part of a family"

I also enjoyed 'Ada's Rules' by Alice Randall-

"Ada Howard, the wife of the preacher at Nashville's Full Love Baptist Tabernacle, has a whole lot of people to take care of. There's her husband, of course, and the flock that comes with him, plus the kids at the day care centre where she works, two grown daughters, and two ailing, wayward parents. It's no wonder she can't find time to take care of herself. And her husband's been so busy lately she's suspicious some other woman may be taking care of him...
Then it comes: the announcement of her twenty-five-year college reunion in twelve months' time, signed with a wink by her old campus flame. It sets Ada thinking about the thrills of young love lost, and the hundred or so pounds gained since her college days, and she decides it's high time to change her body, and her life. So she starts laying down some rules. The first rule is: Don't Keep Doing What You've Always Been Doing. And so begins her unforgettable journey on the way to less weight and more love...For anyone who has ever found themselves at a crossroads, with one hand in their pocket and the other in the cookie jar, Ada's Rules is a warm, funny and soulfully wise novel about falling back in love with the life you have.

Then there is 'Bed' by David Whitehouse' about a larger than life kid and Sue Townsend's 'The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year'

Loved Wally Lamb, also Ron McLarty's 'The Memory of Running'.

icetip

Some of these are great books

Stephen King's Thinner might do the trick......

*a fantastic read, not 'an'!

Another big yes for She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb - an fantastic read.

Without intending to sound sexist, it's pretty amazing that it was written by a man - he's absolutely spot-on with the interior life of the female protagonist. (My instinct is to erase that potential bun-fight-causing sentence, but I've read the book several times and each time have been genuinely impressed with how authentically he's written the protagonist.)

Also the Paula Danziger books - loved those as a teenager!