Chubster: A Hipster's Guide to Losing Weight While Staying Cool

METHODOLOGY: Calorie counting and stealth exercise, with a side order of “to thine own self be true.”

REPRESENTATIVE QUOTE: “Here's my guarantee: This plan will be effective and you will not feel like a loser doing it. … The Chubster plan is not only the Least Awful Diet Plan of All Time, it's the only plan for those who consider themselves cool.”

The central truth that Martin Cizmar's Chubster takes into account: Dieting involves more than just following a list of rules; it delves into tricky areas of identity. Very few diet books acknowledge that some people – Cizmar focuses on hipsters, but his advice applies equally to the extremely shy or self-conscious – are so fixated on not being “that guy,” so terrified of looking stupid or looking like they're trying, that they will allow their own health to deteriorate. Those who've constructed their self-image around being anti-jock or anti-cheerleader can find it difficult to join the gung-ho cult of spandex; rather than disregard these personality quirks as irrelevant or misguided, Cizmar builds a pragmatic plan that addresses them and gets around self-defeating mental roadblocks.