Here’s a new way to shed fat: bet money on it. Thanks to several new websites that enable people to make bets and track their progress, hopeful weight losers are competing against one another to see who can lose the most weight.

Oprah’s back on the weight-loss bandwagon. “How did I let this happen again?” she asks in the January issue of O. From a low of 160 pounds, she’s climbed back up to 200 pounds–and she’s determined, once again, to get them off. After reading “Feed Me!: Writers Dish About Food, Eating, Weight, and Body Image,” I couldn’t help wondering if Oprah wouldn’t have served women better–make that all of us–by saying, “That’s it. I’m through with dieting. I’m through trying to be someone I’m not. I love my ample self. Hallelujah!”

I’m not fat. I’ve never had to diet. Except for the odd foray into cross-dressing on Halloween in San Francisco’s Castro district, I’ve never worried about slipping into a size 8 evening dress. And I’m not a fan of graphic novels or books. But as soon as I picked up The Big Skinny: How I Changed My Fattitude, A Memoir, by Carol Lay (Villard Books, 2008), I was charmed.