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Secrets From the Eating Lab: The Science of Weight Loss, the Myth of Willpower, and Why You Should Never Diet Again
A provocative expose of the dieting industry from one of the nation’s leading researchers in self-control and the psychology of weight loss that offers proven strategies for sustainable weight loss.
From her office in the University of Minnesota’s Health and Eating Lab, professor Traci Mann researches self-control and dieting. And what she has discovered is groundbreaking. Not only do diets not work; they often result in weight gain. Americans are losing the battle of the bulge because our bodies and brains are not hardwired to resist food—the very idea of it works against our biological imperative to survive.
In Secrets From the Eating Lab, Mann challenges assumptions—including those that make up the very foundation of the weight loss industry—about how diets work and why they fail. The result of more than two decades of research, it offers cutting-edge science and exciting new insights into the American obesity epidemic and our relationship with eating and food.
Secrets From the Eating Lab also gives readers the practical tools they need to actually lose weight and get healthy. Mann argues that the idea of willpower is a myth—we shouldn’t waste time and money trying to combat our natural tendencies. Instead, she offers 12 simple, effective strategies that take advantage of human nature instead of fighting it—from changing the size of your plates to socializing with people with healthy habits, removing “healthy” labels that send negative messages to redefining comfort food.
262 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2015
352 people are currently reading
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 319 reviews
April 11, 2015
I will never diet again after reading this book. No Weight Watchers, no Metabolic Reasearch Center, no nothing. No Dr. Fuhrman, no Dr. Atkins or Dr. T.Colin Campbell. Vegan or Paleo. It does not matter. Diets do not work. Period.
What I learned from this book is that all diets are only designed to last for about 6 months. That is it. You read it SIX MONTHS! Oh and get this, a diet is considered successful if you lose between 5-10% of your weight. So if you weigh 300 pounds and lose 30 pounds you are considered a success. But after 2 years, the 30 pounds returns and some.That is how Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem and Medifast make their money-revolving customers. These companies know their programs only work for the short term.
I lost 50 pounds and kept it off now for 8 years and am in the 5% club. What is the 5% club? People who kept off 30 pounds for over a year. 95 to 97% of dieters regain their weight back. Keeping this weight off requires constant dillligence and effort. I have been working with a nutritionist at Duke University and I now understand why she told be to eat 2,000 calories a day and let the weight come off slowly. She knew and understood the research.
Dr. Mann is not a diet doctor, she is a food psychologist. From her food lab at Minnesota she has researched techniques that will help people lose weight, however, it will be a slow weight loss. Another good book to read that was published about 8 years ago is Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink. He basically says some of the same things.
All my diet books will be donated to the public library for the library sale.
What I learned from this book is that all diets are only designed to last for about 6 months. That is it. You read it SIX MONTHS! Oh and get this, a diet is considered successful if you lose between 5-10% of your weight. So if you weigh 300 pounds and lose 30 pounds you are considered a success. But after 2 years, the 30 pounds returns and some.That is how Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem and Medifast make their money-revolving customers. These companies know their programs only work for the short term.
I lost 50 pounds and kept it off now for 8 years and am in the 5% club. What is the 5% club? People who kept off 30 pounds for over a year. 95 to 97% of dieters regain their weight back. Keeping this weight off requires constant dillligence and effort. I have been working with a nutritionist at Duke University and I now understand why she told be to eat 2,000 calories a day and let the weight come off slowly. She knew and understood the research.
Dr. Mann is not a diet doctor, she is a food psychologist. From her food lab at Minnesota she has researched techniques that will help people lose weight, however, it will be a slow weight loss. Another good book to read that was published about 8 years ago is Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink. He basically says some of the same things.
All my diet books will be donated to the public library for the library sale.
May 5, 2020
3.5 stars.
This award-winning book from a Minnesotan psychologist has as its main point that diets don't work, you're better off with some eating strategies. Pretty much all diets are full of fail, and merely help to ease you to yo-yoing your diets. The book is laid out like this:
Pt.1: diets = fail, why they fail, it's not about willpower but more due to circumstances that we fail to keep the goal weight
Pt.2: the miseries of diets, and why obesity is not as bad as we think
Pt.3: strategies: food availability (incl. portions and plate size), the influence of other people, how the foods are labeled is another influence, some automatic healthy-eating ways, thoughts on comfort food and treats
Pt.4: finding a way to be okay with your body, reasons and strategies for exercise
I think if you have read books on healthy eating (like Wansink and such), some information may already be familiar.
This book gave me some great strategies without feeling like pressure, and told me that just getting very near to goal weight might be enough. It helped me see what pressure and prejudices obese people are under.
Still, I still can't make myself think of obesity as lightly as she does, nor eat some of the foods she like (like liver :P). But the book was a quick read, didn't stay too long on subjects included, and gave me new ideas on how to deal with weight. The diet part is easy - I have never followed them - but the weightloss will still be a long work. Good read anyway.
This award-winning book from a Minnesotan psychologist has as its main point that diets don't work, you're better off with some eating strategies. Pretty much all diets are full of fail, and merely help to ease you to yo-yoing your diets. The book is laid out like this:
Pt.1: diets = fail, why they fail, it's not about willpower but more due to circumstances that we fail to keep the goal weight
Pt.2: the miseries of diets, and why obesity is not as bad as we think
Pt.3: strategies: food availability (incl. portions and plate size), the influence of other people, how the foods are labeled is another influence, some automatic healthy-eating ways, thoughts on comfort food and treats
Pt.4: finding a way to be okay with your body, reasons and strategies for exercise
I think if you have read books on healthy eating (like Wansink and such), some information may already be familiar.
This book gave me some great strategies without feeling like pressure, and told me that just getting very near to goal weight might be enough. It helped me see what pressure and prejudices obese people are under.
Still, I still can't make myself think of obesity as lightly as she does, nor eat some of the foods she like (like liver :P). But the book was a quick read, didn't stay too long on subjects included, and gave me new ideas on how to deal with weight. The diet part is easy - I have never followed them - but the weightloss will still be a long work. Good read anyway.
February 24, 2015
SECRETS FROM THE EATING LAB is a very unique book. I don't believe I've ever read a book on eating that is based upon research from an eating lab. The author conducted her experiments on eating in a pretty sneaky way: “I tell our research participants that we are studying other things entirely, such as their memory or their moods or how they communicate with their friends. But being the hospitable people we are, we just happen to offer them snacks while we study them. They have no idea that it's what they do with these snacks that were really studying. “Sneaky, sneaky!
The author admits she was very surprised by her findings: “Much to my surprise, I've learned that nearly everything I thought was true about eating was false. “Perhaps one of the most important conclusions of this book regards the failures of diets: “The most rigorous diet studies find that about half of dieters will weigh more for 25 years after the diet ends than they did before the diet began.“
One of the big problems with diets is that diets cause stress. But a stress response itself is something that leads to weight gain! “Stress cannot be avoided when you are dieting because dieting itself causes stress. Dieting causes the stress response that has already been showed to lead to weight gain.”
One of the recurring themes of SECRETS FROM THE EATING LAB is how realistic your weight goal is. Your realistic weight is highly correlated to the weight of your biological parents. She cites studies with twins who are living in separate homes. They discovered that the the weight of the twins was very similar to each other, even though they had been raised in separate households.
The author estimates that your genes account for 70 percent of the variation in your weight. It's not that you can't affect your weight at all but that what you can change is probably a lot more limited than you think: “Your body is trying to keep you within that genetically determined set weight range. “
The most controversial part of this book will certainly be Dr. Mann’s assertions about obesity. She points out that the scientific evidence does not really support the idea that all obesity is unhealthy. The author cites a study which found that overweight people actually had a slightly lower risk of death the normal weight people. In fact, “being overweight appears to be even a bit healthier than being the recommended weight.“ The doctor clarifies that it's not slightly obese people that have the health risks—it’s what are called “Class 3 Obesity.” And only 6 percent of the US population is in that category.
A surprising finding from the author’s research is what is called the “obesity paradox.” This section of the book was a real eye opener for me. Here’s the paradox: Obesity in America has greatly increased over the past few decades. One would think, therefore, that the rate of diabetes would have skyrocketed, but it has not. Dr. Mann points out that the prevalence of diabetes went from 9% to 11%, and that the rate of cardiovascular disease actually decreased.
Dr. Mann recommends that you aim for your lowest realistic weight--not some idealistic weight that is not actually attainable. Rather than going on and off diets, you exercise, eat nutritiously, avoid weight cycling, and get proper medical care. She gives lots of practical suggestions on how to do this. For example, remember that the actions of people around you do has a great impact on how you eat.
The author is a big proponent of regular exercise, even though it doesn't usually lead to big weight loss. The benefits of exercise are numerous, the author points out. Simply put, “Exercise prevents death," and exercise “works as well as drugs in preventing death among people with heart disease, stroke, or pre-diabetes.“ In addition, “Exercise helps even if you don't lose weight.” Exercise also helps reduce stress. You really do feel better on a regimen of exercise.
The author has some final words for the reader in the section called “Final Words: Diet Schmiet." She really discourages the reader from trying to go on diets: “Diets don't work. Big deal. You don't need them to work. You need to not go on them.“ Instead, she suggests, “reach your leanest livable weight, that comfortable weight at the lower end of your set range. You'll have no trouble reaching it if you exercise regularly and use some of the smart regulation strategies in this book to create reasonable eating habits.“
All in all, I found SECRETS FROM THE EATING LAB to be a surprising book, with some very unusual conclusions. The author’s experience and qualifications are solid, but this book is bound to be controversial, because it takes aim at some of the core assumptions in the health/diet world.
The author admits she was very surprised by her findings: “Much to my surprise, I've learned that nearly everything I thought was true about eating was false. “Perhaps one of the most important conclusions of this book regards the failures of diets: “The most rigorous diet studies find that about half of dieters will weigh more for 25 years after the diet ends than they did before the diet began.“
One of the big problems with diets is that diets cause stress. But a stress response itself is something that leads to weight gain! “Stress cannot be avoided when you are dieting because dieting itself causes stress. Dieting causes the stress response that has already been showed to lead to weight gain.”
One of the recurring themes of SECRETS FROM THE EATING LAB is how realistic your weight goal is. Your realistic weight is highly correlated to the weight of your biological parents. She cites studies with twins who are living in separate homes. They discovered that the the weight of the twins was very similar to each other, even though they had been raised in separate households.
The author estimates that your genes account for 70 percent of the variation in your weight. It's not that you can't affect your weight at all but that what you can change is probably a lot more limited than you think: “Your body is trying to keep you within that genetically determined set weight range. “
The most controversial part of this book will certainly be Dr. Mann’s assertions about obesity. She points out that the scientific evidence does not really support the idea that all obesity is unhealthy. The author cites a study which found that overweight people actually had a slightly lower risk of death the normal weight people. In fact, “being overweight appears to be even a bit healthier than being the recommended weight.“ The doctor clarifies that it's not slightly obese people that have the health risks—it’s what are called “Class 3 Obesity.” And only 6 percent of the US population is in that category.
A surprising finding from the author’s research is what is called the “obesity paradox.” This section of the book was a real eye opener for me. Here’s the paradox: Obesity in America has greatly increased over the past few decades. One would think, therefore, that the rate of diabetes would have skyrocketed, but it has not. Dr. Mann points out that the prevalence of diabetes went from 9% to 11%, and that the rate of cardiovascular disease actually decreased.
Dr. Mann recommends that you aim for your lowest realistic weight--not some idealistic weight that is not actually attainable. Rather than going on and off diets, you exercise, eat nutritiously, avoid weight cycling, and get proper medical care. She gives lots of practical suggestions on how to do this. For example, remember that the actions of people around you do has a great impact on how you eat.
The author is a big proponent of regular exercise, even though it doesn't usually lead to big weight loss. The benefits of exercise are numerous, the author points out. Simply put, “Exercise prevents death," and exercise “works as well as drugs in preventing death among people with heart disease, stroke, or pre-diabetes.“ In addition, “Exercise helps even if you don't lose weight.” Exercise also helps reduce stress. You really do feel better on a regimen of exercise.
The author has some final words for the reader in the section called “Final Words: Diet Schmiet." She really discourages the reader from trying to go on diets: “Diets don't work. Big deal. You don't need them to work. You need to not go on them.“ Instead, she suggests, “reach your leanest livable weight, that comfortable weight at the lower end of your set range. You'll have no trouble reaching it if you exercise regularly and use some of the smart regulation strategies in this book to create reasonable eating habits.“
All in all, I found SECRETS FROM THE EATING LAB to be a surprising book, with some very unusual conclusions. The author’s experience and qualifications are solid, but this book is bound to be controversial, because it takes aim at some of the core assumptions in the health/diet world.
March 19, 2016
I have mixed feelings about this book. She makes a lot of good points and all, especially about exercise and about the pernicious nature of the diet industry. She successfully argues that adopting a healthy lifestyle that includes nutritious foods and exercise is a much better idea than "going on a diet." But part of her argument is that willpower is a myth and that you shouldn't feel guilty for eating something but also somehow that you shouldn't deprive yourself. But then she's basically, "Get yourself away from donuts because you can't be trusted not to break." She doesn't make any allowances for treats of any kind, she just tells you to avoid them. Ideally, yes, that would be good. And I get it. Avoiding temptation is a good idea -- don't go in the break room if there's cake! Skip birthday parties! -- but how is that not willpower? Also, she argues that you should be at the low end of your set weight, but I wasn't clear about how someone was supposed to determine what that is. And, of course, there's a lot of "love your body the way it is and stop stressing about weight because it's not what you weigh it's how you live." Um, okay. Sure. "But make sure you stay away from donuts and don't drive by that tempting bakery!" It was an interesting read, but I was left unsatisfied by the disconnects in her argument.
May 14, 2015
I bought this book after reading an interesting excerpt posted on Salon.com. While the article seemed to rely on an actual review of research, this book seemed to instead just heavily reference the author's own findings without offering any explanation of whether the findings were being debated in any way. I had expected the book to really be just an informative piece on the science of how people eat and why diets don't work, but about 2/3 of the book was a bunch of "not dieting" diet type tips. Some of the examples were useful, but this really what I had expected to get from the book. Because of this, I was a bit disappointed in the book. To some degree, I think the author was just trying to appeal to a non academic audience, but the book is full of conjectures that weren't even supported by her own data. For someone who is critiquing the diet and fitness industry at various points, it seems a bit odd and irresponsible to be giving what feel like diet tips paired with lots of unscientific commentary in a book where the author's name is conspicuously followed by her degrees. Overall, the book wasn't terrible, though. There were some highly applicable ideas rooted in psychology in this book that justify reading it if you're not an academic with expertise in psychology. Also, the first 1/3 of the book was informational and very interesting. I don't really recommend this book if you're trying to understand the science behind eating habits, though, because the book is mostly Tracy Mann's commentary and then advice that presumes her view is correct and hasn't been challenged in any valid way. Further, she doesn't nuance her discussion to account for people with conditions that affect people's eating habits, like diabetes, insulin resistance, or polycystic ovarian syndrome; it would've been nice to have at least an overview or a brief statement about biological factors affecting appetite and what psychology has to offer in that area.
September 17, 2017
This book was recommended by the weight neutral, HAES dietitian I'm working with. I was highly skeptical, since the back cover blurb mentions the "obesity epidemic" among other things that give me pause.
It's telling that the dietitian made me promise only to read the first half, about the science, and NOT read the second half (which is apparently nigh undistinguishable from diet advice).
After reading the preface, I already knew it was full of toxic weight bias. In the first few minutes (preface), she had already...
--used the o-word,
--made sure to make it clear that she herself is not o-word
--recommended that people's goal should be to live at the low end of your set point range; your "leanest livable weight" - aka still saying smaller is better. Aka still embracing the diet culture status quo. This is a revision, not a rejection, of the premise that thinner is better.
When I got into the first chapter and encountered gems like the author stating that use of BMI is "controversial" (as opposed to fucking bullshit that has been debunked already!) and that the standardized height/weight charts "have been criticized" (notice the passive voice--she's not saying SHE criticizes it!)...
I was done.
So glad I was able to get this from the library and not put any money in this author's pocket. I don't give my money to the diet industry or those who uphold the weight hate status quo.
It's telling that the dietitian made me promise only to read the first half, about the science, and NOT read the second half (which is apparently nigh undistinguishable from diet advice).
After reading the preface, I already knew it was full of toxic weight bias. In the first few minutes (preface), she had already...
--used the o-word,
--made sure to make it clear that she herself is not o-word
--recommended that people's goal should be to live at the low end of your set point range; your "leanest livable weight" - aka still saying smaller is better. Aka still embracing the diet culture status quo. This is a revision, not a rejection, of the premise that thinner is better.
When I got into the first chapter and encountered gems like the author stating that use of BMI is "controversial" (as opposed to fucking bullshit that has been debunked already!) and that the standardized height/weight charts "have been criticized" (notice the passive voice--she's not saying SHE criticizes it!)...
I was done.
So glad I was able to get this from the library and not put any money in this author's pocket. I don't give my money to the diet industry or those who uphold the weight hate status quo.
May 31, 2015
I tend to agree with all of the author's main points. It's always nice to read things that confirm your existing beliefs! :)
Here are some of my favorite clips from the book:
Dieting doesn't work. Dieting isn't safe. Dieting has negative side-effects. If we were talking about a medication, doctors wouldn't recommend it.
Doing healthy things is healthy, whether or not they make you model-thin.
In the Ancel Keys "starvation" study, the men were allowed 1,600 kcal/day. This is a higher kcal intake than most typical modern diets.
Unless you want to battle evolution, biology, and psychology and be hungry every single day of your life, I wouldn't suggest trying to live below your set weight range. Getting so thin that you are below this range is a very difficult and self-defeating goal.
When people know they're being watched, they become self-conscious, act unnaturally, and won't eat very much. (This describes food logs)
By limiting the number of decisions we have to make with food, we may be helping to protect ourselves from impulsive decisions.
Even with all of the statistical flaws in obesity studies, the actual difference in life expectancy that they find between people who are obese and people who are normal weight is one year.
If you exercise, eat nutritiously, avoid weight cycling, and get good quality medical care, you don't need to worry about obesity shortening your life.
If you want to do less of something, create small obstacles. Example: switching Tylenol to blister packs (instead of bottles) was linked to a 21% reduction in suicides and accidental poisonings.
After dinner, clean your kitchen, put everything away, brush/floss your teeth. If you are really hungry enough to eat again, you'll have to figure out if it's really worth it to re-clean the kitchen, re-brush/floss your teeth, etc. We are naturally all lazy, so we can include these small obstacles and take advantage of our laziness.
When you buy all of your veggies for the week, immediately wash and chop them. Otherwise, you'll likely not eat most of them. Good video here: http://www.tamareadler.com/2011/10/10...
Eat a salad or vegetable soup before dinner.
We do what people around us are doing.
For most people the word "healthy" is strongly associated with tasting bad or remaining hungry.
Change perceptions. Instead of thinking of vegetables as "healthy", think of them as filling, nutritious, energizing, etc. Come up with reasons that are compelling to you.
Example of a true habit? Getting in the car and putting on a seat belt. We don't debate the pros and cons of seat belts each time we get in the car. We just do it. In a cab on the other hand, we don't. It's not a habit.
Even if you've believed in the power of comfort food you whole life, it's time to let it go. Comfort food is nothing more than a food you happen to want when you feel bad. Comfort food is a myth. In fact, by eating something that may make you feel guilty later, you are actually doing the opposite of comforting yourself.
People who are intuitive eaters eat a more balanced diet than people who go on specific diets.
Satisfying a long list of food restrictions doesn't leave you with much to savor.
Here's a perfectly sensible goal: reach your leanest livable weight, that comfortable weight at the low end of your set range. You'll have no trouble reaching it if you exercise regularly and use some basic sound nutritional strategies.
I urge you to get to your leanest livable weight and then, whatever it is, decide that it's okay. Because your weight is not the point. You were not put on this earth to mold yourself into a perfect physical specimen. "Your body is not your masterpiece - your life is".
Here are some of my favorite clips from the book:
Dieting doesn't work. Dieting isn't safe. Dieting has negative side-effects. If we were talking about a medication, doctors wouldn't recommend it.
Doing healthy things is healthy, whether or not they make you model-thin.
In the Ancel Keys "starvation" study, the men were allowed 1,600 kcal/day. This is a higher kcal intake than most typical modern diets.
Unless you want to battle evolution, biology, and psychology and be hungry every single day of your life, I wouldn't suggest trying to live below your set weight range. Getting so thin that you are below this range is a very difficult and self-defeating goal.
When people know they're being watched, they become self-conscious, act unnaturally, and won't eat very much. (This describes food logs)
By limiting the number of decisions we have to make with food, we may be helping to protect ourselves from impulsive decisions.
Even with all of the statistical flaws in obesity studies, the actual difference in life expectancy that they find between people who are obese and people who are normal weight is one year.
If you exercise, eat nutritiously, avoid weight cycling, and get good quality medical care, you don't need to worry about obesity shortening your life.
If you want to do less of something, create small obstacles. Example: switching Tylenol to blister packs (instead of bottles) was linked to a 21% reduction in suicides and accidental poisonings.
After dinner, clean your kitchen, put everything away, brush/floss your teeth. If you are really hungry enough to eat again, you'll have to figure out if it's really worth it to re-clean the kitchen, re-brush/floss your teeth, etc. We are naturally all lazy, so we can include these small obstacles and take advantage of our laziness.
When you buy all of your veggies for the week, immediately wash and chop them. Otherwise, you'll likely not eat most of them. Good video here: http://www.tamareadler.com/2011/10/10...
Eat a salad or vegetable soup before dinner.
We do what people around us are doing.
For most people the word "healthy" is strongly associated with tasting bad or remaining hungry.
Change perceptions. Instead of thinking of vegetables as "healthy", think of them as filling, nutritious, energizing, etc. Come up with reasons that are compelling to you.
Example of a true habit? Getting in the car and putting on a seat belt. We don't debate the pros and cons of seat belts each time we get in the car. We just do it. In a cab on the other hand, we don't. It's not a habit.
Even if you've believed in the power of comfort food you whole life, it's time to let it go. Comfort food is nothing more than a food you happen to want when you feel bad. Comfort food is a myth. In fact, by eating something that may make you feel guilty later, you are actually doing the opposite of comforting yourself.
People who are intuitive eaters eat a more balanced diet than people who go on specific diets.
Satisfying a long list of food restrictions doesn't leave you with much to savor.
Here's a perfectly sensible goal: reach your leanest livable weight, that comfortable weight at the low end of your set range. You'll have no trouble reaching it if you exercise regularly and use some basic sound nutritional strategies.
I urge you to get to your leanest livable weight and then, whatever it is, decide that it's okay. Because your weight is not the point. You were not put on this earth to mold yourself into a perfect physical specimen. "Your body is not your masterpiece - your life is".
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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June 25, 2015I am a total sucker for nonfiction books about both food and science, so the combination of the two makes me ecstatic. Even if you’re not prone to dieting, Secrets From the Eating Lab has a lot of fascinating information about what drives our dietary habits. I loved reading about the eating studies and how certain cues affect everyone who eats food (which is pretty much everyone, right?). Very informative, very even-handed, and steeped in actual science instead of opinion. — Susie Rodarme
from The Best Books We Read In May: http://bookriot.com/2015/06/02/riot-r...
from The Best Books We Read In May: http://bookriot.com/2015/06/02/riot-r...
June 5, 2018
Impressive book! It's highly scientific. Uses the current data are on Behavioural Economics. And it offers a good critical view of our current worldview while offering a soundly based set of recommendations to reach a realistic goal in fitness and health.
September 12, 2016
First, I'll say that the author comes across like she is your long lost friend. She isn't banging the table to make her point but using humor and familiarity with the reader. Sometimes that makes me feel manipulated, but I didn't get that feel here at all. It could be true, but I didn't feel it. I think I liked her informal approach.
This isn’t a diet book. It doesn’t tell you what to do other than ‘don’t diet’. This is a scientific look at the psychology of eating. It is the “why” of what people choose what they do when it comes to eating. This contains many different studies that determine how much people eat, which foods are chosen when you are with friends, which foods are chosen when certain adjectives are attached, the effects certain foods have on us when given certain messages first, etc. Really....this had so much research in it, I thought I was in heaven. That part was fascinating.
In the subtitle, it says, "the science of weight loss." I'm not sure that is entirely truthful, because weight loss was not what this was about. It covered the desire to lose weight and how obese people are treated differently anywhere from in the court room to job interviews. It also stated that weight loss programs are huge money makers for diet companies because the majority of all weight lost is gained right back. Overall, I found this interesting because I love research and how it is all interpreted. So 4 stars.
This isn’t a diet book. It doesn’t tell you what to do other than ‘don’t diet’. This is a scientific look at the psychology of eating. It is the “why” of what people choose what they do when it comes to eating. This contains many different studies that determine how much people eat, which foods are chosen when you are with friends, which foods are chosen when certain adjectives are attached, the effects certain foods have on us when given certain messages first, etc. Really....this had so much research in it, I thought I was in heaven. That part was fascinating.
In the subtitle, it says, "the science of weight loss." I'm not sure that is entirely truthful, because weight loss was not what this was about. It covered the desire to lose weight and how obese people are treated differently anywhere from in the court room to job interviews. It also stated that weight loss programs are huge money makers for diet companies because the majority of all weight lost is gained right back. Overall, I found this interesting because I love research and how it is all interpreted. So 4 stars.
May 4, 2016
This lifted a weight off my shoulders (pun intended).
"Your body is not your masterpiece--your life is." Glennon Melton
"Your body is not your masterpiece--your life is." Glennon Melton
April 5, 2019
Traci Mann received a Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University and taught several years at UCLA before moving to the University of Minnesota where she founded the Health and Eating Lab. Her research is focused on the psychology of eating.
An overriding theme driving the narrative of her book is her assertion that diets don't work. According to Mann, the research is clear. The majority of weight lost through dieting is regained. She argues (at times successfully, and at other times not so successfully) that the failure of diets is in large part due to the fact that our bodies have a set point (or rather weight range) at which their biological systems fight to stay. She, like others in her field, believe that weight is strongly influenced by genetics and the best that we can hope for is to stay at the lower end of our range.
She also devotes a whole chapter to dispelling what she believes is a common myth, that being fat is synonymous with poor health outcomes. According to Mann, not only are obese people the victims of relentless bullying and shaming, but that the abuse inflicted upon them is misguided because most obese people are not any sicker than their thinner, non-obese peers.
I have to say her that while I found her argument well-intentioned, I also found it to be somewhat insincere. For example, in one sense she is right. Obese people are often stigmatized as fat, lazy, slobs, who could be thinner if they really wanted to be. She is also correct when she claims that no good comes from making people feel bad about themselves. But no sooner has she lobbied for the virtues of being obese/overweight, that she then suggests that not only should we strive to find our set point, but we should also stay at the lower end. If being obese isn't unhealthy, why should we strive for the low end of our set point? Why not the high end? For that matter, why even try?
Another major point in the book is that no one really understands why we are getting fatter, though there are a whole cast of usual suspects from supersized meals, to cheap, high-calorie fast food, to sedentary lifestyles, to genetics, to some unknown environmental factor. The reality is it could be all the above, some of the above, or none of the above.
She repeatedly warns about the futility of focusing on weight (something that may be out of our control at least to some extent), and encourages readers to instead focus on health and healthy behaviors like eating more fruits and veggies and limiting junk food.
I agree with Mann on many levels. 1. I don't think we completely understand what is driving the incidence of obesity. It is very likely a combination of factors. 2. I also agree that diets don't work. She is right. The research is clear. 3. I also share her view about focusing on health and healthy behaviors rather than on weight. It seems logical to assume that if we eat well and not too much while staying active that our bodies will naturally gravitate toward a healthy weight. 4. I also agree with this idea of a set-point. I've experienced this in my own life. At 47, my weight has not fluctuated by more than 10 lbs, with the exception of my 4 pregnancies. It does in fact seem as if my body gravitates toward a specific range. 5. What I don't agree with is her suggestion that obesity is not only not unhealthy but that it might even be healthy for all we know. It seems to me that part of the repulsion many people feel when they see fat humans is no different than the repulsion they feel when they see a fat animal. Yes, thin does not equal healthy and people can, do, and should come in all shapes and sizes, but I think the prejudice against fat goes much deeper and is maybe even more visceral than simple cultural norms. This absolutely is a slippery slope, but as a PT I see obese patients whose orthopedic problems are absolutely impacted negatively by their weight. We need to be able to separate the health risks of obesity or of the behaviors that typically result in obesity and the worth of those who may be struggling with extra weight. Being overweight does not make you a bad person, but it may impact your health.
Finally, Mann spends the last third of her book giving would-be-dieters advice that isn't dieting per see, but more a common sense approach to eating. The only real problem I had with this section is that she constantly uses herself as an example of "what to do." It just feels someone preachy...like if I can do it, so can you.
Overall, despite its faults, there's still some good stuff here.
An overriding theme driving the narrative of her book is her assertion that diets don't work. According to Mann, the research is clear. The majority of weight lost through dieting is regained. She argues (at times successfully, and at other times not so successfully) that the failure of diets is in large part due to the fact that our bodies have a set point (or rather weight range) at which their biological systems fight to stay. She, like others in her field, believe that weight is strongly influenced by genetics and the best that we can hope for is to stay at the lower end of our range.
She also devotes a whole chapter to dispelling what she believes is a common myth, that being fat is synonymous with poor health outcomes. According to Mann, not only are obese people the victims of relentless bullying and shaming, but that the abuse inflicted upon them is misguided because most obese people are not any sicker than their thinner, non-obese peers.
I have to say her that while I found her argument well-intentioned, I also found it to be somewhat insincere. For example, in one sense she is right. Obese people are often stigmatized as fat, lazy, slobs, who could be thinner if they really wanted to be. She is also correct when she claims that no good comes from making people feel bad about themselves. But no sooner has she lobbied for the virtues of being obese/overweight, that she then suggests that not only should we strive to find our set point, but we should also stay at the lower end. If being obese isn't unhealthy, why should we strive for the low end of our set point? Why not the high end? For that matter, why even try?
Another major point in the book is that no one really understands why we are getting fatter, though there are a whole cast of usual suspects from supersized meals, to cheap, high-calorie fast food, to sedentary lifestyles, to genetics, to some unknown environmental factor. The reality is it could be all the above, some of the above, or none of the above.
She repeatedly warns about the futility of focusing on weight (something that may be out of our control at least to some extent), and encourages readers to instead focus on health and healthy behaviors like eating more fruits and veggies and limiting junk food.
I agree with Mann on many levels. 1. I don't think we completely understand what is driving the incidence of obesity. It is very likely a combination of factors. 2. I also agree that diets don't work. She is right. The research is clear. 3. I also share her view about focusing on health and healthy behaviors rather than on weight. It seems logical to assume that if we eat well and not too much while staying active that our bodies will naturally gravitate toward a healthy weight. 4. I also agree with this idea of a set-point. I've experienced this in my own life. At 47, my weight has not fluctuated by more than 10 lbs, with the exception of my 4 pregnancies. It does in fact seem as if my body gravitates toward a specific range. 5. What I don't agree with is her suggestion that obesity is not only not unhealthy but that it might even be healthy for all we know. It seems to me that part of the repulsion many people feel when they see fat humans is no different than the repulsion they feel when they see a fat animal. Yes, thin does not equal healthy and people can, do, and should come in all shapes and sizes, but I think the prejudice against fat goes much deeper and is maybe even more visceral than simple cultural norms. This absolutely is a slippery slope, but as a PT I see obese patients whose orthopedic problems are absolutely impacted negatively by their weight. We need to be able to separate the health risks of obesity or of the behaviors that typically result in obesity and the worth of those who may be struggling with extra weight. Being overweight does not make you a bad person, but it may impact your health.
Finally, Mann spends the last third of her book giving would-be-dieters advice that isn't dieting per see, but more a common sense approach to eating. The only real problem I had with this section is that she constantly uses herself as an example of "what to do." It just feels someone preachy...like if I can do it, so can you.
Overall, despite its faults, there's still some good stuff here.
May 29, 2015
Easy and accessible, yet very informative. She cites her sources and makes the science easy to read without dumbing anything down. And now I can feel a little bit of justifiable smugness whenever someone traps me and describes their crazy diet. (I never want to talk about anyone's crazy diet.)
August 18, 2017
I read a lot of books of this type — not diet self-help books, but sciency books about diet and dieting — the facts, the myths, eating psychology, nutrition, health, and general cultural craziness about weight, body shape, and body image.
This is among the best and it’s also highly entertaining. Traci Mann is a health psychologist and runs an eating lab at the University of Minnesota. She’s been doing research — sneaky studies — on dieting and dieters, eating habits, etc., in her lab and out in the world (that other eating lab of life). You may be surprised to find that dieting promotes weight gain. Or that your genes account for 70 percent of what you weigh (they account for 80 percent of the variation in height). Or that self-control has little or nothing to do with whether and what and how much you eat. Or that being overweight is not a health risk (until you get rather huge).
In general, the book and the author’s positions are well supported by research and (with one or two exceptions, imho) Mann is cautious about overstating evidence or attributing causality to correlational data. The extensive notes and references offer many other enticing directions for further reading. (And I am so happy that the Kindle edition of the book included them all. That hasn’t always been my experience.)
If you have ever felt sad, frustrated, guilty, or discouraged about your weight or failed diet attempts, read this book NOW. You’ll never feel quite the same about your body or dieting again. This isn’t a cheesy self-help book — but I concluded that we could all be a lot happier and healthier by implementing a few simple (really!) strategies.
This is among the best and it’s also highly entertaining. Traci Mann is a health psychologist and runs an eating lab at the University of Minnesota. She’s been doing research — sneaky studies — on dieting and dieters, eating habits, etc., in her lab and out in the world (that other eating lab of life). You may be surprised to find that dieting promotes weight gain. Or that your genes account for 70 percent of what you weigh (they account for 80 percent of the variation in height). Or that self-control has little or nothing to do with whether and what and how much you eat. Or that being overweight is not a health risk (until you get rather huge).
In general, the book and the author’s positions are well supported by research and (with one or two exceptions, imho) Mann is cautious about overstating evidence or attributing causality to correlational data. The extensive notes and references offer many other enticing directions for further reading. (And I am so happy that the Kindle edition of the book included them all. That hasn’t always been my experience.)
If you have ever felt sad, frustrated, guilty, or discouraged about your weight or failed diet attempts, read this book NOW. You’ll never feel quite the same about your body or dieting again. This isn’t a cheesy self-help book — but I concluded that we could all be a lot happier and healthier by implementing a few simple (really!) strategies.
February 11, 2015
Chatty and conversational, informative and accessible. Traci Mann's approach is completely relate-able, like having a chat with your super smart and funny friend.
Finally, someone has gathered all the dieting and obesity studies together. Some will take issue with her claims that diets don't work and obesity won't kill you, but, she has the science on her side. And she's taken the time to come up with 12 strategies that can help us focus on being healthy rather than obsessed with weight and size. Get alone with a vegetable. Rethink comfort foods. Stop blaming yourself.
Finally, someone has gathered all the dieting and obesity studies together. Some will take issue with her claims that diets don't work and obesity won't kill you, but, she has the science on her side. And she's taken the time to come up with 12 strategies that can help us focus on being healthy rather than obsessed with weight and size. Get alone with a vegetable. Rethink comfort foods. Stop blaming yourself.
December 22, 2016
I really liked parts of this book- I don't really like books that tell me what to do and much prefer those that just present the facts and let the reader draw their own conclusions.
November 4, 2020
Lo que todos deberíamos de saber
September 14, 2015
If you're recovering from chronic dieting, as I am, or if you're still riding the dieting roller coaster, this book will offer you so much sanity. Mann does an excellent job of breaking down a variety of myths about diet and exercise, using plenty of science to back it up--not just her own, but that of other researchers too.
I read up on nutritional and exercise science enough to not have been surprised by everything she says here, but I imagine that to many people a lot of the book will be very surprising. To take the best and most obvious example: Mann systematically dissects and debunks the idea that obesity in and of itself is a serious health issue. Plenty of people will scoff at that. After all, we've been conditioned to think obesity is an epidemic on par with the black plague or something, thanks to news media, politicians, and companies with a cynical interest in keeping us convinced that we must diet in order to have any hope of a healthy, meaningful life. However, careful study of the science proves that this isn't the case, and there are profound implications is destroying the belief that fat equals unhealthy and thin equals healthy.
What also appeals to me about this book is that Mann is advocating for doing away with dieting permanently. I've done Weight Watchers multiple times. I've had success with it but then ended up putting all the weight back on and more. Given that society tends to send overweight people the message that being overweight is their fault, it's been hard not to internalize that as a lack of willpower or some fundamental flaw on my part. Over the years, I've worked hard to change my dietary and exercise habits, and I've finally realized that quitting dieting forever is the best thing I've ever done for myself. I'm working to do what Mann suggests and have learned to accept that my set weight is where I belong, as well as learning to be okay with my body. And it's worked. I'm not as thin as I have been at other times in the past, but I'm healthier than I've probably ever been, I certainly eat better than I did before (even while on WW, where I'd forgo fruits and veggies in favor of 100-calorie packs), and I exercise much more regularly.
If you're interested in nutritional science, you will enjoy Mann's descriptions of the various studies she and others have done. Her style is conversational, and while she offers up plenty of evidence to support her assertions, you don't feel like you're reading a grad school textbook. She does an excellent job of breaking things down in layman's terms and making her subject interesting. I like to read science books, so I'm okay with a higher level of technical detail than she offers here, but the strength of her approach is that she makes it more accessible to a broader audience.
While the science portions of the book are interesting, many readers will probably get those most out of the final sections of the book, in which Mann offers a lot of reasonable strategies. She uses science to back these up too, of course, but they offer readers guidelines for how they can go about changing their behaviors. Even better, I didn't think any of them were unrealistic, and since I've already adopted a few of them, I can say that they're easy to adopt and that they do work. Others, such as her suggestions for being alone with veggies and making healthy foods more visible and easy to access, are suggestions I intend to try. Plus, implementing these suggestions isn't just good for the reader, it's good for the readers' loved ones. I've twisted myself in knots trying to figure out how to get my kids to eat more fruits and veggies, and by doing things like putting fruit out in bowls on the counter or serving a veggie course before the rest of dinner, the strategies I'm using to try to get myself to eat better will also help my kids develop healthier habits, something that's extremely important to me.
I can't say enough good things about this book. I learned some new information from it, and I really appreciated Mann's advocating for a saner, healthier outlook on diet and exercise. It seems contradictory, but it seems to me that the national obsession we have with obesity in the U.S. is actually creating worse outcomes. If more people were to try the things Mann is suggesting, I think Americans overall would be healthier, both mentally and physically.
I read up on nutritional and exercise science enough to not have been surprised by everything she says here, but I imagine that to many people a lot of the book will be very surprising. To take the best and most obvious example: Mann systematically dissects and debunks the idea that obesity in and of itself is a serious health issue. Plenty of people will scoff at that. After all, we've been conditioned to think obesity is an epidemic on par with the black plague or something, thanks to news media, politicians, and companies with a cynical interest in keeping us convinced that we must diet in order to have any hope of a healthy, meaningful life. However, careful study of the science proves that this isn't the case, and there are profound implications is destroying the belief that fat equals unhealthy and thin equals healthy.
What also appeals to me about this book is that Mann is advocating for doing away with dieting permanently. I've done Weight Watchers multiple times. I've had success with it but then ended up putting all the weight back on and more. Given that society tends to send overweight people the message that being overweight is their fault, it's been hard not to internalize that as a lack of willpower or some fundamental flaw on my part. Over the years, I've worked hard to change my dietary and exercise habits, and I've finally realized that quitting dieting forever is the best thing I've ever done for myself. I'm working to do what Mann suggests and have learned to accept that my set weight is where I belong, as well as learning to be okay with my body. And it's worked. I'm not as thin as I have been at other times in the past, but I'm healthier than I've probably ever been, I certainly eat better than I did before (even while on WW, where I'd forgo fruits and veggies in favor of 100-calorie packs), and I exercise much more regularly.
If you're interested in nutritional science, you will enjoy Mann's descriptions of the various studies she and others have done. Her style is conversational, and while she offers up plenty of evidence to support her assertions, you don't feel like you're reading a grad school textbook. She does an excellent job of breaking things down in layman's terms and making her subject interesting. I like to read science books, so I'm okay with a higher level of technical detail than she offers here, but the strength of her approach is that she makes it more accessible to a broader audience.
While the science portions of the book are interesting, many readers will probably get those most out of the final sections of the book, in which Mann offers a lot of reasonable strategies. She uses science to back these up too, of course, but they offer readers guidelines for how they can go about changing their behaviors. Even better, I didn't think any of them were unrealistic, and since I've already adopted a few of them, I can say that they're easy to adopt and that they do work. Others, such as her suggestions for being alone with veggies and making healthy foods more visible and easy to access, are suggestions I intend to try. Plus, implementing these suggestions isn't just good for the reader, it's good for the readers' loved ones. I've twisted myself in knots trying to figure out how to get my kids to eat more fruits and veggies, and by doing things like putting fruit out in bowls on the counter or serving a veggie course before the rest of dinner, the strategies I'm using to try to get myself to eat better will also help my kids develop healthier habits, something that's extremely important to me.
I can't say enough good things about this book. I learned some new information from it, and I really appreciated Mann's advocating for a saner, healthier outlook on diet and exercise. It seems contradictory, but it seems to me that the national obsession we have with obesity in the U.S. is actually creating worse outcomes. If more people were to try the things Mann is suggesting, I think Americans overall would be healthier, both mentally and physically.
July 19, 2015
Regardless if Traci Mann's review of dieting and willpower studies convinces you or not-- this book will make you rethink the way the United States treats dieting and the "obesity epidemic."
Alot of the things Traci discusses about why diets fail and the nature of willpower, and how best to get people to exercise and eat healthy are more or less common sense. Nothing too massively revolutionary here.
However, the main concepts behind the book--dieting not only won't help you lose wait, but can be actively stressful for you, as well as that people should live at the low end of their genetically predisposed weight range as opposed to aiming for weight loss-- are somewhat challenging in that they upend the Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Fitness Celebrity culture.
But don't be satisfied with review, read the book yourself. While you may question the main concepts, as well as the literature reviews of experiments Mann uses to support her claims, you may be convinced, as I was (especially if you're an overweight female who has watched her overweight/obese mother on a never-ending series of diets yo yo between weights) that her common sense approach to eating healthy and exercising and accepting your body type makes sense.
* make eating healthy less troublesome. I.e., put the vegetable of the dinner out as a first course so that people aren't "choosing" between eating that salad or that fettucine alfredo, take carrots out of a package and put them in easy-to-access containers, don't keep tons of sweets in your house, don't feel guilty over eating sweet or fatty food, but do savor it.
* make exercising compulsory. And she doesn't mean punishing yourself or spending lots of money on a gym membership you then don't use. Get an exercise buddy so that when the alarm wakes you up early in the morning you still have to get up or risk disappointing your friend.. Make it something you enjoy. Make it a habit.
* live at the low end of YOUR weight range, but eat healthy and keep fit. She makes a BIG distinction (that was a revelation to me) between weight and fitness, pointing out that you can be fit and overweight or even thin and out of shape.
The best part of the book for me, though, was when Mann went into the details of the studies she herself conducted and how they would "trick" participants into giving them true data on eating habits. (for example telling participants they were there to fill out a questionnaire and providing a bowl of snacks so they could secretly watch how many m&ms the participants ate while filling out the questionnaire.) There's a kind of gleeful fascination I felt when reading those parts.
As I said, whether you believe the spin Mann puts on dieting/willpower/weight loss research or not-- this book is worth reading. It's definitely worth reading if you're female. And it's uber-definitely worth reading if you're and overweight female who's ever dieted in her life.
Alot of the things Traci discusses about why diets fail and the nature of willpower, and how best to get people to exercise and eat healthy are more or less common sense. Nothing too massively revolutionary here.
However, the main concepts behind the book--dieting not only won't help you lose wait, but can be actively stressful for you, as well as that people should live at the low end of their genetically predisposed weight range as opposed to aiming for weight loss-- are somewhat challenging in that they upend the Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Fitness Celebrity culture.
But don't be satisfied with review, read the book yourself. While you may question the main concepts, as well as the literature reviews of experiments Mann uses to support her claims, you may be convinced, as I was (especially if you're an overweight female who has watched her overweight/obese mother on a never-ending series of diets yo yo between weights) that her common sense approach to eating healthy and exercising and accepting your body type makes sense.
* make eating healthy less troublesome. I.e., put the vegetable of the dinner out as a first course so that people aren't "choosing" between eating that salad or that fettucine alfredo, take carrots out of a package and put them in easy-to-access containers, don't keep tons of sweets in your house, don't feel guilty over eating sweet or fatty food, but do savor it.
* make exercising compulsory. And she doesn't mean punishing yourself or spending lots of money on a gym membership you then don't use. Get an exercise buddy so that when the alarm wakes you up early in the morning you still have to get up or risk disappointing your friend.. Make it something you enjoy. Make it a habit.
* live at the low end of YOUR weight range, but eat healthy and keep fit. She makes a BIG distinction (that was a revelation to me) between weight and fitness, pointing out that you can be fit and overweight or even thin and out of shape.
The best part of the book for me, though, was when Mann went into the details of the studies she herself conducted and how they would "trick" participants into giving them true data on eating habits. (for example telling participants they were there to fill out a questionnaire and providing a bowl of snacks so they could secretly watch how many m&ms the participants ate while filling out the questionnaire.) There's a kind of gleeful fascination I felt when reading those parts.
As I said, whether you believe the spin Mann puts on dieting/willpower/weight loss research or not-- this book is worth reading. It's definitely worth reading if you're female. And it's uber-definitely worth reading if you're and overweight female who's ever dieted in her life.
September 5, 2016
Even if you're not particularly interested in a book about diets, this is a fascinating read on food psychology. What affect does comfort food have on actually comforting you? Are people more likely to choose a snack when it's labelled 'healthy'? In this regard, Mann's book is a nice companion to Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, which covers some of the same ground on how psychological cues affect eating behavior. But, while the books similarly cover food/eating psychology experiments and how they apply to our daily habits, Mann's book does something unique by also dedicating a large chunk of her book to dismantling the idea that restrictive diets are necessary and beneficial to long-term health.
As a person who strives to maintain healthy, ordered eating habits but also is extremely wary of overblown health claims and moralizing when it comes to food and body issues, I am very, very pleased with this book. Mann makes it clear that obsessing over your weight as a measure of healthiness is counterproductive, and she backs this up with a convincing body of research. She also tears into the misguided idea that weight loss, and the maintenance of weight loss, is tied to how much willpower a person has - and explains that the truth of the matter is far more nuanced than the popular understanding.
But Mann also doesn't take the position that what and how much you eat doesn't matter. Although she doesn't make specific health claims or argue you should cut anything out of a diet, she lays out strategies to curb impulsive eating and to encourage more favorable habits. She ultimately advocates for a goal of 'body okayness' - which "doesn't mean letting ourselves go, binge eating, or not being physically active. It just means not letting our bodies become our primary life projects."
Mann ends the book with the message that to learn to be comfortable enough with your body, treat it well, but get on with the more important stuff. She quotes Glennon Melton: "Your body is not your masterpiece- your life is." And I can get behind that.
As a person who strives to maintain healthy, ordered eating habits but also is extremely wary of overblown health claims and moralizing when it comes to food and body issues, I am very, very pleased with this book. Mann makes it clear that obsessing over your weight as a measure of healthiness is counterproductive, and she backs this up with a convincing body of research. She also tears into the misguided idea that weight loss, and the maintenance of weight loss, is tied to how much willpower a person has - and explains that the truth of the matter is far more nuanced than the popular understanding.
But Mann also doesn't take the position that what and how much you eat doesn't matter. Although she doesn't make specific health claims or argue you should cut anything out of a diet, she lays out strategies to curb impulsive eating and to encourage more favorable habits. She ultimately advocates for a goal of 'body okayness' - which "doesn't mean letting ourselves go, binge eating, or not being physically active. It just means not letting our bodies become our primary life projects."
Mann ends the book with the message that to learn to be comfortable enough with your body, treat it well, but get on with the more important stuff. She quotes Glennon Melton: "Your body is not your masterpiece- your life is." And I can get behind that.
June 9, 2017
Fantastic scientific take on actually being healthy
Finally someone pointing out the complete lack of causal proof in all these obesity studies! Being overweight will not kill you and may even help you recover from some illnesses. Stress is the culprit you should be worried about. Highly recommended for everyone but especially women sick of being yelled at for being fat. I especially loved that she said you don't have to 'love' your body, that's hard, you just need to be okay with it. So now I'm going to go exercise since that actually will impact my health!
Finally someone pointing out the complete lack of causal proof in all these obesity studies! Being overweight will not kill you and may even help you recover from some illnesses. Stress is the culprit you should be worried about. Highly recommended for everyone but especially women sick of being yelled at for being fat. I especially loved that she said you don't have to 'love' your body, that's hard, you just need to be okay with it. So now I'm going to go exercise since that actually will impact my health!
December 5, 2021
I've heard the vast majority of this before but the way it was presented made me feel like maybe my priorities need to shift.
"Body-okayness does not mean letting ourselves go...it just means not letting our bodies become our primary life projects." (research on turn of century girls' journals vs modern day: character, rejecting frivolity, kindness to others vs body self improvement through buying things)
"Body-okayness does not mean letting ourselves go...it just means not letting our bodies become our primary life projects." (research on turn of century girls' journals vs modern day: character, rejecting frivolity, kindness to others vs body self improvement through buying things)
June 8, 2015
Nice quick read with super interesting compilation of study results regarding dieting. The writing itself was entertaining, but I loved that the focus was on statistics and human behavior/psychology rather than being just another diet book.
September 8, 2016
Although the author raises a couple of good points: that diets don't work and are harmful, she also seems to give a pass and says that it's OK to be overweight because there are no health implications. I completely disagree with that.
December 13, 2020
Fascinating! I promise to never diet again after reading this book. Good food for thought.
January 12, 2024
"Secrets from the Eating Lab" by Traci Mann challenges conventional beliefs about dieting and weight loss, highlighting the inherent flaws in the pursuit of restrictive eating habits. Mann identifies biological, psychological, and evolutionary factors that contribute to the failure of diets. Emphasizing the role of genetics, she argues that each individual has a genetically determined weight range, and attempts to deviate from this range lead to the body resisting adaptation. Mann also delves into the psychological aspects of dieting, revealing that willpower is not a reliable tool for weight loss, as our brains are wired to seek food for survival. To counteract the pitfalls of traditional diets, Mann proposes 12 "Smart Regulation Strategies" aimed at achieving one's "leanest livable weight," focusing on mental strategies rather than calorie counting.
Five Key Takeaways:
1) Weight Cycling Risks: "Secrets from the Eating Lab" highlights the risks associated with weight cycling or yo-yo dieting. Mann discusses evidence suggesting that weight cycling is linked to an increased risk of illness and death. The book contrasts the idea of maintaining a stable, albeit obese, weight with the potential negative consequences of starting obese, losing weight, and gaining it back.
2) Influence of Circumstances on Self-Control: Mann challenges the traditional view of self-control by emphasizing the impact of various circumstances on an individual's ability to control eating habits. The book suggests that factors such as distraction, stress, mood, and fatigue play a more significant role in self-control than the inherent ability itself. This perspective opens the door for individuals to focus on changing their circumstances rather than solely relying on self-control.
3) Sensory Perception and Food Choices: "Secrets from the Eating Lab" delves into the influence of sensory perception on food choices. Mann discusses how the way food is presented, labeled, and perceived affects eating behaviors. For instance, the book advises against explicitly labeling food as healthy, as this may evoke negative associations. It encourages individuals to pay attention to the sensory aspects of food, suggesting that savoring can lead to greater satisfaction with smaller portions.
4) Exercise and Weight Loss Realities: The book challenges common misconceptions about exercise's role in weight loss. Mann contends that the type of exercise most people engage in doesn't necessarily result in significant weight loss. By dispelling this myth, the book aims to reframe expectations around exercise and encourage a more realistic understanding of its impact on weight.
5) Happiness without Dieting: "Secrets from the Eating Lab" concludes with a powerful message: happiness can be achieved without resorting to dieting. Mann argues that dieting not only proves ineffective but is also harmful, interfering with cognitive function, fostering obsessive thoughts about food, and contributing to stress. By adopting the recommended smart regulation strategies and exercising regularly, individuals can pursue their leanest livable weight without subjecting themselves to the detrimental effects of traditional diets.
Important Quotes:
“Regaining weight after a diet is your body's evolved response to starvation. Your genes play an important role in determining how much you weigh throughout your life. In fact, your genetic code contains the blueprint for your body type and, more or less, the weight range that you can healthfully maintain. Your body tends to stay in that range.”
“A lot of industries are profiting from our insecurity about our weight and inaccurate beliefs of how to lose it.”
“Here’s a perfectly sensible goal: reach your leanest, livable weight. That is a comfortable weight at the low end of your set range.”
Five Key Takeaways:
1) Weight Cycling Risks: "Secrets from the Eating Lab" highlights the risks associated with weight cycling or yo-yo dieting. Mann discusses evidence suggesting that weight cycling is linked to an increased risk of illness and death. The book contrasts the idea of maintaining a stable, albeit obese, weight with the potential negative consequences of starting obese, losing weight, and gaining it back.
2) Influence of Circumstances on Self-Control: Mann challenges the traditional view of self-control by emphasizing the impact of various circumstances on an individual's ability to control eating habits. The book suggests that factors such as distraction, stress, mood, and fatigue play a more significant role in self-control than the inherent ability itself. This perspective opens the door for individuals to focus on changing their circumstances rather than solely relying on self-control.
3) Sensory Perception and Food Choices: "Secrets from the Eating Lab" delves into the influence of sensory perception on food choices. Mann discusses how the way food is presented, labeled, and perceived affects eating behaviors. For instance, the book advises against explicitly labeling food as healthy, as this may evoke negative associations. It encourages individuals to pay attention to the sensory aspects of food, suggesting that savoring can lead to greater satisfaction with smaller portions.
4) Exercise and Weight Loss Realities: The book challenges common misconceptions about exercise's role in weight loss. Mann contends that the type of exercise most people engage in doesn't necessarily result in significant weight loss. By dispelling this myth, the book aims to reframe expectations around exercise and encourage a more realistic understanding of its impact on weight.
5) Happiness without Dieting: "Secrets from the Eating Lab" concludes with a powerful message: happiness can be achieved without resorting to dieting. Mann argues that dieting not only proves ineffective but is also harmful, interfering with cognitive function, fostering obsessive thoughts about food, and contributing to stress. By adopting the recommended smart regulation strategies and exercising regularly, individuals can pursue their leanest livable weight without subjecting themselves to the detrimental effects of traditional diets.
Important Quotes:
“Regaining weight after a diet is your body's evolved response to starvation. Your genes play an important role in determining how much you weigh throughout your life. In fact, your genetic code contains the blueprint for your body type and, more or less, the weight range that you can healthfully maintain. Your body tends to stay in that range.”
“A lot of industries are profiting from our insecurity about our weight and inaccurate beliefs of how to lose it.”
“Here’s a perfectly sensible goal: reach your leanest, livable weight. That is a comfortable weight at the low end of your set range.”
October 3, 2019
Even with all of the statistical flaws in obesity studies, the actual difference in life expectancy that they find between people who are obese (class I) and people who are normal weight is one year. And that difference goes away for people age sixty-five and older. You know what that means? Your life expectancy is about six years shorter if you have the initials F.A.T. than if you are fat (class I obese). (83)
It's pretty great to read a book that basically approaches diet research with the perspective of science is fun! Now let's talk about what all this actually means! Mann does talk strategies for being healthy and maintaining a lower weight (though she is careful to emphasise that those two things are not one and the same), but her bigger point is to debunk diet myths and explain what the science actually means. A lot of it is stuff I've read before, in various shapes and forms (e.g., that being in the 'overweight' category does not have worse health and longevity implications than being in the 'normal weight' category, or that companies can market their diet plans as 'successful' in the US if someone loses only five percent of their starting weight...even if they later gain that back), but it's all clearly laid out, backed up by research, and clearly stuff Mann enjoys studying. She also includes a lot of anecdotes about studies run in their lab (with basic results, of course, and what the results mean in practice), and I pretty much could have read a whole book about those studies. On the subject of an experiment in which the researchers used colour-coded toothpicks to gauge which foods subjects had eaten without alerting the subjects to the fact that they were studying eating patterns, not the cover-story questionnaires:
It ends up being quite a short book (a lot of notes and citations and so on at the end), but I'd happily have read on. I'll leave it on this note:
Someday soon, I'm sure, the diet industry will announce that it has finally found "the diet"—the one eating plan or pill or potion that is easy and pleasant, that makes the pounds melt away, and most important, keeps them off forever. When that day comes, I hope you will calmly observe the hoopla, but keep your wallet closed. A diet like that simply isn't possible, at least not with the current evolutionary state of the human body, the fragility of willpower, and our culture of ubiquitous temptations. Maybe you can lose the pounds relatively easily, but keeping them off would have to become your life's work. And your life is much to valuable to spend that way. (185)
It's pretty great to read a book that basically approaches diet research with the perspective of science is fun! Now let's talk about what all this actually means! Mann does talk strategies for being healthy and maintaining a lower weight (though she is careful to emphasise that those two things are not one and the same), but her bigger point is to debunk diet myths and explain what the science actually means. A lot of it is stuff I've read before, in various shapes and forms (e.g., that being in the 'overweight' category does not have worse health and longevity implications than being in the 'normal weight' category, or that companies can market their diet plans as 'successful' in the US if someone loses only five percent of their starting weight...even if they later gain that back), but it's all clearly laid out, backed up by research, and clearly stuff Mann enjoys studying. She also includes a lot of anecdotes about studies run in their lab (with basic results, of course, and what the results mean in practice), and I pretty much could have read a whole book about those studies. On the subject of an experiment in which the researchers used colour-coded toothpicks to gauge which foods subjects had eaten without alerting the subjects to the fact that they were studying eating patterns, not the cover-story questionnaires:
We were worried that the students would see through our scheme, but that's the one problem we didn't have. In the first group we ran, the students dumped their plates (toothpicks and all) into the trash before we came back into the room. It was easy enough to prevent that from happening again by removing the garbage can. In the absence of the garbage can, one of the students in the next group picked up all the toothpicks and came out of the room to ask us where she could throw them away. We told the next group of students to stay in the room and wait for us to come back. They waited, but while they were waiting, they stacked up the plates and combined all of the toothpicks on the top plate. Since there is apparently no way to stop University of Minnesota students from tidying up a room, we started entering the room a bit before each group's time was up—before they had a chance to disrupt the separate toothpick piles. (109)That's a side of science that I find really fascinating: not just the results but how the scientists got to them and all the practical details that had to be worked out. Tinkering and more tinkering!
It ends up being quite a short book (a lot of notes and citations and so on at the end), but I'd happily have read on. I'll leave it on this note:
Someday soon, I'm sure, the diet industry will announce that it has finally found "the diet"—the one eating plan or pill or potion that is easy and pleasant, that makes the pounds melt away, and most important, keeps them off forever. When that day comes, I hope you will calmly observe the hoopla, but keep your wallet closed. A diet like that simply isn't possible, at least not with the current evolutionary state of the human body, the fragility of willpower, and our culture of ubiquitous temptations. Maybe you can lose the pounds relatively easily, but keeping them off would have to become your life's work. And your life is much to valuable to spend that way. (185)
January 22, 2020
An interesting look at the science regarding weight loss, obesity, and dieting, Secrets from the Eating Lab will not be liked by a lot of folks because she is pretty straightforward in laying down some hard truths- Diets don't work, trying to control your body beyond within a pretty narrow 20 lb weight range is fruitless unless you want to make it your life's work-- and by the way, that's stressful and bad for your health anyway. For folks who find themselves kind of where I am at almost 42 years old, though- done dieting, trying to just be healthy so I don't damage my internal organs or aggravate my arthritis, and having finally just kind of accepted my overweight frame now that I've lost the 30 lbs that I've carried since becoming a mom (not through dieting, per se, but through an eating plan prescribed by my rheumatologist that actually makes the sharp pains in my joints lessen by a LOT, so once I got used to avoiding certain foods, it hasn't felt like a diet. I still get the stuff I like and can eat it if I want to- just know I may wind up feeling shitty later), the book was a breath of fresh air, though I wish I'd read it ten years ago. Frankly, she writes about why dieting sucks, doesn't work, and how we need to just get over that as a society. That the emphasis on physical appearance rather than health is actually TERRIBLE for our health, collectively, and that health and thin aren't necessarily equal for a lot of Americans, who have lousy eating habits because we're targeted by marketing, because our cortisol levels are all out of whack, because we sleep poorly and not enough, and because we look at exercise as punishment. Was good. Not the most fun, but good. Three stars.
December 5, 2020
Szkoła Zimbardo w sprawie zdrowia, czyli Bzdiety Traci Mann
Diety nie działają! Są głupie, są be, a JA wam powiem, jak jak żyć i dam wam 12 przykazań, w które będziecie wierzyć, a zostaniecie zbawieni!
Do tego mniej więcej można streścić notkę wydawcy mającą reklamować książkę Traci Mann pod tytułem Bzdiety. Czego nie powie ci dietetyk. Rozumiem, że to miał być chwyt marketingowy, podobnie jak polski tytuł, nie mający niczego wspólnego z oryginalnym. Skoro diety i „zdrowy” styl życia są źródłem ogromnych dochodów dla całych gałęzi gospodarki, a blogi o odchudzaniu są na topie popularności, to odwołanie się do tych haseł miało napędzić sprzedaż. Moim zdaniem to jednak trafiono jak kulą w płot – co innego kolejna dieta cud, a co innego zapowiedź dowodu na bezsensowność diet i odchudzania.
Kolejnym minusem tej, nietrafionej moim zdaniem, reklamy, jest fakt, iż jej autor delikatnie mówiąc minął się z prawdą.
...Mann rozkłada na części pierwsze mechanizmy, na których opierają się diety...
To sformułowanie już odrzuca czytelnika, który ma problemy z nadwagą, chce schudnąć, itd. A przecież autorka niczego takiego nie czyni – w ogóle nie analizuje poszczególnych rodzajów diet, nawet wymienia tylko niewiele spośród ich niezliczonej obfitości. O czym więc tak naprawdę jest ta książka?
Traci Mann, Ph.D. studiowała na kultowym dla psychologów społecznych Stanford University, była profesorem na UCLA, a obecnie prowadzi własne laboratorium psychologii społecznej i zdrowotnej na Uniwersytecie w Minnesocie. Jej badania mają na celu zidentyfikowanie i zrozumienie zachowań związanych z regulacją odżywiania i obrazem ciała, a także procesami samokontroli podczas zmian zachowań zdrowotnych. Traci jest głównym badaczem Laboratorium Zdrowia i Jedzenia, które wykorzystuje różnorodne metody badawcze do poznania nie tylko interesujących, ale i praktycznych tematów, takich jak sposoby na zwiększanie spożycia warzyw u uczniów szkół podstawowych czy zdolność pokarmów do zmniejszania bólu. O kwalifikacjach Traci Mann może świadczyć choćby to, że powierzono jej badania przeprowadzane na astronautach na stacjach kosmicznych, mające na celu poznanie problematyki żywienia podczas planowanego załogowego lotu na Marsa.
Bzdiety to nie żaden cud przepis na schudnięcie bez diety, a poważne, choć bardzo przystępnie napisane, opracowanie dotyczące szeroko pojętych problemów na styku żywienie i waga populacji zachodnich krajów dobrobytu. Autorka zaznajamia czytelnika z fascynującymi badaniami i eksperymentami prowadzącymi do jednoznacznego wniosku – diety mające na celu obniżenie wagi poniżej pewnej, charakterystycznej, indywidualnej dla każdego osobnika granicy, są nie tylko skazane na niepowodzenie, ale wręcz szkodliwe; tym bardziej, im są intensywniejsze i im bardziej poniżej dolnego progu naturalnej zdrowej wagi docelowa waga się znajduje. Każdy ma bowiem swój własny przedział zdrowej wagi, poniżej ani powyżej którego bez szkody dla zdrowia i na stałe wyjść nie może. Jeszcze gorzej jest z sylwetką – choćbyś się zes...ł, z rottweilera charta nie zrobisz.
Książka nie mówi tylko o odchudzaniu, ale i o obżarstwie. Dzięki niej możemy poznać zmiany psychiczne i fizyczne, jakie oba te procesy wywołują. Pokazuje dowody na to, że to nie nadwaga jest zabójcza, a wahania wagi, zaś nadwaga sama w sobie jest nieporównanie mniej szkodliwa, niż niedowaga tego samego stopnia.
Poznając mechanizmy sprawiające, że w kręgu zachodniej cywilizacji coraz trudniej się utrzymać w dolnych granicach przedziału zdrowej wagi, a nawet w ogóle w tym przedziale, dostajemy do ręki narzędzie, by im przeciwdziałać. Traci prowadzi nas przez krainę psychologii społecznej pełną fascynujących eksperymentów i badań nad presją oraz podstępnymi trikami, którym otoczenie zmusza nas do tuczenia się, aby dać nam gotowe rozwiązania, jak się nie poddać szkodliwym trendom. Oczywiście myślący czytelnik, biorąc pod uwagę swą własną indywidualną specyfikę, może sobie katalog tych zachowań zmodyfikować i rozszerzyć stosownie do własnych potrzeb, oczekiwań i możliwości.
Bzdiety to może nawet nie książka o dietach, a o zdrowiu. Ponieważ żywienie jest jego znaczącym elementem, więc i Bzdiety musiały się pojawić. Końcowy wydźwięk jest jednak taki, że o wiele ważniejsza jest codzienna aktywność fizyczna. Pomaga ona każdemu niezależnie od wagi, a jej brak jest szkodliwy.
Osobną sprawą, coraz poważniejszą, bo przybierającą chyba większe rozmiary niż rasowa czy wyznaniowa, jest dyskryminacja ze względu na wagę. Problem pozostający tabu dla mediów i polityków, choć dotyka coraz większych rzesz ludzi.
Niestety, nie mam złudzeń – przesłanie Traci Mann, iż diety nie mają sensu, a zdrowie nie ma wiele wspólnego z odchudzaniem, nie ma szans w zderzeniu z interesami zbyt wielu gałęzi biznesu, z których część doba o odchudzanie, a część o tuczenie społeczeństwa. Książka zaś, szczególnie popularnonaukowa, nie ma większych możliwości na powszechne oddziaływanie, zwłaszcza wobec pokoleń wychowanych na internecie, które nie są zdolne do skoncentrowania uwagi na czas potrzebny do przebrnięcia w skupieniu przez coś dłuższego niż filmik na YouTube.
A szkoda, bo Bzdiety to naprawdę mądra i ciekawa książka, dająca konkretną wiedzę przydatną w życiowych, w pełnym tego słowa znaczeniu, sprawach. W dodatku jest to wiedza opowiedziana niezwykle interesująco. O rzetelności może świadczyć sama ilość odnośników do materiałów źródłowych, publikacji z badań i eksperymentów – prawie 600! Z tego też powodu, ze względu na wielką ilość informacji wartych zapamiętania i zapisania, w trakcie lektury przerzuciłem się z audiobooka na e-wersję.
Jak w przypadku innych dobrych publikacji z zakresu psychologii społecznej, takich jak prace Zimbardo, tak i w Bzdietach znajdziemy mnóstwo fascynujących ciekawostek na tematy zaskakująco odległe od głównej problematyki w tym sensie, że nikt by się nie spodziewał, iż mogą mieć z nią coś wspólnego. A jednak, i to cały urok tej dziedziny wiedzy, której wbrew pozorom równie blisko do królowej wiedzy, matematyki, co fizyce, w przeciwieństwie do jej krewnej psychiatrii, która coraz bardziej zalatuje mi szamaństwem.
Nie jest to literatura piękna, i choć styl jest bardzo na poziomie, to przy literaturze popularnonaukowej chyba wartości artystyczne można pominąć w ocenie końcowej. Biorąc pod uwagę zawartą w książce wiedzę, jej praktyczne i perspektywiczne znaczenie, uznaję tę publikację Traci Mann za arcydzieło w swej klasie. Gorąco i absolutnie polecam
źródło:
https://klub-aa.blogspot.com/2018/06/...
Diety nie działają! Są głupie, są be, a JA wam powiem, jak jak żyć i dam wam 12 przykazań, w które będziecie wierzyć, a zostaniecie zbawieni!
Do tego mniej więcej można streścić notkę wydawcy mającą reklamować książkę Traci Mann pod tytułem Bzdiety. Czego nie powie ci dietetyk. Rozumiem, że to miał być chwyt marketingowy, podobnie jak polski tytuł, nie mający niczego wspólnego z oryginalnym. Skoro diety i „zdrowy” styl życia są źródłem ogromnych dochodów dla całych gałęzi gospodarki, a blogi o odchudzaniu są na topie popularności, to odwołanie się do tych haseł miało napędzić sprzedaż. Moim zdaniem to jednak trafiono jak kulą w płot – co innego kolejna dieta cud, a co innego zapowiedź dowodu na bezsensowność diet i odchudzania.
Kolejnym minusem tej, nietrafionej moim zdaniem, reklamy, jest fakt, iż jej autor delikatnie mówiąc minął się z prawdą.
...Mann rozkłada na części pierwsze mechanizmy, na których opierają się diety...
To sformułowanie już odrzuca czytelnika, który ma problemy z nadwagą, chce schudnąć, itd. A przecież autorka niczego takiego nie czyni – w ogóle nie analizuje poszczególnych rodzajów diet, nawet wymienia tylko niewiele spośród ich niezliczonej obfitości. O czym więc tak naprawdę jest ta książka?
Traci Mann, Ph.D. studiowała na kultowym dla psychologów społecznych Stanford University, była profesorem na UCLA, a obecnie prowadzi własne laboratorium psychologii społecznej i zdrowotnej na Uniwersytecie w Minnesocie. Jej badania mają na celu zidentyfikowanie i zrozumienie zachowań związanych z regulacją odżywiania i obrazem ciała, a także procesami samokontroli podczas zmian zachowań zdrowotnych. Traci jest głównym badaczem Laboratorium Zdrowia i Jedzenia, które wykorzystuje różnorodne metody badawcze do poznania nie tylko interesujących, ale i praktycznych tematów, takich jak sposoby na zwiększanie spożycia warzyw u uczniów szkół podstawowych czy zdolność pokarmów do zmniejszania bólu. O kwalifikacjach Traci Mann może świadczyć choćby to, że powierzono jej badania przeprowadzane na astronautach na stacjach kosmicznych, mające na celu poznanie problematyki żywienia podczas planowanego załogowego lotu na Marsa.
Bzdiety to nie żaden cud przepis na schudnięcie bez diety, a poważne, choć bardzo przystępnie napisane, opracowanie dotyczące szeroko pojętych problemów na styku żywienie i waga populacji zachodnich krajów dobrobytu. Autorka zaznajamia czytelnika z fascynującymi badaniami i eksperymentami prowadzącymi do jednoznacznego wniosku – diety mające na celu obniżenie wagi poniżej pewnej, charakterystycznej, indywidualnej dla każdego osobnika granicy, są nie tylko skazane na niepowodzenie, ale wręcz szkodliwe; tym bardziej, im są intensywniejsze i im bardziej poniżej dolnego progu naturalnej zdrowej wagi docelowa waga się znajduje. Każdy ma bowiem swój własny przedział zdrowej wagi, poniżej ani powyżej którego bez szkody dla zdrowia i na stałe wyjść nie może. Jeszcze gorzej jest z sylwetką – choćbyś się zes...ł, z rottweilera charta nie zrobisz.
Książka nie mówi tylko o odchudzaniu, ale i o obżarstwie. Dzięki niej możemy poznać zmiany psychiczne i fizyczne, jakie oba te procesy wywołują. Pokazuje dowody na to, że to nie nadwaga jest zabójcza, a wahania wagi, zaś nadwaga sama w sobie jest nieporównanie mniej szkodliwa, niż niedowaga tego samego stopnia.
Poznając mechanizmy sprawiające, że w kręgu zachodniej cywilizacji coraz trudniej się utrzymać w dolnych granicach przedziału zdrowej wagi, a nawet w ogóle w tym przedziale, dostajemy do ręki narzędzie, by im przeciwdziałać. Traci prowadzi nas przez krainę psychologii społecznej pełną fascynujących eksperymentów i badań nad presją oraz podstępnymi trikami, którym otoczenie zmusza nas do tuczenia się, aby dać nam gotowe rozwiązania, jak się nie poddać szkodliwym trendom. Oczywiście myślący czytelnik, biorąc pod uwagę swą własną indywidualną specyfikę, może sobie katalog tych zachowań zmodyfikować i rozszerzyć stosownie do własnych potrzeb, oczekiwań i możliwości.
Bzdiety to może nawet nie książka o dietach, a o zdrowiu. Ponieważ żywienie jest jego znaczącym elementem, więc i Bzdiety musiały się pojawić. Końcowy wydźwięk jest jednak taki, że o wiele ważniejsza jest codzienna aktywność fizyczna. Pomaga ona każdemu niezależnie od wagi, a jej brak jest szkodliwy.
Osobną sprawą, coraz poważniejszą, bo przybierającą chyba większe rozmiary niż rasowa czy wyznaniowa, jest dyskryminacja ze względu na wagę. Problem pozostający tabu dla mediów i polityków, choć dotyka coraz większych rzesz ludzi.
Niestety, nie mam złudzeń – przesłanie Traci Mann, iż diety nie mają sensu, a zdrowie nie ma wiele wspólnego z odchudzaniem, nie ma szans w zderzeniu z interesami zbyt wielu gałęzi biznesu, z których część doba o odchudzanie, a część o tuczenie społeczeństwa. Książka zaś, szczególnie popularnonaukowa, nie ma większych możliwości na powszechne oddziaływanie, zwłaszcza wobec pokoleń wychowanych na internecie, które nie są zdolne do skoncentrowania uwagi na czas potrzebny do przebrnięcia w skupieniu przez coś dłuższego niż filmik na YouTube.
A szkoda, bo Bzdiety to naprawdę mądra i ciekawa książka, dająca konkretną wiedzę przydatną w życiowych, w pełnym tego słowa znaczeniu, sprawach. W dodatku jest to wiedza opowiedziana niezwykle interesująco. O rzetelności może świadczyć sama ilość odnośników do materiałów źródłowych, publikacji z badań i eksperymentów – prawie 600! Z tego też powodu, ze względu na wielką ilość informacji wartych zapamiętania i zapisania, w trakcie lektury przerzuciłem się z audiobooka na e-wersję.
Jak w przypadku innych dobrych publikacji z zakresu psychologii społecznej, takich jak prace Zimbardo, tak i w Bzdietach znajdziemy mnóstwo fascynujących ciekawostek na tematy zaskakująco odległe od głównej problematyki w tym sensie, że nikt by się nie spodziewał, iż mogą mieć z nią coś wspólnego. A jednak, i to cały urok tej dziedziny wiedzy, której wbrew pozorom równie blisko do królowej wiedzy, matematyki, co fizyce, w przeciwieństwie do jej krewnej psychiatrii, która coraz bardziej zalatuje mi szamaństwem.
Nie jest to literatura piękna, i choć styl jest bardzo na poziomie, to przy literaturze popularnonaukowej chyba wartości artystyczne można pominąć w ocenie końcowej. Biorąc pod uwagę zawartą w książce wiedzę, jej praktyczne i perspektywiczne znaczenie, uznaję tę publikację Traci Mann za arcydzieło w swej klasie. Gorąco i absolutnie polecam
źródło:
https://klub-aa.blogspot.com/2018/06/...
Read
June 29, 2017There were no magical tips about losing weight without diets (which are crap, just as I've always suspected) but I didn't really expect magical tips. I liked how this book made me think about habits, body image/satisfaction, and the real purpose of exercise. I would really like to change my frame of reference away from feeling guilty about the willpower I seem to lack and toward habits I'd like to form (and I don't mean that as "it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle" bullshit but more as how can I tweak my routines to move more and choose some healthier options...). The first part of the book is a bit slow, but I like how thoroughly Mann walks readers through the studies that show the drawbacks of diets and the misconceptions regarding weight loss, obesity, and health.
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