Dieter's Dilemma : Eating Less and Weighing More

By William J. Bennett

Book Overview

This approach to weight control contends that no matter what diet one tries, it is doomed to fail because each body has a certain "setpoint" or level of stored fat. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465016529
• ISBN13: 9780465016525
• Release Date: January 1970
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Weight: 2.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Sadly not dated at all!

Bennett and Gurin's book remains the best treatise on the intersection of fat politics and the surrounding science. Gary Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories" has some newer science, and some of the same older information, and he updates the topic nicely. The title is awful, and the bias is intact. Bennett and Gurin remain the most fat-positive of authors in this science-based genre. Taubes lets his anti-fat bias show in the following ways: he accepts unconditionally that fatness is medically problematic, correlated with disease, whereas if stigma is removed, so is the correlation (Roseto, PA study, for one), and he accepts that there is, in fact, a current "obesity epidemic" though Paul Campos and J. Eric Oliver dispute this nicely.

The book for when you're ready for reality

Although this book is beginning to become dated, it remains in line with what scientific research keeps stating: We cannnot sustain a reduction in food intake any more than we can impose a sustained change in our breathing patterns. We need science to invent an appetite-suppressing treatment that affects ghrelin, leptin, adiponectin and other hormones--the dictators of our appetite and metabolism. Until then, all we can do is choose quality foods, eat until we are satiated, and enjoy whatever physical activity suits us best. This book will not help you lose weight, but it may keep you from losing mind when all the popular diets fail you.

Must read book for anyone considering dieting

This is an excellent book. It is the very first book I have ever found that actually describes the scientific research on weight loss and gain. Other books about dieting simply promote the author's diet and carefully avoid discussing the biology of dieting. This book tells you what you really need to know.