Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss--and the Myths and Realities of Dieting [Format Kindle]

I actually found this book extremely good reading, and couldn't put it down! It's not that Kolata presents anything earth shatteringly new, but she does a great job of compiling a lot of fascinating information about studies and attitudes that most of us would probably never get a chance to read through our usual casual reading. Kolata has done a LOT of research here and it's a great read!

We have been led to believe that obesity is a relatively recent development in U.S. society, but this apparently is not the case. The stories of weight loss strategies and weight attitudes from even 100+ years ago are fascinating to read about. Discussion of our past attitudes about what is fat and what is a desirable weight shows that these attitudes have changed substantially through the years: for example, flappers of the 20's, who most of us vaguely recall to have been quite thin, would actually be considered overweight by today's extreme standards. The "Gibson Girl" ideal of the early 1900's would be considered absolutely obsese today.

Studies and experiments which have been done to figure out the "why" of overweight show that everything is still not well understood about weight gain, obesity, and weight loss. There are still more questions to be asked and not yet enough answers, and to complicate things each person is unique in physiology. Genetics is thought to play a strong role, and studies of twins and adopted children reveal the genetic component plays a strong role in your weight and how easily you can gain or lose excess weight.

Don't read this book expecting to find some new weight loss miracle. There are no real solutions in this book, but rather, it can give you a more realistic and educated understanding of what you are up against in the weight loss wars. Being realistic is half the game. As studies continue and knowledge increases, this book is necessarily "unfinished". But it gives you a good perspective at this point in time. The information presented will be viewed by some as discouraging, especially those who are searching for a quick and sure-fire weight loss plan. This book makes it fairly obvious that may never happen. And one good thing you realize after reading this is the extent to which we are all manipulated by those who profit from the weight loss industry. You come away from this book with a "buyer beware" attitude which will serve you well in not being duped into yet another weight loss product that doesn't work.

The book has been a tremendous disappointment to me.

I read an article by Kolata in the New York Times a few days ago that was based on this book. I thought that the article was excellent, stressing the heritability component in obesity, and pointing to the failures of weight-control diets. I rushed to get the book, fully expecting fuller, more satisfactory explanations -- a truly book-length treatment of this important subject.

But the book here is actually no more than an article that has been heavily padded with cutesy anecdotes so as to achieve the physical corpulence of a book.

There are interesting (but not original) descriptions of diet fads throughout the ages. There are interesting (but depressingly familiar) accounts of failures of diets. There is an interesting account of animal studies on obesity. There are interesting accounts of twin studies that point to high heritability of obesity. And then there is endless prose that over-interprets all this: to wit, obesity is inherited, nothing can be done about it.

There is also an instance of gross malpractice of journalism. In the introduction, Kolata tells us that her book is the story of a high-science, two year long, carefully planned study of diets: Atkins versus LEARN. In chapter after boring chapter she gives us personality sketches of some of the participants and trivia about the progress of the study over the two year period. Then, at the end, while we wait for her to tell us the outcome, she tells us that, well, no, she can't say. The scientists haven't had the time to write up the results. Come on, Ms. K., if you don't know the outcome you shouldn't have bothered us with all that chatter about the wall color in the research room or what the weather was like on the first day of the study.

Journalistic malpractice isn't the worst thing about this book. The worst thing is that the author hasn't engaged with the intellectual problem that she posits. Her overall point is that obesity has very high heritability, i.e. that it is overwhelmingly determined by genetic factors. But then she also reports, as if this had nothing to do with her thesis, that numerous studies have shown that obesity is also strongly influenced by social class, the lower classes having higher rates. Now if that is true, what is the relationship to the high heritability ? Is lower class membership equally determined by genetic heritage ? Is it the same gene, or group of genes ? What, in other words, is the relationship between the claimed heritability of obesity and its correlation with class ? It doesn't seem to have occurred to Ms. K. to worry about such questions.

Earlier this evening I finished Rethinking Thin by Gina Kolata. Kolata presents a history of dieting in America from about the 1800's to present while interspersing the comments of several participants in a recent study comparing Atkins to a program called LEARN (basically the type of calorie counting, measure everything diet your doctor would give you). There is something sad about the book in some ways, because dieting is ultimately a series of false hopes. Interesting, this is something I have been thinking is true but then the next diet comes on the market and if you aren't "thin" you feel you have to try it. This time it will be different. This time it will work. What is that quote that they attribute to Einstein?: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

While overall the book makes me feel a bit sad because there is no magic solution it also gives me a little sense of peace. I know I am a very successful person in pretty much every area of my life, except for weight loss, and I'm not the only one.

I won't give away everything in the book, but it is definitely worth a read for the "overweight" and the "normal size." Maybe especially for the thin people to see how tough it really is to have gained wait, how frustrating and defeated you can feel. Also, the book is very well written. Kolata has an easy straightforward style that balances presenting factual/scientific details w/ anectodal information so that her reporting does not become just boring and didactic.

Very much enjoyed :)