Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison

Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating by Christy Harrison
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

On the one hand, yes, (1) I see all her social justice points. Very well done. (2) I agree with the culture being a diet-culture complete mess. (3) I agree it helps the diet industry. (4) I agree it's a life-thief. I'm definitely glad I read the book.

On the other hand, (1) I'm not 100% convinced about the health benefits or drawbacks to her position. Even if I take her point that the research is unclear, well, it's still unclear. When I was pregnant with my first child I was very heavy and that was no fun at all. It was tough going up the stairs. I don't relish ever returning to that number on the scale because it had consequences even though I was "healthy" because my body was doing what it was supposed to be doing- growing a human life and building up fat to feed the baby. (2) My personal experience with long periods of intuitive eating is that I just gain and gain weight and never plateau. I don't think I'm alone in this. (3) My only periods of weight maintenance have been while I am dieting. And my current diet doesn't benefit the diet industry because while I don't deny myself any foods I do try to eat more fruits and veggies and eat in a certain time frame. It doesn't cost more money because eating less food and less food at restaurants is costing me less money. Finally, (4) let's not pretend that her position doesn't benefit the food industry. As a former employee of the food industry, this is the exact kind of book they would love to champion. For an obvious example, soda is trash food. Sure you can have it as an occasional treat; nothing really needs to be off the menu. But if you're having soda every day, I promise you that's harming your health. There are a million studies about this.

Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1HI1...

View all my reviews

Why Diets Make Us Fat by Sandra Aamodt

Why Diets Make Us Fat: The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession with Weight Loss by Sandra Aamodt
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This strikes me as an irresponsible title and first few chapters. The author has clearly looked at a lot of weight studies, though she’s often drawn aggressive conclusions that all diets make you gain weight. Some of the diets aren’t even diets but actual periods of starvation that caused food-related psychological issues.

As the author herself states, there are numerous reasons why people gain weight, not just as the first few chapters suggest, the actual act of dieting. By Chapter 9, she’s listing people who can’t lose weight through intuitive eating. By Chapter 10, she’s discussing how the food environment is itself a huge factor in causing weight gain.

She’s also underplayed the importance of achieving a lower weight- even temporarily- to lifespan.

Maybe start with Chapter 11, and read chapters 1-10 in backward order.


View all my reviews

The Fast 800 by Michael Mosley

The Fast 800: How to Combine Rapid Weight Loss and Intermittent Fasting for Long-Term Health by Michael Mosley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In 2015, I did 5:2 and lost about 15 pounds. I stopped doing the diet and gained back the weight in two years. I lost the weight at the same slow rate as I have on any other diet (WW, Atkins, arbitrary calorie limitation). Back then, time-restricted eating wasn't a big thing but I quickly realized that if I was going to limit to 500 calories I had to put off eating as long as possible. Since I've gained the weight back and read tons of diet and nutrition books, I've come to the conclusion that all diets work, the only really hard part is maintenance. I actually think this is a diet I could stay on forever this time because it only requires Mediterranean-style eating once you reach goal weight and if you don't stop weighing yourself, you can correct small weight gains very quickly.

I like this diet because 1) based on all my reading, it is the most scientifically up-to-date, 2) it's free to implement it, 3) I find it very empowering to be able to skip breakfast and do very low-calorie days but also to be able to easily take days off, 4) I think I might be able to maintain this new form. I advise you to take every single thing he says very seriously though. I even have a friend-support group this time.

View all my reviews

Finish by Jon Acuff

Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done by Jon Acuff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A short and useful book. Here's what I got from it, but it might be worth a second read.

Pick a fun goal! And fun ways to achieve the goal.
Make the goal smaller than you originally want
Make the timeline to achieve your goal longer
Don't let "noble" prerequisites get in your way.
Don't let perfectionism stop you when you're almost done. (Actually usually for me, it's the opposite-- it's pessimism that gets me before I'm done.)
And you don't need to figure out what's next before you're done.

What are you getting from not finishing? (Fear of failure.)

View all my reviews

The Food Therapist by Shira Lenchewski

The Food Therapist: Break Bad Habits, Eat with Intention, and Indulge Without Worry by Shira Lenchewski
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was pretty good. It had some good points and good tips. My main problem with it is that it entirely dismissed the fasting diets and there is a lot of science to support both their efficacy and their long-term health benefits, so just dismissing them without any explanation seemed very unscientific to me. That said, most of what she recommends here works well with fasting diets, and makes the fasting diets more likely to stick. On the flip side, fasting diets make Lenchewski's suggestions easier to implement. Lenchewski's suggestions also fall in line with what commercial diets like Weight Watchers aim to make clients do (though they mostly hide it behind their point system so you keep paying them).

View all my reviews

When by Daniel H. Pink

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A short book about how timing affects both our personal decisions and business plans. There is definitely some repeat information that most people are aware of already, but the book is so short that it's worth reading to get a sense of the overall psychological impact of timing decisions correctly.

View all my reviews

Proteinaholic by Garth Davis

Proteinaholic: How Our Obsession with Meat Is Killing Us and What We Can Do About It by Garth Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Davis is persuasive that animal-derived products are mostly terrible for you. I especially enjoyed the section where he explains to the public how to look at scientific studies. I also enjoyed the very scientific bent of the book with study after study because I generally enjoy super-nerdy-science reading.

This book isn't a diet book though. He's strong on the not-eating-meat point, but he doesn't spend much time on other things you shouldn't eat, and he only spends a little bit of time on things he thinks you should eat. I suspect that the vast majority of his research was on meat only, and he has very little idea about the specifics of say, wheat. I'm dubious based on the science that I've read that wheat is a healthy food to consume. Yes, maybe meat is even worse, but that doesn't mean you'll do great on a high wheat diet. The Okinawans don't eat much meat- though they do eat some fish- and they don't eat wheat. I don't doubt that some very specific healthy wheat products are available (and likely to go bad quickly because of lack of preservatives), but it seems like the majority of wheat products are pretty bad. And sugar is the devil.

Conclusion: working on cutting the animal products out of my diet.

View all my reviews

Follow Your Gut by Rob Knight and Brendan Buhler

Follow Your Gut: How the Ecosystem in Your Gut Determines Your Health, Mood, and More by Rob Knight and Brendan Buhler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Great little book about bacteria. The stuff everyone should get in an owner's manual to your own body.

View all my reviews

Mindfulness for Beginners by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment--And Your Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Just the basics. I like that it's short but there wasn't too much you can't find in all the other mindfulness books.

View all my reviews

Wheat Belly by William Davis

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health by William Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The book starts out simply but becomes more medically complex as you read on. I almost gave up after the first few chapters because I felt that I got it, don't eat wheat. Later chapters filled in the numerous diseases and conditions that Davis believes are related to wheat consumption and discusses his evidence for that relationship. It's persuasive even if I'm not convinced by the science aspect of it- probably because there are still insufficient studies on many of the connections he cites.

View all my reviews

Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It by Gary Taubes

Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It by Gary Taubes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The substance of what this says is not surprising; it largely agrees with the Atkins or Paleo diet. However, the argument and scientific citations are highly persuasive, and the book is very readable.

I'd recommend reading this book along with The Every-Other-Day Diet: The Diet That Lets You Eat All You Want (Half the Time) and Keep the Weight Off by Krista Varady and The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor by Mark Schatzker.

View all my reviews

First Bite: How We Learn to Eat by Bee Wilson

First Bite: How We Learn to Eat by Bee Wilson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is great. It should be part of the human body owners manual. This book wold be especially useful to parents and educators.

A lot of the information at the beginning was repetitive for me, but it got into really interesting information about food-tasting experiments, how culture affects our eating historically (in the US and Japan), how family affects our tastes, and how genetics affects our tastes and eating habits. There's a particular emphasis on getting picky eaters to be less picky- especially children- but also as adults. That said, I'm not a picky eater and my kids aren't very picky either and I still thought this book was fascinating and very useful.

View all my reviews

The Every-Other-Day Diet by Krista Varady

The Every-Other-Day Diet: The Diet That Lets You Eat All You Want (Half the Time) and Keep the Weight Off by Krista Varady
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think this is a good book. I know a lot of people who are on this diet and have been very successful with it. And it's not a scam... because there's nothing to buy. And it works. I'm a big fan of it!

That said, it's tough to maintain this. It's easy to go back to it, but it's hard to maintain.

I actually read the 5:2 diet first and have lost 15 pounds (pounds that were previously stuck) and all my attempts to do EOD just result in 5:2. But like I said I know people who successfully do EOD, and 5:2 is just EOD less days a week, so either way, this is a good read and good challenge.

Plus, this has health research behind it. There are studies completed and some underway proving longevity increases with this lifestyle diet.

The Alternate-Day Diet by James B. Johnson

The Alternate-Day Diet Revised: The Original Up-Day, Down-Day Eating Plan to Turn on Your "Skinny Gene," Shed the Pounds, and Live a Longer and Healthier Life by James B. Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read the 5:2 diet book first, and I thought the nutrition and food politics was presented better in that book. Although I do think it's necessary to follow to the more rigorous ADF diet instead of 5:2 to lose weight. (Or at least 4:3.)

View all my reviews

The What When Wine Diet by Melanie Avalon

The What When Wine Diet: Paleo and Intermittent Fasting for Health and Weight Loss by Melanie Avalon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

She's probably right about everything, as most of the things she says in this book are consistent with what I've read about nutrition and exercise studies. (Current real studies- Not the old vaguely mythological things people repeat about food and exercise.) I withheld one star only because the statements are not footnoted/endnoted directly. Instead she has a bibliography at the end but that makes it difficult to verify individual claims. Also I really don't want to eat Paleo ... of course, that is not her fault.

View all my reviews

The FastDiet by Michael Mosley 2015

The FastDiet: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting by Michael Mosley
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This book has totally changed the way I eat and feel. For the last year or two I've felt so tired that I asked my doctor to check my thyroid. I was disappointed when I found out it was fine because I'd have to keep feeling awful. After my first fast, I immediately felt better. (I know that seems crazy but I did.) I've done 3.5 weeks on the diet and I've lost 3 very stubborn pounds but I've only "dieted" for 7 days total in those 3.5 weeks. It actually feels like for the first time since I was 13 (or younger?) that I'm not dieting.

But most importantly, this diet is supposed to cut your risk of cancer. Clinical trials are underway now to see the long-term results of intermittent fasting on cancer and heart-health.

View all my reviews