How Not to Diet: The Groundbreaking Science of Healthy, Permanent Weight Loss

I'm a huge fan of Dr. Greger and his science-backed _How Not to Die_, the complementary cookbook, and his Nutrition Facts website, and so I eagerly pre-ordered this new book. At 570 pages (and that's just of content!), I haven't had the chance to read it all, but I'm a fair way in. As always, Dr. Greger's writing is interesting and fun, and _How Not to Diet_ is as much of a page-turner as his previous book. As he explains in the Preface and Introduction, Dr. Greger's goal was to look into all of the existing research about dieting and distill it down into a presentation of the best techniques that will help with weight loss and that are scientifically proven. He explains that the "goal was to give you every possible tweak and technique we could find to build the optimal weight-control solution from the ground up." To that end, the book is broken up into four major sections: * An outline/explanation of the growing obesity problem in America * An exploration of what works best for fat loss * An investigation of how the present diets measure up to the best strategies for sustainable weight loss * A deep-dive into the best weight-loss boosters so you can create your own "portfolio of techniques" Dr. Greger covers hot topics like intermittent fasting, and also ones I've never heard of before like chronobiology, which is how our bodies are affected by diurnal and seasonal cycles. He also covers information about types of exercise, like high-intensity interval training (HIIT) in order to make recommendations not only about how to lose weight, but how to stay healthy. If you're familiar with his Daily Dozen (the twelve foods we should be eating every day), there isn't quite something comparable here, but he does provide a lot of information about health-sustaining foods (like green tea, turmeric, etc.) so as to encourage readers to incorporate more of those foods into their daily eating. In lieu of providing a list of references at the end of the book, there is a QR code you can scan on your phone that will take you to links for each reference source. While I miss being able to look back at the references while I read (I'm an academic [i.,e., nerd ;-) ] and take pleasure in looking at the sources used), I like that the online references contain links to the primary articles. I don't think it's a stretch to say that Dr. Greger is a modern-day icon in the world of healthy eating. The work that he's doing has helped thousands of people adopt healthier ways of eating, and this book is another great book to add to your library if you're interested in learning more about the science behind health. Happy reading!

This book is a summary of what you should do (low added fat, low added sugar, high in water, vegetable and most of all-- satiating) and what you should not perhaps do (bariatric surgery and drugs.) Dr. Greger identifies 21 factors that contribute to healthy eating and potential weight loss. Is there any truth to this list? I found the introduction of the book very revealing and it squares with a lot of what I observed about American food in the last two decades in particular. He talks about additives, toxins, overly large servings, added sugars and fats in processed foods. We lived for a while overseas and we found the food, when we came back to live in the US, to taste, well, awful. There was a chemical taste. It didn't satisfy and I put on quite a few pounds but I sure didn't enjoy it. Was I at fault or is it our food? My doctor in Germany (a naturopath) counseled to make sure to eat a lot of vegetables and hydrating foods. She noted that cells have a fluid layer around them (interstitial fluid, to be exact) that bathes every cell in needed nutrients and also has those "antioxidants" to protect the cells like a defense system against small molecules that wreak havoc on individual cells. This is one reason to "stay hydrated." Dr. Gerger's list of things to do food includes many of the ELEMENTS of trend diets (lower sugar, high plant-based foods) but seeks to systematize that scattered information and instead of a fad (no carbs! get keto! plant based ONLY!) he takes a combined approach to find what you should be eating from the vast array of human foods to stay healthy and...this is most important. satiated. Because if you are hungry all the time, or at inopportune times, you will eat things that sabotage your weight and your health. In particular, I verified some of his statements on a trip to Spain last year. I noticed the food in Spain was extremely fresh and extremely local. We bought foods at the outdoor market for a cooking class. Restaurants featured locally produced meats, fish and vegetables. I was pretty busy running around and on some days, I actually only ate a tiny breakfast and one regular meal---and I was NOT hungry. The food was so clean and healthy, the body KNEW it got what it needed. I think there is a great deal of sensible advice in this book and it can become a way of life and enjoying your meals rather than obsessing over carb count or glaring at every nutritional label as if it is a skull and crossbones. If you buy one book on health this year, I think this should be the book.

How Not to Diet contains about 570 pages of both common-sense and unconventional diet advice. You may be tempted to skip to the end to read Dr. Greger's Twenty One Tweaks. However, the bulk of the book contains WAY more than what is suggested in the final chapter. I spent 20 years working in an industry related to weight loss. We busted myths and searched for healthy ways to lose and maintain weight loss. I don't ever recall finding a single resource as comprehensive as How Not to Diet by Dr. Greger. The book sheds light on how our struggles with weight resulted in a convoluted and deceptive industry, as well as a healthcare field that has failed us. And it teaches us how to resolve our weight problems and reach a healthy goal with a natural and sound approach. How Not to Diet includes a lot of common-sense advice, which we would all expect from Dr. Greger. But the book also includes information on some rather interesting ideas that seem a little crazy to me, such as sleeping with your body tilted head-down about 6 degrees. This is just one of the Twenty One Tweaks found at the end of the book that can contribute to lasting weight loss. Some seem a little odd to me, but by this point, I know that Dr. Greger's recommendations come after careful research and everything is evidence-based. I pay attention to Dr. Greger. Everything he publishes, every video he produces, it's all based on scientific data. He cites everything so we can check out the proof ourselves and not just take his word for it. That's why I trust his book on weight loss. Dr Greger busts all the myths about dieting. He proves why crazy fads like the Keto diet are dangerous in the long term. Why you can't buy weight loss in a bottle. Beyond the list of things we can't do, we learn much more about what we CAN do. And everything is within reach and easier than we thought. Maybe someday we will all sleep with our footboards slightly elevated. Who knows. In the meantime, this book will help open our eyes to healthy, sound ways to lose weight and keep the weight off forever. It will teach us how to view the diet industry from a new angle because we know their claims can't be trusted. How to eat more food and lose more weight at the same time. How to choose every food more carefully. And so on. The book is long, but the techniques are easier than ever.

I've read a ton of diet books, and this is the best — I suspect, the only one I'll ever need again. Simply fascinating front to back, and it appeals to the skeptic in me with the author's frequent refrain to "put it to the test," to examine weight-loss claims through randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies. Consider programs like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers when actually studied — they lead to about 3 to 6 pounds on average lost after 2 years, 93 percent of participants dropping out by the end of one year. Participants spend about $200 per pound lost. And the keto diet — you'll never want to try this after reading the book. An institute created with $40 million to study and promote the diet found that keto proponents' claims were false — those on the keto diet end up retaining more fat in their bodies — so the institute ended up closing. The studies on gastric bypass and other surgical procedures to lose weight are also alarming. Most people who undertake them end up still obese because they just learn to game the system — eating lots of tiny meals of junk food or putting chocolate bars in blenders. I’ve changed numerous habits based on findings that have been put to the test — and have continued to do them every day for 4 months while I finished the book. (It's a huge book!) For example, the biggest meals of the day are now breakfast and lunch with only a salad for dinner — the same foods essentially have more calories based on the time of day you eat them because of the body's circadian rhythms. I highly recommend getting both audio and text versions of the book. I would've never finished it just reading it. It's not only big but filled with lots of studies, numbers, and chemical compounds — but these were easy to digest thanks to the author's "Drunken Capt. Kirk" reading of the material. Absolutely loved it. In short, the way to lose weight is not to decrease the quantity of food but to increase its quality. Cut out sugar (especially sugary drinks) and processed foods, decrease or eliminate dairy and meat, and increase whole plant foods. Some unexpected tidbits: exercise does not help with weight loss generally, diet sodas are linked to overeating, and beans are one of the best foods for maintaining a healthy weight. Oh and one more thing: The author has a thoughtful section on fat-shaming that addresses much of what makes many other diet books creepy in their treatment of fat in general and obesity in specific. Two short excerpts, the first about how frustration causes poor food choices and the second about claims that people won't stick to plant-based diets. "So this was the setup: Randomize people to memorize either a seven-digit number or a two-digit number to be recalled in another room down the hall. As they walk from one room to the other, offer each of them the choice of a fruit salad or a piece of chocolate cake. Memorizing a two-digit number is easy and presumably takes few cognitive resources. Under the two-digit condition, most chose the fruit salad. Faced with the same decision, most of those trying to keep seven digits in their heads just went for the cake." "Even those who are young and healthy with no health issues appear to have little problem sticking to a plant-based diet. There was a crossover study in which women were instructed to eat plant-based foods for a few months to see how it would affect their menstrual cycles. But then they were to switch back to their baseline diets to note the contrast, a so-called A-B-A study design where you reverse the experimental variable. The problem is that some participants felt so good eating healthfully—they were losing weight without any calorie counting or portion control, they had more energy, their periods got better, and they experienced better digestion and better sleep—that some refused to go back to their regular diets, which kind of messes up the study. Because they didn’t comply with the protocol and go back to their baseline diets, their data had to be thrown out. So, ironically, the plant-based diet worked a little too well." Oh, what the heck, one more excerpt: "Why won’t cereal manufacturers reduce the amount of sugar in their products? A number of explanations have been offered, such as “a product with semi-addictive properties may be a safe way to ensure long-term revenues.… Another possibility is that selling cereals high in sugar is a smart technique to sell expansively a cheap commodity product—sugar.” Ultraprocessed foods like breakfast cereals tend to have the highest profit margins. Remarkably, the cost of packaging may outweigh the cost of ingredients in a cereal box by more than ten to one."

Dr. Gregor is a talented writer so far. I first purchased the cookbooks and watched the videos featuring research on the correlation between diet, food, BMI etc. I like to cross reference resources to have thick rich descriptions. Immediately in the opening there was a citation I went to the back to reference it and was met with a reference for the references, which included over 300 pages of references I downloaded as a pdf. The reference cited was an estimation of the time it was estimated for 50% evidence based of research related to health and medicine making it into practice. I guess the paraphrase was just that. I enjoy the writing style. It is professional and scholarly. I also find it an easy read. I am at the doctorate level. Your experience may be different. It may take a while to finish this gem. It is not succinct. It is more like a thick reference book. This book would need to be in two volumes if all the references were printed with it. Very impressive so far.

Loved the book, especially the first half which explains how our highly processed, food-like products have brought us to where we are today. I was moved to tears by his careful explanations of the obesity trend, as I have seen so many children of the sixties & seventies grow into ever more obese adults, & witnessed their endless struggles to regain their good health. We must make food production & consumption great again, if we are to win our war against the present torrent of unhealthy foods & the deadly diseases they cause. Dr. Greger’s first book detailed the major diseases caused by poor diets, and presented his “Daily Dozen” way of eating - very simple, easy to understand & follow, and very effective. This second book focuses on the science available regarding weight loss, but his primary point is to FOLLOW THE WFPB WAY OF EATING. While the 21 tweaks described in the book are interesting & may be fun to try, the basic plan for good health —- including a healthy weight —- is to eat whole, plant-based foods, as laid out in his first book. Both of Dr. Greger’s books provide a wealth of helpful, fascinating, scientifically solid information. Both his website and his free app also provide the information in various formats, so that his findings are *freely* available to all. If you’re not a book reader, try the videos! If you are too impatient for a short video, download the *free* “Daily Dozen” app —- it’s colorful & fun, a brilliantly simple tool to help you adopt the WFPB lifestyle. Dr. Greger is a genius and a saint and a great teacher, and his work is so important to anyone who wants to get healthy or stay healthy. Highly, highly recommended.

I loved the knowledge that he shared. Nothing replaces real food and cutting back on quantity. Excellent read before considering surgery or pills.

Dr. Greger knows what the scientific studies say about weight loss and he's spilling the beans!!! He also makes his books highly enjoyable to read because he knows how to amuse with witty humor. I was laughing already when reading the introduction. The laughs continued throughout the book at enjoyable intervals. I knew I was really going to learn a lot more about how to lose weight than any other book could teach me. The first part of the book discusses surgery, diet supplements and other quick weight-loss solutions and their consequences! Is there a better way? Is there hope for us all in this obesity epidemic? Dr. Greger has done the research for us and he knows the truth about how difficult it is to lose weight. He is fighting for anyone who is overweight and wants to lose weight more permanently. Some of the questions this book answers include: What spice helps you lose weight when you eat it daily? What time of day should you exercise for maximum fat loss? (This has helped me the most!) What specific food should you eat if you want to live longer and be slimmer? Should you skip any meals? What does the research say about fasting? Which cinnamon should you eat and which should you avoid? No author has influenced my eating habits this year more than Dr. Greger! His logical explanations work well to encourage a healthier lifestyle! At the end of the book there is a list of all the things to do to guarantee your weight loss success. One idea has been lifechanging for me. I have an easy way to fit in an hour of walking each day. With all the choices you have for reading diet books that only work if you follow them exactly and all the time, why not give this book a try! It is much easier to follow the daily activities this book suggests that help you look your best and keep it that way. I found some easy things to do daily and some food items to add into my diet. I do think non religious meditation and yoga are preferable so you don't have to change your whole belief system to benefit. I have found these two activities reduce my anxiety and pain in my body. Dr. Greger recommends one of them however and has some interesting information on the other! Today I also got the cookbook that goes with this book because it has recipes Dr. Greger mentions in this book that sound so good. He's really also a really creative and original cook. I trust the health advice by this doctor because he is backed by science and lives what he recommends. I'm happier, healthier and more grateful for having found his wonderful healing books. The advice works!!!! ~The Rebecca Review P.S. Since reading all the main How Not To books I've lost weight and seem to have figured something out because I do not lose weight easily! This book has helped me greatly! My nurse was really impressed that I'd lost ten pounds!