21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The content of this book does not match the description, April 7, 2006
This review is from: The Art & Science of Rational Eating (Paperback)
The message of this book is that most human beings are genetically predetermined to be fat by the current standards of society( there is a lot of truth to this). You can try to lose weight, but you will most likely fail to keep it off, so you are better off not trying to lose weight and accepting yourself as you are. Should you be foolish enough to try, the authors offer some diet tips mixed in with REBT (cognitive therapy) all while reminding you that failure is likely.
The authors only give the reader examples from their weight control therapy groups of people who try to lose weight and fail. The examples that are painted in a positive light are patients who decide that losing weight is not worth the discomfort and who learn to accept being heavy. People who try to be fit are painted as being shallow and wasting their time on a triviality.
The authors claim to know a lot about nutrition, dieting and fitness. Yet, they recommend going on extremely low calorie diets because they think seeing fast results will keep people motivated. It is believed that crash diets are responsible for the yo-yo effect they decry and contributes to raising body weight set points. The authors also minimize regular exercise as a fat loss tool, claiming it helps a little, and is good for health, but it doesn't contribute much to serious weight loss. No wonder so many of their patients give up on trying to lose fat and focus on acceptance.
For what it is worth people do lose large amounts of weight and keep that weight off for long periods of time without being uncomfortable. People interested in this should go to the web site for The National Weight Control Registry [...]
The book has an interesting discussion about bigotry and the bigotry against heavy people.
I believe people who read the front cover of this book where "The sensible, sure-fire way to lose unwanted pounds" is printed will be disappointed. The contents of this book do not match the descriptions of it. This book is not a manual for making weight loss work. This book is about calling into question why people try to lose weight and encouraging people not to do so.
If you are interested in learning to use REBT(cognitive therapy) as a tool for learning how to have better eating habits "How To Stick To A Diet" by Windy Dryden is a far better choice.
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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well researched book on the psychology of eating, May 6, 1997
By A Customer
This review is from: The Art & Science of Rational Eating (Paperback)
Although not a "diet" book per se this is the best in that category. Rather than provide the right way to eat, it demonstrates through extensive research that body weight is the result of a complex interplay of biological and behavioral factors. The authors first seek to teach self-acceptance, then the rational-emotive/cognitive behavioral methods to maximize self-regulation. The case vignettes presented throughout the book both add to its entertainment value and its applicability
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic, January 15, 2000
This review is from: The Art & Science of Rational Eating (Paperback)
I recently picked up a copy of this book because of my interest in the work of Ellis. Apparently Abrams and Dengelegi are terrific researchers. They have added alot of clearly presented biological research to the work. Excellent.
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