Customer Reviews

Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss---and the Myths and Realities of Dieting

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Gina Kolata's "Rethinking Thin" deserves a place on the best-seller list. It is a comprehensive and highly readable examination of why most diets fail. Her thesis is rooted in science and research dating back as far as the 1940s. Many of her findings will be no surprise to people who have struggled with their weight. Kolata's bottom line: genetics play a far bigger role in weight than will power, exercise, or food choices.

The book begins with details of a University of Pennsylvania study. A group of obese volunteers are divided into two groups (one using the Atkins diet, the other a low calorie diet) and agree to have their progress monitored very closely over a two year period. Most lose some weight (typically 10% of their body weight) before hunger takes over and they find themselves backsliding.

The chapters about this U Penn study alternate with others in which Kolata examines the science of why it's so hard to lose weight and keep it off. The short version: once a body begins to lose weight, it switches into a kind of starvation mode. It wishes to hold onto the fat it has and tricks the person into thinking they're hungrier than they actually are. These two things combined make it an uphill battle. Kolata cites a University of Minnesota study in which normal sized men suddenly ate half their usual calories. They lost weight, but soon began behaving bizarrely. They became obsessed with eating, consuming up to five times their usual amount of food. Others showed strange mood swings. This goes a long way in explaining why the weight comes back for those who have the obesity gene.

This book highlights studies that many people ignore. For instance, an eight year, $20 million study done by researchers at Johns Hopkins which attempted to stave off the obesity crisis in children. The reserachers deliberately selected high risk schools, where children were getting two meals a day. The program adjusted the fat content in food the children were being served (by about 10%), introduced more daily exercise, and educated the children about nutrition. These measures were not enough to lead to any weight loss.

Anyone who has ever lost weight knows why: it takes a lot of effort to lose even a little bit of weight. Light exercise does very little (although it may have other health benefits) and hunger is a very difficult thing to ignore. Kolata pushes for a more tolerant society, that accepts that weight loss is very difficult to maintain, and asks for an end to the inaccurate idea that weight loss is totally within everyone's control. Genetics are different, she concludes, and some people will have an easier time losing weight than others.

There really is no reason why these findings need be controversial. And, yet, they will be. The same day I finished the book, two national magazines came out with cover stories about women losing over 100 lbs each. These types of pieces are very popular -- profiles of shiny happy weight loss success stories. The fact that most of these people will put the weight back on is never addressed. The fact that they are starving and miserable is glossed over in comments like "nothing tastes as good as it feels to be thin." Everyone loves a luck and pluck success story.

This is why "Rethinking Thin" is so important. Instead of putting a shiny gloss on hard facts, it gets to the bottom of things. It doesn't address every facet of this issue (it badly lacks a chapter on those rare successes at weight loss) but I highly recommend it. Definitely one of the best books I've read this year.

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 :)

I just read this book last week, and I am recommending it to everyone -- especially anyone who is interested in this question of thinness and body image (which, the last time I checked, is pretty much everyone).

The main point of this book -- which is very well-researched and scientifically-based -- is that people, contrary to the popular thinking in our society, are not fat because they are lazy or lack willpower. In fact, there is little evidence to support the common notion that people, through diet and exercise, can lose mass quantities of weight and KEEP it off. The best research shows that our overall size/weight (which is related to our hunger) is genetically and chemically determined. So basically, yes, oftentimes fatter people eat more (though not always), but their hunger is not something that can simply be overcome through "willpower" -- at least, not for a lifetime. It would be like resisting the urge to breathe -- that's how primal it is.

All this may seem very discouraging to the average person (who is bound to be discontent with their current weight, thanks to modern ideals), but Kolata poses the question we may have forgotten to ask: Who says we all have to be skinny anyway? When the research shows that the highest life expectancy belongs to the slightly "overweight" (extremes of thinness and obesity still are not as "healthy"), why do "health scientists" still insist that the majority of us need to be thinner, for our health?

The answer, of course, is that our society does not accept fatness. Kotala's anecdotes illustrate the pervasiveness of this belief. But could it be that, just as people are taller on average now than they were 100 years ago -- a phenomenon that is commonly accepted as a sign of increased nutrition and prosperity -- that humans are evolving to be heavier as well? After all, in some epochs and societies, extra weight is considered a sign of health and wealth.

Some readers may be frustrated because Kotala does not draw a neat conclusion at the end of this book, but she should be respected for not resorting to the sweeping generalizations made in so many "health books." The author cannot be discredited because she does not answer all of our questions about weight loss -- the topic is simply too vast to address scientifically. As Kotala notes, there is already a myriad of quality research on nutrition and exercise, so she does not discuss it further. Her book is meant to be considered in conjunction with this knowledge.

Kotala's message is NOT, "Since weight is largely hereditary, you shouldn't even bother to watch your diet or to exercise." Taking Kotala's contribution to the research on weight loss and health into the broader perspective, a more suitable conclusion is: Eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly, for the proven health benefits of both; but accept the fact that the state of `optimum health' comes in many different shapes and sizes. "Overweight" does not necessarily mean "unhealthy"- just as "thin" does not always indicate "healthy."


I would recommend this book even to people who do not struggle with their weight, because Rethinking Thin serves as a human rights manifesto for fat people. (Yes, I said "fat" - perhaps it is the more PC term than "overweight," which implies that a person has "too much" of something and therefore needs to change.) They are constantly subject to the judgment that being fat is somehow a character defect - and worst of all, they perpetuate the belief by believing it themselves. But the research cited in Rethinking Thin challenges this gospel that fat people just need to "try harder" in order to be "normal," i.e. thin. The thin person who preaches discipline will gain compassion from Kolata's perspective, and the naturally large person will be empowered.

Kolata's arguments are bound to be controversial - or, simply dismissed - because the thinking that equates thinness with virtuosity is so deeply ingrained in our culture. But it is about time our society stopped judging a person's character based on their size. While I do not expect this book to get much "press" (it certainly won't have the backing of the diet industry), I do hope that many, many people read it... and, as a result, hopefully they will realize that discrimination based on weight is just as intolerable as any other form of prejudice - sexism, racism, etc. - that was once deemed acceptable in our society.

This is a brilliant and cohesive book on a much needed and much neglected topic, which is the lies and misinformation about obesity, dieting and weight loss which are so prevalent...so deeply imbedded as dogma in our culture that most of us simply endless repeat the misinformation as fact, over and over and over....as do the media, the unending stream of diet books, the medications (just look at the new pill Alli, which is simply the old presciption drug Xenical, which was established to have little effectivess). Ms. Kolata -- who is herself very slim and not on any quest to defend her own weight problems -- has tackled the huge and thankless mountain of facts and research into obesity and boiled it down into a manageable and understandable bundle so that even the non-scientifically literate amongst us can read and see the actual truth.

One of the things that has always bothered me about the science of dieting and obesity control is how often those who have NO training, NO education and no studies or research to base things on feel that they can get up on a soapbox and proclaim "I absolutely know that all fat people....(fill the blank)." One such poster here claims that fat people think a diet Coke will cancel out the calories of a Big Mac and fries! Really? How does he know this? Does he have ESP? Does he know for a fact that slim people don't also drink Diet Coke (because THEY DO)? Why does he attribute this behavior to stupidity and denial? After all, while the Diet Coke doesn't "cancel anything out", it is a couple hundred calories less than a regular Coke -- isn't that a GOOD THING? No, it is easier to to ridicule and judge a fat person, because "we all know" that a fat person can't ever be hungry (they don't deserve their hunger) and they don't deserve to eat the same foods that other people do (Big Macs, etc.). They only deserve to be in a permanent state of semi-starvation, forever, in punishment for the sin of eating too much.

Another poster here gives the anecdotal tale of HIS OWN WEIGHT LOSS on the low carb type of diet -- it obviously "proves" that anyone can lose weight this way, because of course the experiences of ONE PERSON apply to the other 180 million overweight people in this country. Never mind that he has only kept it off for 3 years, and the gold standard is five years. Let's talk to Mr. "La Vida" at the five year mark. I'll bet my last nickel he has regained all the weight, just like ALL the particpants in the NIH study that Ms. Kolata details.

And how about the guy who gives the story of his own weight loss....IN HIGH SCHOOL. A teenage boy, who is still growing, and only 1 year ago, but yeah, this is meant to apply to EVERYONE, even menopausal women. Or the woman who quotes the National Weight Registry, which tracks successful dieters...all 5000 of them, out of a population of maybe 180 million overweight Americans...that's like 1/10 of one percent. The numbers speak for themselves.

The point is: this is non-science...or maybe "nonsense" would be more accurate. Individual annecdotal stories mean nothing -- it would be like doing a story on retirement planning and someone pipes up "Oh I don't need to plan my retirement because I won the lottery!" Well, the rest of us won't win the lottery, so we need good information to plan our lives.

Ms. Kolata is NOT saying give up or don't try to lose weight. What she's saying is "look at the science"....scientists don't do research to try and prove a point they already believe (or they shouldn't if they are true researchers)...what they do is LOOK AT THE FACTS and report them. The FACTS are that 97% of diets utterly fail, and that dieting makes you regain more weight than you lost. Exercise and healthy eating are good for your health long term, and offer many benefits, but weight loss IS NOT ONE OF THOSE BENEFITS.

Yes, food deprivation will make you lose weight BUT in the long run you will regain all that weight plus more. We WANT to be able to control our weight down to the last ounce, but at this point in human history, we simply do not know how to KEEP WEIGHT OFF. Losing weight and then simply regaining it is worse for you than never losing it in the first place! And that doesn't even take into consideration the heartbreak and discouragement of putting all that work (the patients in the NIH study doggedly worked on their diets for two solid years) only to reap NOTHING in the end.

What we need in this country is the humility to say that we simply do not know why some people are heavier than others. The decency and honesty to admit that we don't have all the answers, and that it will require a lot more money and research and instead we are WASTING our precious resources pursuing "diets" and "exercise plans' that are proven over many decades to lead to failure. That in the meantime, while we don't know what causes some people to be fat and others to be thin, we need to treat the heavier people with human courtesy and respect. That's all she is saying, and it is a message that American society desperately needs to really listen to and hear in their hearts.

There are few voices willing to say the truth: that as of 2009, no one knows how to help most people lose weight and maintain that weight loss. Most scientifically based books are boring reads. This one is entertaining because she weaves current science on body composition and weight with the stories of four people who are attempting to lose weight in a research study at the University of Pennsylvania. I have recommended it to many of my clients.
Gretchen Newmark, MA, RD

Kolata convincingly describes both the pain of repeated dieting, by following subjects in a research study, while explaining the science behind the futility of weight loss programs.

I picked up this book after reading countless books and articles (in consumer magazines, albeit, not medical journals) about weight loss. So many books are single minded in saying what they need to in order to support their method of weight loss and conveniently do not include any evidence that throws into their idea into question. Because of this I was interested in this book because it sounded like it would tell the other side of the story and in fact it did.

The book weaves the stories of overweight Americans participating in a medical study to lose weight (either on Atikins or a low fat diet) with facts and statistics about dieting in America going all the way back to the 1800's. Although I enjoyed reading the stories of the study participants I found the latter to be the most intriguing. I think I have a tendency to think of dieting as something largely taking place in the 20th and 21st century so it was interesting to hear about the remedies dating back much further.

Overall I think this book was intriguing and had a lot of great facts. The author makes the point pretty strongly that genetics largely come into play when determining a healthy weight range and yet, we are taught that we can weigh as little as we want if we only have enough will power and want it badly enough. I also thought the point that being over weight does not always mean a shortened life span and higher rate of death. There were so many interesting things brought up in this book though that it's hard to fully capture everything.

I think this book is good for anyone who is interested in the science behind weight loss but it is important to bear in mind, as others have said, that it may not have quite the uplifting quality of a lot of diet books since the bulk of it is poking holes in what we assume are the keys to weight loss. However, I don't think it is entirely negative because the book makes the point that it's bigger than just will power so with so much at play it's not all our faults if we cannot maintain the weight loss as we would like.

Overall it was a really intriguing book to read. I wouldn't say it gave me any insight into what I could do better to maintain my weight, but it was really interesting and thought provoking.

The book challenges many widely established beliefs on dieting, controlling weight, and obesity on the basis of a review of research on the topic (some of which has not received as much attention as it deserved because it did not fit current expectations and industry interests). The book does not suggest a path to shed any extra pounds, but makes you think about your personal and our societal relationship with weight, obesity and thinness.