Psycho-Babble Books Thread 765552

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Rethinking Thin

Posted by Racer on June 24, 2007, at 23:55:17

I'm nearly finished with "Rethinking Thin" by Gina Kolata, and it's wonderful. The subtitle is something like "the science of weight loss and myths and realities of dieting," and if you've ever felt like a failure for not being able to lose weight and keep it off, I recommend it most highly.

This books covers things like the history of obesity research, some of the political aspects of it, and I can't remember what else. If you're a little geeky, it's really fabulous reading. And it's quite well written, which helps.

I first heard about it on The Colbert Report. He started off singing a little, "If you like Gina Kolata..." to her. That's probably why I remembered her name. Sometimes I think I'm a total dork...

 

Re: Rethinking Thin » Racer

Posted by gardenergirl on June 25, 2007, at 9:31:22

In reply to Rethinking Thin, posted by Racer on June 24, 2007, at 23:55:17

Sounds really interesting. And of course, now I'm cracking up at Steven Colbert's song. :)

Thanks for the grins and giggles.

gg

 

Re: Rethinking Thin » Racer

Posted by JLx on September 2, 2007, at 10:47:35

In reply to Rethinking Thin, posted by Racer on June 24, 2007, at 23:55:17

I was reminded of this book in reading Kolata's recent NYT article, which sums up some of it:

"For the Overweight, Bad Advice by the Spoonful" http://www.nytimes.com/ref/health/healthguide/esn-obesity-ess.html

I thought this book was good overall and found myself wishing a lot of people would read it, especially those who think none of this is complicated.

But personally I also found this book to be very discouraging. I thought the subtitle may as well have been, "Trying to losing weight? Don't bother!" I thought Kolata herself was discouraged sounding by the results of the dieters she was following.

She also made it sound as if one's "set point" was almost immutable. Except we know that it's not - since some of us constantly readjust it upward. Are we supposed to believe that we were always destined to be our eventual top weight? It seems to me that if it can readjust up, it can readjust down; we just don't know much about how to do it yet.

JL

> I'm nearly finished with "Rethinking Thin" by Gina Kolata, and it's wonderful. The subtitle is something like "the science of weight loss and myths and realities of dieting," and if you've ever felt like a failure for not being able to lose weight and keep it off, I recommend it most highly.
>
> This books covers things like the history of obesity research, some of the political aspects of it, and I can't remember what else. If you're a little geeky, it's really fabulous reading. And it's quite well written, which helps.
>
> I first heard about it on The Colbert Report. He started off singing a little, "If you like Gina Kolata..." to her. That's probably why I remembered her name. Sometimes I think I'm a total dork...

 

Re: Rethinking Thin

Posted by ClearSkies on September 18, 2007, at 17:52:37

In reply to Re: Rethinking Thin » Racer, posted by JLx on September 2, 2007, at 10:47:35

I'm just reading this book now - I remember seeing Racer's post which piqued my interest, and then GG's because of the Colbert interview, and now JLx's, since we've been posting about fat acceptance on the Self Esteem board. It just felt like the right time for me to read a book like this, so I blasted an order to Amazon for it the other week.

I'm about halfway through, where she's talking about the hereditary studies on height and weight showed that it's all predestined, you know? And I keep seeing all these pictures in my head of my mom's family, and they all look like Weebles. Remember them? "Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down." And my dad's side of the family doesn't really enter into the equation because they all died young of lung cancers and consumption. (Thin, though. Maybe I take up smoking to lose the weight? Nah. The odds don't look so hot from here.)

CS


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