Why Diets Make Us Fat

The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession with Weight Loss

By: Sandra Aamodt

Narrated by: Sandra Aamodt

"If diets worked, we'd all be thin by now. Instead, we have enlisted hundreds of millions of people into a war we can't win."

What's the secret to losing weight? If you're like most of us, you've tried cutting calories, sipping weird smoothies, avoiding fats, and swapping out sugar for Splenda. The real secret is that all of those things are likely to make you weigh more in a few years, not less.

In fact a good predictor of who will gain weight is who says they plan to lose some. Last year 108 million Americans went on diets, to the applause of doctors, family, and friends. But long-term studies of dieters consistently find that they're more likely to end up gaining weight in the next two to 15 years than people who don't diet.

Neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt spent three decades in her own punishing cycle of starving and regaining before turning her scientific eye to the research on weight and health. What she found defies the conventional wisdom about dieting:

• Telling children that they're overweight makes them more likely to gain weight over the next few years. Weight shaming has the same effect on adults.
• The calories you absorb from a slice of pizza depend on your genes and on your gut bacteria. So does the number of calories you're burning right now.
• Most people who lose a lot of weight suffer from obsessive thoughts, binge eating, depression, and anxiety. They also burn less energy and find eating much more rewarding than it was before they lost weight.
• Fighting against your body's set point - a central tenet of most diet plans - is exhausting, psychologically damaging, and ultimately counterproductive.

If dieting makes us fat, what should we do instead to stay healthy and reduce the risks of diabetes, heart disease, and other obesity-related conditions? With clarity and candor, Aamodt makes a spirited case for abandoning diets in favor of behaviors that will truly improve and extend our lives.

©2016 Sandra Aamodt (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Finally, a scientist who bridges the gap between the emerging behavioral theories of weight loss and our current disastrous attempts to diet our way thin! I can’t wait for this to be published so I can give it to patients.” (Dr. Henry S. Lodge, professor at Columbia University Medical Center and coauthor of Younger Next Year)

“In this deeply researched book, Aamodt demolishes the conventional wisdom on dieting, building a compelling case that if we want to be healthier, we should diet less, not more. Essential reading for today’s weight-obsessed culture.” (Traci Mann, PhD, author of Secrets from the Eating Lab)

“This important book sounds a much-needed alarm about the long-term damage that dieting does to our bodies and minds. Highly recommended for chronic calorie counters and anyone trying to raise healthy, sane children in an insane food world.” (Jonathan Bailor, author of The Calorie Myth and founder of SANESolution.com)

Good, but a little unfocused

I think this is an important book, however it's trying to do too much. A lot of great information, not well organised. Also it's depressing as hell.

excellent and informative

I loved it. I've stopped dieting for good. I just need to learn the mindful eating skills.

Finally, the truth about dieting

Everyone should read this- whether they are obese or not.

The author unflinching reviews the extensive scientific evidence that diets do more harm than good— whether your metric is health, happiness, or even weight. Yes, that’s right, diets make people more fat in the long run. Your doctor, if he’s advising you to diet, is prescribing an intervention that will probably make you more fat in the long run. Why the hell is he doing that? He would know better if he read the scientific literature.

Aamodt is a scientist, so parts of the book sound like a review article in a scientific journal. It’s well worth slogging through, though, to get to the practical advice at the end. The relationship between weight and health is entirely mediated by exercise and eating vegetables. So if you just exercise and eat vegetables, you can be healthier without tormenting yourself. Aamodt recommends exercising, eating fruits and vegetables, eating mindfully when you eat anything else, and learning to change your habits in a gradual, sustainable way.

Eating mindfully means listening to your body, and being fully there and appreciate of the experience of yummy food, NOT trying to take conscious control of your calorie balance— the latter is a futile effort if you’re trying to maintain a large weight loss.

Full marks for narration because I appreciate an author reading her own work. She isn’t a professional voice actor, but she brings personal interest to the work, and gets all the big scientific words right.

Best book I've read on health ever

This book lays it all bare. I've read many other books on the topic of nutrition, obesity and cultural shifts in eating and weight, but this one ties so many other topics into one neat bow. Amazing.
I am a physician and found this eye opening.
I've decided to finally accept
Myself, live healthier and throw out the too skinny clothes. I love to exercise but found the intermittent fasting diet and most diets caused me to binge or because obsessed with garbage food. Seeing the financial and cultural pressure to be thin, I suspect this book will not make it to wide information as it should. It is frustrating but true, lasting weight loss is not realistic, but a better healthier life is.

First half of book is a downer

The author spends all but the last 2 chapters making you depressed. I actually ended my diet and exercise routine half way through this book because the author made me feel hopeless. The last two chapters, however, where excellent and changed my perspective a lot. I started eating healthy and exercising again once I finished the book. I would suggest only reading the first two chapters and the last two chapters. The rest is just too much doom and gloom as the author over states their point.

This is the most comprehensive book on this topic!

I am a psychologist working with bariatric and primary care patients on weight management issues. This is by far the most comprehensive book written on metabolism and the complexities that go into weight Management. I've been looking for this book a long time and I'm so glad I found it!

should be required reading

This is The TRUTH writ large and maybe it's "depressing" but only because our society has been ignoring the facts and we have been gaslit into believing diets work. I'll be recommending this book to everyone who can handle some capital T Truth.