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Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/315487.Rethinking_Thin_The_New_Science_of_Weight_Loss_and_the_Myths_and_Realities_of_Dieting?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss--and the Myths and Realities of Dieting" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1173701075m/315487.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/315487.Rethinking_Thin_The_New_Science_of_Weight_Loss_and_the_Myths_and_Realities_of_Dieting?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss--and the Myths and Realities of Dieting</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16329.Gina_Kolata">Gina Kolata</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6223826?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 4 of 5 stars<br/>Kolota, a science writer for the NYT, confirms what I always suspected, that fat people aren't fat because they have no willpower or because they are somehow morally inferior to skinny people. They are fat because their weight, like their height, is genetically predetermined. The author follows a research group for two years who are ostensibly comparing an Atkins-type diet to another group with the calorie-counting diet. Both groups get support groups and counseling and the end result is the same. They all lost weight then put it back on. In another study a group of skinny men (prisoners) volunteered to get fat. They all did, but it was difficult because they had to fight their body's metabolism; the more they ate the more it sped up. Another group of fat men lost weight to the mirror problem, the more weight they lost the slower their metabolism went. When the study was over all men returned to their pre-study weight. She refers to countless other scientific papers that reach the same hypothesis. Our body's have a "set point" which our body will fight to maintain. We can move back and forth within about 20 pounds by over- or under- eating, but it's nigh impossible to maintain anything outside of those parameters. <br/> <br/>One of Kolota's other points in the book is the huge prejudice against fat people that is perpetuated in the media, of course, but more surprisingly in the scientific community. The CDC's claim that overweight people die younger simply isn't true. A more rigorous study revealed the opposite. Overweight people live longer. Why, they don't know, but they do. <br/> <br/>I came away with many questions that the author doesn't address, but overall I found the book quite provocative in that it challenged by own prejudices and beliefs about weight. <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/94272?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>