Book: You: On a Diet: The Owner’s Manual for Waist Management by Michael F. Roizen, Mehmet C. Oz
Genre: Diet book
Publisher: Free Press
Publication date: 2006
Pages: 384

Source: Library

Summary: One in the continuing series of YOU books by Dr. Oz and coauthor Michael Roizen, YOU: On a Diet covers the most recent scientific research on weight loss. In particular, this book focuses on waist size rather than weight arguing that the health benefits of reduced girth are greater than that of reduced pounds.  Of course, for most of us, those two measurements tend to move in tandem.

The book has four parts. It starts with an introductory section called “What a Waist!” followed by an exhaustive section about food’s role in the body. Part 3 was my favorite section since it covered all the emotional and environmental issues that need to be addressed and aren’t intuitively obvious when someone sets out to lose weight. Part 4 pulls it all together in their plan for losing weight with strategies, exercise, and a way of eating.

Thoughts: This book seemed daunting at first with an astounding amount of scientific bits and pieces that fit into the weight loss puzzle. I don’t imagine anyone needs to know all of this in order to lose weight, but who knows which specific piece is going to be the one that makes it all fit for you or me? Fortunately, lots of diagrams and cartoons make it all more accessible. I loved learning that leptin, the hormone of satisfaction, increases as a result of a thirty minute walk. You might find the suggestion to increase small intestine fullness by eating seventy calories worth of nuts about twenty-five minutes before a meal to be invaluable.

One of the reasons that I chose this book was a friend mentioned that the autopilot strategy really worked for her. The idea is to quit over-thinking food choices. Instead, eat roughly the same thing for all meals and snacks before supper. I was doing that to a degree before, but I worried about the opposite advice one sometimes gets about making sure there’s variety in the diet. After reading this book, I’m doing autopilot more and worrying less. After all, just because I eat a giant salad every day at lunch doesn’t mean it’s the exact same salad every day. I get plenty of variety and thinking about food less really helps!

I loved the analogy of a Perfect Storm that they use in Chapter 10, making the case that losing weight in our current environment is hard because there are so many factors conspiring against us. It takes many strategies, not just will power, to survive that storm.

The actual diet and activity plan looks doable, even fun, in its way.

Appeal: This will appeal, especially, to Dr. Oz fans but is really a good general approach to weight loss covering all of the bases — the science of the body and the brain, the environmental challenges and opportunities, and the emotional and behavioral changes required for success.

Have you read this book? What did you think?