This time I am reviewing a book I received from Library Thing in exchange for a review. Ordinarily I don't read "dieting" books, since it not a problem I personally deal with. However, I have watched as the problem has affected more and more people around me. Indirectly the issue does affect me too, so thus my interest in the subject. After reading this book I feel I am much better prepared to understand what others are experiencing and how to respond and recommend it for those seeking practical solutions.
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| Michael A. Snyder MD FACS |
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| Cover |
BOOK REVIEW
Title: full
Author: Michael A. Snyder, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Publisher: Hay House, Inc. New York, NY
Contributing Author(s): none
ISBN: 978-1-4019-2905-3
Digital ISBN: 978-1-4019-2907-7
Physical Attributes:
Price: $19.95 USD
Reading Time: 10-11 hours
Construction: Hardcover
No. of Pages: 209
Dimensions: 160mm x 255mm x 22mm (") thick
Weight: 465g ( oz).
Cover Design: Dust Jacket by Jami Goddess
Illustrations: line drawings and tables by lack Top Design
Maps/Inserts: None
Appendices:
Index: no
Bibliography: no
Biography: yes
Glossary: no
Other: Body Mass Index Table
Other books by author:
Why Diets Don't Work (2005)
Rating 4/5
Abstract: The subtitle of this book, “A Life Without Dieting,” makes better sense after the book has been read. The book does strongly advocate weight control involving control of the kinds and quantities of food eaten. However the book is not a diet book, but rather a presentation of the author’s system for weight control that focuses on what is termed “mindful eating” and may include bariatric surgery in exceptional cases. Mindful eating is both a thoughtful approach to eating that requires deliberate effort in what foods are eaten and how they are eaten, and a way of life that includes planning meals, exercise and an understanding of how to measure progress and set realistic goals. The central goal of the book is living a full life.
Review. I must admit that I have not read many diet or weight loss books. In fact weight loss has not been much of an issue for me. However, I am affected (as the author points out) but the weight related issues of those around me. The few diet books I did start to read did not impress me as worthwhile for the very reasons the author enumerates – chiefly that dieting alone does little to address morbid obesity and has a poor record of sustained weight loss and control.
Overall, I was impressed by Dr. Snyder’s direct and common sense approach to weight loss and his familiar and readable writing style. It is obvious that he’s familiar with the subject and has much practical, hand-on experience in the subject. While he does refer to current scientific research, he does not attempt to write a treatise or a manual about it. (This is a bit disappointing to an engineer like me, but appropriate for the typical person seeking a practical approach to weight control.) What he writes makes much good sense and can be summarized into a single sentence: You are responsible for your weight.
The book elaborates on that them by explaining Dr. Snyder’s system for weight control. Rather than surgery, which is just one of several “tools,” the central theme of the book is mindful eating. Part of this is thinking about what you eat and how you eat. Beyond that, it is an integrated way of life with good mental, spiritual and physical health as the means to the ultimate goal – a full life.
As may be expected, the system includes eating healthy foods that are generally minimally processed and contain balanced nutrition, an abundance of protein and only the calories required for physical needs. As far as that goes, he does propose “dieting.” What he does reject is the idea of dieting where certain foods are either forbidden or emphasized to the exclusion of all else. Calorie counting is dropped in favor of portion sizing. Even cheating is allowed, though in a limited way as a psychological device to avoid undue stress, discouragement and social ostracism.
Exercise is also included in the system both to increase general fitness and muscle mass, and as a device to improve a person’s mental state. Increased muscle mass, as is well known, also leads to increased demand by the body to burn calories and a reduction in the physical demands on the heart as fat is reduced. Exercise is not a primary method in the system for losing weight though, rather a means to change body composition and burn additional calories when the patient reaches what is called a “plateau.” Measuring progress here is not a matter of gross weight, but keyed to the Body Mass Index (BMI) which measures overall body composition.
Mental health and conditioning is also important in this system. Dr. Snyder points out that many people eat, not because they are hungry, but as a response to stress, depression and social circumstances. While not saying so explicitly, he clearly implies this is an abuse of food. The root of such behavior lies in both personal discipline and recognizing the difference between physical hunger and emotion based craving for food. The author offers several ways to address the latter.
One oft misunderstood part of the process of weight management is the “plateau.” This is when weight loss stops, slows or even reverses during active treatment for obesity. The plateau typically happens when the patient has lost substantial body fat either through mindful eating or a combination of that and bariatric surgery. At that point the person’s body composition is changing to a leaner mode in which it responds differently to food intake and exercise than before. This is not a failure in weight loss, but a period of readjustment that is expected and adapted to.
Interestingly to me, though Dr. Snyder is a bariatric surgeon, he does not tout bariatric (stomach reduction/bypass) surgery as central to or even a necessary part of his weight loss system. In fact, he writes that it typically applies only to patients with genetic or physical disorders that leave no other alternatives. He also admits that surgery is not sufficient in most cases. The principle behind bariatric surgery that the book endorses is that it reduces the capacity of the stomach to hold food, and concentrates its capacity in the upper portion where specialized nerve endings signal the brain to suppress appetite. In theory, a person will eat less when their stomach becomes full after eating a substantially smaller meal than normal. In practice that works best when the patient uses the surgery as just one of the several “tools” Dr. Snyder equips them with and describes in the book.
Things I looked for and was pleased to find were such topics as the importance of the BMI over just weight loss or size reduction. There’s also mention of the health benefits of losing weight such as increased lifespan and the cure of some types of diabetes. I liked his expose on the faults and failings of the diet industry and the value of drinking water and consuming fiber in the everyday diet. I knew about the link between chewing and fullness and wish he’d written more about the connection between this and obtaining full nutritional value from well chewed foods. He wrote relatively little about the role of vitamins, but did advocate for vitamin D (pg. 102). Not surprisingly I found in the author a fellow advocate against aspartame and like artificial sweeteners (pg. 146). Lastly, I was pleasantly surprised that he also encouraged journal keeping (pg. 100).
What was new for me were the five stages of digestion (pg. 62), the four stages of dehydration (pg. 120), a list of “full foods” (pg. 95), the benefits of eating smaller meals more frequently (pg. 147) and his plateau breaking tools (pg. 146). I’d known about Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) before, but didn’t understand it’s role in weight management and physical conditioning as well as I do now (pg. 163).
Dr. Snyder also gives some good advice in his “three phases of breaking a habit.” For putting his system into practice involves breaking bad habits as well as acquiring good ones. He also introduces his “four areas of good parenting,” recognizing the importance of parenting in weight management for children and the adults they become (pg. 192).
What I identified best with was the well made point that obese people affect all of those around them and have a responsibility not just to themselves but to others for their weight. What I liked the most was the overall theme of the book, which is not so much about weight management as advocating that we should all do our best to live life as fully as possible. Obesity is an obstacle to that and is well worth the effort to overcome it.
After reading this rather lengthy review, you may ask yourself why spend ten hours or more reading the book? In the author’s own words, the goal of reading the book is, “I hope that by the end of it you’ll have shifted to a much broader perspective that honors the health component over any other in achieving a certain waist size.” (pg. 149). If that hasn’t happened yet, then I do recommend reading this book and doing what you can to achieve that.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the Library Thing http://www.librarything.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
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