Secrets from the Eating Lab

The Science of Weight Loss, the Myth of Willpower, and Why You Should Never Diet Again

By: Traci Mann PhD

Narrated by: Donna Postel

Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

From her office in the University of Minnesota's Health and Eating Lab, professor Traci Mann researches self-control and dieting. And what she has discovered is groundbreaking. Not only do diets not work, they often result in weight gain. Americans are losing the battle of the bulge because our bodies and brains are not hardwired to resist food - the very idea of it works against our biological imperative to survive.

In Secrets from the Eating Lab, Mann challenges assumptions - including those that make up the very foundation of the weight loss industry - about how diets work and why they fail. The result of more than two decades of research, it offers cutting-edge science and exciting new insights into the American obesity epidemic and our relationship with eating and food.

©2015 Traci Mann (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

" Secrets from the Eating Lab offers a behind-the-scenes look into one of the most ingenious and creative labs in the country." (Brian Wansink, PhD, author of Mindless Eating)

some boring areas, but great overall

Some boring areas, but great overall. Thats all I have to say, but this requires more characters.

Fascinating and practical!

Excellent book. Eye opening truth about the diet industry and he health bias that exists in the setting of obesity. Great psychology and physiology insights which can be applied to life practically.

This book was fascinating

I’m not sure that I will have any long-term life changing eating habits after reading this book, but it sure was interesting! Human nature is a fascinating study and the perspective on the brain and food was well worth the listen.
#weightloss #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

Good solid research

Contains the facts we have to face. No false promises and no potions to sell.

Read this before you or a loved one diets!

There is so much about weight loss, dieting, obesity that we think we know. However, Traci Mann and her students have looked at all of the studies that claim to tell us what we think we know -- and have found something different. This book is a must read if you think you or someone you know needs to go on a diet and lose weight. Not only does Traci blast away some of the myths that pervade our culture, but she also gives very good practical tips to help reign in undesired eating habits. She also points out all the ways that the "being overweight is unhealthy for you" message.

And she is human, very, very human. She is not a person who has figured everything out and is living the perfect life. She is someone like me, who struggles sometimes. She has data. She has life experience. And she makes it all very interesting to listen to.

Great research and stories

I learned a lot about strategies that work for a healthy lifestyle that don't involving dieting or relying on will power. That's just not possible long term. Great book with helpful stories and research showing what works and what doesn't.

Healthy way to view food

I really enjoyed this book. I have been dieting much of my life and through her research shared ways for me to get the results I truly need vs. just want because society tells me I should be a certain way. I have already started using her tips and am happier and feel better about my relationship with food.

Good read

Loved the use of real scientific evidence throughout the book. No guru mumbo jumbo here.

Disordered Eating Alert!!!

This book is chock full of high quality science and important information about the reality of weight set point, naturally variability in body size, exploding the myth that everyone is naturally a thin person unless they are weak-willed, and showing the dangers and discrimination of weight stigma. I recommend reading/listening to this book with an important caveat. The author gives seriously mixed messages that don’t make sense based on the scientific conclusions she has reached. This contradiction is confusing at best, and could trigger disordered eating for those who are predisposed. If possible, read the chapters on scientific conclusions and skip the chapters about how to control your weight.
The scientific conclusions presented in this book indicate that we all are genetically predisposed to a particular set weight range, and that efforts to achieve a weight outside this range are fiercely counteracted by the body in numerous ways. The author presents fact upon fact about the false claims that weight is the cause of many health concerns. She carefully lays out the dangers of weight stigma and discrimination. All of these conclusions support eating intuitively, gaining freedom from restriction, working to counteract diet mentality, learning to accept ourselves at our natural set point, and working systemically to combat weight stigma and weight discrimination.
Unfortunately, this book contradicts itself and supports restrictive, disordered eating and encourages readers to go to great lengths to maintain their lowest possible weight through going to ridiculous lengths, which would only serve to intensify preoccupation and prevent someone from living a full and meaningful life. It truly is irresponsible to make it abundantly clear that we cannot control our genetically predisposed weight, and then spend chapters about how to control weight!!! It is unethical to write eloquently about the damaging impact of weight stigma, the inaccuracies of current attribution of ill health to weight, and then contribute to the fallacies the author has carefully discredited by repeatedly suggesting readers should go to great lengths to maintain their lowest possible weight!
Sigh...I’m sure the author is, herself, brainwashed by diet mentality, which would explain why she hides in her office and takes different routes to work to avoid food cues so she can maintain her lowest livable weight. Perhaps, in order to get such a controversial book published, there has to be a section on weight control. Or she didn’t want to have to leave out her years of research on weight control.
The bottom line - this book presents gold standard research that is much needed and rarely presented. I’m glad I read the book. I dream of another edition that would use this research to support true freedom from diet mentality, restriction, weight stigma and discrimination.

Very enlightening!

I loved the research and examples in this book! It was an easy read, too!