The weight loss industry is big business, with big dollars to be made from how big the population has become. If you’ve been contemplating how you can cash in on the weight loss goldmine, then you’ve come to the right place. Simply follow my 12-step guide to writing a best-selling diet book and you will soon be on the path to wealth and B-grade celebrity status.
With so many people desperate to lose weight, and the problem of obesity only growing, clearly something has gone wrong. All the advice we’ve been given in the past must be wrong as of course everyone in the population must have followed that advice to prove it doesn’t work. So now the stage is set for the world to finally learn the answer which you’ve got. And what better platform than a book. Here is my foolproof 12-step guide to writing a best-selling diet book.
- Claim an amazing new scientific breakthrough that goes against all previous advice to do with weight loss. Use lots of impressive medical and biochemical terms you’ve come across in a textbook.
- Distil the whole obesity problem down to one simple reason. Here are some ideas to get you started: sugar, fructose, blood profile, genetics, processed oils, carbohydrates, time of eating. Whatever you do, don’t dare mention personal responsibility, overeating, and lack of exercise.
- Don’t have any formal qualifications in nutrition? No problem. Who needs several years of university study in nutrition and training in critical research analysis. You eat right and have lost weight at one time or another? That makes you an expert meaning you know far more about the topic than those out-of-touch geeks who spent all their years at university obtaining worthless pieces of paper.
- Promote or ban a certain food or food group. Banning carbohydrates is a great place to start.
- Restrict what time of day a person can eat or what types of foods that are allowed to be eaten at a meal.
- Promise quick, dramatic and miraculous results.
- Use testimonials and anecdotes to promote the benefits of your diet as they rank much higher than any independent randomised-controlled clinical trial.
- If you do read any scientific research, just skim over the abstract. Better yet, just read the title. If you do include any published research in your book, only include studies that support your diet philosophy. Any research that goes against your view should be ignored or discredited at all costs.
- Disparage advice given by peak health organisations such as the NHMRC and accuse all health organisations, dietitians and nutritionists of being in bed with food industry and not keeping up with current research.
- Come up with a gimmicky catchy title. The ‘Eat less, exercise more diet’? Fail, try again.
- Recommend supplements to go with your diet. Protip: have a vested commercial interest in said supplements thus maximising your income.
- One book isn’t enough – you need to follow it up with a recipe book and then another diet book with a completely different angle. Go back to step 1. Rinse and repeat.
Sceptical that my simple 12-step process can work? Peruse the health section of any bookstore and take note of the hundreds of trailblazing authors who have been there before you. Of course, the population is still getting fatter so clearly none of those frauds had ‘the answer’, but you’re different, you’ve got the insight that no one else has. This time it is different. This time you have the key to easy long-term weight loss. Do it. Start writing now before someone else beats you to it.
In the meantime, I, like most of my colleagues will continue to observe that those most successful at long-term weight loss have common habits of getting more active, eating less fatty and processed foods, controlling their portion sizes, enlisting the support of friends or a health professional, and are mindful of the food they put in their body. Of course, none of that advice meets any of the criteria for a best-selling diet book. Although I do have the the catchy title nailed: ‘Eat less junk and move your trunk’
Sean Vale says
I appreciate your recognition of the valuable tips provided for maintaining good health. Additionally, your acknowledgment of the significance of mental health aligns with the article’s emphasis on the importance of emotional well-being in conjunction with physical health. It is indeed encouraging to witness the increasing awareness and availability of resources for mental health support.
Sean Vale says
Thank you for providing your insights on effective weight loss strategies.Great article! The tips you shared are so helpful for maintaining good health.Great article! I completely agree that taking care of our health .Your article on the importance of mental health is a timely reminder that taking care of our emotional well-being is just as important as taking care of our physical health. It’s great to see more awareness and resources becoming available for mental health support.
Sean Vale says
Great article! The tips you shared are so helpful for maintaining good health.Great article! I completely agree that taking care of our health .Your article on the importance of mental health is a timely reminder that taking care of our emotional well-being is just as important as taking care of our physical health. It’s great to see more awareness and resources becoming available for mental health support.
Johann Steiner says
There are a lot more factors in nutrition than just what a person eats.
Various prescription pharmaceuticals affect metabolic rates and absorption levels. Included in those are antibiotics, which change the digestive biome.
Folks like myself who have gone through traumatic accidents that required steel bone implants – that are all high in nickel – will have other considerations. Elevated nickel means higher decarboxylation of L-histidine, hence elevated histamine. That’s a toxic byproduct of a toxin. It can potentially create autoimmune issues, and extreme food sensitivities, sensitivities to chemicals (like someone spraying a deodorizer in a bathroom, or a perfume on themselves, or even putting a chemical in their hair, using shampoos, etc.) One way to mitigate this is to become hypervigilant as to what foods they consume. Certain foods are higher in histamine, which – of course – is the wrong choice for a body that is already overloaded with histamine. Another factor to consider is supplementation. Zinc blocks the production of histamine… the hard part is that although zinc is essential, it can also be toxic in small amounts… So there really isn’t any diet for everyone. Each person that has a dietary issue will encounter their own caveats.
For me, its been a matter of eating specific foods since the late late nineties. But to my benefit, I’ve been a powerlifter since the late eighties, and have even ventured into a dozen or so triathlons throughout the last half decade. So, aside from being conscientious of what we consume, it’s also about choosing at least one type of sport that we love to do everyday (preferably something that we can do alone).
Anita Sandall says
Bio-individuality. Plus lifestyle and history and food intake.
I like how you treat this scathing at worst tongue in cheek at best – article – and answer it head on with valid points and clearly from genuine interest and personal experience.
His article did make me laugh though; he has a point. 🙂
Supriti Singh says
This article is the bomb! I can’t tell you how many fitness and diet ‘experts’ i’ve met who are charging good money to promise shortcut cures. Its frustrating to have spent 22 years in this field studying and training to be a Weight Management Specialist, and to have a johnny-come-lately trample all over authenticity. Thank you for addressing it. It is sad and true, but your article is light and gave me a good laugh! all the best!
SOUMYA HAJELA says
Hey! Kindly suggest me few titles for a book on Community Health and Nutrition.
Thanks!
Sal says
There is a lot of snake oil out there, BUT there is also a lot of experience. Science believes in “gold standard double-blind triple expert with half pike” quantification, but the experts are just as bound by groupthink and information overload as anyone else. The web is full of rubbish, but it is also full of good science and useful information that the medical groupthinkers haven’t got to yet. An intelligent, motivated fatty has the time to find this stuff out and sort the wheat from the chaff. (The expert will tend to think anyone who’s fat is unintelligent — but read the literature on biases before you go there.) Anecdotal evidence is (1) personally accurate (who cares if it’s placebo! USE placebo and marvel that the body is smarter than you are!) and (2) useful for triangulation of other methods. The ‘evidence-based medicine’ crowd are into groupthink big time; intuitive diagnosis has now gone out the window as management-based medicine has taken over (not to mention Big Pharma (statins! Prozac! ADHD!) . STATISTICALLY based ‘big data’ has its own limitations (so do meta-analyses) because the range of variables it is possible to include is far too small to yield a result that is reliably meaningful at the multi-factorial level of the individual. An “expert” is no more than a peer-approved, university-rubber-stamped degree holder (now = a paying customer in a certification factory selling guess what : certified groiupthink!) approved by the clique. “Fringe medicine” is a taboo and the province of nutters until guess what — until, say, someone gets a Nobel Prize for defying the experts and believing in rubbish like heliobacter pyloris as the cause of ulcers. Then we all sing from THAT songsheet as the truth. Same thing is happening all over the place. FINALLY scientists are doing (a bit) of real research into things that in the past were never looked into because no one would pay for it (e.g. non-BigPharma nutrients in coriander or turmeric — called “rubbish beliefs” because no scientific imprimatur had been given, but science also refused to look!)
So — while there is some truth in the observations, the holier-than-thou, cleverer-than-thou, snarky rant tone of this piece underlines the problem — intelligent non-experts have to find their way through fields abandoned by science because scientists refuse to look, are not getting paid for it and are NOT ACROSS the latest work. The field is full of misleading stuff, and not only from profiteering ignoramuses. Alternative-therapy haters like the ABC’s Norman Swan do a lot of damage by sneering at what they are unable to countenance. A bit of humility may be in order for you, Tim.
Anika says
Thank-you. This is exactly what I wanted to say. Well put.
Rebecca says
There are valid points made in this list (or dare I say, rant). Many books certainly aren’t written by those with nutritional qualifications, and there are ones which promise quick, but short term results. However, what this rant (sorry, LIST) fails to cover is the fact that many so-called “scientific studies” that have been carried out over the last few decades, have in fact being horribly biased, or the results completely fudged in order to provide the desired outcome. Ancel Keys has much to answer for. The 7 Countries Experiment? What a joke!
My biggest gripe is that if these studies are so accurate, then why the hell don’t they actually work in real life? I’ve tried to do what was recommended by doctors and dietitians. Sure, I lost weight. For a while. Then my body completely failed and all of the weight started piling back on, despite me not changing any part of my diet or activity behaviour. I was sick, fat and close to being chronically depressed.
Explain to me, how after deciding that conventional ideas were clearly not working for me, that by doing the opposite of current recommendations; increasing my intake of saturated fat, and reducing significantly my intake of sugar, grains and legumes, along with ceasing to count calories, worrying about portion sizes, or feeling guilty every damn time I put something in my mouth, that in the last year I have lost ten kilograms at a slow but steady rate.
You can spout science all you want, but I would much rather trust my own body than listen to an “expert” who clearly has his or her own agenda as to what is right and wrong, and God help anyone who comes up with an alternative solution that actually, you know, works!
It’s funny how many of these so-called diet books actually work better than anything the government health organisations currently have to offer, because they seem to completely refuse to even contemplate that current research may be inaccurate. Talk about a flat-earth society! Eating real food and removing problem ones (which are different for everyone) is much more effective than filling our bodies with disgusting processed low fat non-food that cause more problems that they ever fixed.
Susan Macey says
All diets work at one level. For lasting results you have to change your relationship to food. My blog susanmaceyphd.com talks about different aspects of that relationship. My new book..not published yet. In itsome pilot phase Keeping Weight Off Forever helps you change that relationship.
Anika says
Thank-you for your response. I was and am in the same boat as you. Here’s to doing the complete oppositeof whatthe experts recommended and finding my own path to health and happines. We can help each other to heal by sharing our best practices (with or without a degree in science, nutritionor medicine). We all have brains and have a free license to use them to or benefit or to our detrimen. It all comes down to making a choice.
Brenda says
Do you have to leave information on where you get your resourceful information? Say you write about garlic benifits. Must you put where you read that? I’m sure many of us have read and read about health but how do we give credit to our sources and do we have to?? That’s what has me stumped!
Peter says
Your use of sarcasm, which you obviously think is clever and effective, says a lot more about your personality than it does about the purported message about spurious weight loss books. That body of literature is indeed amusing but it is nowhere near as dangerous as a lot of what has passed for long periods as scientific (and hence “right”), promoted by arrogant fools who claim to be scientists and dietitians. How many people have you told to change their diet to reduce cholesterol because scientific studies show that cholesterol causes heart disease? In fact, quality scientific studies (not to mention some physiological common sense) clearly establish that this is a massive myth. There is a saying about glass houses and throwing stones that you might do well to reflect on Tim.
Anika says
Good points. I am glad I am not the only one who did not appreciate the veiled sarcasm.
mizanur rahman says
Obesity occurs when we eat more calories than we expend. But this simple statement belies the complex chemistry of the human body. Genetic, metabolic and environmental factors all play a role in energy regulation. And these differences explain why some people gain weight eating almost nothing while others eat constantly and never gain an ounce. While the cause of some obesity has been defined, as in the case of Prader-Willi Syndrome, or in small groups of people found to have a specific genetic mutation, such as leptin deficiency, most obesity is much more complex. Over the past 10 years scientists have uncovered many genes that contribute to feeding behavior and energy regulation, and current research indicates that defects in a number of brain and gut peptides play a role in weight. Researchers believe that most obesity is caused by small differences in food intake. As was found in the Framingham Heart Study, most adults will gain 20 pounds between 25 and 55 if no steps are taken to avoid weight gain. But that 20 pound gain represents a very small calorie excess, perhaps a tenth of a percent per year.