Science-Backed Hacks To Hit Your Body Goals

No more diets! A revolutionary new book promises to help you take control of your weight – for good

- Helen Foster

Google ‘weight loss plan’ and you'll be served up an overwhelming 500 million or so results. Complete keto. Targeted fat loss. Kilojoule counting. Seven-day, 21-day and 16-week options. What do they all have in common? Like that one ex, they keep you coming back – whether it’s healthy (or so not). That’s according to Dr Michael Greger, a US physician and author of 2015 bestseller How Not to Die and the new book – we like what he’s done here – How Not to Diet (Pan Macmillan, $34.99). “I’m sick and tired of the nutritional nonsense that comes out of the diet industry – it’s an endless parade of quick-fix fads that always sell because they always fail,” he says. “My goal was to stick to the science, create an evidence-based diet book and find every possible tip, trick, tweak and technique proven to accelerate the loss of body fat. It was then a case of building the optimal weight-loss plan from the ground up.” The aim? By following the science, you only have to lose excess kilos once, then maintain it. No more diets. A promise like that brings the word ‘unicorn’ to mind. Greger and his team didn’t take this quest lightly, combing through 500,000-plus research papers about obesity and slimming down, on the hunt for proven factors that lead to weight loss. “We came up with 17 elements in food that appeared to independently contribute to weight loss, and a heap of other factors that might also play a role,” he explains. As a WH reader, you won’t be surprised at many of them: watch your sugar and fat intake; go for low-GI foods; eat more fibre. But some are more unusual. So, skip Google and come with us. Your restriction-free, science-fuelled unicorn awaits.

1 When you eat matters