The Philosopher's Diet: How to Lose Weight & Change the World (Nonpareil Book, 81)

Rating:
Summary: Love it or hate it, it's unique
Review: As the other reviews show, people seem to either love or hate this book. If you come to this book looking for a lot of physiological or nutritional information, you're bound to be disappointed. That is not this book's aim, and as others point out it is quite old to boot.

What this book is great at is helping you (and me) stick to it. Watson makes no bones about 2 basic facts: the only way to lose weight is to use up more calories than you take in, and the only way to lose weight and keep it off for the rest of your life is to change your life. He reminds the reader again and again (in entertaining language) that changing our lives sounds immensely easy and is immensely hard. His facing this head-on and discussing it so wittily is what makes his book special *and* effective.

To the extent that Watson offers a "diet," it may be annoyingly simple. Other reviewers here have pretty well summarized it. But don't buy (or reject) this book for that reason. Buy it and read it and reread it because it delves intelligently into a central, unsolved problem: If we know what we want to do, and what we want to do is "only" a matter of imposing our will on our actions, why is it so bloody hard to *do* what we want to do?

Rating:
Summary: Love it or hate it, it's unique
Review: As the other reviews show, people seem to either love or hate this book. If you come to this book looking for a lot of physiological or nutritional information, you're bound to be disappointed. That is not this book's aim, and as others point out it is quite old to boot.

What this book is great at is helping you (and me) stick to it. Watson makes no bones about 2 basic facts: the only way to lose weight is to use up more calories than you take in, and the only way to lose weight and keep it off for the rest of your life is to change your life. He reminds the reader again and again (in entertaining language) that changing our lives sounds immensely easy and is immensely hard. His facing this head-on and discussing it so wittily is what makes his book special *and* effective.

To the extent that Watson offers a "diet," it may be annoyingly simple. Other reviewers here have pretty well summarized it. But don't buy (or reject) this book for that reason. Buy it and read it and reread it because it delves intelligently into a central, unsolved problem: If we know what we want to do, and what we want to do is "only" a matter of imposing our will on our actions, why is it so bloody hard to *do* what we want to do?

Rating:
Summary: The ONLY diet book you may ever need
Review: How many diet books have you read which also have sections on Sex and How to Live? Well, this one does and it is written in a no-nonsense fashion but with plenty of humor too. The author pulls no punches as he shares both his secrets for weight control and living well. This may be one of the most eccentric books you'll ever read, full of philosophical musics and random digressions, but it could also be the key to successful and long-term weight loss. Plus there is a killer recipe for bran muffins that not only taste good but provide plenty of fiber (another key to successful weight loss).

Rating:
Summary: Not recommended for long-term weight loss
Review: I have to admit I didn't make it past the first chapter of this book, for two reasons. First, his insinuation that people who are drastically overweight (which by his definition appears to be more than 30 pounds) don't really care and aren't serious about losing weight. Now THAT's motivation! Second, his recommendation of a draconian 900-calorie-a-day diet, when it's been proven time and again that deprivation diets (just like the fad "grapefruit and steak" diets to which he refers) don't work in the long run. Mr. Watson may be a professional philosopher, but he is obviously not a weight-loss expert (and if he consulted with any while writing this book, I didn't see that referenced anywhere). So while the book may provide some entertaining and perhaps even valuable advice on behavior and life in general, its diet advice should be taken with a grain of salt. Most important, check with your doctor before beginning ANY weight-loss program!!

Rating:
Summary: Something different to change your viewpoint
Review: If you've been falling on and off the diet and exercise wagon for awhile now, you may be beginning to realize that the problem isn't your plan, but your ability to stick to it - and that your ability to stick to it is low because you HATE doing it. How do you change the way you view diet and exercise? Can you ever come to see it in a way that you'll like it, rather than view it as something you MUST do but hate doing? If you're looking for a new viewpoint, I highly recommend this book. It isn't about "how-to" stuff so much as it's about WHY to, and a new way of looking at things. It's an easy read, and well worth your time and money. You will particularly enjoy it if you like philosophy, but that's by no means a prerequisite.

Rating:
Summary: Not Much Wisdom
Review: Richard Watson's advice on dieting is basic and well-known: eat less, eat healthier food, and exercise more. He tells the reader to get specifics in these areas from other books. If your goal is to lose weight quickly, without transforming your life, this book is not for you. Read it if you want to be challenged to live your life more thoughtfully, with more awareness of why you make your choices. You must have a sense of irony to read this book, and you must exercise your own judgment. Watson doesn't want you to agree with him; he wants you to reason with him. It's an engaging and thought-provoking book.

Rating:
Summary: Losing weight and changing the world...
Review: Richard Watson, a philosophy professor, is opinionated enough for all of us - he will tell us how to lose weight, how to exercise more, and how to be happy and all in a very slim paperback of 109 pages. The writing is very amusing and the author will make you laugh. Basically, however, is does admit that losing weight is very, very hard and this is a refreshing change from all of the diet books that say do this and do that and you will be thin and happy. Professor Watson's diet is to stick to 900 calories a day until the day you've lost all the weight you want to lose - stick to it - whether it takes 10 months or 10 years. After you lose the weight - start running - every day. This book is no different from other books in the message - eat less, exercise more - but the writing is funny, clever and charming and should be read as humor rather than as a basis for life change.

Rating:
Summary: weight loss, common sense, and taking charge of your life
Review: There is so much to love about this little gem. The author speaks to you like a curmudgeonly uncle who takes you seriously enough not to coddle you or offer you comforting excuses. You want to lose weight? Fine. It's going to be the hardest thing you've ever done, but here's how you go about it. While everyone else is counting calories and grams of this and that, he cuts straight to the point: cut calories (900 may be too few for some people, but he gets your attention with the dramatically low figure) and exercise (again, 4 miles in 30 minutes may be a bit much to ask for some of us penguins, but he doesn't set the bar too low to be a challenge). His voice, while caring, is uncompromising. He is not sympathetic in the cloying manner of many self-help gurus, but in the manner of a teacher who is confident that you can do what you set out to do - as he has - and if you don't succeed, it's because you don't really want to. Some people have medical conditions that may contribute to weight gain, and his simple approach does not address those complexities. I think the author would suggest that you know enough to take care of yourself, which is what this is all about anyway. He removes the weight loss/diet genre from the gnostic realm of medical professionals, and returns it to the accessible realm of common sense, where it belongs. The book is a metaphor for how you can take charge of your own life, give meaning to your own life, without waiting for someone with credentials to tell you you're doing it all wrong if you don't do it his/her way. If you're looking for more complexity, you may be looking for a program that's so difficult to follow that it comes with its own built-in excuses. You won't find excuses here, but encouragement and prodding. Americans are not fat and slovenly because we've failed to eat nothing but protein or failed to find The Zone, but because we eat too much and don't get enough exercise. Do something about that, and then, with the discipline you develop in the process, go change the world, why don'tcha. Lose the weight, and get over it.

Rating:
Summary: Might change your life - it's up to you
Review: Watson presents a simple formula for long term weight loss along with the philosophical argument for why this is a worthy aim. A quite inventive concept that made a real impact on me. I doubt that I read much here that I didn't already know about the fundamentals of exercise/weight loss/nutrition/eating habits. Let's face it, we all know what is and isn't good for us. But this book coupled the simple rules of weight loss to the all important WHY to make the life change needed to allow us to lose excess pounds and keep them off.

Eat less - more healthy food - exercise more - I know all this. yet as I sit here today there is some reason I haven't changed my habits. The Philosopher's Diet did an excellent job of rationalizing why I should act differently.

Bottom line - this book has encouraged me to get and stay in the shape I desire much more than anything else I've run across, probably because it challenges the reader to take the road less traveled, and I like a challenge.

Rating:
Summary: A Diet for Thinking People
Review: While I'm not going to eat only 900 calories a day, and I'm not going to run seven days a week, I am going to take most of the messages in this book to heart. The advice is nothing new, the author admits. But the way he presents it made me laugh and made me want to try his approach. If you're looking for a quick fix and easy solutions, you're not going to find them. If you're looking to take control of your weight (and your life) this book just might be the one you need.