Excerpt from “Rethinking Thin”

There is an excerpt from Gina Kolata’s new book, Rethinking Thin (Amazon), in today’s NYT Science section:

The implications were clear. There is a reason that fat people cannot stay thin after they diet and that thin people cannot stay fat when they force themselves to gain weight. The body’s metabolism speeds up or slows down to keep weight within a narrow range. Gain weight and the metabolism can as much as double; lose weight and it can slow to half its original speed.

That, of course, was contrary to what every scientist had thought, and Dr. Sims knew it, as did Dr. Hirsch.

I just got Rethinking Thin in the mail, and will hopefully post a few thoughts about it in the next week.