Why Quantum Physicists Don’t Get Fat
Gregory Kuhn
This ‘novel’ is a weightloss guideline book. To clarify, I don’t actually need to lose weight, nor have I been actively trying to lose weight (other than reducing portion sizes because I now have a desk job). I have been the size I am now for the last 5 or so years, maybe longer, and I have never been overweight. I’m always interested in various weight things though, as now that I’m in my 20s I don’t want to find overnight I have gained a bunch of weight.
I liked the way the book used a couple of headlining scientist quotes for each chapter. However I got a bit annoyed with them as time went on as it felt like they interrupted the flow of the text, and as relevant as some of them were, other just felt like filler.
Kuhn really is quite sneaky in the way he positions the reader to take his opinion on and follow his weightloss strategies. You find yourself nodding along, and then bam! He hits you with something new. I loved the analogy of the browser for weight loss strategies. Neat! It explained the idea of changing the way you think to lose weight, and changing the strategies you use to do it.
The language is simple to understand and easy to read, even the more theoretical parts. I found myself 20% of the way through the book (thanks Kindle Cloud for telling me where I was up to) and not knowing how I got that far into it! Things went downhill from there though.
Chapter 9 is where the author loses me. He suddenly begins suggesting that our expectation that our parents love us makes the universe make them send us material expressions of love. Now, I agree to some extent that expectations can drive what you have been given, but also that those expectations do not magically change the cosmos. He then goes on to suggest that the real you is making the decisions, which seems a little counter-intuitive if you imagine that if that was your parents, they can’t be really making the decision sanymore, because it is you who is suggesting to them that they should give you presents.
As a scientist, I can’t accept Chapter 10 either. Those neuropeptides that do signal, which are created when you have a thought, they don’t support the evidence he just presented. Perhaps I’m clinging to old science here (and I’m sure that is what he would suggest), but I have no reason to. The suggestion that my cells have been reprogrammed by years of thinking ‘I’m smart’ to expect to be anything other than being smart is ludicrous. It’s still possible to make stupid decisions, even if you are thinking (or perhaps because you are thinking) ‘I’m smart’. I particularly have a problem with this style of thinking, because it implies that people with mental illnesses have programmed themselves to expect to be sick. If cognitive behaviour therapy (which is aimed at changing the way you intitively think) worked the way this author is suggesting fat busting works, there wouldn’t be any more mental illness.
So you can probably tell that by this point in the book I was feeling pretty irritated at the author. I kept reading though in the hopes that the second half of the book would be better because it was time for part 2.
The conversational tone of this novel made me as the reader feel like it was me alone being talked to. I can imagine that this is something that some people would like, because it brings to mind a supportive figure who is going to help you through your weight-loss goals.
Chapter 12 and 13 make excellent points, and I can understand their relevance. Feelings are a thermometer for your state of being! I do agree that feelings play a powerful role, but not that you can overcome everything with them as the author is suggesting. The author then suggests that because I feel that some of the things he has said are ‘silly’, I either don’t have unwanted weight, or I’m not in enough pain over my weight to try something new.
You must honestly feel good about everything you eat. If you eat the cake, you must truely appreciate it. Don’t eat it, if it doesn’t make you feel good. What this book asks of you is a complete mindset chnge, that even with a manual like this one, is very hard to achieve on your own. It is easy to continue to eat the way you always have, but you now need to feel good about whatever it is you are doing to try lose weight.
I was looking for a real rational approach to losing weight, a handbook of approach, things that I could use to prevent gaining weight. I didn’t find it here, and I didn’t really find anything here particularly worthwhile. This book really seems like another fad ‘diet’ to me – change the way you think, and the weight will magically drop off. Don’t bother reading the whole thing – skip straight to chapter 15-17 with the eating, moving and 6 major points, and you will probably have gotten the most out of this book with the least effort.
