Very interesting new look at diet culture and nutrition. I found this very readable and I'd be intrigued to read more from Giles Yeo.

Why Calories Don't Count by Giles Yeo is about the science of weight loss and why diets succeed and fail.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for a free ARC of this ebook in return for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. The author is well known as a result of his TV appearances. He writes extremely well in a fun and engaging style. This book explores some of the myths and misconceptions and food and weight loss, and it's done very well. I highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in dietary and weight loss related subjects.

This is a seriously erudite and authoritative book on a subject that fascinates many of us. He writes well, with amusing and entertaining anecdotes helping to illustrate the serious research that he explains. This is definitely a book for dedicated readers who want to fully understand the science. It is not, however, a manual for how to quickly find the all encompassing solution to how to effortlessly lose weight. The advice is there, but it is well buried in the detailed explanations. It would be so helpful to have brief summaries at the end of each chapter and a resumé of the key points of advice. Perhaps the author would consider writing a simplified version that would be useful not just to researchers but also to the general public?

Why Calories Don't Count is an interesting, insightful and thought-provoking read for anyone wishing to lose weight or understand more about how their body processes the food we consume. What if everything we knew about dieting, healthy eating and calorie counting was wrong? It’s this concept that forms the crux of Author Giles Yeo’s eye-opening new book, which aims to dispel some of the most common misconceptions we all fall victim to whenever we try getting into shape. Throughout the title, Yeo pulls from his academic background as an obesity researcher at Cambridge University to rewire our understanding of diets and explain why not all calories are created equal.

By explaining why popular diet schemes often succeed – and then ultimately fail – and how our environment can impact our wellbeing. This fact-packed book will leave you with practical, science-based advice on how you can regain control of your eating habits. Dr Yeo explains how, beyond the calories values that we read on food labels there is a complex system of mechanisms that can modify that number in relation to what we eat and how we cook food; it not not merely a numbers game. Starting from the current method used to calculate calories, Dr Yeo describes how our body produces energy and why it is important to understand that the criteria on which a healthy diet is based cannot be reduced to single parameter such as the number of calories contained in foods.

Written with his accessible, good-humoured style, it unravels this hugely complex topic and argues that understanding our genes and the biology likely to impact our food intake, as well as external environmental factors, is essential if we are to effectively tackle the obesity epidemic and improve our health. This pioneering book is a ray of light in our murky post-truth climate - a celebration of evidence-based science that everyone can digest. It reminds us that a once size fits all approach to dieting does not exist and that it is a matter of trial and error to find out what works for you and your unique body. Highly recommended.

Thoroughly researched with a huge depth of scientific information thankfully punctuated with Giles’ good humour, personal anecdotes and fortunately, his empathy towards those striving to achieve a healthy body. I was hoping for an ‘in a nutshell’ revelation, as at times I felt I was ploughing through reams of data, however it was worth the journey as he articulately rounds up leaving you food for thought.

If you are looking for a quick read and trying to find “the” popular diet to solve your weight problems, this is not the book for you! But if you really want to understand how our bodies process food, and how what we eat affects general health and weight gain, then this is a thought provoking and valuable book.
The first chapters which cover the science behind nutrition, digestion and calories are scientific and definitely not a quick read. However, the writing style is superb; detailed, yet with snatches of comment and wit to make it relevant to even an unscientific reader. But even if you decide to skim-read the first chapters, it is worth persevering to get to the chapters which detail the importance of protein and fibre, and analyse all the popular diets and fads. I found this section really interesting; fact based, and very clear to understand, including a very balanced view on the value of a vegan diet.

I had been eagerly anticipating this book being published for some time, so was delighted to be able to read an ARC.

I bought Giles Yeo’s Gene Obesity book several years ago and have reread sections of it many times. The way he writes is relatable, humorous and reassuring. Is that a strange thing to admit? Here is partly why: Giles Yeo is a Cambridge geneticist undertaking Government funded research into obesity. He is also a TV presenter. Several years ago he went on a month long vegan diet for a BBC programme. Being vegan brought about very good results; 10lbs of weight lost and lowered levels of cholesterol. On his way home he bought cheese and onion crisps to celebrate and then had a weekend of feasting on lots and lots of non-vegan foodstuffs. He gained back half of what he had lost in five days. If an obesity expert is drawn to overcompensating for a monthlong health kick, then we can be a lot more kinder to ourselves when we lapse. Read about the effect of genes on determining our bodyweight and the potential to become obese and you may also feel reassured; it’s not laziness, it’s not your own fault. Particularly read this book if you have felt like you’ve been on a diet for many years of your adult life, if you feel frustrated by the conflicting advice and diktats about what we must and must not eat, and do to lose weight. Giles breaks many popular diets down into fairly* understandable terms; explaining why some can be effective, debunking miracle claims of others from a scientific standpoint and highlighting slightly dodgy aspects to downright potentially health harming claims of others. (Hint: do not try the carnivore diet.)

What he doesn’t do is actually tell you which diet is THE ONE. A fact he accepts you will find frustrating. I do and I don’t. While I would love to have someone tell me exactly what to eat more, or less of to lose weight, I have taken in enough of what he’s written to know we all respond to different foods differently. There is no one way. The facts about calories and calorific availability is not a surprise having read his Gene Obesity book, though I suspect it may be to many rigid calorie counters. The rather complicated alternative method of adapting calorie values lost me. That’s certainly not something I will do, especially as I’ve never been a dedicated calorie count follower anyway.
I think we all have an inkling of what does and doesn’t work for us. As he writes; it’s about finding a diet that we can live with comfortably long term.

My asterisk after fairly understandable? Well, I do not have a particularly mathematical or scientific brain, so am going to admit to finding the first three chapters of the book very hard going. I skimmed read lots of the paragraphs. I am going to keep an eye on subsequent reviews, because I suspect I will not be the only one. It is difficult to understand how we extract energy from food and digest and use the component parts, a fact which the author admits, I wonder if it could have been explained in more easily accessible terms? The diaphragms left me cold too.

It’s a complex subject but I do like reading books that are not dumbed down, which challenge and make me grapple with important concepts. (Even if I end up skimming parts.)

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an ARC.

Not a book if you want to be told how to lose weight. It is, as it says, a book to debunk everything that marketing media want you to believe about calories - that there is a magic way to lose and keep off weight. For that, we all know in our heart of hearts 'all' we have to do is eat less than we actually need! He starts with a thorough section on calories various and our digestive processes. These sections all have a succinct summary at the end if you are too fazed by the science - but that's worth reading. Later chapters take the reader through the history of the major diet fads and explaining the logic, where present, behind them. It loses a star because his alternative calorie value calculations are a step too far for me, I'd rather be cooking a nice piece of venison fillet with a lot of vegetables and a fancy sauce, Thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I found 'why calories don't count' to be a book relevant to anyone with any interest in this area - it would appeal to the reader concerned about their own health and nutrition, while its more scientific chapters would appeal to readers who have a professional interest. It is sufficiently new and scientific to cover all bases. As a reader with a personal interest on this topic, but without a huge knowledge/ interest in science, I still found the majority of this book readable and interesting. It is refreshing to find a book on this topic that quite authentically cuts through the BS! On the basis of information I have gleamed from this book I have taken action with regard to my own nutrition. That there are a few recipes at the end of the book was a delightful surprise!

My thanks to NetGalley, author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.