Burn: The Misunderstood Science of Metabolism

Too much personal narrative and trips down ‘memory Lane’. It’s difficult to extrapolate the facts being presented from the author’s rambling memories of time spent in the field. If you want a clear and succinct presentation, and a book full of new facts, argument and counter-argument, you might be disappointed trying to find them in such a chunky-looking volume.I agree with the previous reviewer that he is getting into an area -weight loss- that perhaps he’s not a specialist in, and comes across as a bit miffed that the old findings from his days in the field are no longer the ‘be all and end all’ in this area.I didn’t find anything new or groundbreaking being presented in this book...Just sneering at the other emerging science/scientists is, at best, boring.

Enjoyable and easy read except the part explaining the kleb cycle I came across this when doing a short course on nutrition and never really understood it and still dont. I get the concept and moved on. It is quite a long read and I did not get as much out of it as I would have liked. You only burn 50 kcals walking a mile, calculation of basic metabolic rate. Very interesting when explaining how your body has a limit on how many calories you burn no matter how much you exercise. Need to move more etc and wonderful references to the latest scientific studies from all over the world. Exercise is not effective when trying to lose weight but great for other things and also for keeping your weight off once you lose it. I originally ordered this book then cancelled it when I checked the index and there was no mention of alcohol which is 10% of my daily diet and much higher for friends and family. I am glad I changed my mind thought. I don't understand how he says a mans daily calorie intake is 2,500 -3000. I did a food diary for 1 year and mine was just under 2000 a day to maintain my weight.

This book gripped me from the start. OK, so I am a scientist, albeit I worked on plants, and this helped me with following the biochemistry described in parts of the book. Over the years I put on quite a bit of weight, but over the past two and a half years I lost 4 stone, mostly through cutting down on my calorie intake in a way I knew I could sustain in the long term. Reading this book has helped me understand why simply cutting down the calories allowed me to lose weight, when years of strenuous exercise did virtually nothing for my weight loss. This book is well worth reading: it is very well written, easy to follow, and is a real eye opener. And it makes sense. I encourage anyone wanting to lose weight, and even if you simply want to understand more about how the human body controls our metabolism and weight, to read this book.

It's engagingly written with facts and stories and some unexpected findings which were only determined by being able to actually properly measure human metabolic activity over a sustained period. I always puzzled a bit when reading all the usual dietary and fitness articles as to how your body knew whether it should store or burn fat at any point as it wouldn't know whether you were going to eat or exercise later.This explains that it's not the simple base rate plus exercise that many other sources quote but a complicated web of interconnecting factors where your body does its damndest to stop you burning too much or eating too little and in many ways the choice of diet doesn't matter (for weight loss that is, nutrition is another matter). The findings of why the hunter gatherers were lean flew in the face of the usual logic.I've read it twice already.

The author uses his and his peer’s lifetime of research to date and delivers this to the reader in a fascinating and informative narrative to help us get the facts about metabolism. All the glossy mags provide the latest ideas and fads of how to lose weight but this book gives the scientific understanding that is vital to provide us with the knowledge to live a healthy life and to realise why we are the way we are. Best book I’ve read in years.