Book Review - Waist Disposal by Dr John Briffa

I've been reading John Briffa's blog for quite a while. He is a medical doctor with a column in the Observer, but is something of an opponent of the Conventional Wisdom. Basically he holds to a low carb / primal diet, but he is not really an "athlete" so his advice and analysis comes across as much more down to earth than some

He has now written a book on weightloss for men - Waist Disposal: the ultimate fat loss manual for men.

Here is an interview about the book:



This is the sort of book that you could give to your skeptical friend or your wife. It is written in accessible language but makes good reference to scientific studies to support the argument. One feature that I like is that each chapter ends with a summary of the key points. If you wanted you could just read the final page of each chapter and get a good grounding in the arguments.

All the standard stuff is here :

• why calorie counting doesn't work;
• why carbs are a problem;
• why fat isn't fattening; and
  
• why protein matters.

There is also some treatment of exercise, but it is realistic - it is the diet that is key. It is pretty basic in terms of exercise but if you want more than this there are other books out there. (Basically walk lots and do some simple resistance training is his prescription.)

Overall it is a good book. Nothing that new if you have the sort of thing that I link to, but it is probably a book written in an accessible way so you could pass it on