Martha Beck, PhD

Rodale,  December 2006

Everyone knows how to lose weight: eat less, move more. But though they know what to do, millions of dieters don't do what they know. Why not? Because they don't understand the brain-body dynamics of weight loss. Now, cutting-edge research has revealed that millions of overweight dieters are programming themselves to get fatter. These unlucky individuals are following typical weight-loss programs and are being trained to become thinner versions of themselves, like caterpillars becoming thinner caterpillars. In The Four-Day Win, Harvard-trained Oprah Magazine columnist Martha Beck, PhD, reverses this trend and teaches dieters to get lean from the brain outward. Instead of becoming thinner caterpillars, those who follow The Four-Day Win will metamorphose into butterflies, with entirely new bodies . . . for good.

In the book, Martha Beck observes that:

• Traditional dieting relies on the ability to go numb or to override physical and emotional feelings.
• Overeating is a self-calming compulsion similar to OCD -- dieters turn to food (and lots of it) when they're deprived of comfort.
• Overweight people can reverse the brain-body programming that is making them fat. Instead of attacking their bodies, they can learn to support them.

By ending each chapter with psychological exercises, Dr. Beck helps her readers to think thin and end their compulsion to overeat. For those who aren't patient enough to await the transformation that will inevitably follow, she also includes a Jump-Start weight-loss program that will help them shed pounds in the best way, both psychologically and physically.

As empathetic and funny as she is informative, Martha Beck provides readers with an easy and fail-proof way to change their lives.