Conquering Fat Logic: How to Overcome What We Tell Ourselves about Diets, Weight, and Metabolism

A long-overdue reckoning with widespread lies about diets and weight loss

After years of failed diets, Dr Nadja Hermann weighed 150 kg at the age of 30. All her life, she had heard and read about hundreds of reasons why diets wouldn’t work for her. But when her weight started to seriously affect her health, she took a hard look at the science and realised that most of what she believed about dieting was a myth. What was more, those very myths were preventing her from losing weight.

Forget clean eating, paleo, or fasting―it was conquering these elements of ‘Fat Logic’ that finally led to Hermann achieving a healthy weight. One and a half years later, she weighed 65 kg, and has maintained that weight to this day. Now, using humour, the insight she’s acquired, and a dose of science, Hermann debunks widespread lies about weight loss, and shows how it is possible to attain a healthy weight.

Nadja Hermann is a behavioural psychologist with a background in nutritional science. She meticulously documented her own weight loss, researched countless scientific studies, drew cartoons to illustrate what she learned, and initially self-published an e-book in which she debunked all the old lies about losing weight. She also launched her blog fettlogik.wordpress.com, which has attracted many hundreds of followers. She lives with her husband in southern Germany.

David Shaw works as a journalist for Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, as well as translating from several languages, including German, Dutch, Russian, and French. He lives in Berlin.