"Kolata lays out the case against the nation's multibillion-dollar weight-loss industry with compelling clarity."--The New York Sun

"An incisive, thought-provoking examination of a subject that concerns us all. This book will educate and illuminate those seeking solid information about the struggle to lose weight."--Jerome Groopman, M.D., author of How Doctors Think

"[Kolata] questions the current chest-beating in this sobering examination of why diets fail."--People (four stars, critic’s choice)

"[Kolata] punctuates her eight chapters with the voices of a cluster of dieters, [and] their stories add human consequence to the universal findings."--The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

"A first-rate author . . . Readers who care about the searing obesity debate will want to read this book."--Houston Chronicle

"[Kolata's] report reveals well-documented intelligence certain to annoy those segments of society and commerce that stubbornly cling to the ignis fatuus that all one needs to be thin is willpower."--Booklist

"This book will make you think differently about obesity and perhaps make the obese think more realistically about themselves."--The Arizona Republic