[Note: eBook version of latest edition now available; see Amazon author page for details.] The author is an MIT PhD who has won multiple teaching awards. This is an empowering personal account of his success in fighting obesity and the obesity gene. There are no recipes, no menu plans, and no exercise plans. Rather, this is a book about informed decision making. It contains information, observations, and advice designed to help you make a powerful choice: the choice to attain and maintain good health and a healthy weight. It was written especially for people who have tried to get to a healthy weight already and have failed, perhaps more than once. This book is about being committed and making powerful choices. You will not find a picture of a half-dressed impossibly fit young man or woman on the front cover of this book. Few, if any, overweight people can achieve that level of fitness, and books with images like that are misleading for most readers. Instead, this book is full of hard truths and successful techniques for achieving a healthy weight. The author's personal experiences mean that he is unafraid to write openly and honestly about being fat and unhealthy and how to fight these successfully---even in the face of a genetic predisposition towards obesity. This book is supportive, but in an honest tough-love kind of way. The book contains references to and discussion of more than 40 recent research studies. These include medical journal articles from top journals, respected government research, articles from top university researchers, and other related research. Although many of the articles are written at an advanced level, the discussion of them in the book is simplified to make them accessible to all. Some people will find this book offensive because the author calls a spade a spade. He referred to himself as "fat" when he was fat, and argues that being open and honest about it was liberating. If you cannot label yourself as "fat," because you view this term as offensive, rather than a simple statement of scientific fact, then don't buy this book. Some people will find this book hubristic because the author gives multiple examples of making powerful choices in his own life with successful outcomes, and because he presents techniques to get healthy that worked for him. If you easily mistake advice from successful people for hubris, then don't buy this book. If, however, you have reached a stage in your life where you are ready to be honest about being fat, and you are ready to accept advice from someone who has been in your shoes and in your head, then this may be the book to change your life.