Book: Cutting Myself in Half by Taylor Lebaron

I was curious after seeing  some blurb somewhere about a kid who lost "half his weight" from a technology-inspired diet plan. The book was called Cutting Myself in Half by Tayler LeBaron. My wife picked it up for me off my Amazon wishlist as a gift.

The gist of it: Taylor was overweight, around 300 pounds, and decided to lose weight using the good old fashioned method of eating less and exercising more. He developed his own system modeling calories into "money", like in a video game. He had enemies to avoid, like sugars and frivolous snacking, and allotted himself a certain amount of money to spend each day (calories) that once spent was over for the day. He based his daily money to spend on his calculated BMR (basal metabolic rate) and could adjust his intake by exercising at the YMCA.

Like certain other higher profile "systems" he took the tried and true...calories in, calories out...method of losing weight and adjusted his lifestyle by changing his perspective so it would be more like playing a video game. And it apparently worked for him. You can see for yourself at the website he set up.

Okay...now, I'm not going to begrudge him success in losing weight. The book outlines some of the things he went through that stress-wise contributed to his teenage bloating, and it's not something I'd wish on a kid. Parents divorced, his mother was in three car accidents, and there was a housefire. Yikes! And he found a way to channel his weight issues and his stresses into a new lifestyle, which is great.

But the book...not something for older people. If I didn't know anything at all about the author, I would have pegged it as being written at the level of a newspaper audience. The sentences were simplistic and repetitive. It was a bit bland in spots, and slow going. I really thought it was something written by a younger teenager and then run through the literary equivalent of an auto-tuner.

Some of the advice in the book was something I kind of cringed at. I didn't run this through a dietitician, and Taylor made it clear that he had arrived at his own advice through online experts (I get wary with anything that lists anonymous experts...maybe it was too many years reading Weekly Readers in elementary school where it was "expert this" and "expert that"...if you don't put specific names and citations, anonymity seems to be there for a reason, and I question it doubly so when the information relates to health claims) and not from direct doctors.

For example, he repeatedly credits his addiction to Coke Zero for saving him calories. He loves water, Coke Zero, or a combination of the two, while talking about his goal of overall fitness.

I loved soda. I only gave it up because my doctor basically forced me to. But while I drank gallons of it a week I was also very aware that soda, diet or regular, was NOT healthy. Quick rule of thumb; take something you like, read the ingredient list, and if there's something in it that you can't pronounce, chances are you should cut back on it. Soda has a number of things in it that are there purely as chemical enhancements, and many many studies have had links that arouse suspicion that diet drinks cause reactions in the stomach that prevent you from feeling sated, meaning you end up eating more or feeling hungrier in the long run. Sure, it saves calories, especially compared to regular soft drinks. The downside is that the chemicals in it could be doing some weird stuff to your innards.

Personally I would have preferred it if he brought up the differences between regular and diet drinks, with the caveat that it's better to drink them in moderation if you don't cut them out completely. I was also slightly irritated at the constant Coke Zero this, Coke Zero that. Another tip...if they're not giving you cash, cut out the constant free advertising. Just say diet drink or diet soft drink, or mention the drink you love very much once or twice. Stop hammering me in the head with an advertisement.

Second, he brings up protein bars. He works out, he's made it his goal to work on his strength. That's great! He does bring up information that has popped up in my own research regarding how muscles rebuild during "down time" by repairing microtears, and to do that he needs protein. He talks about salmon and chicken and other meats, but then mentions protein bars.

I don't know if he's read what I've read, but protein bars aren't really necessarily great for you. Many are misleading in the name "protein bar", containing a log of sugar that is uneeded, or more chemical substitutes to enhance or introduce certain flavors. If protein bars are a must on your list you really really should read the labels and do some investigative work, or see what you can conjure up in your own kitchen.

Again, all of his techniques worked for him, and that's great. He found a perspective that helped him make a big life change, much like The Hacker's Diet really influenced my own perspective. The book itself just wasn't quite my cup of tea. It became evident that he was aiming his book at the younger teen crowd, and the writing style had me kind of slogging through the potatoes to find the meat at times, so to speak.

The book was a cross between educational, "Here's how I did it" writing for teens and a blog. I think it was the plugs for Coke and the Zune that started making me wonder if this was a long blog entry turned into a book, while the simplistic tone and style cemented my opinion that this was for younger teens by a younger teen.

It also gave a number of skim-overs on topics without delving into anything in particular (the deepest background I can recall was discussing muscle tears healing in order to become stronger). Good sign of a book that is either trying to sell you on a system or is for kids; a tone of "just do this and it works, nevermind why or how it works."

So if you have an overweight video gamer on your hands that can't quite bridge the gap between reality and video games, this book might be good for them if they want to lose weight, as it basically outlines at the highest level how to turn losing weight into a long video game. Otherwise it probably isn't going to be of much use outside of being a feelgood story of a kid who took the initiative to lose extra pounds. For a better perspective on looking at weight loss from a technology-minded person, i.e., delving into the mechanics of losing weight without a gimmick, use Google (or the link embedded in the blog posting) to check out The Hacker's Diet, which gives the same basic message (cut back calories and exercise more...for the right reasons...) without the product plugs or the teenager-specific simplistic sentence structure.