Hey Linda, the book was 99 cents, and it was worth that. Here is a summary. Your body has a biologically regulated fat set point. Unless you lower it, you will forever be fighting your biology. Environment plays a role in this set point. Things that raise the set point:
1. hyper-palatible food
2. eating too many calories on a consistent basis
3. too man PUFAs
4. not enough sleep
5. food or calorie restriction (includes restricting carb, fat, sugar, etc restriction)
6. not enough light (bad circadian rhythms etc)
7. Sitting all day / inactivity
8. Stress / Over-exercise
All points agree with Matt Stone except hyper-palatible food and over eating. Matt believes you need huge amounts of calories to heal your body and therefore recommends eating hyper-palatible food, but Ari believes that such strong flavors cause a neurological disregulation in the brain similar to drugs resulting in over-eating and a higher set point. Matt believed you could lower your set point through over- eating because the extra food would lower cortisol, increasing insulin sensitivity and would increase leptin circulation. These would raise metabolism. Matt believes that gaining the weight is your body readjusting to your existing set point, but also provides benefits like increased leptin.
Ari would agree that while some initial weight gain may occur if you remove a forced depravation, eating processed food with its aggressive flavors will only aggregate the problem of weight gain by raising your set point. His solution, eat simple (bland), healthy foods to fullness. Do not restrict calories, but limit PUFAs. Sleep. Stop sitting all day. Get adequate light. The only difference between Matt and Ari is not over-eating and not eating processed or highly palatable foods which in many ways are the same thing.