Thinking in Circles About Obesity [electronic resource] : Applying Systems Thinking to Weight Management /
Hamid, Tarek K. A.author.
Thinking in Circles about Obesity: Applying Systems Thinking to Weight Management Tarek K.A. Hamid, Operational and Information Sciences, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California Low-carb…low-fat…high-protein…high-fiber…Americans are food-savvy, label-conscious, calorie-aware—and still gaining weight in spite of all their good intentions. Worse still, today’s children run the risk of a shorter life expectancy than their parents. Thinking in Circles About Obesity brings a healthy portion of critical thinking, spiced with on-target humor and lively graphics, to the obesity debate. Systems and medical physiology scholar Tarek Hamid unites systems (non-linear) thinking and information technology to provide powerful insights and practical strategies for managing our weight and our health. Hamid’s clear insights dispel dieters’ unrealistic expectations and illuminate dead-end behaviors to tap into a deeper understanding of how the body works, why it works that way, and how to better manage it. Included are innovative tools for: • Understanding why diets almost always fall short of our expectations. • Assessing weight gain, loss, and goals with greater accuracy. • Abandoning one-size-fits-all solutions in lieu of personal solutions that do fit. • Replacing outmoded linear thinking with feedback systems thinking. • Getting the most health benefits from information technology. •Making behavior and physiology work in sync instead of in opposition. Given the current level of the weight crisis, the ideas in Thinking in Circles About Obesity have much to offer clinical and health psychologists, primary care physicians, public health professionals, parents, and lay readers. For those struggling with excess weight, this book charts a new path in health decision making, to see beyond calorie charts, body mass indexes, and silver bullets.
Description based upon print version of record.
Includes bibliographical references and index at the end of each chapters.
Mismanaging the Obesity Threat -- Like Boiled Frogs -- How We Changed Our Environment, and Now Our Environment Is Changing Us -- Unbalanced Act -- Human–Environment Interactions: Not One Way … and Not One-Way -- Tilting the Energy Balance: More Energy In -- Tilting the Energy Balance: Less Energy Out -- Individual Differences -- Is Ad-Lib Behavior Killing Us? -- We Can’t Manage What We Don’t Understand -- The Energy Balance Equation: Reigning Intellectual Paradigm or Straitjacket? -- What We Know that Ain’t So -- Closing the Loops on Energy Balance: Energy Output Side -- Closing the Loops on Energy Balance: Energy Input Side -- Beyond Physiology: Closing the Behavior–Physiology Loop -- Looking Back and Looking Forward -- We Can’t Manage What We Mis-Predict -- Learning by Doing -- “Give Us the Tools, and We Will Finish the Job” -- A Microworld for Weight and Energy Regulation -- Experiment 1: Assessing Weight Loss—Reality Versus Fiction -- Experiment 2: Going Ballistic—On a Diet -- Experiment 3: Understanding Why 250 Pounds Does Not Equal 250 Pounds -- Experiment 4: Trading Treatment Options—Diet Versus Exercise -- PhDs for the Masses? (That’s Personal Health Decision support) -- Prevention and Beyond -- The Fat Lady … Models -- The Third Path: Prevention -- Location, Location, Location: Places to Intervene in Systems -- It Will Take More Than Food Pyramids -- Microworlds ? Us -- Beyond Prevention.
Thinking in Circles about Obesity: Applying Systems Thinking to Weight Management Tarek K.A. Hamid, Operational and Information Sciences, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California Low-carb…low-fat…high-protein…high-fiber…Americans are food-savvy, label-conscious, calorie-aware—and still gaining weight in spite of all their good intentions. Worse still, today’s children run the risk of a shorter life expectancy than their parents. Thinking in Circles About Obesity brings a healthy portion of critical thinking, spiced with on-target humor and lively graphics, to the obesity debate. Systems and medical physiology scholar Tarek Hamid unites systems (non-linear) thinking and information technology to provide powerful insights and practical strategies for managing our weight and our health. Hamid’s clear insights dispel dieters’ unrealistic expectations and illuminate dead-end behaviors to tap into a deeper understanding of how the body works, why it works that way, and how to better manage it. Included are innovative tools for: • Understanding why diets almost always fall short of our expectations. • Assessing weight gain, loss, and goals with greater accuracy. • Abandoning one-size-fits-all solutions in lieu of personal solutions that do fit. • Replacing outmoded linear thinking with feedback systems thinking. • Getting the most health benefits from information technology. •Making behavior and physiology work in sync instead of in opposition. Given the current level of the weight crisis, the ideas in Thinking in Circles About Obesity have much to offer clinical and health psychologists, primary care physicians, public health professionals, parents, and lay readers. For those struggling with excess weight, this book charts a new path in health decision making, to see beyond calorie charts, body mass indexes, and silver bullets.
Health psychology.
Primary care (Medicine).
Health promotion.
Health Psychology.
Primary Care Medicine.
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.