Matt McAvoy Book Review

Perhaps not the informal educational self-help guide you might be expecting, this is a rather more academic affair, with two approaches.  The first focuses on the biology of fat dynamics and calorie storage in the body.  Loaded with technical language, footnotes and appendices, this aspect of the book is pure reference, rather than easy reading, by an author who undoubtedly knows the most intricate details of his subject matter.  In truth, on this point, I would have liked to see a note on Ian’s professional credentials at the start of the book; don’t get me wrong, this is not because I question his credibility by any means – very far from it – but rather because I think it would have put me in more prepared stead as a reader, giving a clearer context to the overall theme.

Most of the relatable, more expressly diet-based and general advice content is found after the “Epilogue”, in the book’s extremely useful appendices section – which in fact comprises exactly half of the total material.  At this point, Ian far more clearly lays out the details and accompanying information for his protein and fibre-based diet plan – although there is still a lot of technical terminology for the lay-person.  In short, the general summary of this book is about balancing energy in vs. out – the rest is in-depth explanation into how that computes in terms of fat content, sugar, etc.  The appendices are tremendously helpful, and he has clearly put a huge amount of work into them.

Whilst this is undoubtedly the composition of a hard labour of love, and a vast amount of factual research, I did have a couple of issues with the presentation of the book itself.  I felt that – terminology aside – some of the syntax could have been better constructed, with a more creative range of vocabulary at times, to complement the professional quality of the content; punctuation, too, was also not ideal throughout.  In terms of the overall format, it felt a touch disjointed, its flow at times a little tricky to grasp; I think a more simplified sub-chapter structure might have helped this, and a clearer layout aesthetically, with more measured white space.  I also wonder if it might not have been more appropriate overall to include all of the end-matter material in the main body of the book itself, before the Epilogue, and broaden the book’s subject into a more holistic one; its title suggests it is a weight-loss guide – in fact, it is so much more than that. 

The content and general stature of this project is strong.  Honestly, this book is very worthy academia, which will be of significant interest and benefit to many more than just the diet crowd it might first attract.