ABSTRACT
If we feel like a failure in our efforts to change our body, lose weight, and achieve happiness, we are not alone. In fact, we are in excellent company. But all that scientific, entrepreneurial, and ordinary human effort has not achieved much more than our own efforts have. If we have tried, and failed, to lose weight, it is not our fault. More importantly, however, most people are able to lose weight, even significant amounts of weight, temporarily. We may have lost significant weight multiple times. Our evolutionary ancestors coped with periods of feast and famine. For them, the ability to retain body weight and slow metabolism when starving was adaptive, and so was the ability to eat a lot, burn calories efficiently, and not change body shape and size dramatically in times of feast. The effects of this diet on the men were profound. The men developed symptoms similar to women with eating disorders.
