Why Diets Make Us Fat: The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession With Weight Loss

“If diets worked, we'd all be thin by now. Instead, we have enlisted hundreds of millions of people into a war we can't win."

What’s the secret to losing weight? If you’re like most of us, you’ve tried cutting calories, sipping weird smoothies, avoiding fats, and swapping out sugar for Splenda. The real secret is that all of those things are likely to make you weigh more in a few years, not less.

In fact, a good predictor of who will gain weight is who says they plan to lose some. Last ye...