What do you think?
Rate this book
THE SCIENCE OF SELF-CONTROL : 53 Tips to stick to your diet, be more productive and excel in life
Have you ever intended to get some work done but ended up on Instagram?
Have you ever intended to stick to your diet but ended up microwaving a pizza?
Have you ever intended to get to bed early but ended up seeing your laptop clock hit 02:00 AM?
Then I have good news and bad news.
The bad news is you lack self-control.
The good news is you’re human.
My goal is to make you superhuman.
In this book you’ll learn how to take control of your body and mind by drawing on cognitive neurosciences and behavioral psychology. I've distilled the knowledge of 542 scientific references into 53 practical tips to improve your willpower. In 6 chapters I cover the essentials of how the human mind works, what willpower is, how to be more productive, how to stick to your diet, how to make your workouts less effortful and how to motivate yourself.
After reading this book, you should experience higher work productivity, better diet adherence and ultimately more success in life.
Have you ever intended to stick to your diet but ended up microwaving a pizza?
Have you ever intended to get to bed early but ended up seeing your laptop clock hit 02:00 AM?
Then I have good news and bad news.
The bad news is you lack self-control.
The good news is you’re human.
My goal is to make you superhuman.
In this book you’ll learn how to take control of your body and mind by drawing on cognitive neurosciences and behavioral psychology. I've distilled the knowledge of 542 scientific references into 53 practical tips to improve your willpower. In 6 chapters I cover the essentials of how the human mind works, what willpower is, how to be more productive, how to stick to your diet, how to make your workouts less effortful and how to motivate yourself.
After reading this book, you should experience higher work productivity, better diet adherence and ultimately more success in life.
292 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 11, 2022
134 people are currently reading
548 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 2, 2021
A common problem with self-help books is that they are shallow. But another problem is also it rarely tries to have a scientific foundation about anything. I've known Menno for years and I like his content, so I was pretty excited to know he had a book on self-control. I knew it would be science-based and certainly did not disappoint.
The first couple chapters lay down the basics: 2-systems theory, what self-control is, and why it has evolved. It covers some basic psychology it will provide a good background for the rest of the book.
The book doesn't have the typical organization and is almost like a massive collection of bullet points. I generally don't like this format but it worked fair well here. As the title implies, he gives you 53 tips for productivity. These tips are distributed across all the chapters.
What is great about this book is that it is insanely readable. Even a child can probably read it fairly easy. And yet is based on very solid science. Textbooks aside, this book probably has the highest citation count per page that I've ever seen. It is a very unusual combination.
A problem with books with this bullet-point format is that the tips seem a bit random and disjointed. This isn't the case here, and very often the content builds upon itself. Even better, whether you want it or not, you're learning about how the mind works along the way.
Something a bit disappointing is that I expected more content on productivity. While it does have lots of useful stuff, nevertheless the book is more biased towards the dieting part. Having a career in fitness, much of the content I was already familiar with so I can't say it was super exciting.
However, there was still a fair number of experiments that I didn't know and found very interesting. Having spent almost a decade reading fitness research, that speaks volumes about the quality of the book.
To give you an idea of what the content is like, here is an example: Should you have breakfast? You have heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the same day right? On the other hand, there is a crowd of people that swears that not eating breakfast is the key to productivity and fitness, and they seem to be doing great. What gives?
Well, what matters is not if you have breakfast or not, but about if you keep it consistent. This is why the dogma of having breakfast became so popular, because in studies if you have people skip breakfast they perform worse, but of course, most people are used to eating breakfast. So whatever schedule you like you can keep, but keep it consistent.
I remember a couple of times where I thought the claim was a bit odd, but that was a very small minority. Overall the content is incredibly solid. If you want practical self-book help, this is it. Not one where there is a long history about how the author overcome some difficulty and then had some spiritual epiphany, but something that actually teaches you how to be more productive with something you can implement right now, this is it.
If you don't care about fitness at all, be warned that a lot of books is geared towards it. However, I still think that it's worth getting and just skipping the fitness content. Or even better: if you're not into fitness, why not? Maybe you're exactly the type of person that needs to read the fitness tips.
The first couple chapters lay down the basics: 2-systems theory, what self-control is, and why it has evolved. It covers some basic psychology it will provide a good background for the rest of the book.
The book doesn't have the typical organization and is almost like a massive collection of bullet points. I generally don't like this format but it worked fair well here. As the title implies, he gives you 53 tips for productivity. These tips are distributed across all the chapters.
What is great about this book is that it is insanely readable. Even a child can probably read it fairly easy. And yet is based on very solid science. Textbooks aside, this book probably has the highest citation count per page that I've ever seen. It is a very unusual combination.
A problem with books with this bullet-point format is that the tips seem a bit random and disjointed. This isn't the case here, and very often the content builds upon itself. Even better, whether you want it or not, you're learning about how the mind works along the way.
Something a bit disappointing is that I expected more content on productivity. While it does have lots of useful stuff, nevertheless the book is more biased towards the dieting part. Having a career in fitness, much of the content I was already familiar with so I can't say it was super exciting.
However, there was still a fair number of experiments that I didn't know and found very interesting. Having spent almost a decade reading fitness research, that speaks volumes about the quality of the book.
To give you an idea of what the content is like, here is an example: Should you have breakfast? You have heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the same day right? On the other hand, there is a crowd of people that swears that not eating breakfast is the key to productivity and fitness, and they seem to be doing great. What gives?
Well, what matters is not if you have breakfast or not, but about if you keep it consistent. This is why the dogma of having breakfast became so popular, because in studies if you have people skip breakfast they perform worse, but of course, most people are used to eating breakfast. So whatever schedule you like you can keep, but keep it consistent.
I remember a couple of times where I thought the claim was a bit odd, but that was a very small minority. Overall the content is incredibly solid. If you want practical self-book help, this is it. Not one where there is a long history about how the author overcome some difficulty and then had some spiritual epiphany, but something that actually teaches you how to be more productive with something you can implement right now, this is it.
If you don't care about fitness at all, be warned that a lot of books is geared towards it. However, I still think that it's worth getting and just skipping the fitness content. Or even better: if you're not into fitness, why not? Maybe you're exactly the type of person that needs to read the fitness tips.
August 3, 2022
Learning points:
- Self-control failure occurs not because your willpower is a limited resource, but because your attention shifts from 'have-to' goals to 'want-to' goals
- Self-control fundamentally is an ability that allows us to forego immediate rewards to reap greater future rewards
- Willpower is not a muscle; research has found no evidence of self-control training leading to improvements
Chapter 3: How to be more productive
- Research shows self-control failure after mentally demanding tasks only occurred in people who believed willpower was limited. People who simply believe they have unlimited willpower actually show no signs of willpower failure
- Mental fatigue is just a feeling. It's an attempt by your brain to shift your focus of attention. There is nothing physically being fatigued; when you are mentally exhausted, you are essentially just bored. Your feelings of fatigue are just that: feelings. It's up to you what you do with them.
- You can learn to adopt an internal locus of control to avoid the nocebo effect of fatigue. You are in control of your actions, your environment is just a set of stimuli. They enter your brain, but it's up to you what you do with them. Words and information do not affect your body, only your perception of them does.
- Research showed just believing a task was easy got rid of effects of mental fatigue. If you think something is easy, it cultivates self-efficacy, belief in your own ability.
- To cultivate self-efficacy, think of the following steps before any task: 1. Have you done something like this before? If so, great, now go do it! 2. If not, who has done something like this before? Are they that much smarter or more capable than you are?
- The Zeigarnik effect: Humans have a natural tendency to finish what we start. Tell yourself you'll complete only Step 1, and the Zeigarnik effect will do the rest.
- Research showed the strongest determinant (or saboteur) of success was not levels of self-control, but temptation. People that were exposed to more temptations experienced greater mental depletion, which prevented them pursuing goals. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of self-control.
- The exact maximum attention span most likely varies person-to-person, but it's not a bad rule of thumb to limit effortful 'have-to' work to 90-minutes.
- Parkinson's Law: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
- Our brain functioning has a circadian rhythm. In the morning, our brain runs at peak performance and cognitive performance is highest. Mental performance then gradually decreases during the afternoon and reaches a low before bed time.
- Physical tasks have a different circadian rhythm, influenced by different bodily processes, particularly body temperature, peaking in the afternoon or evening
- Making decisions reduces our self-control. You should try minimise trivial decisions in your life, freeing it up for what matters.
- Yerkes-Dodson Law: You can take advantage of the optimal arousal theory to make you more productive. For simple tasks, you want high external stimulation or arousal (caffeine, music). On complex tasks, overarousal can harm performance.
Chapter 4: How to stick to your diet
- Research compared two groups on gel-based diets of 2294 calories and 313 calories, without them knowing. There was no difference in mood, sleep quality, and mental performance, and after the study couldn't tell whether they were in the starvation or control group. The similarity between calorie consumption and mental energy is largely metaphorical
- Research revealed no positive aspect of carbohydrates on any aspect of mood at any time-point following their consumption. However, carbohydrate administration was associated with higher levels of fatigue and less alertness compared with placebo
- Research found that people that aren't losing any weight on a diet (therefore eating at maintenance) experienced just as much stress as those losing weight. The stress comes from the idea of 'being on a diet'
- Focusing on a task you're doing, or actively thinking about anything other than food (no matter what it is) reduces food cravings.
- This only works if it's a positive thought and it's not related to food. Saddening thoughts and thinking of food makes you more likely to give into immediate gratification
- You should consume enough protein and fat to make your diet healthy and sustainable. Beyond that, the precise macronutrient ration doesn't matter much
- Research has shown that people consuming water with sweeteners vs people with just water lost more fat/regained less fat. The sweetener group was less hungry and had better dietary compliance
- Sometimes we eat not to satisfy our hunger but to satisfy our brain's need for pleasure ('comfort food')
- Often you're not truly hungry - your brain is just bored. So a solution is to reset your mental state with anything restorative or enjoyable. With dieting, you should ideally be a little further ahead of major mental fatigue, when there's full self-control shutdown and you seek instant gratification
- Research finds people on pre-set meal plans have more success restricting their energy intake, lose more fat, achieve better health and are happier than when they have to decide what to eat themselves
- For your health, wellbeing and appetite management, it's best to maintain regular meal times. Research shows people that eat at consistent times and don't snack throughout the day have significantly more success at sustaining their weight loss.
- Keep macros constant. Deviation from habitual intake of macronutrients leads to worse mood, slower reaction times, drowsiness, uncertainty, less cheerful.
- Projection bias - we intuitively think we can accurately predict how we'll feel in the future, but our predictions are coloured by our current feelings. With diets, we systematically underappreciate the effect a ravenous appetite can have on our decision making, and so we optimistically put ourselves in positions where we have to resist temptation in the face of hunger. To avoid this, planning ahead is crucial. (Never go grocery shopping when hungry)
- Rigid dieting vs flexible dieting. Rigid: restriction of food choices. Flexible: Restriction of macronutrient or calorie intake. With flexible control, the prescriptions of the diet are seen as guidelines or targets. Disinhibition and restraint are low, meaning you accept 'diet failure' when it just so happens to pan out. There is no need to despair or aggressively compensate for it afterwards.
- Research looking at two diets where bread was not allowed to be eaten. With the group not allowed to eat bread, drop-out rate was 3x as high than an otherwise identical diet with bread allowed. The crucial difference is choice.
- Psychological flexibility is needed also. See failure as a learning experience. Think of calories as money (spend these calories now, or invest in the future). You don't always have to spend everything.
- Common wisdom says that you get rid of a craving by satisfying it. Common wisdom is wrong. If you want to get rid of a craving, you don't satisfy it. You starve it.
- A craving is born when 2 forces meet: hunger, and a cue. To prevent cravings, we need to address both forces. So successfully starving a craving requires consuming a diet that is sufficiently satiating and handling cues.
- Mindfulness: Accept the craving for what it is, a tasty food you want to eat that has been triggered in your memory. Then move on with your day; the craving is just a feeling, you don't need to act on it.
- Episodic Future Thinking: Thinking about the future in a very specific manner. In the case of a food craving, you actively and intensely visualising eating a meal other than what you're craving that will satisfy your hunger. Ideally, you visualise a dominant option; an option that is superior to another choice in all regards.
- Research showed those in aggressive calorie deficits showed better craving management. However, viewing foods as 'forbidden' can increase cravings and result in binge eating.
- It doesn't matter if you give in to your cravings a little bit or a lot; the event reinforces the presence of the craved food in your memory all the same. So portion control does not reduce cravings. From an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense we stop craving foods we rarely eat. Our sense of taste adapts to the food available in our environment.
- Cheat meals are thought to keep cravings in check, but based on the psychology of cravings, the opposite is true
- Your preference for sweet foods can grow over time with increased sugar consumption
- Your habitual diet changes your perception of taste: it becomes the reference by which you perceive any new taste
- Using food as a reward teaches you to consume that food when you experience emotional stress. Self-medicating sorrows with comfort food is not a biological reaction, it's a learned behaviour
- Cheat meals present several psychological problems: They change your taste perception, making other foods in your diet less tasty; they can induce a forbidden fruit effect and cravings for the consumed foods; they can turn into comfort foods you're prone to self-medicate on when you feel poorly
- If you really want to have a certain 'cheat meal', fit it into your macros and you can enjoy it guilt free. Just keep in mind the potential psychological side effects
- You can avoid detrimental conditioning effects (associating experience of hunger with a cheat food) by having your cheat foods when you're no longer hungry. Consume filling foods before you indulge in cheat foods
- Before eating anything, ask yourself: how many calories per 100g does this food have? Thinking of the caloric density demands the attention of our brain's rational side
- After eating anything, ask yourself: was it worth it?
- Eat more, not less, in the form of l0wer-calorie food. Satiety is more influences by food volume than food energy content. The fewer calories per 100g a food has, the more satiating it is
- The most effective solution to truly break a bad habit is substitution, meaning you replace the undesirable habitual behaviour with a desirable behaviour
- We eat on average 92% of the food we serve, regardless of how much we serve. 'The clean-plate effect'
- Dieting is essentially an economical dilemma, we can spend our calories on 2 kinds of foods. Consumption foods and investment foods. Consumption: convenient and tasty but highly caloric or otherwise unconducive to your fitness foals. Investment: lower in calories or otherwise better for your goals
Chapter 5: How to make exercise less effortful
- You can use caffeine strategically, but avoid dependence/withdrawals. Limiting weekly dosage to 700mg and using it pre-workout.
Chapter 6: How to motivate yourself
- You don't need to like something to do it. You just need to want it. Liking is not the same as wanting. In very simple terms, the sensation of liking is produced by serotonin, whereas the sensation of wanting something is produced by dopamine.
- Fostering motivation through connection. One of the most direct ways to develop relatedness is to find others like you that do the same thing you do.
- Self-control failure occurs not because your willpower is a limited resource, but because your attention shifts from 'have-to' goals to 'want-to' goals
- Self-control fundamentally is an ability that allows us to forego immediate rewards to reap greater future rewards
- Willpower is not a muscle; research has found no evidence of self-control training leading to improvements
Chapter 3: How to be more productive
- Research shows self-control failure after mentally demanding tasks only occurred in people who believed willpower was limited. People who simply believe they have unlimited willpower actually show no signs of willpower failure
- Mental fatigue is just a feeling. It's an attempt by your brain to shift your focus of attention. There is nothing physically being fatigued; when you are mentally exhausted, you are essentially just bored. Your feelings of fatigue are just that: feelings. It's up to you what you do with them.
- You can learn to adopt an internal locus of control to avoid the nocebo effect of fatigue. You are in control of your actions, your environment is just a set of stimuli. They enter your brain, but it's up to you what you do with them. Words and information do not affect your body, only your perception of them does.
- Research showed just believing a task was easy got rid of effects of mental fatigue. If you think something is easy, it cultivates self-efficacy, belief in your own ability.
- To cultivate self-efficacy, think of the following steps before any task: 1. Have you done something like this before? If so, great, now go do it! 2. If not, who has done something like this before? Are they that much smarter or more capable than you are?
- The Zeigarnik effect: Humans have a natural tendency to finish what we start. Tell yourself you'll complete only Step 1, and the Zeigarnik effect will do the rest.
- Research showed the strongest determinant (or saboteur) of success was not levels of self-control, but temptation. People that were exposed to more temptations experienced greater mental depletion, which prevented them pursuing goals. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of self-control.
- The exact maximum attention span most likely varies person-to-person, but it's not a bad rule of thumb to limit effortful 'have-to' work to 90-minutes.
- Parkinson's Law: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
- Our brain functioning has a circadian rhythm. In the morning, our brain runs at peak performance and cognitive performance is highest. Mental performance then gradually decreases during the afternoon and reaches a low before bed time.
- Physical tasks have a different circadian rhythm, influenced by different bodily processes, particularly body temperature, peaking in the afternoon or evening
- Making decisions reduces our self-control. You should try minimise trivial decisions in your life, freeing it up for what matters.
- Yerkes-Dodson Law: You can take advantage of the optimal arousal theory to make you more productive. For simple tasks, you want high external stimulation or arousal (caffeine, music). On complex tasks, overarousal can harm performance.
Chapter 4: How to stick to your diet
- Research compared two groups on gel-based diets of 2294 calories and 313 calories, without them knowing. There was no difference in mood, sleep quality, and mental performance, and after the study couldn't tell whether they were in the starvation or control group. The similarity between calorie consumption and mental energy is largely metaphorical
- Research revealed no positive aspect of carbohydrates on any aspect of mood at any time-point following their consumption. However, carbohydrate administration was associated with higher levels of fatigue and less alertness compared with placebo
- Research found that people that aren't losing any weight on a diet (therefore eating at maintenance) experienced just as much stress as those losing weight. The stress comes from the idea of 'being on a diet'
- Focusing on a task you're doing, or actively thinking about anything other than food (no matter what it is) reduces food cravings.
- This only works if it's a positive thought and it's not related to food. Saddening thoughts and thinking of food makes you more likely to give into immediate gratification
- You should consume enough protein and fat to make your diet healthy and sustainable. Beyond that, the precise macronutrient ration doesn't matter much
- Research has shown that people consuming water with sweeteners vs people with just water lost more fat/regained less fat. The sweetener group was less hungry and had better dietary compliance
- Sometimes we eat not to satisfy our hunger but to satisfy our brain's need for pleasure ('comfort food')
- Often you're not truly hungry - your brain is just bored. So a solution is to reset your mental state with anything restorative or enjoyable. With dieting, you should ideally be a little further ahead of major mental fatigue, when there's full self-control shutdown and you seek instant gratification
- Research finds people on pre-set meal plans have more success restricting their energy intake, lose more fat, achieve better health and are happier than when they have to decide what to eat themselves
- For your health, wellbeing and appetite management, it's best to maintain regular meal times. Research shows people that eat at consistent times and don't snack throughout the day have significantly more success at sustaining their weight loss.
- Keep macros constant. Deviation from habitual intake of macronutrients leads to worse mood, slower reaction times, drowsiness, uncertainty, less cheerful.
- Projection bias - we intuitively think we can accurately predict how we'll feel in the future, but our predictions are coloured by our current feelings. With diets, we systematically underappreciate the effect a ravenous appetite can have on our decision making, and so we optimistically put ourselves in positions where we have to resist temptation in the face of hunger. To avoid this, planning ahead is crucial. (Never go grocery shopping when hungry)
- Rigid dieting vs flexible dieting. Rigid: restriction of food choices. Flexible: Restriction of macronutrient or calorie intake. With flexible control, the prescriptions of the diet are seen as guidelines or targets. Disinhibition and restraint are low, meaning you accept 'diet failure' when it just so happens to pan out. There is no need to despair or aggressively compensate for it afterwards.
- Research looking at two diets where bread was not allowed to be eaten. With the group not allowed to eat bread, drop-out rate was 3x as high than an otherwise identical diet with bread allowed. The crucial difference is choice.
- Psychological flexibility is needed also. See failure as a learning experience. Think of calories as money (spend these calories now, or invest in the future). You don't always have to spend everything.
- Common wisdom says that you get rid of a craving by satisfying it. Common wisdom is wrong. If you want to get rid of a craving, you don't satisfy it. You starve it.
- A craving is born when 2 forces meet: hunger, and a cue. To prevent cravings, we need to address both forces. So successfully starving a craving requires consuming a diet that is sufficiently satiating and handling cues.
- Mindfulness: Accept the craving for what it is, a tasty food you want to eat that has been triggered in your memory. Then move on with your day; the craving is just a feeling, you don't need to act on it.
- Episodic Future Thinking: Thinking about the future in a very specific manner. In the case of a food craving, you actively and intensely visualising eating a meal other than what you're craving that will satisfy your hunger. Ideally, you visualise a dominant option; an option that is superior to another choice in all regards.
- Research showed those in aggressive calorie deficits showed better craving management. However, viewing foods as 'forbidden' can increase cravings and result in binge eating.
- It doesn't matter if you give in to your cravings a little bit or a lot; the event reinforces the presence of the craved food in your memory all the same. So portion control does not reduce cravings. From an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense we stop craving foods we rarely eat. Our sense of taste adapts to the food available in our environment.
- Cheat meals are thought to keep cravings in check, but based on the psychology of cravings, the opposite is true
- Your preference for sweet foods can grow over time with increased sugar consumption
- Your habitual diet changes your perception of taste: it becomes the reference by which you perceive any new taste
- Using food as a reward teaches you to consume that food when you experience emotional stress. Self-medicating sorrows with comfort food is not a biological reaction, it's a learned behaviour
- Cheat meals present several psychological problems: They change your taste perception, making other foods in your diet less tasty; they can induce a forbidden fruit effect and cravings for the consumed foods; they can turn into comfort foods you're prone to self-medicate on when you feel poorly
- If you really want to have a certain 'cheat meal', fit it into your macros and you can enjoy it guilt free. Just keep in mind the potential psychological side effects
- You can avoid detrimental conditioning effects (associating experience of hunger with a cheat food) by having your cheat foods when you're no longer hungry. Consume filling foods before you indulge in cheat foods
- Before eating anything, ask yourself: how many calories per 100g does this food have? Thinking of the caloric density demands the attention of our brain's rational side
- After eating anything, ask yourself: was it worth it?
- Eat more, not less, in the form of l0wer-calorie food. Satiety is more influences by food volume than food energy content. The fewer calories per 100g a food has, the more satiating it is
- The most effective solution to truly break a bad habit is substitution, meaning you replace the undesirable habitual behaviour with a desirable behaviour
- We eat on average 92% of the food we serve, regardless of how much we serve. 'The clean-plate effect'
- Dieting is essentially an economical dilemma, we can spend our calories on 2 kinds of foods. Consumption foods and investment foods. Consumption: convenient and tasty but highly caloric or otherwise unconducive to your fitness foals. Investment: lower in calories or otherwise better for your goals
Chapter 5: How to make exercise less effortful
- You can use caffeine strategically, but avoid dependence/withdrawals. Limiting weekly dosage to 700mg and using it pre-workout.
Chapter 6: How to motivate yourself
- You don't need to like something to do it. You just need to want it. Liking is not the same as wanting. In very simple terms, the sensation of liking is produced by serotonin, whereas the sensation of wanting something is produced by dopamine.
- Fostering motivation through connection. One of the most direct ways to develop relatedness is to find others like you that do the same thing you do.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 16, 2024
Love Menno's personal take on this subject matter. Got through this faster than expected which is a clear illustration of my enjoyment.
"I hope your brain's rational rider has gotten some useful tips to control your inner emotional elephant...Your self-control is not physically finite, so there is no need to train it, only to learn how to pull the reins on the elephant" .
"I hope your brain's rational rider has gotten some useful tips to control your inner emotional elephant...Your self-control is not physically finite, so there is no need to train it, only to learn how to pull the reins on the elephant" .
July 17, 2022
Fantastic book full of practical, science-based advice on how to eat better, exercise better, and generally develop better life habits. This is definitely not your typical self-help fluff piece, but rather a concise how-to manual with a focus on many aspects of diet you may not have known.
In general, I’d say this is very well-researched, but there are also some weaknesses. As with many popular science books, I often do random spot checks on its references, or not-so-random spot checks when a claim arises that seems dubious. For example, on page 106 when discussing the effects of skipping meals on calorie compensation, Henselmans says that “skipping meals tends to result in complete energy compensation afterwards�. I checked the two references: one was an experiment with n=12, the other an experiment with n=26. Finding no difference in calorie consumption depending on time of meals or fasting could simply be due to a lack of power. Perhaps there are better studies out there, but Henselmans didn’t supply them.
Another weaker section was Henselman’s comparison of low-carb and high-carb diets, siding slightly with low-carb diets. However, he ignored the longer-term effects of low-carb diets in which there’s no difference in weight loss or adherence, as well as the negative long-term health effects on cardiovascular health (e.g., see: )
Regardless, these are relatively minor weaknesses in an overall extremely useful and well-put-together book. I’d definitely recommend it.
In general, I’d say this is very well-researched, but there are also some weaknesses. As with many popular science books, I often do random spot checks on its references, or not-so-random spot checks when a claim arises that seems dubious. For example, on page 106 when discussing the effects of skipping meals on calorie compensation, Henselmans says that “skipping meals tends to result in complete energy compensation afterwards�. I checked the two references: one was an experiment with n=12, the other an experiment with n=26. Finding no difference in calorie consumption depending on time of meals or fasting could simply be due to a lack of power. Perhaps there are better studies out there, but Henselmans didn’t supply them.
Another weaker section was Henselman’s comparison of low-carb and high-carb diets, siding slightly with low-carb diets. However, he ignored the longer-term effects of low-carb diets in which there’s no difference in weight loss or adherence, as well as the negative long-term health effects on cardiovascular health (e.g., see: )
Regardless, these are relatively minor weaknesses in an overall extremely useful and well-put-together book. I’d definitely recommend it.
March 30, 2023
4* A nice, easy read, packed with lots and lots of research studies about psychology, neuroscience, health and nutrition. There’s quite a lot of repetition though--both in terms of the key ideas, and in the contents of the 53 tips for improving productivity, dieting, exercise, and self-motivation.
What I like most:
1. Henselmans addressed aspects of willpower research that has been debunked by more recent studies (he claims that willpower is NOT finite/depleted with use, and willpower CANNOT be trained like a muscle). Caveat: I have not perused all the research myself, so I can't say if his conclusions are robust.
2. He then goes on to apply insights to 4 areas : productivity, diet, exercise, and motivation. The part on motivation was quite meh, and the parts on productivity are very similar to other productivity books. What I found fresh and useful were the sections on exercise and diet, which Henselmans covers in some detail, probably because he himself is a bodybuilder.
3. For each tip, he throws in a bunch of research studies/background. I think it's useful to understand the WHY behind the WHAT. Only problem is, after a while, I forgot that I was reading a book about self-control. Because it started to come across as a mish-mesh of self-help tips, and some didn't seem to link to self-control at all.
Some of the 53 tips are "meatier" than others, and a few sound dubious to me. Still, there's definitely enough content here for you to pick and choose what works for you.
Overall, it’s a good summary and integration of a range of books I’ve read about health, diet, motivational/cognitive science and psychology. I’m surprised it’s not more popular…suspect it’s because it’s so hard to get a copy of the book. I had to buy an ebook from the author’s website in the end because this wasn’t available in any of the local libraries and I had problem shipping a physical copy to Singapore (even from Amazon). Duh.
Book summary at:
What I like most:
1. Henselmans addressed aspects of willpower research that has been debunked by more recent studies (he claims that willpower is NOT finite/depleted with use, and willpower CANNOT be trained like a muscle). Caveat: I have not perused all the research myself, so I can't say if his conclusions are robust.
2. He then goes on to apply insights to 4 areas : productivity, diet, exercise, and motivation. The part on motivation was quite meh, and the parts on productivity are very similar to other productivity books. What I found fresh and useful were the sections on exercise and diet, which Henselmans covers in some detail, probably because he himself is a bodybuilder.
3. For each tip, he throws in a bunch of research studies/background. I think it's useful to understand the WHY behind the WHAT. Only problem is, after a while, I forgot that I was reading a book about self-control. Because it started to come across as a mish-mesh of self-help tips, and some didn't seem to link to self-control at all.
Some of the 53 tips are "meatier" than others, and a few sound dubious to me. Still, there's definitely enough content here for you to pick and choose what works for you.
Overall, it’s a good summary and integration of a range of books I’ve read about health, diet, motivational/cognitive science and psychology. I’m surprised it’s not more popular…suspect it’s because it’s so hard to get a copy of the book. I had to buy an ebook from the author’s website in the end because this wasn’t available in any of the local libraries and I had problem shipping a physical copy to Singapore (even from Amazon). Duh.
Book summary at:
August 26, 2021
I am halfway through this book.
I don't like self-help books. Because majorly the advice in these books stem from the authors own experiences rendering their advice biased. We are not the authors. We are the readers. We have a different set of genes encoding our every protein and shaping the landscape of our experiences. Guess what has been consistent in giving us the best advice ever through history without bias? SCIENCE! and this book is pure science.
Reading this book will advance you to the frontlines of scientific research. Why? because for the love of carbs, why are authors still writing about willpower being a vessel that needs to be refilled? WHY? Henselmans does not do that, he goes step by step scientifically dismantling why YOU and only YOU are responsible for your success. I have yet to finish this book.
Iam now at the final 2 weeks of my diet and looking for something to get me out of this rut. I can't even imagine going into maintenance without devouring the whole pizza hut and all you can eat sushi menu. but guess what, I have found what I needed.
If you are looking to seriously up boost your game whether in work, or personal endeavours. This is a must read.
listen I may be biased because I am a fitness enthusiast and I like and follow Henselmans social media and the people around him like Dr Mike but I LOVE me some science.
I don't like self-help books. Because majorly the advice in these books stem from the authors own experiences rendering their advice biased. We are not the authors. We are the readers. We have a different set of genes encoding our every protein and shaping the landscape of our experiences. Guess what has been consistent in giving us the best advice ever through history without bias? SCIENCE! and this book is pure science.
Reading this book will advance you to the frontlines of scientific research. Why? because for the love of carbs, why are authors still writing about willpower being a vessel that needs to be refilled? WHY? Henselmans does not do that, he goes step by step scientifically dismantling why YOU and only YOU are responsible for your success. I have yet to finish this book.
Iam now at the final 2 weeks of my diet and looking for something to get me out of this rut. I can't even imagine going into maintenance without devouring the whole pizza hut and all you can eat sushi menu. but guess what, I have found what I needed.
If you are looking to seriously up boost your game whether in work, or personal endeavours. This is a must read.
listen I may be biased because I am a fitness enthusiast and I like and follow Henselmans social media and the people around him like Dr Mike but I LOVE me some science.
February 28, 2022
I just wanted to write an honest review for this book as I feel like a lot of people are missing out on this.
This is a book about willpower and how to apply different strategies to be more productive, stick to your diet and you’ll even learn how to enjoy doing all of this. The author has all of his points backed up by scientific research and he tries to help you to get more done in your life by showing you for example that if you crash on the couch after work you’re not bound to have a bad workout, it is just your mind playing tricks on you (and he has many more practical tips like this)
Even if the book is massively backed up by research Menno’s book doesn’t feel like if you’re reading a white paper, he also blended in a good sense of humor which makes this book an easy read.
I think this book is one of the better/most practical books on how to get more out of your willpower/productivity and how to stick to your diet and I would recommend this to anyone that’s remotely interested in improving themselves.
I’ll keep this book on my kindle and wil definitely use it going forward.
This is a book about willpower and how to apply different strategies to be more productive, stick to your diet and you’ll even learn how to enjoy doing all of this. The author has all of his points backed up by scientific research and he tries to help you to get more done in your life by showing you for example that if you crash on the couch after work you’re not bound to have a bad workout, it is just your mind playing tricks on you (and he has many more practical tips like this)
Even if the book is massively backed up by research Menno’s book doesn’t feel like if you’re reading a white paper, he also blended in a good sense of humor which makes this book an easy read.
I think this book is one of the better/most practical books on how to get more out of your willpower/productivity and how to stick to your diet and I would recommend this to anyone that’s remotely interested in improving themselves.
I’ll keep this book on my kindle and wil definitely use it going forward.
August 28, 2021
Menno is the smartest intellectual in the fitness industry. Great book!
Kinda unrelated, but I think what usually lacks in communicating behaviour change tips is emphasis. What tips are better than others? No one reads a book and goes & implements everything immediately, so you'd better prioritise what portion of the book people should implement.
The most important thing to know about self-control is that the best type of self-control is when you don't have to use self-control at all. You structure your environment in a way that pushes you towards your goals, rather than away from your goals. To quote one of the top self-control researchers, Mikky Inzlicht: "Research over the past decade makes clear that the best way to reach one’s goals is not to fight temptations but to avoid them before they arrive.".
Menno does talk about this, but I think it's important to hierarchically organise "tips" like this because some of them have life-changing potential, and others provide maybe a 5% boost in your self-control.
Kinda unrelated, but I think what usually lacks in communicating behaviour change tips is emphasis. What tips are better than others? No one reads a book and goes & implements everything immediately, so you'd better prioritise what portion of the book people should implement.
The most important thing to know about self-control is that the best type of self-control is when you don't have to use self-control at all. You structure your environment in a way that pushes you towards your goals, rather than away from your goals. To quote one of the top self-control researchers, Mikky Inzlicht: "Research over the past decade makes clear that the best way to reach one’s goals is not to fight temptations but to avoid them before they arrive.".
Menno does talk about this, but I think it's important to hierarchically organise "tips" like this because some of them have life-changing potential, and others provide maybe a 5% boost in your self-control.
October 21, 2021
I've been following Menno's work for quite some time and this book is even more brilliant than most of his work before. People that are not familiar with him and his work will have no trouble reading and understanding this book.
The book is well written and it's easy to read. There's not much extra "fluff" which is extremely important to most poeple.
Almost every piece of information is backed up by research papers that are relevant and that you can search for if you are interested in more.
The book truly gives concrete tips to manage productivity and self-control in many aspects of life, first of the many "self help" books I already read.
Personally, I was already familiar with most of stuff that was in the book, but now I have most of the information in one place, in one book.
If somebody asked me: "What self help book about productivity would you recommend to me?", I would say this, this is the one that you truly need.
The book is well written and it's easy to read. There's not much extra "fluff" which is extremely important to most poeple.
Almost every piece of information is backed up by research papers that are relevant and that you can search for if you are interested in more.
The book truly gives concrete tips to manage productivity and self-control in many aspects of life, first of the many "self help" books I already read.
Personally, I was already familiar with most of stuff that was in the book, but now I have most of the information in one place, in one book.
If somebody asked me: "What self help book about productivity would you recommend to me?", I would say this, this is the one that you truly need.
September 28, 2024
its not bad, but i expected much more. Nowadays everyone everpromisses on the titles and reviews, which makes the book really disappointing cause you enter with inflated expectations. Still it does have usefull stuff, just not as much as said.
The marshmallow experiment was already shown to not replicate, so this is no longer true. But the tips he gave are not affected by this, as he only mentioned the experiment to illustrate the point.
around half of the tips are common sense which i already knew or read in other books. For people who read less than me its useful to have them here, but for me was not.
3 stars, good enough to read, and not a waste of money, but wouldn't be a book i recommend to friends or social media.
The marshmallow experiment was already shown to not replicate, so this is no longer true. But the tips he gave are not affected by this, as he only mentioned the experiment to illustrate the point.
around half of the tips are common sense which i already knew or read in other books. For people who read less than me its useful to have them here, but for me was not.
3 stars, good enough to read, and not a waste of money, but wouldn't be a book i recommend to friends or social media.
January 6, 2022
Must read!
"As it turns out tough having an autonomous mindset stimulates self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation. There is little more powerful than a person driven to get the job done". (Menno Henselmans, 2021).
"Whatever you do in life that's important to you, do it to get better. Don't set any arbitary performance goals. Your goal should always simply be to get better". (Menno Henselmans, 2021).
"As it turns out tough having an autonomous mindset stimulates self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation. There is little more powerful than a person driven to get the job done". (Menno Henselmans, 2021).
"Whatever you do in life that's important to you, do it to get better. Don't set any arbitary performance goals. Your goal should always simply be to get better". (Menno Henselmans, 2021).
December 30, 2022
While I guess anyone who is interested in behavior / psychology quite certainly is already familiar with good part of research studies and principles laid out in the book, I still believe that Menno has done a terrific job of bringing it all together in concise and precise manner, giving every reader opportunity to brush up on concepts you already knew, potentially in new light, as well as to have some new points and angles to think about.
Easy to read, yet thoughtful, 4.7/5.
Easy to read, yet thoughtful, 4.7/5.
August 29, 2024
Really Underrated
I first heard of Menno years ago via Jeff Nippard. But it was only through his recent appearance on the modern wisdom podcast that I realised how multifaceted his knowledge was, and how intelligent his approach to other things than fitness is.
Really glad I found this book, it’s been the most actionable I’ve read in years.
I first heard of Menno years ago via Jeff Nippard. But it was only through his recent appearance on the modern wisdom podcast that I realised how multifaceted his knowledge was, and how intelligent his approach to other things than fitness is.
Really glad I found this book, it’s been the most actionable I’ve read in years.
August 25, 2024
must read - over delivers
Every page is packed with helpful and quality information that gives you the why and how to
make meaningful changes.
I made exhaustive highlights on almost every page.
Every page is packed with helpful and quality information that gives you the why and how to
make meaningful changes.
I made exhaustive highlights on almost every page.
December 31, 2021
Very well done for a self-published book. Highly recommend.
November 12, 2022
A good analysis on current research. We’ll cited and backed up with evidence.
February 6, 2023
Terrific foray into cognitive neuroscience and behavioral psychology related to productivity, nutrition, and fitness—but written in an easily-accessible way. 💪🏼🧠
April 10, 2023
This was a great, motivating book. It had lots of practical tips and research to back them up. I found it especially inspiring and informative for my diet and fitness goals.
June 14, 2022
Well researched. Worth another review.
Majority of focus on fitness
Zeigarnik effect
Yerke dodson
Bought the audiobook and listening to that now also. Excellent audiobook.
Majority of focus on fitness
Zeigarnik effect
Yerke dodson
Bought the audiobook and listening to that now also. Excellent audiobook.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.