Dr. Heber maintains that everyone is born with a particular shape and that this shape makes a huge difference in how you should approach weight loss. We've all heard about apple shape vs. pear shape and upper body fat vs. lower body fat, but how does this affect your ability to lose weight? Apple-shaped women tend to have more muscle than pear shaped women of the same height, and upper body fat is easier to lose than lower body fat, which is maintained by female hormones. Dr. Heber teaches the difference between the shape you can change and the shape you cannot, and how to do this with the right amount of dietary protein (and most women eat too little protein). Based on over 3500 measurements made by his researchers at UCLA, Dr. Heber has come up with tables that estimate how much protein you need in your diet at a given height and weight, and how many calories you should consume every day. Then Dr. Heber helps you build your own ideal diet, starting with protein, then 7 colourful servings of fruits and vegetables and finally whole grains. Dr. Heber explains not only glycemic index (how fast blood sugar goes up) but glycemic load (glycemic index + how much carbohydrate a food provides), which determines how a particular food affects the overall diet. He groups foods into four tables to make it easy for readers to navigate their dinner table.-