KATAHN, Martin 1928-

PERSONAL: Original name, Martin Klein; name legally changed in 1950; born September 25, 1928, in Utica, NY; son of Charles T. (a merchant) and Ruth (a merchant; maiden name, Daniels) Klein; married Enid Miller (a concert pianist), April 6, 1952; children: David Nathan, Terri Lynne. Education: University of Hartford, Mus.B., 1958; Syracuse University, M.A., 1960, Ph.D., 1962.

ADDRESSES: Home—4607 Belmont Park Ter., Nashville, TN 37215. Agent—Arthur Pine Associates, Inc., 1780 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Hartt College of Music (now University of Hartford), Hartford, CT, member of quartette-in-residence, 1952-55; Marcy State Hospital, Marcy, NY, senior research psychologist, 1960-61; University of North Carolina, Memorial Hospital, Chapel Hill, NC, clinical intern, 1961-62; Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, assistant professor, 1962-66, associate professor, 1966-70, professor of psychology, 1970—, chair of department, 1970-75, director of graduate studies in psychology and Center for Advanced Study and Continuing Education in Mental Health, both 1969-70. Chair of National Institute of Mental Health's Continuing Education Review Committee, 1974-75; founder and chair of Tennessee Network for Continuing Education in Mental Health, 1974-75; member of Tennessee Board of Examiners in Psychology licensing board, 1976-79; cofounder of Interuniversity Consortium of Psychology Departments; consultant to Tennessee Department of Public Health and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

MEMBER: American Psychological Association, Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Tennessee Psychological Association.

AWARDS, HONORS: Grant from National Institute of Mental Health, 1977-83.

WRITINGS:

The Two-Hundred-Calorie Solution: How to Burn anExtra Two Hundred Calories and Stop Dieting, Norton (New York, NY), 1982.

Beyond Diet: The Twenty-Eight-Day Metabolic Breakthrough Plan, Norton (New York, NY), 1984.

The Rotation Diet, Norton (New York, NY), 1986.

The T-Factor Diet, Norton (New York, NY), 1989, revised, 2001.

One Meal at a Time: The Incredibly Simple Low-FatDiet for a Happier, Healthier, Longer Life, Norton (New York, NY), 1991.

(With Jamie Pope-Cordle) The Low-Fat SupermarketShopper's Guide: Making Healthy Choices from Thousands of Brand-Name Items, Norton (New York, NY), 1993.

How to Quit Smoking without Gaining Weight, Norton (New York, NY), 1994.

(With Terri Katahn) The Low-Fat Good Food Cookbook, Norton (New York, NY), 1994.

The Tri-Color Diet: A Miracle Breakthrough in Diet and Nutrition for a Longer, Healthier Life, Norton (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Jamie Pope-Cordle) The T-Factor 2000 Diet, Norton (New York, NY), 1999.

(With Jamie Pope-Cordle) The T-Factor 2000 Fat Gram Counter, Norton (New York, NY), 1999.

The Cancer Prevention Good Health Diet: A CompleteProgram for a Longer, Healthier Life, Norton (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Jamie Pope-Cordle) The Low-Fat Fast FoodGuide, Norton (New York, NY), 2000.

Contributor of more than thirty articles to psychology journals.

SIDELIGHTS: Martin Katahn is a best-selling author of diet books that promote a healthy lifestyle and encourage consumption of whole grains, vegetables, and fruit. Katahn became nationally known in the mid-1980s, when he released The Rotation Diet, a book that advocated three weeks of reduced-calorie eating followed by a week or more of guilt-free maintenance. The diet proved extremely popular, particularly in Katahn's home base of Nashville, Tennessee, where eager local participants joined a "Melt a Million" campaign to shed pounds.

Unfortunately, Katahn discovered that while a rotation diet had enabled him to lose seventy-five pounds and avoid heart trouble, the majority of people could not muster the discipline to stay with it. He has since modified his proposals in successive books and has become an ardent spokesman for fat reduction in the daily diet. In books such as The T-Factor Diet and The Tri-Color Diet: A Miracle Breakthrough in Diet and Nutrition for a Longer, Healthier Life, he offers advice and recipes for balanced meals that are also reduced in calories. Other books such as How to Quit Smoking without Gaining Weight and The Cancer Prevention Good Health Diet: A Complete Program for a Longer, Healthier Life explore specific techniques and foods that help to prevent or ameliorate specific conditions.

A reviewer for Environmental Nutrition noted that Katahn's "approach is more practical than most." The reviewer went on to say, "Katahn's timetable may be overly optimistic, but the underlying premise is admirable: There's no need to be diet-perfect every day." In fact the author has always advocated indulging occasionally in favorite snack foods, as he is aware that strict diets often backfire when they actually encourage the body's metabolism to store fat. In a Tufts University Diet & Nutrition Letter, a reviewer of the T-Factor Diet observed that the weight-loss plan "is balanced and nutritious and meets all the current dietary guidelines for good health."

A psychologist specializing in weight management, Katahn began writing diet books after suffering an obesity-related heart attack at age thirty-five. Through diet and exercise he lost sixty pounds and never has regained it. His books were born not only of the research he conducted at Vanderbilt University, but also from his own personal experience of achieving a healthier lifestyle.

Katahn once told CA: "I wrote my first book to explode the myths about dieting as a means for weight control. I presented scientific evidence that explains why dieting doesn't work, but only serves to increase the body's fat-building capacity. Low-calorie dieting decreases the metabolic rate, and after dieting, the activity of certain hormones and fat incorporating enzymes increases several-fold above normal. I told the reader what he or she needs to do for permanent weight management and fitness, from both the physiological and psychological standpoints. Both diet and daily physical activity can alter the metabolic rate upwards by 20 percent or more. At this time, with three year follow-ups available, 32.5 percent of the women who have participated in the Vanderbilt program are maintaining desirable weight."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Booklist, May 15, 1996, Sue-Ellen Beauregard, review of The Tri-Color Diet: A Miracle Breakthrough in Diet and Nutrition for a Longer, Healthier Life, p. 1556.

Environmental Nutrition, June, 1989, review of TheT-Factor Diet, p. 8; August, 1991, review of One Meal at a Time: The Incredibly Simple Low-Fat Diet for a Happier, Healthier, Longer Life, p. 8.

Los Angeles Times, March 24, 1983.

New York Times Book Review, April 5, 1987, Helen Dudar, review of The Rotation Diet, p. 31; August 28, 1994, Richard Flaste, review of The Low-Fat Good Food Cookbook, p. 26.

People, March 10, 1986, Dan Chu, "Nashville Hopes to Shrink Its Population by a Million—a Million Pounds," p. 52.

Publishers Weekly, February 22, 1991, review of OneMeal at a Time, p. 224; April 4, 1994, review of The Low-Fat Good Food Cookbook, p. 73; November 7, 1994, review of How to Quit Smoking without Gaining Weight, p. 75.

Saturday Evening Post, July-August, 1986, Maynard Good Stoddard, "The Diet That Consumed Nashville," p. 26.

Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), May 23, 1996, Gordon Slovut, "Weight Expert's New Book Outlines Gradual Change to a Healthful Diet," p. 3E.

Time, April 14, 1986, Anastasia Toufexis, "'Hey, Are You Rotating?' A New Diet Has the Country Music Capital Spinning," p. 108.

Tufts University Diet & Nutrition Letter, August, 1989, review of The T-Factor Diet, p. 6; November, 1991, review of One Meal at a Time, p. 3.*