About Sylvia Tara, PhD

Sylvia Tara was driven to research fat, science, and lifestyle after she finally got "fed up" with eating less and exercising more than her slimmer friends throughout her life. Her experiences told her there was more to weight loss than just “calorie in, calorie out.” As a biochemist, she was driven to get to the bottom of fat’s mysteries and the reasons it vexes us. In her best-selling book, The Secret Life of Fat, she reveals the complex biology of fat, how it resists loss, and what to do to remove stubborn fat. Readers will learn that, surprisingly, fat uses many tricks to stay on us, and only if you understand those tricks can you beat fat at its own game.

Dr. Tara holds a PhD in biochemistry from the University of California at San Diego and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She was a consultant with McKinsey & Company and has worked at the world's largest biotechnology companies.

Dr. Tara has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, New Yorker, The Times UK, The Daily Mail, Women's’ Health, Wired, Scientific American and The Lancet. She has been interviewed on NPR, Sirius Radio, WNYC, BBC radio, and appeared on NBC, ABC, Fox and C-Span. She also presented her work at The Smithsonian and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and recently was featured in a Nova documentary, The Truth About Fat.