Esdin is a great teacher and gave engaging online lectures. If you just take notes on his lectures you don't need to do any studying outside of going over your notes for exams or quizzes. He makes participation quizzes every lecture day to encourage that. The project was a grind but it is manageable (not recommended) in one day if you wish. You need to go to discussion sections every other week which was probably the most boring part. But nonetheless an interesting class where you definitely learn a lot of useful stuff.

I loved this class! I needed a science GE with a lab credit, and this was the perfect course to fulfill that requirement. The material was actually interesting and rather easy compared to a normal bio class. Dr. Esdin is a great lecturer as well; he explains concepts in a clear and concise manner. There was also no homework, so the workload was very light. The final project is not hard at all, but it is a bit time-consuming. The midterm and final were all multiple choice. If you took good notes during the lectures, the exams should be fairly easy. I bought the textbook but did not really use it at all since the majority of the material was just review from the lectures.
TL;DR - easy and interesting course with a great professor, easy A, highly recommend as a GE with lab credit

*SELLING COURSE READER
One of the easiest GE's I've taken. Includes lab credit and makes you a better, healthier person overall. The only thing is that he requires you to buy a $100 course reader/iprofile that you can only get from a particular shop in Westwood. I have the updated course reader that it is in brand new condition and am selling it for cheaper: text me at **********. The only reason I got a B+ in this class was because I would forget to watch the lectures and take the quizzes LMAO. They were literally not even hard.

As a more physical science major, I hated bio before this class but Esdin really taught me how to enjoy the content! I've also started watching my health quite a bit more LMAO so take that as a bonus to this class. Class is free if you put a smidge of effort into it (especially if you've taken AP Bio or whatever, lots of review.) Only annoying thing is daily participation quizzes (online) but honestly it kept me more engaged and they were easy.

TAKE THIS CLASS!!! This has by far been my favorite class at UCLA. Professor Esdin is so informative and teaches you information about nutrition and exercise you can actually apply to your life. He teaches very complex ideas in simple terms that make it easy to digest. The class is overall really straightforward and the bulk of your grade comes from 1 midterm, final, and project.

My one piece of advice for the class is to start the project early! The project entails logging your nutritional intake for a week then analyzing your data in a lab report that is quite tedious but overall simple.

I highly recommend this class as a GE to all students. Professor Esdin was amazing! His lectures were incredibly interesting yet very clear and easy to follow along. The diet/fitness evaluation project was really interesting and fun to do as I felt like I learned a lot about my eating and fitness habits that I will remember for the rest of my life. The labs were excellent as we got to work on our final project in the sessions which allowed for ample time to complete everything. All in all, this was an excellent class and I highly recommend it to all UCLA students!

Selling Course Reader, **********.

Selling Course reader + Workbook for cheap! Email if interested *************

This class is really not that fun online. I think most of the lifestyle analysis that's actually fun and interesting would occur during in-person labs. But since we couldn't access any of that over Zoom, we just had a lot more lectures about physiology. Not the worst thing ever and the class still wasn't hard. There were 2 major exams and 4 quizzes, which were a bit hard at times, but I think most of the class still ended up getting As. The most annoying part that a lot of people lost points on were required "participation quizzes" which were 3-question quizzes due on the day of each asynchronous lecture. But if you remembered to do them, they were pretty much free points. Also, you don't really HAVE to buy the $100+ course reader if you just pay really close attention and take good notes during lecture, because almost none of the exam questions are exclusive to the textbook.

Tbh, this class was not a lot of work. You just had to watch the 50-minute MWF lecture and take a participation quiz after. I suggest for notes that you write word-for-word (in most cases) what he says during lecture and you will ace the participation quizzes. Most people who complained (particularly in fall 2020 to spring 2021) probably did not take good notes and skimmed through the video which came back at them during the biweekly lecture quizzes. Watch the lecture videos when it is posted and take the participation quiz immediately after so that you can get it out of the way and don't forget it later on since the deadline is kind of wonky (10 pm of that same day). There are other aspects of the class like a lifestyle project, start in week 7 and you'll be done before week 9. Follow exactly what your TA suggests (i recommend Norma). P.S. I'm selling the course reader and practice test book for $40 (originally $120). Also my notes for $10. pm me @ ************* if interested. Good luck with the class!!!