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While 1) is true, it's not significantly true. If we are measuring calories consistently, even if we are wrong about it, we can continue to trend downwards unt
by wdewind 10y ago
While 1) is true, it's not significantly true. If we are measuring calories consistently, even if we are wrong about it, we can continue to trend downwards until we are losing weight. There isn't such a massive difference that caloric measurement error is to blame.
And for 2) this is really not true at all. Yes, you might store fat temporarily etc., but if you are eating a caloric balance, guess what: that fat has to be used at some point.
Taubes is not wrong, but he really overemphasizes a lot of things. People who are obese are not eating just a little over caloric balance but eating the wrong things. They are eating massively over caloric balance. Cutting sugar out might be a good way to get them to comply to a diet that requires them to eat fewer calories, but ultimately for the obese it's really just the calories that are an issue. Imo this warrants more research into the psychological aspects of obesity (the food dopamine reward system etc.)
- dragonwriter 10y ago> People who are obese are not eating just a little over caloric balance but eating the wrong things. Obviously, people who are obese and stable in both weight and fat/lean distribution are eating in caloric balance. You seem to be confusing "obese" with "rapid fat gain", which are two different things.
- wdewind 10y agoMy major point, which I don't think you disagree with, is that none of this research is telling us anything useful. What we know is that people need to eat a reasonable amount of calories and they need to exercise. That amount is different for different people in different situations, but it's not due to inflammation, or any of the other tiny factors that vary person to person. If you are eating 2000 calories a day and consistently maintaining weight, and inflammation causes you to store some more of your energy intake as fat at some point, you will also burn that fat off at some point. There's no reason to think that small temporary metabolic shifts within a calorically consistent environment cause long term fat gain.
- grzm 10y agoI mention Taubes because I find he's approachable. There's plenty of other material out there supporting similar ideas independent of him. I think you're too quick to dismiss the effects of metabolism and it's affects on fat utilization/deposition. I agree that the psychology around eating should be studied more.
- wdewind 10y agoI don't dismiss them, I just don't think they tell us anything we don't already know. You have to eat a reasonable amount of calories and you have to exercise. No one gets a pass. All the research in the world is not going to change this.