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This is an appealing take but ultimately oversimplified. Calories in equals calories out, this is self evident. Assuming that calories in has no effect on calor

This is an appealing take but ultimately oversimplified. Calories in equals calories out, this is self evident. Assuming that calories in has no effect on calories out or vice versa is where you make the mistake - they are dependent variables and quite obviously so. Don't eat much and you get cold and lethargic, go work out and you work up an appetite. Saying you're fat because you eat too much is like saying you're an alcoholic because you drink too much. It's true but it doesn't say anything about how to solve the problem and it mixes up cause and effect - in the former case you're eating more because you're getting fat (due to insulin resistance, caused by chronically high consumption of carbohydrates according to some or due to chronically high consumption of fructose according to others) and in the latter case you're drinking more because you're dependent upon alcohol.

blahblahblah 16y ago
"Saying you're fat because you eat too much is like saying you're an alcoholic because you drink too much. It's true but it doesn't say anything about how to solve the problem and it mixes up cause and effect" I think you're really close to getting at the root of this problem right here. Fundamentally, we're talking about a behavioral compulsion here - people are literally getting addicted to food. Fructose is the substance that's hijacking the brain's reward system. A particular individual's susceptibility to obesity is very likely set up by the same factors that function in other addictions, whether chemical (as in alcoholism) or behavioral (as in gambling) - namely, dysfunctional family systems, psychological trauma, stress, etc. If this is, in fact, what's really going on then the solution is to (A) treat obesity as an addiction and (B) limit the proliferation of fructose in the food supply.

blahblahblah 16y ago

"Saying you're fat because you eat too much is like saying you're an alcoholic because you drink too much. It's true but it doesn't say anything about how to solve the problem and it mixes up cause and effect" I think you're really close to getting at the root of this problem right here. Fundamentally, we're talking about a behavioral compulsion here - people are literally getting addicted to food. Fructose is the substance that's hijacking the brain's reward system. A particular individual's susceptibility to obesity is very likely set up by the same factors that function in other addictions, whether chemical (as in alcoholism) or behavioral (as in gambling) - namely, dysfunctional family systems, psychological trauma, stress, etc. If this is, in fact, what's really going on then the solution is to (A) treat obesity as an addiction and (B) limit the proliferation of fructose in the food supply.