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Do you have a response to Gary Taubes et al. who have observed in recent years that the "calories in vs. calories out" hypothesis has no basis in the science of
by Cushman 15y ago
Do you have a response to Gary Taubes et al. who have observed in recent years that the "calories in vs. calories out" hypothesis has no basis in the science of human metabolism, and that insulin, the hormone secreted in response to consumption of carbohydrates, has a very well-understood and primary role in fat storage?
- js2 15y agoYou might want to read the conclusion (last paragraph) here, then go back and read how Stephan arrived at it: http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2011/08/carbohydrate-hypothesis-of-obesity.html http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2011/08/carbohydrate-h...
- Cushman 15y agoThanks for the link! It's cool to see real discussion happening. I'm actually coming more from Robert Lustig's attack on fructose, which I know is much more specific than carb intake in general. I was aware there was controversy about it-- obviously I shouldn't be so quick to name Taubes. Really, as someone who very easily went from overweight to fit purely by replacing carbs with fats, I'm just very reluctant to accept the thermodynamic hypothesis.
- yummyfajitas 15y agoYes, my response is that Gary Taubes is dishonest, and his criticisms of Calories in/Calories out are misleading and sometimes false. For example, one of his criticisms of the calories in/calories out theory is that it fails to explain bodyweight stability. Simple calculus shows this to be false. http://crazybear.posterous.com/the-calories-incalories-out-model-explains-we http://crazybear.posterous.com/the-calories-incalories-out-m... Another one of his tricks is to focus on calories above maintenance, while completely ignoring differences in maintenance needs, in an attempt at reducto-ad-absurdum. People unfamiliar with the model don't realize he can write 3000 words and never mention the actual caloric gap between fat and thin people. http://crazybear.posterous.com/how-1-graph-reveals-what-3000-words-tried-to http://crazybear.posterous.com/how-1-graph-reveals-what-3000... Gary Taubes is willing to mislead people to sell books. Also, the calories in/calories out model has been empirically verified on a number of occasions. This is the first of many studies on the topic: http://openlibrary.org/books/OL6617921M/A_biometric_study_of_basal_metabolism_in_man http://openlibrary.org/books/OL6617921M/A_biometric_study_of... Any textbook on sports medicine will give you a whole lot more references, including specific details on various corrections and second order terms. I'd love to quote a few more, but unfortunately my textbook is in a storage compartment 50 blocks away.