I’ve heard “Eat Less Exercise More” hundreds of times from tons of people. All the time.
As I’ll discuss in the next post, it’s good advice. And contrary to what Taubes wants you to think, perfectly compatible with recognizing that the causes of obesity are complicated.
Taubes is attacking “nutrition experts” and the people who make the food pyramid, not elite obesity researchers.
The views Taubes attributes to “nutrition experts” are not only not the views of elite obesity researchers, they’re not the views of the FDA, Surgeon General, or anyone else he attributes them to.
I get that you don’t like his popsci “I’m a rebel” style...
It’s not his style I don’t like. It’s the substantive and wildly false claims he’s making.
...but that should’ve taken at most 1 post to say.
Some people take Taubes very seriously as a source of scientific information about nutrition, and unless it were a very long post, those people wouldn’t have been satisfied.
As I’ll discuss in the next post, it’s good advice.
No, it really isn’t (for me, at least). When I was limiting my calories and exercising more I was gaining weight, feeling like crap, and was miserable and hungry much of the time.
Now that I stopped trying to keep calories down and eat as much fat as I can handle (about 4⁄5 of my calories come from fat), I lost 30 lbs from my maximum, feel much better (in addition to having more favorable biomarkers), have significantly improved cognition, and almost never feel miserable because I’m hungry. This is precisely the opposite of the advice I received from virtually all the diet authorities I had encountered like my high school health textbook and doctors.
Now that I stopped trying to keep calories down and eat as much fat as I can handle (about 4⁄5 of my calories come from fat), I lost 30 lbs from my maximum, feel much better (in addition to having more favorable biomarkers), have significantly improved cognition, and almost never feel miserable because I’m hungry. This is precisely the opposite of the advice I received from virtually all the diet authorities I had encountered like my high school health textbook and doctors.
So much focus is given on “Dietary advice X is good!” / “Dietary Advice Y is bad!”, instead of asking how dietary behavior X interacts with metabolism Y?
I wonder if there’s a market for a company that uses blood samples to examine various metabolic markers and meal logs to examine dietary behavior, and then correlate them over time with health markers and use that to craft a personal diet plan?
In addition to the fat in my food (which tends to be fairly fatty like eggs, salmon, lamb, etc...), I usually add large amounts of butter, coconut oil, MCT oil, or olive oil. Also, I take way over the recommended dosage in cod liver oil supplements.
I think I detect some disconnect between the experts you refer to, and the medical professionals people actually talk to. (Scene 1 seems most directly relevant, but please read 5-7 as well.) Taubes didn’t just invent this.
As I understand it, Taubes claims to be going against the experts. Assuming that’s correct, then if there is a disconnect between the experts and medical professionals, it’s a separate issue.
That said, if you want to assess the position of medical professionals, I would be wary of going by uncorroborated self-serving doctor stories told by fat activists. Also, the story you cite to is basically of the “I restricted my calories but didn’t lose weight” genre. When such claims are investigated they have turned out to be false. Fat people who record their eating tend to wildly under-report caloric intake.
As I’ll discuss in the next post, it’s good advice. [Eat Less Exercise More]
Well I hope that you will define ELEM very carefully in assessing it. For example, does the Hacker’s Diet by John Walker qualify as “Eat Less Exercise More”? Arguably it does since Walker advocates carefully counting your calories and being careful to eat less than your daily metabolic requirements. But at the same time, the Hacker’s Diet is a lot more specific than simply Eat Less Exercise More. As a practical matter, the simple advice to “Eat Less Exercise More” is too vague to be of much value.
And what about diets which achieve (or are claimed to achieve) ELEM indirectly? For example, the Shangri La diet. Do those count as “Eat Less Exercise More.”?
If you read ELEM broadly enough, you could simply take it to mean “Avoid diet strategies which entail regular consumption of excess calories.” Which is surely good advice but if that’s what you mean you need to spell it out.
I’ve heard “Eat Less Exercise More” hundreds of times from tons of people. All the time.
As I’ll discuss in the next post, it’s good advice.
This is the crux of the matter, and quite a few people disagree with it very strongly. In fact, it’s downright offensive.
Some people take Taubes very seriously as a source of scientific information about nutrition, and unless it were a very long post, those people wouldn’t have been satisfied.
Those people aren’t here. All of the ad hominems against Gary Taubes are wasted on this audience.
Those people don’t care about the length of the attack. To quote Eliezers assessment: “this whole series is simply failing to find a smoking gun of Taubes saying something false”.
Quantity doesn’t help as a substitute for quality.
And contrary to what Taubes wants you to think, perfectly compatible with recognizing that the causes of obesity are complicated.
Taubes doesn’t advocate “recognizing that the causes of obesity are complicated”. He advocates that cutting carbohydrates because of their effect on insulin is the main mechanism.
Saying “causes of obesity are complicated” also doesn’t help people with their day to day nutrition choices.
As I’ll discuss in the next post, it’s good advice. And contrary to what Taubes wants you to think, perfectly compatible with recognizing that the causes of obesity are complicated.
The views Taubes attributes to “nutrition experts” are not only not the views of elite obesity researchers, they’re not the views of the FDA, Surgeon General, or anyone else he attributes them to.
It’s not his style I don’t like. It’s the substantive and wildly false claims he’s making.
Some people take Taubes very seriously as a source of scientific information about nutrition, and unless it were a very long post, those people wouldn’t have been satisfied.
No, it really isn’t (for me, at least). When I was limiting my calories and exercising more I was gaining weight, feeling like crap, and was miserable and hungry much of the time.
Now that I stopped trying to keep calories down and eat as much fat as I can handle (about 4⁄5 of my calories come from fat), I lost 30 lbs from my maximum, feel much better (in addition to having more favorable biomarkers), have significantly improved cognition, and almost never feel miserable because I’m hungry. This is precisely the opposite of the advice I received from virtually all the diet authorities I had encountered like my high school health textbook and doctors.
At what point do we start considering the hypothesis that different people have different things that work for them, and that a diet that is healthy for one person may be terrible or even life-threatening for another person?
So much focus is given on “Dietary advice X is good!” / “Dietary Advice Y is bad!”, instead of asking how dietary behavior X interacts with metabolism Y?
I wonder if there’s a market for a company that uses blood samples to examine various metabolic markers and meal logs to examine dietary behavior, and then correlate them over time with health markers and use that to craft a personal diet plan?
Keeping meal logs is itself a fairly significant intervention into someone’s diet.
It relatively hard to keep one that’s accurate if you don’t standardize your diet.
Will you agree to update your report in a year or so?
You mean at the 3 year mark? It has already been 2 years.
Yes, although my erroneous impression from reading your post was that you hadn’t been on the high-fat strategy for all that long.
Thanks for cooperating!
Can you explain how this happens? Is a variation of the Atkins diet?
Eating Less + More Exercise = Gained Weight
Eating More (“as much fat as you can handle”) + Less Exercise = Lose 30 Pounds.
Can you give more specifics? Time frame? Average calorie levels? Workout regiment?
In the first scenario, did your low mood and hunger cause you to break the diet often and binge calories?
Congrats, by the way. 30lbs is a lot of weight, and it sounds like you have improved your life all around.
What kinds of fat have you been eating?
In addition to the fat in my food (which tends to be fairly fatty like eggs, salmon, lamb, etc...), I usually add large amounts of butter, coconut oil, MCT oil, or olive oil. Also, I take way over the recommended dosage in cod liver oil supplements.
A word of warning here- long term use of large quantities cod liver oil can result in vitamin A toxicity.
Why was I downvoted on this?
Thanks. I’ll look into that.
Do you take Bulletproof coffee? (Coffee+butter+MCT)
Yes.
I think I detect some disconnect between the experts you refer to, and the medical professionals people actually talk to. (Scene 1 seems most directly relevant, but please read 5-7 as well.) Taubes didn’t just invent this.
As I understand it, Taubes claims to be going against the experts. Assuming that’s correct, then if there is a disconnect between the experts and medical professionals, it’s a separate issue.
That said, if you want to assess the position of medical professionals, I would be wary of going by uncorroborated self-serving doctor stories told by fat activists. Also, the story you cite to is basically of the “I restricted my calories but didn’t lose weight” genre. When such claims are investigated they have turned out to be false. Fat people who record their eating tend to wildly under-report caloric intake.
Well I hope that you will define ELEM very carefully in assessing it. For example, does the Hacker’s Diet by John Walker qualify as “Eat Less Exercise More”? Arguably it does since Walker advocates carefully counting your calories and being careful to eat less than your daily metabolic requirements. But at the same time, the Hacker’s Diet is a lot more specific than simply Eat Less Exercise More. As a practical matter, the simple advice to “Eat Less Exercise More” is too vague to be of much value.
And what about diets which achieve (or are claimed to achieve) ELEM indirectly? For example, the Shangri La diet. Do those count as “Eat Less Exercise More.”?
If you read ELEM broadly enough, you could simply take it to mean “Avoid diet strategies which entail regular consumption of excess calories.” Which is surely good advice but if that’s what you mean you need to spell it out.
This is the crux of the matter, and quite a few people disagree with it very strongly. In fact, it’s downright offensive.
Those people aren’t here. All of the ad hominems against Gary Taubes are wasted on this audience.
Have you not be reading the comments for the last four posts here? They are.
Those people don’t care about the length of the attack. To quote Eliezers assessment: “this whole series is simply failing to find a smoking gun of Taubes saying something false”.
Quantity doesn’t help as a substitute for quality.
Taubes doesn’t advocate “recognizing that the causes of obesity are complicated”. He advocates that cutting carbohydrates because of their effect on insulin is the main mechanism.
Saying “causes of obesity are complicated” also doesn’t help people with their day to day nutrition choices.