Comments on: Thought Exercise

By: Keith Thomas

Keith Thomas — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:44:01 +0000

Indeed. Barry Groves wrote a useful contribution on this for the Paleodiet list back in 2003. He gave me permission to expose his explanation on my website:

http://www.evfit.com/calories.htm

By: Richard Nikoley

Richard Nikoley — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:22:17 +0000

Or, such calories would be the same per gram regardless of macronutrient proportions.

By: Keith Thomas

Keith Thomas — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:17:32 +0000

Another point about the simplistic "calorie in / calorie out" approach is that it assumes faeces (and other bodily discharges) have no calories.

By: jim

jim — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:43:49 +0000

I think De Vany had it figured out early when he answered the someone's question "how do I lose fat?" with "Don't get fat in the first place"

By: NickH

NickH — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:50:53 +0000

Taubes put very well. It isn't that people get fat because thy eat too much, but they eat too much because they get fat. To me that is probably the most insightful thing in the book.

The problem with the 1LT crowd is that they are assuming a closed closed system where one does not exist. We are not automobiles with engines that run on calories. We are animals that eat food. We eat food, not calories and what food we eat has consequences for our bodies.

Most prominently, they miss the effect of hormones on fat accumulation and appetite and what those effects entail. Mainly that fat accumulation due to insulin surges causes energy to be stored not used and also causes greater feelings of hunger. There are also other interesting phenomena like homeostasis, which also point to the lack of a closed system.

Quite simply, they confused causation and correlation. That's the first thing you learn in research methods class. Tisk tisk.

By: Adam Cilonis

Adam Cilonis — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:06:44 +0000

I have been a believer for just about a year now...but what is incredibly frustrating is this argument, “But what about eating all that fat? Yeah carbs are bad but so is fat.” I feel pretty defeated when hearing this. I try to explain the cellular inflammation that carbohydrates cause our veins, arteries, etc. and that we were not designed to have fat flowing swollen or even “rough” arteries. But fat flowing through smooth arteries does not cause a problem. Not to mention the insulin response and insulin’s purpose.
As a biologist it is so obvious that hormones drive just about everything, including fat storage or release. I wish I could talk a certain friend into a diet of any “healthy” carbs (grains! They love grains) that she wants for two weeks (lets say 2000 calories) and then a paleo-style diet for the same amount of time and energy consumption. That would open some eyes.
While playing cards with these friends last night they mentioned that they had orange ruffy for dinner and how good it was, etc. I said, “Oh that sounds great!” I was quiet for a bit (contemplating if I really wanted to know the answer to my next question and then went for it). “What did you guys have with it?” response, “brown rice”. Is it weird to become super pissed off when you hear words like, brown rice, whole wheat or ancient grains in that matter of fact way? Because I sure do. I replied, “Oh thank goodness it was BROWN rice!” no I didn’t really say that, I just said, “huh”. They know I don’t approve/agree and that’s why they did not offer that information at first.
I often ask myself, “Self, do you think they ever wonder why my wife and I are fit (inside and out) and they have a host of medical issues and are “soft”?” Guess which couple worksout 4-6 times a week? Yeah they have a lot of muscle in there somewhere!

By: Pauline

Pauline — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:51:32 +0000

Recent posts have made me want to try to re-read Good Calories, Bad Calories again. I have had it since June last year but only managed to dip in as it is fascinating but quite intense reading and you have to follow his scientifc trail. The chapters that deal with faulty fat metabolism being the cause of weight gain and the driving force behind continued weight gain, hunger and lethargy made me sit up and think this makes such sense and yet seems like nonsense from what we have all been taught. We are all brainwashed to think calorie in, calorie out and to think of this as a fat metabolism problem is like saying the fat is driving that person to eat more and want to exercise less. It turns all previous theories of calorie control and restriction upside down. And makes you think of carbohydrates differently. I am still trying to let it all sink in. So when you eat the carbohydrates, and your fat metabolism is faulty, your body is going to say lets store that and doesn't use up what is already in its fat stores. When you cut back the carbohydrates, your body starts to release the fat from its stores, and you have more energy, your metabolism improves and you lose weight. Still got much more to read....and absorb. I always had a feeling that in Gary Taubes book there was an explanation of the obvious which was hidden to all of us because of our preconceived ideas.

By: Richard Nikoley

Richard Nikoley — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:08:04 +0000

Got it. While not qualified to interpret, I'll be happy to offer an opinion based upon what I've learned from Drs. Davis and BG.

Richard Nikoley

By: Patrik

Patrik — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:58:58 +0000

Hi Richard,

I'd like to takeyou up on your offer of interpreting my NMR LipoProfile. I have sent the results to your gmail address listed here on the blog.

If you don't see it, it may have gone into your junk mail folder as it has two PNG attachments.

Many thanks in advance.

By: minneapolis J

minneapolis J — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:51:12 +0000

Richard, first of all I just want to say that I found am article on vegetarianism vs. meat eaters.....I'll get it to you sometime in the next day.

Secondly, here is why this calorie in, calorie out model is stupid. You may lose more mass by eating less....but what if the mass you lost was muscle. then you are FATTER. What if you ate more but also trained much harder. Then you gained 10 lbs. but improved body comp. It is so stupid that some people pay attention to weight, and not body comp. Its not bad to look at the scale if your body comp is improving, but eating less calories day in day out goes against our bodies natural metabolism. It's random...chatoic. Sometimes we are in a great surplus other times we are fasting and negative. The best thing is to keep the insulin down.