Why we get fat and what to do about it

New book by Gary Taubes - "Why we get fat and what to do about it" - interesting reading if you're willing to read it without pre judging.

Taubes claims we don't gt fat because we eat too much, we eat too much because we get fat and thats carbs, not fats arre responsible for weight gain - it would certainly explain why current diet recommendations are generally so unsuccessful.

It may be right - it might be completely wrong. It would be nice if mainstream doctors and dieticians would read it with an open mind and given a properly explained response to the claims.

Sounds good. People in certain circles are starting to accept that there is more to our weight gain problems than simply eating too much.

Read that book earlier this year very good read. His other book good calories bad calories is apparently a non condensed version of his current book.

Thanks for the videos. I may have to order his book.

Although I really dont think it's a possibility telling everyone to cut carbs from their diets.

I may be looking at this from far too simplistic a viewpoint. But if carbs are the evil that they are portrayed to be in some circles, then why, when carbs made up 70-90% of our diets, was everyone not overweight?

BTW, I havent read this book, or watched these videos, and I AM in favour of limiting carbs when trying to lose weight. I just think the above is a question that I've never seen a satisfactory answer to.

The source of carbs where very different and had a very different GI..

EG - Oats or Mars Bar, Potato or minstrels. rice or coke.

It is the type of carbs which cause the issue today, not carbs in general.

Bodybuilders still eat potato, rice and oats to get ripped.

So is the advice in this book/videos to eat lots of carbs, just make sure they are complex? That wasn't the impression that I got from Steve's post or the subsequent responses and it certainly doesn't fit into the 21st Century fascination with Ketosis and zero carb diets.

Not eating carbs vs eating potatoes and rice is a pretty big difference.

For me, reducing carb consumption to cut fat is very logical. To suggeat that we all got fat because of eating too many carbs isn't.

I don't know. I didn't read the book and I didn't watch the video.
All this Zero carb stuff is nonsense.
People don't get fat eating low GI carbs, they get fat eating too many calories. End of.

Competitive bodybuilders eat Low GI carbs. Competitive athletes eat Low GI carbs, Competitive football players eat Low GI carbs. All are lean.
Nobody ever got anywhere in an athletic endeavour without carbs.

Ar ok, I thought you had read it.

I am not disagreeing with anything you are saying. The posts above seem to suggest that the books/vidoes however do disagree. Hence my questions.

I would add, that plenty of athletes are very lean AND consume high GI carbs. In fact if you are a competitive athelte and are limiting yourself to low GI carbs then you are more than likely not eating optimally for training and recovery.

Still, all of agreeeing with eachother is here nor there! my questions were in relation to this guy and his ideas.

Sounds pretty good, but from what I've just watched the take home message seems to be: eat less carbs, and limit refined carbs to an absolute minimum, or preferably none. Lots of people already subscribe to that way of thinking, but doing it is something else. Like he says in the video, omit the refined carbs for 3 weeks and see how you get on. I think things like this are much easier to do if you live by yourself and have only your own dietry needs to think of. In the real world it' more difficult to implement.

Martin, can I borrow the book if you get it please?

Very true indeed.

Exactly. Carbs can mess with your insulin sensitivity which can cause problems with fat gain, but in the end you still need a caloric surplus to gain weight - it's simple maths. If you eat too much of anything then you will gain weight.

The 'calorie in versus calorie out' theory may be too simplistic as Taubes suggests, but it still has some merit. You can't expect to get lean by eating no/very little carbs if you still vastly overconsume calories.

You dont need to be Einstein to workout why we have an increasingly obese population

Bad food choices and/or food consumption timings

Lack of exercise

Excessive portion sizes

Simples

Very many experts would disagree with you - mainstream doctors & dieticians claiming food choice doesn't matter, it's simply calories in/ calories out whilst low carb advocates claim calories doesn't matter it's food choice that makes a difference.

I suspect as you say it's a combination of calorie balance and food choices that matters to most people.