Perspective published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition argues the root causes of the obesity epidemic are more related to what we eat rather than how much we eat.
Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that obesity affects more than 40% of American adults, placing them at higher risk for heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer. The USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020 – 2025 further tells us that losing weight “requires adults to reduce the number of calories they get from foods and beverages and increase the amount expended through physical activity.”
This approach to weight management is based on the century-old energy balance model which states that weight gain is caused by consuming more energy than we expend. In today’s world, surrounded by highly palatable, heavily marketed, cheap processed foods, it’s easy for people to eat more calories than they need, an imbalance that is further exacerbated by today’s sedentary lifestyles. By this thinking, overeating, coupled with insufficient physical activity, is driving the obesity epidemic. On the other hand, despite decades of public health messaging exhorting people to eat less and exercise more, rates of obesity and obesity-related diseases have steadily risen.
The authors of “The Carbohydrate-Insulin Model: A Physiological Perspective on the Obesity Pandemic,” a perspective published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, point to fundamental flaws in the energy balance model, arguing that an alternate model, the carbohydrate-insulin model, better explains obesity and weight gain. Moreover, the carbohydrate-insulin model points the way to more effective, long-lasting weight management strategies.
A New Perspective on Obesity
According to lead author Dr. David Ludwig, Endocrinologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and Professor at Harvard Medical School, the energy balance model doesn’t help us understand the biological causes of weight gain: “During a growth spurt, for instance, adolescents may increase food intake by 1,000 calories a day. But does their overeating cause the growth spurt or does the growth spurt cause the adolescent to get hungry and overeat?”
In contrast to the energy balance model, the carbohydrate-insulin model makes a bold claim: overeating isn’t the main cause of obesity. Instead, the carbohydrate-insulin model lays much of the blame for the current obesity epidemic on modern dietary patterns characterized by excessive consumption of foods with a high glycemic load: in particular, processed, rapidly digestible carbohydrates. These foods cause hormonal responses that fundamentally change our metabolism, driving fat storage, weight gain, and obesity.
When we eat highly processed carbohydrates, the body increases insulin secretion and suppresses glucagon secretion. This, in turn, signals fat cells to store more calories, leaving fewer calories available to fuel muscles and other metabolically active tissues. The brain perceives that the body isn’t getting enough energy, which, in turn, leads to feelings of hunger. In addition, metabolism may slow down in the body’s attempt to conserve fuel. Thus, we tend to remain hungry, even as we continue to gain excess fat.
How Processed Carbs Disrupt Metabolism
To understand the obesity epidemic, we need to consider not only how much we’re eating, but also how the foods we eat affect our hormones and metabolism. With its assertion that all calories are alike to the body, the energy balance model misses this critical piece of the puzzle.
While the carbohydrate-insulin model is not new—its origins date to the early 1900s—The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition perspective is the most comprehensive formulation of this model to date, authored by a team of 17 internationally recognized scientists, clinical researchers, and public health experts. Collectively, they have summarized the growing body of evidence in support of the carbohydrate-insulin model. Moreover, the authors have identified a series of testable hypotheses that distinguish the two models to guide future research.
Adoption of the carbohydrate-insulin model over the energy-balance model has radical implications for weight management and obesity treatment. Rather than urge people to eat less, a strategy that usually doesn’t work in the long run, the carbohydrate-insulin model suggests another path that focuses more on what we eat. According to Dr. Ludwig, “reducing consumption of the rapidly digestible carbohydrates that flooded the food supply during the low-fat diet era lessens the underlying drive to store body fat. As a result, people may lose weight with less hunger and struggle.”
The authors acknowledge that further research is needed to conclusively test both models and, perhaps, to generate new models that better fit the evidence. Toward this end, they call for constructive discourse and “collaborations among scientists with diverse viewpoints to test predictions in rigorous and unbiased research.”
Reference: “The carbohydrate-insulin model: a physiological perspective on the obesity pandemic” by David S Ludwig, Louis J Aronne, Arne Astrup, Rafael de Cabo, Lewis C Cantley, Mark I Friedman, Steven B Heymsfield, James D Johnson, Janet C King, Ronald M Krauss, Daniel E Lieberman, Gary Taubes, Jeff S Volek, Eric C Westman, Walter C Willett, William S Yancy, Jr and Cara B Ebbeling, 13 September 2021, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
DOI: 10.1093/ajcn/nqab270
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128 Comments
Congrats! You’ve reinvented the Atkins diet. Dr. Atkins was an endocrinologist, and this was what he found. Good on ya. It has worked for me for decades.
Bullsh*t science. If these were respectable and intelligent scientists they would understand the fundamentals of energy balance are absolute.
The only thing that causes weight gain is taking in more calories than you are burning.
Absof*ckingtutely has NOTHING to do with all the excuses for allowing yourself to be fat. Stop being a lazy ass for starters and you will shed the weight. Stop shoving high calorie foods in abundence into your mouth hole and start moving more and voila! weight loss
Another clueless donkey. CICO has been disproven so many times it isn’t even funny anymore. Especially with people who have an elevated insulin response to carbohydrates.
How many 🍷 to how much
Did you read the article or merely wish to express your opinion based on the title? Your contention is only one of two theories being expressed and contrasted. Both are partially correct but further research is needed for a fuller understanding. Your comment is unprofessional, and demonstrates a serious lack of understanding of the full range of issues surrounding this problem.
Wife went on a full Keto diet. Without working out and keeping her daily activity routine (which was pretty minimal with a desk job), she lost 45 pounds over 7 months. Added an hour of power walking 4 days a week and lost a further 15 pounds, bringing her into a healthy BMI of 5″4 and 136 pounds. Says it was the easiest plan she did as she never felt hungry. Because there’s so many substitutes and Keto treats available, she said she never felt like she was missing out on anything. My father also did Keto, lost 75 pounds and no longer has diabetes.
And that would be a lie. If you get diabetes, you are stuck with it. It isn’t curable. They can go into remission, but it doesn’t mean it’s automatically gone.
There is two types of diabetes. Type one is where your body stops making insulin. (Isles of langerhan die off) It is not curable, type two is where your cells stop using insulin, this type can be “cured” (remediated) by diet, weight loss, exercise.
About twenty-five years ago, experiments with transplanting of isles of langerhan from donors into type one pancreases were conducted hoping that they would escape notice of the immune system and proliferate, thus allowing the donee to create their own insulin. Don’t know the results from those experiments. Must have not been permanent enough to be useful long term.
Yet again another promotion for the fad low carb diet that fails to show any long term weight loss, meanwhile the obesity epidemic rages on despite sugar consumption has been declining for many years.
Yes indeed.
There’s another reason for weight gain that isn’t mentioned. Excess Adrenaline and cortisol. Many women particularly have drops in progesterone which spikes adrenaline, and causes pms, sugar cravings and eventually weight gain that’s hard to shift. Progesterone, along with low glycemic diet fixes that.
I was expecting something new, but this is really not much of a breakthrough, but technically are you not still reducing your calories? Yeah, many people who reduce their calories maintain eating high glycemic foods by cutting out lower glycemic foods.
Probably because they stay fuller longer. So they eat less calories. Simple reason why plant based diets with a good amount of protein is usually recommended. I mean volume wise you get to eat much more. And get filled up faster with much less colries
These are not new concepts. In his book 1972 book Pure, White and Deadly Dr. John Yudkin laid all of this out. Nearly 50 years ago….
And now, expect folks to jump on board with their favourite fad diet and an “I told you so” for good measure.
Everyone who cuts their carb intake way down realizes this but no one wants to admit it. Also it’s hard because carbs taste good. And blaming carbs means we can’t blame fat people for “eating too much” or scream “calories in, calories out” at the top of our lungs.
The healthiest diet is a vegan whole food diet. Combine with intermittent fasting.
Sorry to break it to you, but there isn’t one healthiest diet. Mediterranean diet is comparable. What you are suggesting though isn’t a bad choice though.
What I’m not understanding is how this is different than conventional nutrition advice.
One of the biggest reasons people eat excessive calories is due to not realizing how many calories they are consuming when eating highly processed carbs and non-healthy fats. People will kill a bag of chips no problem in an afternoon, not realizing they’ve just eaten around 1300 calories. Add on non-diet soda and you’re quickly closing in on 2000 calories of food that gives no satiety.
People need to consume more protein, healthy fats, and a balance of less processed carbs found in fruits and vegetables. Plus at least 150 minutes a week of light cardio for improving/maintaining heart health.
Probably because they stay fuller longer. So they eat less calories. Simple reason why plant based diets with a good amount of protein is usually recommended. I mean volume wise you get to eat much more. And get filled up faster with much less colries
People wonder why science is doubted? The study reaches a conclusion a decade or two behind, and simultaneously tries to say simple overeating is not a problem. Obesity is epidemic, exercise is minimal, food is abundant, and cheap carbs everywhere. How about recognizing the foolishness of all of it.
Lard was sadly replaced by vegetable oil
Predictably there are many comments from people trying to display their purported omniscience but who didn’t read the article. For those of you who said this was invented by Atkins or was invented fifty years ago, please read the article. And for those clowns who say science is behind the times – did you discover nutrition by some kind of magical osmosis? No, of course not, you learned it from scientists. It was scientists who discovered about fats, carbohydrates and proteins, not your favorite blowhard on YouTube.
This is the Atkins diet. Why spend money, time and other resources reinventing Atkins?
What about alcohol, especially wine? Doesn’t consistent excess consumption (two+ glasses a day) have a huge impact on weight and health?
I realize that this is a late reply to your post, but wanted to say that I could not agree more with your “wine” assessment. Most people I know, especially women, drink far too much wine and wonder why they cannot lose weight. I would also encourage people to look at old family pictures of their family members even as recent at the 60’s and 70’s for a clear picture of what people used to actually look like at a healthy weight. You will no doubt see that people were very thin compared to today, despite our obsession with food, dieting, exercising, etc. My Mom, at 5’6″, weighed about 130 pounds her entire life and my Dad, at 6′, was about 170. Neither parents had a gym membership, but they did have 4 kids and cooked our meals at home and ate them together. Eating food out was rarely done, and ice cream was a treat in the summertime. And we surely did not consume much fast food, if any. These are the differences in our lives that have led us to this point.
And then there are people like me, who know everything in the article and in all the comments, have done it all, seen it all, read and heard it all, and continue to eat right and exercise, yet remain too heavy. Thyroid function has been investigated in great detail (I do have Hashimoto’s and have reversed all symptoms except the excess weight), cortisol is understood and mostly addressed, toxins and mold exposure have been looked into, etc etc. I’m into menopause at this point but the weight problem started long before that.
At some point you just have to eat for your health and do what is right even if you don’t get the reward of a thin body! I’m not giving up yet (most fat people never do!) but really I should. 😏
All I can say is “duh”. This is not new information or some sort of epiphany. Good fats, high quality protein and low glycemic load carbohydrates are good, but old, advice. Regardless, if you eat more than you need to maintain your weight you will gain weight. If you eat less than you need to maintain your weight you will lose weight. So in conclusion, “duh”.
Sounds like a more nuanced view of calories in calories out and the difference is weight gain or loss.
New model is weighted * calories_in – weighted * calories_out + b = weight gain or loss. Where weighted calories can be determined from the type of food source rather than the nutritional label alone.
I mean useful to know, but not all that new.
Being overweight isn’t caused by eating too much.. It’s caused by eating too much garbage.
Wow. Stunning results. I would have never guessed that eating half a pound of crap was worse than eating half a pound of fruits and vegetables. Thank God for these incredible studies.
Someone needs to read Kevin Hall’s RCT on this. The CIM of obesity doesn’t hold up. When it comes down to it, eating too much of anything makes you fatter. Consider the role of hormones on appetite. Genetics. The role of ultra processed foods. Now that’s news. CIM is old, and disproved.
They’re on the right track, but missing a critical point. It’s not just too many carbs, but the types of carbs. Most processed foods are made with one vegetable oil or another. Just Google “Toxic Seed Oils” to get the real picture.
Its about your attitude about food. “Eat to live ” not Live to Eat”
“Eat more cabbage” is my motto at only 25 calories per 100 g it fills you up & has lots of dietary fibre and vitamins – in essence change what you eat. Everything should be 100% whole grain where at all possible so Brown rice Brown pastor home your bread wholewheat couscous – and simply loads of veggies even potatoes aren’t that bad in terms of calories. But the biggie is REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF VEGETABLE OILS YOU USE TO COOK! Cabvage = 25Kcal/100g whereas oils = 900Kcal/100g!
Genius I tell u! Eat less garbage and exercise more…thank heavens we don’t have to blame genetics anymore.
This is true but food companies dont want us to know the truth that all this sugar is killing people
Yes, it is essentially Atkins, but before WWII, there was a massive body of evidence that carbohydrates caused obesity, and it was considered common knowledge and common sense! All the literature in this field was published in German. After WWII, Ancel Keys promoted his alternatuve hypothesis, and this is why we have the obesity epidemic today. Atkins figured it out, essentially reinventing the wheel without knowing about the old research. We keep coming back to this. It’s what works. My husband lost 134 lbs. He
fluctuated between 232 and 294 lbs until he went on a ketogenic diet, now he fluctuates in the 160s and 170s. I lost 59 lbs the same way, nothing else worked at all, no amount of exercise (even 4 hours per day) and fasting and eating a low calorie, low fat diet, ever worked! It is good to see science catching up to what we knew a century ago. I hope that this information will find its way back into our public health policies, textbooks, and common sense. My grandparents’ lives were shorter than my great-grandparents’, and my parents’ lives were shorter still. We need to change our conventional wisdom and turn this epidemic around!
Haven’t there been countless studies showing that at the end of the day, baring medical conditions, it’s all calories in/calories out? You could eat 1700 calories a day in Twinkies and still lose weight. On the other hand you could eat 2200 calories in leafy greens and gain weight.
Yes. Countless studies, and basic common sense, but that doesn’t sell books. For those who don’t believe it, try this: Eat one donut a day with one soda, for one month and come back and tell me you gained weight.
No matter how you slice it CICO is a proven formula for weight management.
The human body evolved to prefer carbs over fats as a energy source. That said, whole foods is always a better choice to consume over highly processed. But as long as a person is active enough and consumes adequate protein, weight management shouldn’t be an issue outside of an “underactive” thyroid.
The push for low fat and high carb diets by the Government combined with the staggering increase in childhoid trauma and chaos is OBVIOUSLY the cause of the obesity epidemic. It literally follows cultural changes over the last 60 years and thanks to studies focusing on how abuse relates to alterations in both psychological and physical development we’re FINLY starting to understand the root causes of this epidemic that’s far more harmful than something like Covid19. Look into “ACEs” studies.
It’s how many calories you eat. You can’t get overweight in a calorie deficit. End of story.
I have PCOS. I consume few calories, whole natural foods, exercise regularly and I am obese. My friends don’t understand it. I have worked hard to be this fabulous all my life.
Same concept as CICO. They jist changed the name. BS article.
What is the key to loosing fat at age 79
Ridi J, this is not even close to the Atkins model. Atkins is low carbohydrate diet. This article doesn’t say anything about reducing carbohydrates, only limiting or reducing simple carbohydrates in exchange for complex ones. It’s the whole foods vs processed foods, i.e. eat a sweet potato instead of a two slices of bread; same amount of carbs, just different kinds.
Profoundly true for me – I remained overweight or yo-yoing my entire life, until 10 years ago at age 50 I began eating in this manner (and working out daily), have lost 60 lbs and kept if off 10 yrs and counting!
This is what the South Beach diet is based on as well. Nothing new here
Following the Atkins regime made me very ill. The Atkins regime is NOT the answer. Read more CAREFULLY what has been written above. My massive weight loss was ‘kicked off’ by living in a home without Central heating, after being overweight for many many years.
Sorry law of thermodynamics still applies. Problem is measuring energy expenditure vs energy consumption effectively can be difficult but still a best model out there.
Absolutely. Look at Dr Fung’s book called The Obesity Code. It outlines this process very, very clearly. And following his methods thousands have been able to defeat diabetes and maintain weight loss. Basically he states that insulin is the main hormonal culprit in weight gain (not the only) and that intermittent fasting combined with reducing carb intake is the key.
So low carb diets are to become mainstream …. Woohoo ….. next we will be encouraged to eat grass fed beef
Not sure why Ridi J thinks this is a pro-Atkins study. The authors are referring to the link between foods containing PROCESSED carbohydrates and obesity. Foods containing UNPROCESSED carbohydrates in their whole-food form are the foundation for the healthiest diet for humans to consume. This study is one of hundreds of observational and interventional studies that confirm this.
This article is funny. It deridingly calls the energy-balance model “century old” and compares it to another model that’s been around since “the early 1900s”. 😂
Basically, talking about the thermic effect of food without saying the thermic effect of food.
No, this is why atkins and keto work so well initially. Does not make it any less bad for your long term health. The best long term solution is to keep complex carbs. Keep those vegetables and grains and ditch the simple carbs.
Unfortunately, for those of us with stage 4 renal failure, the Atkins model isn’t a good option. The overload of protein is detrimental to kidney function.
If this is true, why did I lose 50 lbs on a lower calorie, HIGH carbohydrate diet? It’s woo, and people have been trying to make these claims over and over again because they’d rather eat more than reduce the amount of food (and still get to eat things that actually taste good). It is true that protein is absorbed more “efficiently” than fat, followed by carbohydrates. But that difference in caloric absorption is not nearly extreme as people make it out to be, and not nearly extreme enough to justify some keto people’s “let’s replace 240 cals of bread with 1620 cals of butter” “healthy” recipes. If you’re losing weight eating a mostly butter diet, here’s the secret: it’s because you feel too stuffed and ill to take in a maintenance calorie amount.
So basically try to keep your blood sugar on the healthy-low side with no spikes or crashes… The more steady you can keep your glucose level, the better…
So they are telling us something we have known for years. Just go on to Youtube and you will find many qualified doctors, physicians etc have been shouting from the rooftops for years regarding Keto, Paleo, Intermittent fasting, Autophagy etc etc. This article is quite laughable really, considering that it’s old news.
Scientists also like to claim men can get pregnant these days.
So they can live in their own delusions. “Expert” means nothing these days.
Stop telling people that overeating is not what’s making them obese; it is irresponsible of you to say this. People have to take personal responsibility for their lives. Yes there are certain situations which may cause someone to be obese, but the bottom line is calories in calories out. Being active, even a little bit will help sustain a healthy weight as long as you do not over indulge.
Stop telling people that overeating is not what’s making them obese; it is irresponsible of you to say this. People have to take personal responsibility for their lives. Yes there are certain situations which may cause someone to be obese, but the bottom line is calories in calories out. Being active, even a little bit will help sustain a healthy weight as long as you do not over indulge!
Well this is already known and endorsed by everybody except by doctors whose knowledge is based on books written in the 50s 😀
In 1974 a Doctor created the FIRST no carb diet.. he is Doctor Stillman!!
He theory was no carbs !! None.. no vegetables no cream in coffee nothing but meat, cheese, eggs, fish..
As much as you want….
I did it and lost a pound a day♥️Nobody ever mentions him.
It was a very hard diet!! Now I incorporate vegetables and fat.. I lose much slower. But I have lost 60 lbs in two years.. it has been a long time… but now I realize I have learned to eat healthy without much thought!!!
Restated:
Eat less calories than the body burns off.
Which is effectively the same as: eat less calories and exercise more.
So. Then no matter how much you tap dance around it it still comes back to excessive caloric intake.
Exactly what I was thinking. This is Atkins!
We’ve been walking upright for thousands of years too. That doesn’t make it wrong.
Atkins diet is VERY BAD for you!
This either/or theory ( either obesity is caused by too much calorie intake OR too many simple carbs drive hunger keeping people eating so fat accumulates) drives me absolutely crazy. My only conclusion is that the researchers have never actually spent much time with any obese people and seen how much food and total calories the obese Americans are actually taking in. I’m a nurse, and have spent time with many obese patients and co-workers, and have a strong family history, self included, of obesity as well, so I have been in the middle of the overeating epidemic. If we are obese, usually we have taken in the excessive number of calories to earn that weight. The either/ or question just lets us off the hook of having to be honest with ourselves about how much we are eating, which isn’t helpful.
Of COURSE there are variations in metabolism, of COURSE genes play a role, of COURSE people are more satiated by foods that are protein-heavy rather than sugar-heavy, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t overeating calories independent of all of that in order to acquire those extra pounds. And who says that overeating is even related to excessive hunger anyway? I mean, donuts and potato chips and half-pound fast-food cheeseburgers or pizza, beyond a modest portion that satisfies any existing hunger, these are recreational foods, pretty much. People eat the entire 6 oz. bag of chips because it tastes good, or because they are lonely or bored. Nobody says, hm, am I still hungry for another handful of chips?…mostly if you tend to overeat for emotional reasons, you don’t even notice the food is going in your mouth past the first few handfuls.
But alas, scientists apparently tend to live in rarified air. Maybe they could spend that research money finding out how to combat all the fantastic propaganda the food industry puts into their advertising in order to line their corporate pockets getting people to buy and glut themselves on processed foods. I’d love to see THAT research getting done! Not likely though. It would be hard to fund that study! Thankfully we each have the ability to make choices to improve the quality and quantity of our food intake. We are not actually being FORCED to overeat. There’s that good news, anyway.
Good input, thanks.
Yeah doctors have been telling us for a long time to eat less and exercise of course that doesn’t mean people listen though that’s why they’re fat not because they’ve been telling us for a while and it doesn’t work because people are lazy and don’t exercise and eat
“highly processed carbohydrates” = Sugar & high fructose corn syrup, bread, pasta, cake, cookies, breakfast cereal, granola bars, and that bowl of “heart healthy” oatmeal you ate for breakfast.
So, since there are only 3 macro-nutrients: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats – they are telling us to eat more protein, more fat, and more unprocessed carbohydrates, like vegetables that grow above the ground, and not below the ground, like potatoes.
Sounds like the ketogenic way of eating, or the advice Atkins gave.
Sensible – and cheaper than buying packs of cookies and bags of potato chips.
B.S.
Whole foods plant based or vegan. Eat as much as you want. You can’t fit 500 calories of potato inside a normal stomach, so you’ll be full long before you over eat in calories.
You will feel great. Watch Forks Over Knives on netflix
Can’t believe doctors think you can gain weight in a calorie deficit. The doctors who made the study said that this incomplete research at the end this has good information but is misleading af, y’all should be ashamed
This is bad science. Yes, processed carbohydrate leads to insulin spikes, yes, insulin is an anabolic hormone that pushes fat from the blood into adipose cells, and yes, eating processed carbohydrates with a high amount of fat will lead to increased fat storage. Here’s the thing though: it’s not the carbohydrates causing fat gain. It’s the fat.
When carbohydrates are eaten with fat, that fat is absorbed into the blood and pushed into adipose cells by the insulin triggered by the carbohydrates. This causes excess weight gain. Eating carbohydrate alone, however, does not result in excess weight gain because the carbohydrate is stored in the muscles and liver as glycogen and there is no fat in the blood stream for insulin to push into adipose cells. Consumed
carbohydrate is NOT converted into fat. The denovolipogenesis pathway is very inefficient (requires 30% of consumed calories be burned just in the storage process) and thereby only about 3% of consumed carbohydrate is stored as fat.
It is nearly impossible to become obese eating carbohydrate alone. Overt fat sources are required to do so. Becoming obese requires consuming over 10-15% of calories from fat. A diet centered around fruits, grains, and vegetables will never be over 10% fat. Those foods are the healthiest for humans and a person eating just those foods will never become obese.
Yes! This is a good response. Love it when a commenter knows what they are talking about and can support their comments with facts.
You go girl! Thanks Sheila!
Amazing. They discovered eating a ton of junk food makes you fat. They also discovered eating healthy food like vegetables won’t make you fat and is good for you.
They complain about the food we eat, but the big corporations are in charge of what things cost. They got the junk food cheap as hell and what’s good for you expensive.. when most of people in America are on food assistance programs where you get very little and got to make it stretch.. yeah people buy the junk food, it’s something in your stomach that lasts longer that a salad or just raw veggies and fruits.. not everyone likes veggies, most fruit is good because it’s got natural sweetness to it. Sorry but they expect people to live off of beans, lintels, rice, ramen, peanut butter, noodles, tomato paste, boxed Mac and cheese.. sometimes bread and milk, try to make a meal from this. These are most things given out at food pantries. Yes it’s to help supplement your food assistance money. But unless you know how to cook not just toss something into a microwave it doesn’t work.
> quotes CIM and Ludwig
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣, yeah, sure, okay…
Nice try,you fat f*cks. Get your *ss on the treadmill,or jogging,and stop stuffing your mouth with junk-food.
I kind of understand. The sad truth is they expect you to take care of yourself, but realize that sometimes people need assistance. They want this assistance to be short term temporary, and unrepeated.
Been there, ate a can of spaghetti and meatballs for breakfast that was warmed up in my pants overnight, then a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, then two packs of ramen soaked in water for an hour for supper. Cookies with PB globbed on one side then smashed down into rolled oats for snacks. Occasionally a can of pork and beans about twice a week and a half gallon of milk every two weeks. Pray thanking God for what you have. It was humbling, but probably a good experience for me.
Some call it eating to live. Ha!
When I was younger in the 60s and 70s, we are a lot of convenience food because my mum worked full time.When I learned to cook with fresh ingredients and eat a range of things, I am a totally different shape.We don’t ever buy fat reduced anything and we do eat a mixture of things including rice, home baked bread ,pasta pulses and dairy as well as fish, meat and plenty of fruit and veg….Learn to cook.We don’t eat like rabbits but without processed food your body is just completely different.If only people would eat more naturally ,they would not be on a permanent diet.
This has been known for decades. Glad to see the “scientists” are finally getting up to speed.
Lol. I didn’t even look it that way it’s true. The issue is we have been told all out life to just cut calories and workout. This is now telling people that this isn’t the case. I tried to tell everyone that I am allergic to carbohydrates. Meaning my body absorbs it and I gain weight versus losing weight and I workout 5 days a week and lost nothing. There is a doctor I can’t remember his name that calls it carbohydrate intolerance. But no one study it enough to explain how is this possible until now.
Dr. Atkins paved the way and now there are so many great doctors that continue to perfect this method and teach us how to take control of our own health. I am 54 yrs old. I’ve lost 50 lbs in the last year from cutting out processed high carb foods. I have so much energy now. Life is good.
Sugar makes one fat. A couple of generations ago, sweets were a rare treat. These days, they are everyday fare.
No. No they don’t. It’s when you eat more calories from “sweets” than your body expends. I eat ice cream, pizza, pretzels weekly, and do not every gain weight. In fact, I more often than not, have trouble keeping it on. Why? Because I don’t eat an entire half-gallon of ice cream in one sitting. I don’t eat a large pizza and wash it down with 2 litres of full-sugar soda. Nope. I train (reasonably, not excessively) 4-6 days a week. Some days are just walking. Don’t let anyone tell you you cannot control your weight and that you are predetermined, no matter what, to be obese. YOU have the control.
“Bread makes you fat?” – Scott Pilgrim
My thoughts too.
I’ve been simply counting calories which forces you to make better choices. You see one item that is a high calorie count, but then you can have a healthy salad with a low calorie dressing and one cookie and come out ahead and feel full and you don’t feel you are depriving yourself. That’s the death of diets when you feel deprived. It’s different for everyone. I keep my calories at 1200 a day and that is plenty. If I have a very active day, I will increase my protein. But you can’t just reduce calories, you should do some form of exercise. Walking 7000 steps or more, biking, swimming or playing disc golf is possible even for the obese.
There are no magic diets because unless you make it a life time change, you will gain all the weight back.
You all have it wrong. The 1 real answer is the second coming of Jesus Christ. He will give all of us His saved children new immortal bodies that can eat an unlimited supply of anything and since they’re glorified made of pure zero point energy they never break down get old or sick. The rest of y’all poor worms will fester and burn in unquenchable fire for eternity begging for water you’ll never get. Supporting verses are Mark 9 43 to 48 Philippians 3 20 to 21 John 6 47 and Revelation 20 15.
It’s not a low carb diet people!!! It’s about GI (Glycemic Index) and GL (Glycemic Load). Insulin resistance is tied to these measures very closely. Do some reading on GI and GL and recommendations on what to eat. You will find that it is recommended that you eat non-processed carbs. These are usually whole, natural foods that aren’t overcooked. Find. GL index. GL measures foods from 0 to 100. Keep your GL score below 100 everyday and also try to eat foods that are low on the GI scale. ALL CALORIES ARW NOT THE SAME!!!! If you believe they are try living on a diet of donuts all day and see what it does for you compared to a diet of fresh vegetables with the same calorie count.
I am 230lbs 6’0 with very little fat and good muscle tone. 500mg-750 testererone monthly,40 mg of Winstrol daily and 8 units of Somatex Human Growth Hormone. All delivered to my door monthly and easily ordered. I walk 3 miles twice a week and lift weights 20 minutes a day 3 times a week. I eat whatever I want,whenever I want and look phenomenal. Liver,kidneys and heart are in perfect shape after 5 years of this and get blood checks every 3 months,my sugar is a bit high but that it. Some might disagree with how I stay in shape but it works for me. Winstrol and anavar are the safest anabolic’s for women to use and Liothyronine(T3) the safest thyroid medicine. Women can go get hormonal pellets from anatholigist with testererone in them which increase sex drive, weight loss and energy levels.
Skipping eating whole, unprocessed grains depletes the body of many crucial vitamins and minerals. And not eating high carb vegetables and fruits does the same. No wonder so many supplements are necessary on a keto diet.
What this DOESN’T account for is poverty. Emphasis on the cheap and quick attributes of foods that have that effect on obesity. We would all love to get fresh vegetables and other healthy food to make balanced meals, but that would be expensive and preparing them would take time that working people often don’t have. That, and the fact that fresh foods tend to have a short shelf life and small windows of time to prepare them, pretty much forces people to have fewer healthy options. We all know by now the why’s and how’s of obesity, but there’s nothing that many people can do about it. That is the mystery that needs solved.
I never understood diets. Maybe because I’ve never had bmi over 25. Scales and mirrors exist. I drank like 40 liters of mountain dew a month for a while and never lost abs or gained weight. Calories in is ALL that matters. Even calories burned means nothing because most are burned from just being alive. An hour hard workout burns less than 1 twinkie.
Welcome to the comments section. A living example of the Dunning–Kruger effect.
None if these or other scientists are challenging the laws of physics eg matter/energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted from one form to another
This carb-insulin paper is making the point that the type of foods we eat, eg their glycaemic index, one of many characteristics, will affect our metabolic and hormonal processes, thereby the “energy consumed” side of the equation. Hence by eating processed foods greater weight gain than would be expected from it caloric value can occur. Furthermore, some foods result in greater energy consumption to digest than the food itself provides, extreme example, celery.
Therefore eating non processed foods, balanced diet is the best, not “no carbs” “paleo” “high fat, high protein, low carb” etc. Such diets can effect short term weight loss but are not holistically nutritious.
Its amazing how this simple article sharing an “idea” sparks so much narrow minded lashback. If the current medical system would spend more than 4 weeks training doctors on the B I G picture of people and food then their patients wouldnt still be fat sick and dying W I T H the advice and medications they’re being given. If it can’t be prescribed it’s not worth their time. I’m so glad people are able to find info for themselves, and the old model of “doctor knows best” that is killing so many people early is going away. 🙂
Pesca-vegan and intermittent fasting. And the 20/80 rule. I lost 110 pounds without a rigorous exercise plan. I had back surgery and continued weight loss. Fast. Drink a gallon of water daily as well. Have type 2 Diabetes.
The science says weight loss can be as individualized as a finger print. Each body metabolized each food differently.
Don’t eat cow!! Lol
It’s not the science that’s junk. It’s the “fake news” headlines that got you to read this article that’s junk. After all it’s the lying headline that’s still in your head, making you read these comments. The substance of the article has long since left your head. That is if u ever really read it to begin with.
This is what “fake news” means. And this lying is what is pervasively wrong with our society. People walk away from these articles not understanding what they just read, only remembering the headline.
Ignore the headline! But that’s impossible. That’s why it’s so bad.
No sh*t, Sherlock. Metabolism matters just as much as how much or what you eat, which is why some people can get away with eating whatever they want and have no problems.
This comment section is spicy af
I am a 74 year old woman who has had a weight problem for most of my life. It took 3 months to lose 50 lbs and I struggled for 3 years to lose more and maintain my weight. I got sick and had to take steroids and even with really watching my calorie intake I gained 20 lbs back in 2 weeks. A few months later I had to take steroids again and put on 30 pounds. Great, the whole 50 lbs I lost have come back even though I struggled to keep them off. This has been the pattern for me my entire life. Now I have developed lypodemia where my body is confused and stores fat on the left side only. My right arm and leg appear normal to thinner than my left leg and arm are 1 size larger than the right. There is no cure, only weight loss and In the last 3 weeks I managed to lose 8 lbs. This sh*t sucks but I have to stick with this or I could die.
What about all people who eat jizz?
I don’t know about this. The people in China eat lots of noodles and rice and they are thin. I think it matters how often you put anything in your mouth.
I lost 152 pounds, and guess what I did? I stopped eating processed and fast food and exercised. That’s it. That’s all I had to do. I didn’t go on a no carb bullsh*t diet, I didn’t even diet. I just stopped eating garbage. I stopped eating meat and dairy as well, since all that crap is pumped with hormones and antibiotics. Whole foods. Stop eating processed sugary foods and get off your *sses and you will lose weight. I can guarantee it.
The only things stopping you from losing weight are excuses. And people make them until they are having their chests cracked open in the OR. Even then, people would much rather gorge on crap than live. So be it.
Walf,
It ain’t that simple. Craving for carbs is very strong for some; low grade depression etc. and gut imbalances. Also, medications can increase your appetite; a losing battle. Then there are the physical problems that prevent you from doing enough exercise, joint problems, sciatic, fibromyalgia etc. These are not excuses but reasons. This is reality.
All of those cultishly wedded to the failed energy balance model are super triggered by this study – which anyone who has dramatically improved their health with a high fat, low carb diet (myself included) is like “duh, we’ve known this for decades.”
The study forgot to factor in the introduction of industrial seed oils into the American food supply, now a global trend. See details here:
Omega 6 Apocalypse 2 by Chris Knobbe
https://youtu.be/sKR1ZdHXXzo
Absolutely Dr Carl Frederick’s and Dr Adkins knew this for many years it’s not rocket science but getting people to actually eat a low carb diet THAT is going to be rocket science
I am shocked at the disgusted and judgemental tone of all the skinny folks on this thread! Obviously, not all obese people are lazy pigs as you would like to have us know. Many factors, including trauma, depression and a host of medications contribute to the obesity epidemic. You fail to see that obesity is a mere symptom of underlying causes and conditions, aside from a shameless food industry that is allowed to promote it’s capitalist self-interest, spreading their garbage around the entire world! If you are skinny and as nasty as I am reading it here, you are not happy either. You may look good but what comes out of you is just not nice! Do something revolutionary: think about more than yourself because you are part of this crisis unless you take action. Stop beating up sick people. And btw., I am not obese but I have wonderful, respectable friends who are. They need all the love they can get to get better. Get off you high horses and show some compassion. Take action for better food policies. Just don’t demean 50% of you fellow citizens.
I suppose in your utopian world, taking consumer choices away, must as I would do with a child by not keeping much candy in the house, would be the way to a healthier population. The “shameless food industry” is giving the consumer what they want. The consumer obviously wants the wrong thing. So, let’s restrict that they can get. I’m pretty sure that is what you are promoting. Not in those words, obviously. But just the same. I want healthier choices. But I cannot tell you how many times I have hosted an event, or been to an event, where healthy foods were provided, and some people actually left and came back with McDonald’s because they could not find any food that appealed to them. Is that McDonald’s fault? Or the fault of the parents that indulged that person as a child who now, as an adult, finds healthy food to be unappealing? What’s your take?
Cool story, but yeah, it’s from overeating. There’s no bullsh*t “thyroid issue,” there’s not “uncontrollable genetics,” it’s because you eat too much and you don’t burn enough calories. Period. That’s how being fat works. Don’t downplay it or try to make excuses.
This is not new knowledge or even newsworthy. I actually feel dumber reading this article. A new model? How stupid and meaningless. Who cares about some model some douche made. I am not annoyed by the content, as I am by the low level of academic rigor this an entire article and study demonstrate. This should not be given the attention of a large public audience like scitech daily. Doesn’t make scietechdaily seem like a respectable platform.
I AM 75 YEARS OLD, AND WHEN I WAS 13, MOST PEOPLE WERE THIN OR SKINNY. AND BECAUSE EATING OUT WAS A REAL TREAT, MOST EVERYONE ATE AT HOME. THEN FAST FOOD CAME ON THE SCENE, AND OBESITY BECAME THE NORM. THE ARTICLE INFORMATION ISN’T NEW BUT REPEATED INFORMATION I HAVE READ UNTOLD TIMES. WHAT TO LOSE WEIGHT…STOP EATING CARBS AND OVEREATING.
To all those who subscribe to the calorie in, calorie out model, I have a question.
Do you really believe our bodies are 100% efficient at processing calories? Because if so, the end result that comes out the other side would have 0 caloric content. I think this is unlikely.
If you agree that our bodies do not absorb 100% of the calories we ingest, the next consideration should be what aspects of metabolism control how much of our caloric intake passes through undigested. It makes sense that a properly functioning metabolism would discard unnecessary caloric intake. If high glycemic index foods disturb this function and increase the amount of calories absorbed, it makes sense that they would cause obesity and prevent weight loss even as caloric intake was held constant or even reduced.
For example, suppose our bodies absorb 50% of the calories we ingest when in a calorie surplus and the metabolism is functioning normally; with a 2k calorie diet,
we absorb 1k calories.
Now, suppose a high glycemic index food causes us to absorb 75% of what we eat. Even if you counted calories so your intake was still 2k, your body will end up absorbing 1.5k calories, resulting in a 50% increase over the low GI food. In fact, you would need to reduce your total intake to 1.3k calories in order to absorb 1k calories.
These numbers are all theoretical, but the underlying premise is the same, and depends only on whether or not you believe our bodies absorb 100% of the calories that go into our mouth.
Yes! Good reply! Thoughtful, and helpful and true. In college a skinny dorm mate ate about three thousand calories a day and stayed skinny. He most likely pooped a lot of those calories out.
How many of you know what pig poop looks like? Have any of you seen pig poop in a pigpen? Most likely not because pigs eat their own poop and the poop of other pigs because there is still nourishment in the poop. (One reason pigs are considered unclean) Eventually a watery squirt comes out which smells like pig.
Some people’s gut biome is more efficient than others.
Haha…new diet book.
I think that whatever helps someone loose weight healthiest for their mind and body.
This is why I love Noom! I. Not a paid affiliate, I joined it and it literally does help me to learn what I’m putting into my body and helping choose better. But I believe the only long term plan is watching our calories and exercise… We have to find out why we are eating how and what we are eating before we can do better!
Oh I forgot about all those obese Asians and Kenyans eating that high glycemic white rice for breakfast lunch and dinner…wonder if they have tried the Great American Keto diets…
I think this needs to be said for ALL involved. The caloric imbalance theory is based solely on the first law of thermodynamics and was NEVER TESTED. It was deemed obvious and thus a waste of money to actually study obesity. Many fast digestible carbs are glucose when digested fructose is one of the leading harbingers for extremely high glucose which causes insulin resistance. Insulin shuttles glucose to organs, muscles, and fat cells with priority fuel burning. And insulin also tells the body to store fat.
The leading thing here is to officially scientifically prove the root cause of obesity. Before our current 40+ year old guess in the dark. Scientists WERE looking at the carb-insulin model. It started with a German Internist pre WW2, before all the tools needed to prove it existed, and when those tools became available, doctors had latched onto the rule of thermodynamics and completely ignored the biology part of the problem.
They also are looking at the high digestibility making it seem like the body is not getting the calories it needs and thus the brain goes into caloric emergency mode. Keeping you hungry, turning off your metabolism, and storing as much of your intake as possible and thus exacerbating the whole situation. Since the caloric imbalance theory was made the leading model obesity has only risen.
Also the Atkin’s diet may not be the full answer either. The medical community lost their minds and called his diet medical malpractice because saturated fats are linked to heart disease. But what if the answer is somewhere in between. That is what this study is about finding the actual root cause of obesity.
Try to remember science found out that shaming only harmed weight loss in most people recently, before then it was just scientifically seen aanecdotal, and that it was perfectly acceptable. the caloric imbalance die hards shrieked that shaming was holding fat people accountable for their fat and it couldn’t be aiding the cause of obesity and called it bullsh*t science to make people feel good about being fat. They also hang onto the old notion that medical obesity is 1% of the population, even though mental health diseases like anxiety and depression are growing at alarming rates and make up minimum 20% of the human population last time I looked many years ago, and both the diseases and the medications that treat them are both known to cause obesity.
This study is basically being done to advance medical science so doctors will finally take obesity serious as the disease it is and possibly stop doing things like first resort permanently destroying people’s digestive tract to force them to eat less which by the way has a 35% failure Rate as long as they aren’t part of the 5.3 percent who are killed by gastric leaks and other fatal complications of the surgery, and can leave a person permanently at risk of very serious and potentially fatal issues like dumping syndrome and bowel obstruction with no weight loss and no ability to reverse the surgery.
Scientists are doing their jobs right now. It isn’t bullsh*t science. They are testing previously untested hypothises
Yes, we know already that eating refined food, sugar, high glycemic foods etc. is causing weight gain. But what we need with is how to stop the craving of these foods. That is at the root of the problem.
Have the generational effects of pesticides been considered? Anyone who’s grandparents were farmers are way more likely to be obese and diabetic. Also, poor people are more likely to be obese because carbs are cheap. Unless someone is willing to foot the bill for obtaining and preparing the meat and veggies, fat people will probably stay fat.
Well, it’s currently Feb. 2026 and nothing has come of this study.
I agree with all the CICO people. It’s simply impossible to gain weight if you are consuming fewer calories than you need. It’s simply impossible to lose weight if you are consuming more calories than you burn. There may be reasons that people under or over eat that are beyond their control, but that is besides the point.
I’ve had numerous health issues affecting my weight (autoimmune thyroid problems both hyper and hypo thyroid, and adrenal insufficiency, then overmedicating with hydrocortisone for the adrenal insufficiency) but the bottom line is that every time I lost weight or was underweight, I was not eating much food. The times when I was overweight or gaining weight, I was eating more food.
Enough with the excuses and labeling obesity as a disease. It’s not a disease, it’s a symptom. Once you recognize that there’s a problem, figure out the cause and fix it. No excuses.