Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It

I am a physical trainer in NYC with 15 years experience. I voraciously read nutrition and exercise science journals and books. I recently read "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes. It is a follow up (and somewhat of a clif notes version) to his tome "Good Calorie, Bad Calorie". The author is a science writer for the NYT, Discover and Science. He has an aerospace engineering masters from Stanford and Harvard and a journalism masters from Columbia. He is not a dietitian or doctor but he has a unique ability to read, understand and objectively explain scientific studies. In his books he does not attempt to "sell" a diet (however I'm sure he wants to sell lots of books) supplements, meal plans etc. He aims to take a skeptical look into why we believe what we have been told about nutrition. Most nutritional dogma stems from our government and/or pharmaceutical backed public health policies. His arguments are detailed (more so in "Good Calorie, Bad Calorie") and backed with a plethora of scientific evidence. The following lists some of the irrefutable scientific evidence that he presents : 1- Just thinking about eating carbohydrates (Pasta, cake, rice, ice cream) raises your insulin levels and makes you hungry, or hungrier. 2- Our hormones, enzymes and growth factors regulate ALL of our fat tissue. 3- Most of the carbohydrates we eat in America were not around for 99.9% of the past 2.5 million years. Only in the last 30-40 years have these things, we call food, been in our diet. 4- Men and women fatten differently (women are more predisposed to gaining fat) due mostly to our sex hormones. 5- Fat is continuously flowing out of our fat cells and being used for fuel....and we preferentially store fat even when we are not eating more caloies than we are expending. 6- Science is not clear what our ancestors, prior to the development of agriculture, ate. 7- Current hunter-gather societies get most of their calories (on average about 85%), from animal protein and fat. However (Taubes does not talk about this) these societies walk on average 7-10 miles per day. 8- Carbohydrate rich diets lower your HDL's (good cholesterol) which has a direct causation to heart disease and shorter life-spans. 9- High insulin levels (blood sugar) are caused by carbohydrate intake which in turn causes your body to store fat. 10- You will not store fat (of any significance) when your insulin levels are low even when you are eating fatty foods! In fact when your blood sugar is low you will liberate fat from your fat cells. Here are some things Taubes states that are controversial (however he supports his statements with lots of relevant research) and quite thought provoking: 1- We do NOT get fat because we overeat. We overeat because we are getting fat. It is more than calories in, calories out. 2- We do not need ANY carbohydrates in our diet (this is a tough one for me to believe, however he provides some good evidence). 3- All exercise makes you hungry and you will replace ALL the calories your burned by eating more. (Obviously, I have some problems with this one too!) 4- Atkins style diet (not the South Beach diet) will lower your risk for heart disease, most cancers, Alzheimer's and diabetes. 5- Eat a diet that is about 3 to 1 ratio of fat to protein and a little carbs if you must. 6- Restricting calories is not a good way to lose fat in the long term. I think this is a fascinating and accessible science book. I have read countless books on the subjects of exercise, diet, disease, and physiology. I believe, "Why We Get Fat" presents devastating arguments against the popular epidemiological studies that taught low-calorie and low-fat diets for health and weight loss. This book just might shift the pendulum (on its head) about what we know about diet, food and nutrition. Almost two years ago I drastically lowered my intake of animal protein (I kept eggs and cheese around because they are sooo good!) due to the bonbardment of evidence I was coming across about the dangers of meat (and the ethical concerns with the way we treat the animals we eat). So as a quasi vegetarian I am having a hard time making amends with this book and its seemingly strong arguments for a high fat, high protein low carb diet. I am not totally convinced, but the more I look into the evidence the more I am being swayed.

Taubes' book is one of the most important books ever written on nutrition. There are thousands of books written on diet and obesity, and the overwhelming majority of them are deeply flawed at best. The so-called advice offered (and now even forcibly mandated by public and corporate powers) is also dead wrong, as will be most of those who trust said advice. There are many thoughts on why this is the case, and many "conspiracy" theories as to how it came about, some with substantial evidence and outright smoking guns. This area of health is rife with disinformation, misinformation, ignorance, and outright lies. Taubes does not deal with any of that directly. He does something quite different and important: he uses solid research from the hard literature to make his case in a very precise and focused way. The case he makes is airtight and irrefutable, even from the most hard-nosed skeptic's viewpoint. The first thrust of this book is to show that the old "calories in - calories out" steam engine view of obesity is not only mildly incorrect, it is so very obviously wrong on so many levels as to completely defy rational thought. While he does not deal with the reasons behind this deadly myopia in the professional, corporate, and governmental world, he does systematically dismember this superstitious silliness with glorious logic and hard evidence. From the misunderstanding of the application of thermodynamic "laws" in biological systems to the research on obesity and disease connections, he deftly leads the reader to a greater understanding of what the real research on obesity actually says, and what that means in terms of personal health and public policy. His main concentration is on fat metabolism versus carbohydrate metabolism, and how carbs disturb the delicately balanced fat storage mechanism and cause obesity. He describes the research which backs this up, and has for decades and decades, while being totally ignored by most medical and public health officials. He discusses how long some of this research has shown these things and mentions how it has been consistently ignored. That's right - carbs. Not dietary fat, not sloth, not moral weakness, not any other of the fad social mythology which passes for "evidence" driven policies and public stances. He details the increased understanding from more sensitive and better done research which essentially proves that our great-grandmothers had a better sense of healthy food than almost all the scientists, dieticians, health agency spokescritters, and gurus who have filled our heads with lies for at least 60 years. (And been accessories to the pain and death of millions of wrongly informed people, I hasten to add.) His focus is completely on the science, and he does not venture into the politics or economic pressures which created this stupid state of affairs (the vitriol here is mine). While he does not discuss it directly, his book does point out the dangers of trusting science to give hard answers to questions of diet and health. As I point out in my review of Weston A.Price's "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration," science will not be able to give us solid answers to dietary questions for at least another 1,000 years, at the snail's pace and myopic style of current research, some of which is clearly discussed in this book. I do have some quibbles with him: his statement about being about to get adequate vitamin D from exposure to sunlight is over-simplified to the point of being incorrect. He also advises people to use artificial sweeteners instead of sugars, which is extremely bad advice, given the dangers inherent in most of them. He does not mention the impact of MSG on obesity (it causes obesity - MSG is reportedly used to fatten lab animals for obesity experiments). He does not mention experiments on farm animals in the 1940s which showed that the diet which fattened mammals most quickly was one of grains and vegetable oil. He does not go into the differences in saturated fats, and how medium-chain fatty acids are handled differently in the body. He also does not mention that animal fat is a dense source of critical nutrients, and that saturated fat is crucial in triggering satiation, hence limiting appetite, cravings, and overeating. Given all that, his work is still ironclad and irrefutable even in its narrow focus. Add in all the rest and you have a overwhelming body of evidence which is more than compelling enough to warrant a major investigation into the reasons why this information has been forcibly withheld from the public (causing untold suffering and death). I gave it 5 stars, not because it is perfect, but because it is so powerful, so right, and so necessary. Bottom line: everyone should read this book, period. The information here can literally save your life and that of those you love. Doctors, other medical people, dieticians, and others involved in the public sector dealing with nutrition should read this NOW, before they kill any more people through their ignorance. As Weston A. Price once responded to a question about how to deal with the disinformation around the subject of a healthy diet; "You teach, you teach, you teach." Get it and spread the word.

Wow! What a fascinating book. I couldn't put it down, and have been telling everyone about it. I feel like I finally have "the answer." I have two personal anecdotes that I'd like to tell about. First, in 2010, I hired a personal trainer and went from being a person who wasn't sedentary, but did not have a regular exercise routine, to someone who was whipped into shape three times per week, for one hour personal training sessions. I stayed at the gym after my session for another hour to do 40 minutes on the tread-climber, and then 20 minutes to cool down and stretch. At the end of three months of this, I felt great, and looked much better. However, I hadn't lost a single pound. And, at the end of month two, when my personal trainer tested my percentage of body fat, it had somehow gone up! I was furious. I decided then and there that something was wrong, but had no idea what it could be. Then, last winter, I joined the new cocktail craze. I hosted a big cocktail party just before Christmas, and for it I went to the liquor store and bought a bottle of just about everything. At my cocktail party people drank mostly beer and wine, and so afterwards I had what amounted to a full bar left over. I proceeded to fill the long evenings of a Montana winter by mixing cocktails. I had a couple fun books, and tried a new cocktail three to four times per week. I knew I was putting on weight during that time, but didn't get on the scale to see how much. After about four months, I thought, alright, let's see what the damage is. My jaw dropped to see the number, 20 pounds higher than the last time I'd weighed myself! I had never gained so much, in such a short period of time. What the heck happened?! I'm sure every single person, except those, perhaps, who are lean and stay lean without effort, will have episodes from their lives that were perplexing because they seemed to go against what we've all been taught, that are explained by the information in this book. I feel like now I have "the answer." I just read it a couple days ago, but I do plan to adopt a low-carb lifestyle, once I have a plan. That's why I gave this book four stars instead of five. The, "And What to Do About It," from the title left a lot to be desired. Another thing, like a lot of people, I've tried an "Atkins" style diet here or there, two or three times, and had results. However, I always felt guilty while I was on that plan, "Surely, this isn't good for me...bacon every day?" And, I never looked at it as a permanent change. After dropping 10 pounds for an upcoming vacation, going off the diet for the vacation, I came home to find that I'd gained it all back. After reading this book, I understand why that happened, and maybe more importantly, why the diet works, and I can go ahead with the low-carb plan without feeling guilty about the bacon. Update: 1/20/12 My husband read the book, too, and was just as blown away as I was. He was about 3/4 of the way through it last Thursday afternoon when he said, "forget Monday, I want to start today!" And so we did. I lost 4.3 pounds in the first week. Today is day one of week two. We cleared ALL the carbs out of our house. Our big dining room table, and one of our kitchen counters were full of stuff from the pantry. It kind of felt like handing out poison to all the friends and family members who took the stuff, though. Cupboards nearly bare, we came up with a menu. We're following the "new" Atkins plan, simply because it's so popular and so accessible. Let me put this in perspective: I am an almost 33 year old woman who's put on about 50 pounds in the last 13 years. I'm a foodie, I went to pastry school in Paris, I have invested thousands in specialty baking supplies, and thousands more in baking books. To find out that I need to give up life as I've known it is HARSH. I'm going through mourning...without craving sweets, if you can believe it (at least not this first week, anyway). Second Update: 9/20/12 Well, here I am eight months later. Over the first several weeks of eating low-carb, I continued to do research online. Somehow, I stumbled across the Paleo Diet. I checked out a couple books on the subject from the library, and after reading them, felt as if I'd found more of "The Answer." My husband and I have adopted this diet, and have both been very successful with it. I am now down 30 pounds, and my husband is down the 20 pounds he needed to lose. I have about 20 more pounds to lose, and my goal is to do so by the end of the year, making 2012 "The Year Of Becoming The New Me." We'll never go back to our old ways, and couldn't be happier with our new lifestyle.

Every nutrition researcher from Mary Enig to T. Colin Campbell agrees that public nutrition information dispensed by organizations such as the USDA and WHO is faulty and misleading. Unfortunately, that seems to be the only thing these researchers agree upon. The nutrition advice they give individually varies wildly, and it's difficult figuring out who to listen to. Gary Taubes' voice speaks louder than all these researchers. His writing demonstrates scientific rigor, attention to detail, and unbiased scientific reporting that is lacking in other researchers'. Good Calories, Bad Calories (GCBC) was like an anthology of crucial nutrition research that's been tragically ignored over the last century. In 500 pages Taubes tackled public health issues such as the cholesterol hypothesis, chronic disease, and of course, obesity and its treatment. As a big fan of that book, I personally wish Tabues would write a 2,000 page followup to GCBC. I'd lap up every page, so compelling and informative is his writing. But this book, Why We Get Fat, was also a good choice for a follow-up to GCBC. It offers much of the same information that Taubes provided in GCBC, but its content is presented more simply and with less dense discussions of specific studies, researchers, and politics (although there is still plenty of all of that). Some of the content is directly lifted from GCBC, and some of the information is the same but presented in new and thought-provoking ways. Taubes' books can read like novels at times because of the way his passages make you think. Take this one: "The instructions that we're constantly being given to lose weight--eat less (decrease the calories we take in) and exercise more (increase the calories we expend)--are the very same things we'll do if our purpose is to make ourselves hungry, to build up an appetite, to eat more." Taubes pulls from a vast array of sources to arrive at his conclusion. While most nutrition writers are content to cherry pick select studies that support their argument (or, in Campbell's case, to cherry pick select data from one study to support his argument), Taubes looks at the issue of obesity from many angles, which makes his conclusions that much more compelling. His conclusions are: "overnutrition" and lack of exercise do not cause obesity; calorie restriction and increased energy expenditure are not cures for obesity; and that carbohydrates are the true cause of obesity and their restriction necessary for its defeat. At the end he gives a list of advice for anyone wishing to lose weight according to his hypothesis. Taubes is a researcher worth listening to. Could he be completely wrong? Yes, and he even admits it. He's calling for testing of his hypothesis, and his extensive research and skilled reporting makes it clear that the hypothesis is worth testing. Something particularly telling is the fact that there are prominent nutrition researchers who disagreed with the conclusions made in Taubes last book, GCBC, and yet none of these researchers have produced a comprehensive rebuttal. The point is that we need to rethink what we think we know about nutrition and public health, and Taubes' research and conclusions is a great starting point. Why We Get Fat is an easy read that suits everyone interested in proper nutrition and weight loss. Good Calories Bad Calories is the superior overall package (and I'm still hoping for that 2000 page sequel) but this book will serve the niche of people who want to get healthier but need to learn how using a book that's a bit easier to digest.

Hard to write a review for a book, and hard to believe someone else's review because it's so much of an opinion. So I will just tell y'all what I told my sister: If you want to learn once and for all WHY carbs are "so bad", and WHY we shouldn't eat sugar, and why "diet and exercise" doesn't actually work for losing weight, then read this book. I did and made the changes he suggests and have lost 20-25 lbs, and kept it off. I'm 5'8" and now weigh 140-145. And now I'll tell you all the rest of the story: I haven't read any of the other "low carb" or "no carb" or Atkins/South Beach or All Meat diet books or plans over the years. I thought they were all just fads and not related to science and that only crazy people would listen to them.... Well, I'm a science teacher, and I like the science Taubes talks about in this book, so I guess I'm that kind of crazy now, too! He gives excellent examples, complete with some photos that seem to tell all... discusses nature vs. nurture, discusses historical changes in human diets in various ethnic groups around the world and the resulting changes in the populations' health. It's some pretty compelling information. I read the book twice before doing anything because I kind of needed to experiment on my own one last time and gather my evidence to be able to make arguments to convince both myself and those around me that this "stuff" about "carbs are bad" really is true! However, it's also important to point out that for some people, carbs aren't a problem. If they aren't for you, then don't change a thing. But for people stuck in a rut of "trying" to lose weight (which really means: 'wanting to lose weight') but nothing is working, or things that used to work don't work any more, or if medication caused you to gain the weight (my case) (along with the other issues above!), then something needs to change, right? Well, this whole carb thing just might be what's hanging you up. And for people who are overweight and say, "But carbs are good for you, and I need to eat my carbs or I get low blood sugar and I feel bad", I say to you... "Really? And how is that working out?" Yeah, that was what I once said, too.... but seriously, read this book and see what you think then! I had been a vegetarian for the past 25 years... I'm now 46. My family is also vegetarian, but incredibly picky. So we had fallen into a trap of eating pasta, pasta, and more pasta for our main meals. Sure we'd have salads (with caramelized pecans!) and veggies (cheese on top, please!) - plus French toast, coffee cake and banana bread for breakfast (or cold cereal), sandwiches (or fake meat burgers) for lunch and more pasta for dinner. Ice cream for dessert. And smoothies. Sure, it's all vegetarian, and my kids would eat it, but why did the pounds keep creeping on me? I first read the book in the summer of 2013, and immediately was intrigued, grossed out, upset, puzzled, argumentative, in a state of disbelief and just plain confused. I ran a marathon that fall (at my heaviest weight ever... after having trained for 6 months and hardly budged a pound) and continued my path of eating carbs and sugar until I picked it up again in summer of 2014 (I'm a teacher, so my life proceeds in years bookended by a summer). I started making my plan. But could I do it as a vegetarian? I did the math, I researched products. I decided that in order to "clean out my system" of crazy carb-and-sugar-related hormonal issues, I'd need to just bite the bullet and chew the meat. I decided chicken was going to have to work for me. So I went for it. Once my vacationing days were over, I started going "extreme no carb" for 10 days. August 12, I was 160 lbs. (I had been up as high as 165 a few months before that...I had already started cutting out some sugar just by virtue of re-reading The Book!) August 23, I was at 150. A pound a day, not bad. This was, after all, the "phase 1" of the no-carb thing...eat as much as you want just no carbs! (no more than 20 g a day!) I had been eating chicken, and oddly decide that bacon was now "ok" to eat. Odd to go from vegetarian to "bacon-eater", I know, but it was, after all "for my health!" :) I started adding back carbs to get to a more "normal/sustainable" diet and by Sept 14 I was 145. November 22 I was 142 January 31, 2015 I was at 138. 20 lbs in about 5 months. AND NEVER HUNGRY!!!!! That's the part that is hard to understand. I was eating breakfast, lunch and dinner. Like a big 3 or 4 egg omelet with red peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes and hollandaise sauce! Lunch would be a big salad (Like the Chicken and Rosted Beet salad from Trader Joes with less dressing than they give!) and dinner would be some kind of chicken... and veggies of course. I might have 2 or 3 thighs if I was was that hungry. No problem. For snacks, I'd have blackberries with real whipped cream with vanilla and a touch of stevia added in. I am writing this in February 2016 and I am still right at 140. Some weeks I dip under, sometimes as high as 143, but usually after I had some pasta or a bunch of garlic bread. I still cut out extra carbs, but I do eat them. (Onion rings are just GOOD, you know?) I still eat chicken, because I still can't figure out how to get enough protein without the meat products. Lastly, let me mention that I helped my 16 year old son follow this plan and lose weight from 225 lbs. in November 2015 to 185 lbs. now in February 2016. He was eating way too many carbs, way too much food! Now he understands that what he eats is important as is "how much".

I learned a lot from this book, however I take issue with how some of the information is presented. For example, regarding the chapter "The Elusive Benefits of Exercise", just what is Mr. Taubes saying? I think many casual readers might take it as, Exercise doesn't contribute to weight loss. I know that's what i thought he was saying. However, after reading the chapter again, it appears the basis for this hypothesis is because (it is "assumed") you will, as a result of exercising more, be hungrier and thus eat more as well as burn less energy when you're not exercising because you'll be more stagnant from being tired. TO ME, this is a very misleading message that feels more like trying to sell books than educating the public. It would have felt more honest if the author had at least once pointed out that if you're normally very sedentary and then begin a new exercise program while adhering to a diet that maintains a total daily caloric intake that you will more than likely loose weight... (perhaps he doesn't believe that ...) But who wouldn't want to buy that book they heard about that says it's all about the carbs (everyone knows that now), eat as much as you want without exercise, just eliminate the carbs to control insulin and you'll be skinnier and healthier than ever. Geez, that sounds so good,i might have to buy the book again! Seriously, the book seems extremely well researched and shows how that past 100 years of obesity studies have been misinterpreted and hand picked to support an already biased opinion ("Sloth and Gluttony")... however, as much as i want to believe this new interpretation of the data, the books feels very biased. Having said that, i think everyone should buy the book ... but while reading it, ask yourself what would have happened if during Mr. Taubes many years of research, funded by his "huge grant", he had found that most previously held beliefs were true ... like say for example, saturated fats are bad for you ... (yes yes, high hdl and all that) There would of been no book to write! (However, that doesn't in and of itself make it any less true.) So, while i'm thankful for all the information in this book, I find it hard to ignore that the author spent years doing research to support his hypothesis. And specifically, the way he deals with the subject of exercise and it's roll in weight loss adds to my "unease" about some of the more questionable information in the book. For example, is is just me or is he saying saturated fats are good for you? Seek them out! Really? I personally don't have the background, education or time to fully understand all of what Mr. Taubes has written. However, there's no doubt in my mind that i'll be cutting way back on all carbs, not just refined ones ... but i think i'll continue to exercise (i like the endorphins anyway...)

The brilliant thing about science is that when something is disproved once, it's disproved forever. The not-so-brilliant thing about public health policy is that it has little to do with science. Everyone in the developed world knows what's causing our obesity epidemic. BBC nailed it: "We eat too much, and too much of the wrong things," and Michelle Obama tells us "We have to move more." Clearly what we need is a balanced diet of lean meats, some good fats, and complex carbohydrates like fruit, vegetables and whole grain bread, and exercise of 30 to 90 minutes per day. Their prescription is completely reasonable and makes intuitive sense. It is neat, plausible, and wrong. It has in fact been disproved, as nearly as "disproof" can exist in nutrition science. In his previous book, Good Calories Bad Calories, respected science journalist Gary Taubes exhaustively researched and cited two centuries worth of research in nutrition. He came to the conclusion that none of those recommendations is supported by science, because the fundamental theory on which they're based is wrong. Why We Get Fat is an updated summary of that earlier work, much quicker and easier to read, with some significant points clarified. The most important point of the book is that all those public recommendations -- the food pyramid, the "eat food, not too much" approach, everything we know about a balanced lifestyle -- is founded on the premise of Calories In vs. Calories Out. That we get fat because we eat too many calories, or we don't burn enough of them through movement. But this is nonsense. It's not just wrong, it is actually not a statement about what causes obesity at all (or heart disease, cancer or diabetes, for that matter.) It is, in Taubes' words, a "junior high level mistake," because it tells us nothing about fat accumulation. If we get fat, by definition we have taken in more calories than we've put out -- but WHY we took in those calories, or didn't burn them, is the key point. Taubes reviews the scientific literature (rather than the popular press) and presents a conclusion that was common knowledge before WWII, and heresy afterward: we get fat because our fat cells have become disregulated and are taking nutrients that should be available to other tissues. Like a tumor, the cells live for themselves rather than in balance with the rest of the body. And since those nutrients aren't available, we become hungry and tired. Therefore we eat more, and move less. For the chronic dieters among us, one passage about animal models will explain decades of frustration. Rodents with a particular part of the hypothalamus destroyed would become obese and/or sedentary *as a consequence* of their bodies putting on more fat. "After the surgery, their fat tissue sucks up calories to make more fat; this leaves insufficient fuel for the rest of the body...The only way to prevent these animals from getting obese is to starve them...they get fat not by overeating but by eating at all." Sound familiar? The problem isn't one of gluttony and sloth, as Taubes refers to it, but of hormone balance. Simply put, some people are more sensitive to the hormone effects of insulin, cortisol, and a few other -ols, than other people are. The more sensitive you are, the more you're likely to get fat, and the more fat you're likely to get, in the presence of even small amounts of carbohydrate -- and in the absence of enough fat. That's right, this book advocates eating fat. Not just moderately, but as much fat as possible, up to 78% of calories. Not lean meats, not Jenny-O 99.6% fat-free turkey, not skinless chicken breasts, but lard. Yes, lard. The healthy way of eating, according to Taubes, is moderately high protein and high fat. Yes, high fat. About a 3:1 ratio of fat to protein, and almost no carbohydrates. (Telling people to eat a balanced diet containing carbohydrates is, he says, equivalent to telling smokers to include a balanced serving of cigarettes.) And he demonstrates exactly why a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet is the most heart-healthy approach, as borne out by several dozen recent studies. While Taubes acknowledges that exercise seems to be good for us for a variety of reasons, weight control isn't one of them. Study after study conducted by proponents of exercise have admitted that they see no compelling evidence for exercise as a weight-loss tool. And it makes sense if you throw out the calories in/calories out model of why we get fat. If we're fat because our fat tissues are starving the rest of our cells of fuel, exercise is just going to make us hungrier and more tired, not leaner and more fit. (It's worth noting that according to Taubes, in the 1930s obese patients were treated with bed rest.) [This review was edited to clarify the following point.] The main thrust of Taubes' argument, however, surrounds sugar and to a lesser extent any carbohydrate. Insulin is the primary hormone that fixes fat in the fat cells. This is why Type I diabetics lose weight: they're not producing enough insulin. Since insulin is manufactured in direct response to carbohydrates, if you don't eat them, you won't have a mechanism by which to store fat. (Taubes notes that this mechanism is not controversial; it simply hasn't had an impact on nutrition policy.) Taubes argues that any success in standard diets can be attributed directly to the dieter's reduced intake of carbohydrates, especially sugars and particularly fructose. Once the underlying cause of obesity is understood (hormone balance, not gluttony/sloth) the recommendations on what to do about it are surprisingly simple and therefore brief. This is a book about the science of nutrition, not a diet book, but there is a list of recommended foods in the Appendix. The book does not tell you how to eat in a restaurant. But it does tell you that the issue isn't in your brain, your willpower, your character, your job, your environment or even (except to the extent that you're sensitive to carbohydrate) in your genes. The problem with fat is in your fat cells. For a lay audience, this book is as good as it gets if you want to read actual science about health and nutrition. If you're of scientific or technical bent, read Good Calories Bad Calories first, then give Why We Get Fat to your parents.

My husband picked up the audio book and pretty soon, he cut out carbs. His weight began to drop quickly. He kept talking, and talking about this book, and I was fairly skeptical. So I ordered it online and read it in a week. As a psychologist, I was incredibly impressed with the amount of research the author completed, especially going back to primary sources, and it is due to the grounding of every statement he makes in solid research that sold me on removing carbs from my diet. If this many studies over so many decades all showed the same result, removing carbohydrates from the diet makes more sense than any of the low-fat diets out there. I liked Taubes's writing style and appreciated his research efforts. He breaks the overall book into three books. However, the first part of the book dragged a little for me because it got somewhat repetitive as we kept learning about other tribes and cultures that had been healthy prior to the introduction of carbohydrates into their diets. The second book was a little more interesting. By about pages 115 or so, I was fascinated. Despite my inability to read through books one and two quickly, by the time I got to book three, because he has done so much research proving his point, I definitely got the point and believed him. Book three was a great read and told me what I needed to know to not only follow a low-carb diet, but to defend my choice to those who would doubt my decision. Actually, I have to admit I was outraged by the time I finished reading his book, because everything public health institutions and our doctors have told us about weight loss has been wrong, but the science and research that shows what will actually facilitate weight loss has been there all along. Many of these studies date back to the 1940s or even earlier, and yet the research has not been shared with the public, or even taught to our medical students. If obesity and diabetes are such huge health issues facing our country, and putting such a financial strain on our economy, why would the scientific community base weight loss advice on ideas not proven to work? It's mind-boggling. It also makes me angry that I've spent so much on fitness books, when exercising alone can't cause you to lose weight. I've now been on a diet mostly devoid of carbohydrates for close to three weeks. I've lost 7 lbs during that time period. I would estimate I started off about 20-25 lbs. overweight for my body type and height. Weight loss for women is often about 2 lbs. per week, so I'm doing slightly better than that. I've also been taking body measurements, and have lost 1 1/4 inches off my waist, 1 1/4 inches from my hips, and about an inch from my thighs. It depends on where you measure whether it's above or below an inch. These are pretty good results for not quite three weeks into a diet. The first four days of the diet were incredibly rough, and I wish I'd finished the book prior to removing carbs from my diet, because he has tips to help deal with carbohydrate withdrawal. I was definitely a sugar addict, and was lethargic and grouchy for the first four days, as well as experiencing some major cravings. On the third or fourth day, I was incredibly weak, felt like I had the flu, and slept all day. I should have been supplementing my diet with more sodium, through broth or whatnot, to help reduce the effects. I was also still going to the gym and weightlifting and doing cardio, something that Taubes said can be counterproductive during the first stages of removing carbs. The good news is that on the fifth day, I felt great. Unlike low-fat diets, I'm rarely hungry now that carbs are mostly out of my system. It was always hard to diet before because I was constantly hungry as I cut calories. I used to get home from work and would be famished; eating fruit or even carrots with hummus, left me hungry again by dinner time. By removing the carbs (even the ones in fruit and vegetables), my body works to use the protein and fat I've eaten, and then burns the energy stored in my fat cells, which is how it should work. I'm more energetic now, but am most likely eating less. I have cheated a few times. I've had 3-5 glasses of wine each week, but it's down from my daily glass. I had a small serving of dessert two times as well over the past three weeks. I'm planning on getting ice cream next week on the 4th of July as well. I need an eating plan to follow that will work for me in the long run, where I can maintain it but not feel deprived all the time. Removing most carbs, but still allowing myself a glass of wine or a treat once in a while, have made these past three weeks the most effortless eating of my life while trying to lose weight. For those concerned that we must have fruits and vegetables to be healthy, read the book. I can tell you that the majority of your essential amino acids come from meat sources, and that you don't need antioxidants if you're not eating carbs, but reading about the research will actually make this click in your brain. For most of us, what Taubes has to say goes against what we've always been taught. When we first hear we can get all our nutrients from protein and fat, our minds rebel. It creates dissonance for us. But embrace the idea, once you're reassured that the literature and research actually supports it, and you'll soon be dropping weight and feeling better.