The FastDay Forum

a mix of diet and exercise related
http://vitals.lifehacker.com/exercise-v ... 1677532039
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.jp/20 ... esity.html
http://boingboing.net/2012/03/09/seduce ... and-t.html
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/0 ... ealth&_r=0
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/0 ... y-healthy/
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/3 ... ds/?src=me

I have to admit the second one has left me perplexed. It's the most polite debunking of Gary Taubes I've ever seen, but I wonder if it doesn't have its own biases. I wish I had more time to read all the original research, but I do so much science reading for my work already, it is hard.

Have a read of this one too:-

http://www.dietdoctor.com/how-to-lose-weight

:0)

Ah but is low carb really the best? I confess that I haven't looked at the original research carefully, but certainly I've read other lay summaries that claim in the longer term, it's fairly equal to other diets. Hmm.

@MaryAnn,

Taubes is wrong there. Guyenet is much better informed. Taubes has provided a great service with his debunking of the low fat/choesterol research but he doesn't fully understand blood sugar, insulin resistance, and their relationship to obesity, and he has found himself in a situation where career-wise he is so invested in the thesis he propounded a decade ago, that he can't really back away from it. At least, that's my take on it.

That said, Taubes is a fine, very intelligent person and one who is very open to dialogue with people who don't agree with him, including me. In this he is unlike his followers online who are obsessive fanatics. It is those followers, not Taubes who respond so rudely to Guyenet.

I have had private dialogues with both of these men in the past. Guyenet graciously reviewed something I published, giving me very detailed feedback, which was very helpful to me in making my book much better. Taubes and I have exchanged long lists of research papers. So I appreciate both these men and greatly respect their contributions. I just find that my reading of the data leads me to believe that Guyenet has it right about insulin and obesity and Taubes does not. OTOH, I don't agree with several other of Guyenet's convictions. I do think he is 100% right about the omega 6 oils, though.

These differences of opinion, when grounded in research, are illuminating for all of us. I could do without the diet fanatics who just quote Fearless Leaders, though.

Thanks, @peebles. Your view on these things is always interesting and helpful!

There's another good article today at burnthefat blog: http://www.burnthefatblog.com/how-your- ... -goals.php
My random reading around weight loss has mostly been about metabolism and less about the brain's involvement in all of this. This article and the boingboing article in my original post (the 3rd link down) were both really enlightening for me. I work with a lot of people who study the reward systems in the brain, but none of them are studying it with respect to weight homeostasis.