From Gary Taubes, Unsettled Science:



Read in full here.

It's about time they're starting to work together to figure out the real reasons why people gain weight!

My guess is that it's a combination of too many calories and too many carbs - but that it's the too many carbs driving the hunger for too many calories.

If they ever get the funding to study this the way they want (5-20 YEARS), I expect they'll eventually realize exactly what we've seen on here: that different people have different carb tolerances for when the undeniable hunger kicks in driving the desire for more and more carbs.

For one person it might be 20 carbs/day, another person it might be 150 carbs/day, while some may really be able to eat the recommended 300 carbs/day without it spiking ravenous hunger. I suspect they'll find very few are able to eat that way for decades without metabolic problems though - and those few only because they have such fast metabolisms that they can burn through all the excess blood sugar before their blood sugar drops enough to make them hungry again.

Why can’t it be both?

Haven’t we beaten this dead horse enough by now? I thought 2021 was end of dietary dogma. Carbs, insulin, and obesity: Is the carbohydrate-insulin model dead or alive?

https://www.dietdoctor.com/carbs-in...l-dead-or-alive

The CIM is proved wrong everyday by the "black swans" walking around under 15% body fat who do eat a significant percentage of carbs in their diet. ..almost every endurance athlete, body builder and most everyone who follows a dietary pattern that increases satiety and decreases caloric intake. There are more people who successfully manage their metabolic health and weight through some version of energy balance than carb restriction.

No, it doesn’t matter to me because the "several other theories" mentioned work best for me, they are combination theories:
Comparing Theories: Carb-Insulin Model and Protein Leverage Hypothesis in Obesity
https://optimisingnutrition.com/car...otein-leverage/
Your Personal Fat Threshold & High Insulin Levels
https://optimisingnutrition.com/personal-fat-threshold/
These theories are not as simplistic as the CIM, but then our metabolisms are more complicated than "a unifocal reduce carbs" approach. As Calianna wrote, Find the carb level that works best for you, but increasing fiber and lowering fat often has be part of the equation to reach an ideal weight longer term. Adding super high fat is adding super high calories. As Dr Atkins and Westman wrote…calories matter.

I hope the biggest conclusion that will come of this line of research is the recognition that what carb/fat/protein proportions works for one individual does not necessarily work for everyone.

In fact, the exact proportions of carbs/fats/proteins that works for one person may not work for anyone else.

On person can feel completely energized by a high carb/moderately low to low fat diet.

Some of us feel the exact opposite of energized on that kind of diet: sluggish, brain fog, and constantly hungry.

It can take a while to figure out what proportions of carbs/fats/proteins works best for YOU as an individual, and it may not be the same as anyone else.

Even calories never worked they told me they do. I'd white-knuckle on 1200 for up to 3 months, but it was impossible to stick to when I didn't lose anything but water weight.

But I was always choosing carbs. So I didn't lose. Had I eaten 1200 calories of meat, seafood, and fat, it would have worked like a charm.

Food choice makes all the difference to Satiety. I can be completely satisfied with 1000 calories of meat, seafood, veggies and yogurt. While on 1200 calories of WW foods, starve and then give up after 2 weeks.
And no surprise if I eat 200 fewer calories each day, I will slowly, lose down to a healthy goal weight …and miracles..stay there..

Both of these plans can work, on their own, or even better, together …if you focus on Nutrition.

Don Layman: Gabrielle Lyon:
The Ability to Hold Two Opposed Ideas in Mind at the Same Time

I think many of us have known this for quite some time.

I mean I know personally what happens when I eat a high carb diet: I completely lose control and can't stop eating, because I'm constantly hungry.

But eating a low carb diet means I'm not desperately hungry every waking moment, and in fact I'm hungry a lot less often than people around me on a "normal" diet.

This combined with the recent startling revelation (sarcasm intended) that it's possible to get a nutritious, balanced diet on low carb, maybe The Powers That Be will finally acknowledge that LC is a perfectly sustainable way of eating.