Comments on: Review: Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes

By: Freddy R

Freddy R — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:24:24 +0000

Agree with Sara R. Taubes definitely doesn’t argument against exercise – he just questions the direct relationship between weight loss and exercise. The main point of the book is how self regulation of weight in the human body works, and why it spins out of control in the obese. Taubes suggests that sedentary behaviour is not the main culprit here, but a nutrition rich of refined carbohydrates. Some personal anecdotal evidence to support this: I’m an almost fanatical believer in exercise; I do workouts three times a week, mainly working with weights. Reason is that I had a long history of back ache, and the problems have completely vanished since I took up regular weight training more than five years ago. But at the same time my muscles grew also my fat did – my weight reached an all time high in those five years, and that was not due to muscle gain alone, as a glance in the mirror told me. Only after radically reducing refinded carbohydrate intake a year ago – while continuing with my exercise at the same level – I finally found my way to good fitness and a healthy weight.

I recommend Taubes Book to anyone interested in the mechanisms driving hunger and satiety and the role nutrition plays here. You don’t have to agree with everything he concludes, but you won’t be dumber after you’ve read the book – that much I can promise.

By: Sara R

Sara R — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:30:00 +0000

When I read GCBC I didn’t really get the sense that Taubes was against exercise per-se, just that it will not do the job of weight loss on it’s own. Exercise is great for health, muscle mass is important, but burning calories does increase appetite. I think that is all he meant.

I went back and read some of the original research papers that he referenced. I highly recommend “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration” by Weston Price, DDS. Don’t let the wordy title scare you off. He didn’t have Taubes’ marketing skills, but it is a fascinating read.

By: DR

DR — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:58:05 +0000

I am working my way through this book as well.

I find him a little hypocritical in that he exposes the bias of the AMA (fat is bad / excess calories = fat loss / low carb is dangerous) and yet he also makes a number of assumptions about various studies that help to bolster his argument.

I am a personal trainer. So when I am faced with a health problem, my first inclination is to determine how exercise could help fix the problem.

I think we all have this bias and Mr. Taubes is no different.

It’s still a good read that should not be ignored by the mainstream obesity industry

By: Muata

Muata — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:47:22 +0000

Good review. I reviewed Taubes’s book a couple of days after it was published, and I , like you, was pretty impressed with his research. That is, until I ran into nutritional research nerds like Lyle McDonald, Anthony Colpo, Greg Ellis, and Alan Aragon which have all called Taubes on the carpet for his use of “old” research when there’s a body of “recent” research that he seems to have overlooked. Also, his whole argument against exercise is a joke! The studies that he quotes showing that exercise doesn’t significantly help with weight loss didn’t create a significant enough calorie deficit to lose appreciable weight in the first place. Oh, and I won’t even start on the whole carbs and insulin spikes make us fat malarkey …..