Why We Get Fat Book Summary - Why We Get Fat Book explained in key points

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Why We Get Fat summary

Name: Why We Get Fat
Rating: 4.4 (92 reviews)
Author: Gary Taubes

Gary Taubes

And What to Do About It

4.4 (92 ratings)

23 mins

Brief summary

Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes challenges traditional views on weight loss by presenting scientific evidence that overweight individuals have a hormonal imbalance due to excessive carbohydrate intake.

Topics

Weight Loss Diets

Table of Contents

Why We Get Fat
Summary of 11 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 11

People who consume more calories than they burn will get fat: a common misconception.

The first three blinks deal with the flawed logic that dominates our current view of the causes of obesity.

The vast majority of nutrition experts believe that there is a simple formula to explain why people get overweight: if you consume more calories than you burn, you will get fat.

They explain that the reason so many people are overweight today is because they consume too many unhealthy, high-calorie foods while using hardly any energy, for example because we spend too much time sitting in the car, at a desk, or in front of the television set.

Based on this theory, one might conclude that fat people are simply lazy and gluttonous, and that our body is like a balloon that stretches when we put energy into it and shrinks when we take energy out.

However, this oversimplification doesn’t do justice to the complex processes that take place within the human body – and it fails to address why, precisely, some people consume more calories than they actually need.

Also, many cases have shown that even impoverished and underfed people can get fat. For example, around the turn of the 20^th century, the indigenous peoples of America lived in abject poverty and were forced to subsist on sparse amounts of food. While their children showed symptoms of deficiency, many mothers were extremely overweight – and it certainly was not because they ate more and starved their children.

Are we caught up in a dogma that sounds convincing but does not actually hold water?

At any rate, the prevailing explanatory models have not yet been able to stop the obesity epidemic or explain why, among people who share similar lifestyle, some are fat and others not at all.

In light of these contradictions, anybody who has seriously grappled with the question of how to stop being overweight should also question the established views on the subject.

People who consume more calories than they burn will get fat: a common misconception.

The usual explanation for being overweight is based on the flawed logic that fat makes us fat.

We knew enough to be able to stop the spread of obesity as early as the 1960s, but health experts decided to ignore the available findings.

Until the 1950s, hardly a doubt existed that being overweight was caused by a hormonal imbalance. But after World War II, this idea gradually disappeared, only to be replaced by the notion that being overweight was caused by an eating disorder. What was it that brought about this change?

Exercising more and eating less will not necessarily prevent us from being overweight.

Unhealthy eating habits and a lack of exercise are the two usual suspects when it comes to laying the blame on what makes us fat.

But what is it that turns us into couch potatoes? Have we really fallen under the spell of potato chips? Definitely not. We become lazy because we don’t feel like being active. And we must treat this lethargy just as we treat an excessive appetite – as a symptom of a hormonal imbalance.

Insulin makes us fat, and carbohydrates control insulin production.

Simply put, the hormone known as insulin is our body’s reaction to carbohydrates.

It plays an important role in our metabolism because it is responsible for the recycling of carbohydrates, fats and proteins – i.e. the nutrients that provide our bodies with energy.

Being overweight is not the consequence but the cause of a nutritional disorder.

When tissues expand, whether it is a tumor forming or a child growing taller, we call this “growth,” and we know the changes are based on complex processes controlled by hormones.

Nobody would ever dream of saying that a child had grown because he or she ate too much. Children grow constantly and need energy to do that. They do not get bigger because they eat, but because their hormonally regulated growth requires a lot of energy and makes them hungry.

Our bodies cannot process the quantity or type of carbohydrates that have become ubiquitous.

Human beings are creatures of habit – especially when it comes to food. The longer certain nutrients have been a part of our diet over the course of evolution, the better our bodies have adapted to them and the healthier they are for us.

Carbohydrates, which make up a significant part of our diet today, are a relatively new addition to the human diet. Human beings have been inhabiting Earth for about 2.5 million years, but people only began eating flour around 12,000 years ago with the spread of agriculture, and the Western world did not even know what potatoes were before the discovery of America. White flour and white sugar only became a significant part of the human diet at the end of the 19^th century.

Carbohydrates not only make us fat: they also make us sick.

If we regularly expose our bodies to large amounts of carbohydrates over a long period of time, we may disturb the signaling function of insulin.

What we eat greatly influences the incredibly sensitive mechanism that controls our metabolism. By eating foods rich in carbohydrates, which make up a very large part of our daily caloric intake, this mechanism can be thrown out of balance and result in an oversupply of insulin.

Low-calorie diets almost never work – and can even damage our health.

Diets aimed at lowering our daily caloric intake, which are a dime a dozen, can help us get thinner in the short term, but there is always a catch in the long term: namely, we have to continue putting in an effort to maintain our lower weight.

For most of us, this path is doomed to failure. Diets limiting our caloric intake deprive us of the energy and nutrients that keep our bodies fit and help them regenerate. Such diets literally starve our bodies.

Genetic disposition, age and nutrition all influence our likelihood of being overweight.

Since carbohydrates stimulate insulin production, and insulin has a significant role in the growth of fat deposits, we can indirectly combat fat storage by consuming fewer carbohydrates. But it is also important to factor in how sensitive we are to carbohydrates and insulin.

Our genes decide first of all whether we put on weight and, if so, when and where we put it on. They not only determine how effectively our muscles burn energy but also how quickly we save energy for emergencies.

Low-carbohydrate diets get a bad rap – and wrongfully so.

Doctors and nutritionists generally advise against a diet without carbohydrates. This recommendation is based on three basic assumptions: first, that it is impossible to lose weight without burning more energy than you take in; second, that carbohydrates are modifiable for a healthy diet; and, third, that when you replace carbohydrates with fats, you get fat and thus become more susceptible to heart diseases.

However, these assumptions are flawed. These experts disregard the fact that meat is rich in essential vitamins. Furthermore, you can replace carbohydrates with vegetables, which, unlike sugar, also contain a lot of vitamins and minerals. While an unlimited consumption of meat, eggs and green vegetables secures a good nutrient supply, a reduced-calorie diet forces us to forego important nutrients.

In order to lose weight and keep it off, or to avoid getting fat in the first place, we have to give up carbs.

The short answer to the question about what we can do against getting fat is this: keep away from foods rich in carbohydrates!

In the long term, diets aimed at losing weight are only successful when they constantly stop fat deposits from forming and stimulate fat tissue to release excess energy.

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What is Why We Get Fat about?

Why We Get Fat (2010) explains why certain types of carbohydrates are the main reason we get fat. The book not only shows why people gain weight, but why the topic is so controversial. It also talks about why some people get fat and others do not, the role genetic predispositions play in this process, and which foods we should all avoid.

Who should read Why We Get Fat?

Anyone who wants to lose or maintain their weight
Anyone interested in finding out about the causes of being overweight

About the Author

Gary Taubes (b. 1956) is an American science journalist. In his books, he discusses scientific controversies and offers his readers clear insights into complex subject areas. Most recently he has attracted attention for his critical view of the nutrition science establishment.

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