The idea that exercise causes weight loss due to nutritionist Jean Mayer, notes Gary Taubes

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Wednesday, October 26, 2011 2:14 pm Email this article
"The dubious credit for why we came to believe otherwise goes almost exclusively to one man, Jean Mayer, who began his professional career at Harvard in 1950, proceeded to become the most influential nutritionist in the United States, and then, for sixteen years, served as president of Tufts University (where there is now a Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging)," writes Gary Taubes in his excellent book Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It. Jean Mayer Lack of Real Life Experience

Jean Mayer NEVER Helped Fat People Lose Weight

“He would eventually publish hundreds of papers on nutrition, including why we get fat, but his job never actually required that he reduce a fat person to a healthy weight, and so his ideas were less fettered by real-life experience,” Taubes continues.

“Mayer actually began extolling exercise as a means of weight control in the early 1950s, a few years out of graduate school, after studying a strain of obese mice that had a surprisingly small appetite.

“This seemed to absolve eating too much from being the cause of their obesity, so Mayer naturally assumed their sedentary behavior must be responsible, and they were certainly sedentary. They barely moved.

“By 1959, The New York Times was giving Mayer credit for having ‘debunked’ the ‘popular theories’ that exercise was of little value in weight control, which he hadn’t.”

Later, Taubes writes:

“It was Mayer who pioneered the now ubiquitous practice of implicating sedentary living as the ‘most important factor’ leading to obesity and the chronic diseases that accompany it.”

Still later, Taubes writes:

“‘The development of obesity,” Mayer wrote in 1968, ‘is to a large extent the result of the lack of foresight of a civilization which spends tens of billions annually on cars, but is unwilling to include a swimming pool and tennis courts in the plans of every high school.”

A yet still later, Taubes writes:

“That same year [ 1977 ], the New York Times Magazine reported that there was ‘now strong evidence that regular exercise can and does result in substantial and- so long as the exercise is continued—permanent weight loss.” [ Not true. ]

“By 1983, Jane Brody, personal-health reporter for the Times, was counting the numerous ways that exercise was ‘the key’ to successful weight loss. [ Not true. ]

“By 1989, the same year [ obesity researcher ] Pi-Sunyer gave his pessimistic assessment of the actual evidence, Newsweek declared exercise an ‘essential’ element of any weight-loss program. [ Not true. ]

“Now, according to the [ New York ] Times, on those infrequent occasions ‘when exercise isn’t enough’ to induce sufficient weight loss, ‘you must also make sure you don’t overeat.’” [ Not true. ]

 

Taubes Explains Why Fat People Exercise Less

Taubes later explains why being fat reduces the desire to exercise

Later in the book, Taubes explains why being fat reduces physical activity.

He explains that obese people have elevated insulin levels which increase the amount of fat taken up by fat cells, and DECREASES the amount of fat taken up by muscles cells, and so, obese people do not have as much energy to exercise because, essentially, the muscle cells are starved of energy (fat).

So, as Taubes explains, it is NOT that lack of exercise makes you fat, but rather that being fat REDUCES energy in muscles cells, and thus, reduces physical activity.

In other words, it is NOT that being lazy makes you fat, but rather that being fat makes you tired because of lack of energy.

As he also explains, this reduction in the amount of fat that is absorbed by muscles cells also INCREASES appetite in obese people because, again, their muscles cells are starved of energy (fat).

 

This is a MUST-READ Book

This is MUST-READ book for anyone interested in body weight

This is MUST-READ book for anyone interested in body weight… or anyone who believes that saturated fat is bad for you… or anyone who believes that carbohydrates are good for you… or anyone who believes that obesity is caused by a lack of will power… or anyone who believes that obesity is caused by eating too much and exercising too little (yes, of course this is true, but this does not answer the question as to why people eat too much and exercise too little, which Taubes answers in this book).

I highly recommend this book.

Gary Taubes is an excellent science journalist.

His previous books include “Good Calories, Bad Calories”, a longer book which is also about low-carb diets, but is a much longer book.

 

Other Articles from This Book, Why We Get Fat

Articles from Gary Taubes current book, Why We Get Fat

Gaining 5 lbs of muscle only burns an extra 24 calories per day notes Gary Taubes

Two obesity experts failed to mention that women lost no weight training for a marathon, Gary Taubes

The idea that exercise causes weight loss ignores the idea of working up an appetite, Gary Taubes

The idea that exercise causes weight loss due to nutritionist Jean Mayer, notes Gary Taubes

Exercise increases appetite notes Gary Taubes

1932 obesity researcher noted that strenuous physical exercise SLOWS weight loss, Gary Taubes

Very little evidence exists to support the belief that exercise affects how fat we are, Gary Taubes

Undereating isn’t a treatment or cure for obesity, only a way to temporarily lose weight Gary Taubes

Low-calorie diets were referred to as ‘semi-starvation’ diets until the 1970’s notes Gary Taubes

Eating less to lose weight simply doesn’t work for more than a few months notes Gary Taubes

Low-calorie diets cause only modest weight loss of 9 or 10 lbs notes Gary Taubes

Success of low-calorie diets are remarkably poor noted Albert Stunkard in 1959, notes Gary Taubes

Fat is associated with poverty, not prosperity notes Gary Taubes

If you want to lose weight, avoid stay away from carbohydrate-rich foods says Gary Taubes

Obesity is the result of a hormonal imbalance—too much insulin—says Gary Taubes

Carbohydrate is driving insulin is driving fat, Gary Taubes

When insulin levels are elevated, we gain fat, when it falls, we release fat to burned, Gary Taubes

It is absurd to think about obesity as caused by overeating, Gary Taubes

We don’t get fat because we eat too much and move too little, Gary Taubes

In 1934, German doctor startled by how many really fat children she saw in New York City

 

Other Articles from Good Calories, Bad Calories

Articles about Gary Taubes previous book, Good Calories, Bad Calories

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Foods to Avoid

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Foods you can eat as much as you want of

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Good calories from meat, fish, fowl, cheese, eggs, butter

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Bad calories from Bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, cereals, corn

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Dietary fat does not cause heart disease

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Carbohydrates cause heart disease due to insulin

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Sugar and high fructose corn syrup are particularly harmful

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Refined carbohydrates cause cancer, Alzheimers, & other diseases

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Obesity is not due to overeating or lack of exercise

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Consuming excess calories does not cause us to grow fatter

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Exercise does not make us lose excess fat; it makes us hungry

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: A hormonal imbalance causes us to get fat

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Insulin regulates fat storage

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: Insulin regulates fat storage

From ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’: The fewer carbohydrates we eat, the leaner we will be

 

Contact Info

Contact info for Gary Taubes

Gary Taubes
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Articles on the same subject can be found here:

• Book - Why We Get Fat (by Gary Taubes)

• Exercise

• Low Carbohydrate Diets

• Taubes, Gary