[ExI] Good Calories, Bad Calories

[Stefano Vaj]

2011/5/12 Max More <max at maxmore.com>:
> Nowhere does Taubes’ deny the first law of thermodynamics. He accepts that
> “change in energy stores = Energy intake minus Energy expenditure.” To
> emphasize this, see p. 74 of Why We Get Fat, where he says: “”Those who
> consume more calories than they expend in energy will gain weight.” This is
> true. It has to be. To get fatter and heavier, we *have* to overeat. We have
> to consume more calories than we expend. That’s a given. But thermodynamics
> says nothing about why this happens, *why* we consume more calories than we
> expend.”

My half-educated guess is somewhat different.

Some calories are ingested. The body makes use of what it needs for
energy, provided that it can at all (cellulose contains plenty of
calories which are nevertheless unusable by humans, and our liver
apparently has a rather low limit in the amount of calories it can
extract per day from proteins in comparison with that of, say, a
lion). If the calories that can be positively extracted from food are
not enough, some body fat is burned. So, yes, no people die of
starvation still carrying around an excess of body fat.

If, on the other hand, the calories which can positively extracted
from food exceeds what the body needs, it does not go by itself that
the body is willing and able to store all the excess calories in body
fat for future use. In fact, a process needs to be activated to this
effect that is neither always equallty efficient, nor hard-wired to a
"store-all-you-can" program.

If the only factor would be the caloric equivalent of food ingested
minus the calories spent, it would indeed be inexplicable how many
individuals find it hard to put on weight irrespective of the caloric
input they submit themselves to. If anything, for obvious reason, in
such circumstances more calories expended in comparison with those
ingested might not so paradoxically lead to *increased* body weight...

-- 
Stefano Vaj