“We don’t use the same surgical techniques we used forty years ago. We don’t use the same computers we used forty years ago. And there’s no need to use the same nutritional and exercise approaches we used forty years ago.”

The Calorie Myth by Jonathan Bailor

I recently read 2 books that showed me fresh perspectives on how we gain and lose weight.

Both books had pros and cons, but basically agreed on their major points.

My key takeaway:

The *quality* of what you’re eating is vastly more important than the *quantity* of what you’re eating. We *especially* need to reduce our intake of refined carbs.

In a way, I already knew that and was acting on it. Many of us are familiar with phrases such as “empty calories”. We know that if we’re told to eat a certain number of calories per day, that doesn’t mean to just drink that many calories of soda, for instance. A basic understanding of nutrition tells you that you need to be eating food with a balance of nutrients.

However, both of these books show how certain assumptions have misled the public, and continue to do so.

When I first read Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It by Gary Taubes, I was pretty mad at it. I feel that the book/author doesn’t put enough emphasis on the positive benefits of exercise, and puts too much emphasis on a diet heavy in meat.

Then I read The Calorie Myth: How to Eat More, Exercise Less, Lose Weight, and Live Better by Jonathan Bailor. This book addresses a lot of the same issues, but also addresses exercise more fully, AND has suggestions for how to eat according to the author’s guidelines even while being vegetarian or vegan.

So you can guess which book I liked better. 😉

But after I had calmed down a bit, I respected Why We Get Fat more. The Calorie Myth was not as footnoted as I would have liked. I used Google to try to find some of the research on my own, and from a cursory examination, it seems that Bailor was right, although maybe exaggerating a few things. (Primarily he makes some pretty big claims about how eating a certain amount of protein in a single meal can help you build more muscle, but when I looked that up it seemed that the jury was still out.)

On the other hand, I felt that Gary Taubes had done a great job backing up his claims with science, even though I felt that he was sometimes a bit selective with gathering his information (specifically that he touted the benefits of a meat based diet without really presenting evidence on other options).

So, I don’t have a strong recommendation between them. I think The Calorie Myth gives you more flexibility with your diet, and also has some interesting ideas about exercise. But if you’re a person who really needs the science proven to them, probably Why We Get Fat is a better choice for you. Or you could do like I did and read both of them. 😉 But I think you’ll end up convinced to make a lot of the same changes no matter which one you read.

But if I could only recommend one book on weight loss, it would be a book that’s *not* focused on weight loss. 🙂 Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight by Linda Bacon.

If you’re looking for information about health more generally, not weight, my favorite is Anticancer Living: Transform Your Life and Health with the Mix of Six by Lorenzo Cohen (it’s not just about cancer).

And if you’re still interested, 😉 jump on over to this post where I get into more detail about the exercise plan from The Calorie Myth.