--- product_id: 1608992 title: "Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It" price: "€ 20.87" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 8 url: https://www.desertcart.pt/products/1608992-why-we-get-fat-and-what-to-do-about-it store_origin: PT region: Portugal --- # Top #50 in Low Carb Diets Published 2018 - fresh insights 288 pages of deep science Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It **Price:** € 20.87 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > 🔥 Rethink fat, carbs, and your metabolism — before everyone else does! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It - **How much does it cost?** € 20.87 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.pt](https://www.desertcart.pt/products/1608992-why-we-get-fat-and-what-to-do-about-it) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Controversial Yet Credible:** Challenges mainstream diet myths with decades of evidence. - • **Empower Your Health Decisions:** Armed with facts, not fad diets or gimmicks. - • **Millennial-Approved Skepticism:** Questions government and pharma-backed nutrition dogma. - • **Hormonal Insight into Fat Storage:** Explains how insulin and hormones control fat gain and loss. - • **Science-Backed Nutrition Revolution:** Debunks 'calories in, calories out' with airtight research. ## Overview Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes is a 288-page paperback published in 2018 that challenges conventional diet wisdom with rigorous scientific evidence. It reveals how insulin and hormones—not just calorie counting—drive fat storage, debunks popular low-fat and low-calorie dogmas, and advocates for a high-fat, moderate-protein, low-carb approach. Ranked top 50 in Low Carb Diets, this book is a must-read for professionals seeking to cut through nutrition misinformation and take control of their health with science, not hype. ## Description Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It [Taubes, Gary] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It Review: Calories in Calories out...debunked? Most likely! - I am a physical trainer in NYC with 15 years experience. I voraciously read nutrition and exercise science journals and books. I recently read "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes. It is a follow up (and somewhat of a clif notes version) to his tome "Good Calorie, Bad Calorie". The author is a science writer for the NYT, Discover and Science. He has an aerospace engineering masters from Stanford and Harvard and a journalism masters from Columbia. He is not a dietitian or doctor but he has a unique ability to read, understand and objectively explain scientific studies. In his books he does not attempt to "sell" a diet (however I'm sure he wants to sell lots of books) supplements, meal plans etc. He aims to take a skeptical look into why we believe what we have been told about nutrition. Most nutritional dogma stems from our government and/or pharmaceutical backed public health policies. His arguments are detailed (more so in "Good Calorie, Bad Calorie") and backed with a plethora of scientific evidence. The following lists some of the irrefutable scientific evidence that he presents : 1- Just thinking about eating carbohydrates (Pasta, cake, rice, ice cream) raises your insulin levels and makes you hungry, or hungrier. 2- Our hormones, enzymes and growth factors regulate ALL of our fat tissue. 3- Most of the carbohydrates we eat in America were not around for 99.9% of the past 2.5 million years. Only in the last 30-40 years have these things, we call food, been in our diet. 4- Men and women fatten differently (women are more predisposed to gaining fat) due mostly to our sex hormones. 5- Fat is continuously flowing out of our fat cells and being used for fuel....and we preferentially store fat even when we are not eating more caloies than we are expending. 6- Science is not clear what our ancestors, prior to the development of agriculture, ate. 7- Current hunter-gather societies get most of their calories (on average about 85%), from animal protein and fat. However (Taubes does not talk about this) these societies walk on average 7-10 miles per day. 8- Carbohydrate rich diets lower your HDL's (good cholesterol) which has a direct causation to heart disease and shorter life-spans. 9- High insulin levels (blood sugar) are caused by carbohydrate intake which in turn causes your body to store fat. 10- You will not store fat (of any significance) when your insulin levels are low even when you are eating fatty foods! In fact when your blood sugar is low you will liberate fat from your fat cells. Here are some things Taubes states that are controversial (however he supports his statements with lots of relevant research) and quite thought provoking: 1- We do NOT get fat because we overeat. We overeat because we are getting fat. It is more than calories in, calories out. 2- We do not need ANY carbohydrates in our diet (this is a tough one for me to believe, however he provides some good evidence). 3- All exercise makes you hungry and you will replace ALL the calories your burned by eating more. (Obviously, I have some problems with this one too!) 4- Atkins style diet (not the South Beach diet) will lower your risk for heart disease, most cancers, Alzheimer's and diabetes. 5- Eat a diet that is about 3 to 1 ratio of fat to protein and a little carbs if you must. 6- Restricting calories is not a good way to lose fat in the long term. I think this is a fascinating and accessible science book. I have read countless books on the subjects of exercise, diet, disease, and physiology. I believe, "Why We Get Fat" presents devastating arguments against the popular epidemiological studies that taught low-calorie and low-fat diets for health and weight loss. This book just might shift the pendulum (on its head) about what we know about diet, food and nutrition. Almost two years ago I drastically lowered my intake of animal protein (I kept eggs and cheese around because they are sooo good!) due to the bonbardment of evidence I was coming across about the dangers of meat (and the ethical concerns with the way we treat the animals we eat). So as a quasi vegetarian I am having a hard time making amends with this book and its seemingly strong arguments for a high fat, high protein low carb diet. I am not totally convinced, but the more I look into the evidence the more I am being swayed. Review: powerful, focused, and desperately needed - Taubes' book is one of the most important books ever written on nutrition. There are thousands of books written on diet and obesity, and the overwhelming majority of them are deeply flawed at best. The so-called advice offered (and now even forcibly mandated by public and corporate powers) is also dead wrong, as will be most of those who trust said advice. There are many thoughts on why this is the case, and many "conspiracy" theories as to how it came about, some with substantial evidence and outright smoking guns. This area of health is rife with disinformation, misinformation, ignorance, and outright lies. Taubes does not deal with any of that directly. He does something quite different and important: he uses solid research from the hard literature to make his case in a very precise and focused way. The case he makes is airtight and irrefutable, even from the most hard-nosed skeptic's viewpoint. The first thrust of this book is to show that the old "calories in - calories out" steam engine view of obesity is not only mildly incorrect, it is so very obviously wrong on so many levels as to completely defy rational thought. While he does not deal with the reasons behind this deadly myopia in the professional, corporate, and governmental world, he does systematically dismember this superstitious silliness with glorious logic and hard evidence. From the misunderstanding of the application of thermodynamic "laws" in biological systems to the research on obesity and disease connections, he deftly leads the reader to a greater understanding of what the real research on obesity actually says, and what that means in terms of personal health and public policy. His main concentration is on fat metabolism versus carbohydrate metabolism, and how carbs disturb the delicately balanced fat storage mechanism and cause obesity. He describes the research which backs this up, and has for decades and decades, while being totally ignored by most medical and public health officials. He discusses how long some of this research has shown these things and mentions how it has been consistently ignored. That's right - carbs. Not dietary fat, not sloth, not moral weakness, not any other of the fad social mythology which passes for "evidence" driven policies and public stances. He details the increased understanding from more sensitive and better done research which essentially proves that our great-grandmothers had a better sense of healthy food than almost all the scientists, dieticians, health agency spokescritters, and gurus who have filled our heads with lies for at least 60 years. (And been accessories to the pain and death of millions of wrongly informed people, I hasten to add.) His focus is completely on the science, and he does not venture into the politics or economic pressures which created this stupid state of affairs (the vitriol here is mine). While he does not discuss it directly, his book does point out the dangers of trusting science to give hard answers to questions of diet and health. As I point out in my review of Weston A.Price's "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration," science will not be able to give us solid answers to dietary questions for at least another 1,000 years, at the snail's pace and myopic style of current research, some of which is clearly discussed in this book. I do have some quibbles with him: his statement about being about to get adequate vitamin D from exposure to sunlight is over-simplified to the point of being incorrect. He also advises people to use artificial sweeteners instead of sugars, which is extremely bad advice, given the dangers inherent in most of them. He does not mention the impact of MSG on obesity (it causes obesity - MSG is reportedly used to fatten lab animals for obesity experiments). He does not mention experiments on farm animals in the 1940s which showed that the diet which fattened mammals most quickly was one of grains and vegetable oil. He does not go into the differences in saturated fats, and how medium-chain fatty acids are handled differently in the body. He also does not mention that animal fat is a dense source of critical nutrients, and that saturated fat is crucial in triggering satiation, hence limiting appetite, cravings, and overeating. Given all that, his work is still ironclad and irrefutable even in its narrow focus. Add in all the rest and you have a overwhelming body of evidence which is more than compelling enough to warrant a major investigation into the reasons why this information has been forcibly withheld from the public (causing untold suffering and death). I gave it 5 stars, not because it is perfect, but because it is so powerful, so right, and so necessary. Bottom line: everyone should read this book, period. The information here can literally save your life and that of those you love. Doctors, other medical people, dieticians, and others involved in the public sector dealing with nutrition should read this NOW, before they kill any more people through their ignorance. As Weston A. Price once responded to a question about how to deal with the disinformation around the subject of a healthy diet; "You teach, you teach, you teach." Get it and spread the word. ## Features - Author: Gary Taubes.Nina Teicholz. - Publisher: Portobello Books Ltd/Anchor Books/Scribe UK - Pages: 288 - Publication Date: 2018 - Binding: Paperback - MSRP: 16 - ISBN13: 9780307474254 - ISBN: 0307474259 - Other ISBN: 9780307595515 - Other ISBN Binding: printisbn - Language: en - Store Location: Health ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #55,484 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #47 in Low Carb Diets (Books) #125 in Weight Loss Diets (Books) #223 in Other Diet Books | | Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 7,550 Reviews | ## Images ![Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61QME7Ntt4L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Calories in Calories out...debunked? Most likely! *by J***G on January 10, 2011* I am a physical trainer in NYC with 15 years experience. I voraciously read nutrition and exercise science journals and books. I recently read "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes. It is a follow up (and somewhat of a clif notes version) to his tome "Good Calorie, Bad Calorie". The author is a science writer for the NYT, Discover and Science. He has an aerospace engineering masters from Stanford and Harvard and a journalism masters from Columbia. He is not a dietitian or doctor but he has a unique ability to read, understand and objectively explain scientific studies. In his books he does not attempt to "sell" a diet (however I'm sure he wants to sell lots of books) supplements, meal plans etc. He aims to take a skeptical look into why we believe what we have been told about nutrition. Most nutritional dogma stems from our government and/or pharmaceutical backed public health policies. His arguments are detailed (more so in "Good Calorie, Bad Calorie") and backed with a plethora of scientific evidence. The following lists some of the irrefutable scientific evidence that he presents : 1- Just thinking about eating carbohydrates (Pasta, cake, rice, ice cream) raises your insulin levels and makes you hungry, or hungrier. 2- Our hormones, enzymes and growth factors regulate ALL of our fat tissue. 3- Most of the carbohydrates we eat in America were not around for 99.9% of the past 2.5 million years. Only in the last 30-40 years have these things, we call food, been in our diet. 4- Men and women fatten differently (women are more predisposed to gaining fat) due mostly to our sex hormones. 5- Fat is continuously flowing out of our fat cells and being used for fuel....and we preferentially store fat even when we are not eating more caloies than we are expending. 6- Science is not clear what our ancestors, prior to the development of agriculture, ate. 7- Current hunter-gather societies get most of their calories (on average about 85%), from animal protein and fat. However (Taubes does not talk about this) these societies walk on average 7-10 miles per day. 8- Carbohydrate rich diets lower your HDL's (good cholesterol) which has a direct causation to heart disease and shorter life-spans. 9- High insulin levels (blood sugar) are caused by carbohydrate intake which in turn causes your body to store fat. 10- You will not store fat (of any significance) when your insulin levels are low even when you are eating fatty foods! In fact when your blood sugar is low you will liberate fat from your fat cells. Here are some things Taubes states that are controversial (however he supports his statements with lots of relevant research) and quite thought provoking: 1- We do NOT get fat because we overeat. We overeat because we are getting fat. It is more than calories in, calories out. 2- We do not need ANY carbohydrates in our diet (this is a tough one for me to believe, however he provides some good evidence). 3- All exercise makes you hungry and you will replace ALL the calories your burned by eating more. (Obviously, I have some problems with this one too!) 4- Atkins style diet (not the South Beach diet) will lower your risk for heart disease, most cancers, Alzheimer's and diabetes. 5- Eat a diet that is about 3 to 1 ratio of fat to protein and a little carbs if you must. 6- Restricting calories is not a good way to lose fat in the long term. I think this is a fascinating and accessible science book. I have read countless books on the subjects of exercise, diet, disease, and physiology. I believe, "Why We Get Fat" presents devastating arguments against the popular epidemiological studies that taught low-calorie and low-fat diets for health and weight loss. This book just might shift the pendulum (on its head) about what we know about diet, food and nutrition. Almost two years ago I drastically lowered my intake of animal protein (I kept eggs and cheese around because they are sooo good!) due to the bonbardment of evidence I was coming across about the dangers of meat (and the ethical concerns with the way we treat the animals we eat). So as a quasi vegetarian I am having a hard time making amends with this book and its seemingly strong arguments for a high fat, high protein low carb diet. I am not totally convinced, but the more I look into the evidence the more I am being swayed. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ powerful, focused, and desperately needed *by C***S on October 8, 2011* Taubes' book is one of the most important books ever written on nutrition. There are thousands of books written on diet and obesity, and the overwhelming majority of them are deeply flawed at best. The so-called advice offered (and now even forcibly mandated by public and corporate powers) is also dead wrong, as will be most of those who trust said advice. There are many thoughts on why this is the case, and many "conspiracy" theories as to how it came about, some with substantial evidence and outright smoking guns. This area of health is rife with disinformation, misinformation, ignorance, and outright lies. Taubes does not deal with any of that directly. He does something quite different and important: he uses solid research from the hard literature to make his case in a very precise and focused way. The case he makes is airtight and irrefutable, even from the most hard-nosed skeptic's viewpoint. The first thrust of this book is to show that the old "calories in - calories out" steam engine view of obesity is not only mildly incorrect, it is so very obviously wrong on so many levels as to completely defy rational thought. While he does not deal with the reasons behind this deadly myopia in the professional, corporate, and governmental world, he does systematically dismember this superstitious silliness with glorious logic and hard evidence. From the misunderstanding of the application of thermodynamic "laws" in biological systems to the research on obesity and disease connections, he deftly leads the reader to a greater understanding of what the real research on obesity actually says, and what that means in terms of personal health and public policy. His main concentration is on fat metabolism versus carbohydrate metabolism, and how carbs disturb the delicately balanced fat storage mechanism and cause obesity. He describes the research which backs this up, and has for decades and decades, while being totally ignored by most medical and public health officials. He discusses how long some of this research has shown these things and mentions how it has been consistently ignored. That's right - carbs. Not dietary fat, not sloth, not moral weakness, not any other of the fad social mythology which passes for "evidence" driven policies and public stances. He details the increased understanding from more sensitive and better done research which essentially proves that our great-grandmothers had a better sense of healthy food than almost all the scientists, dieticians, health agency spokescritters, and gurus who have filled our heads with lies for at least 60 years. (And been accessories to the pain and death of millions of wrongly informed people, I hasten to add.) His focus is completely on the science, and he does not venture into the politics or economic pressures which created this stupid state of affairs (the vitriol here is mine). While he does not discuss it directly, his book does point out the dangers of trusting science to give hard answers to questions of diet and health. As I point out in my review of Weston A.Price's "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration," science will not be able to give us solid answers to dietary questions for at least another 1,000 years, at the snail's pace and myopic style of current research, some of which is clearly discussed in this book. I do have some quibbles with him: his statement about being about to get adequate vitamin D from exposure to sunlight is over-simplified to the point of being incorrect. He also advises people to use artificial sweeteners instead of sugars, which is extremely bad advice, given the dangers inherent in most of them. He does not mention the impact of MSG on obesity (it causes obesity - MSG is reportedly used to fatten lab animals for obesity experiments). He does not mention experiments on farm animals in the 1940s which showed that the diet which fattened mammals most quickly was one of grains and vegetable oil. He does not go into the differences in saturated fats, and how medium-chain fatty acids are handled differently in the body. He also does not mention that animal fat is a dense source of critical nutrients, and that saturated fat is crucial in triggering satiation, hence limiting appetite, cravings, and overeating. Given all that, his work is still ironclad and irrefutable even in its narrow focus. Add in all the rest and you have a overwhelming body of evidence which is more than compelling enough to warrant a major investigation into the reasons why this information has been forcibly withheld from the public (causing untold suffering and death). I gave it 5 stars, not because it is perfect, but because it is so powerful, so right, and so necessary. Bottom line: everyone should read this book, period. The information here can literally save your life and that of those you love. Doctors, other medical people, dieticians, and others involved in the public sector dealing with nutrition should read this NOW, before they kill any more people through their ignorance. As Weston A. Price once responded to a question about how to deal with the disinformation around the subject of a healthy diet; "You teach, you teach, you teach." Get it and spread the word. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The answer *by C***O on January 10, 2012* Wow! What a fascinating book. I couldn't put it down, and have been telling everyone about it. I feel like I finally have "the answer." I have two personal anecdotes that I'd like to tell about. First, in 2010, I hired a personal trainer and went from being a person who wasn't sedentary, but did not have a regular exercise routine, to someone who was whipped into shape three times per week, for one hour personal training sessions. I stayed at the gym after my session for another hour to do 40 minutes on the tread-climber, and then 20 minutes to cool down and stretch. At the end of three months of this, I felt great, and looked much better. However, I hadn't lost a single pound. And, at the end of month two, when my personal trainer tested my percentage of body fat, it had somehow gone up! I was furious. I decided then and there that something was wrong, but had no idea what it could be. Then, last winter, I joined the new cocktail craze. I hosted a big cocktail party just before Christmas, and for it I went to the liquor store and bought a bottle of just about everything. At my cocktail party people drank mostly beer and wine, and so afterwards I had what amounted to a full bar left over. I proceeded to fill the long evenings of a Montana winter by mixing cocktails. I had a couple fun books, and tried a new cocktail three to four times per week. I knew I was putting on weight during that time, but didn't get on the scale to see how much. After about four months, I thought, alright, let's see what the damage is. My jaw dropped to see the number, 20 pounds higher than the last time I'd weighed myself! I had never gained so much, in such a short period of time. What the heck happened?! I'm sure every single person, except those, perhaps, who are lean and stay lean without effort, will have episodes from their lives that were perplexing because they seemed to go against what we've all been taught, that are explained by the information in this book. I feel like now I have "the answer." I just read it a couple days ago, but I do plan to adopt a low-carb lifestyle, once I have a plan. That's why I gave this book four stars instead of five. The, "And What to Do About It," from the title left a lot to be desired. Another thing, like a lot of people, I've tried an "Atkins" style diet here or there, two or three times, and had results. However, I always felt guilty while I was on that plan, "Surely, this isn't good for me...bacon every day?" And, I never looked at it as a permanent change. After dropping 10 pounds for an upcoming vacation, going off the diet for the vacation, I came home to find that I'd gained it all back. After reading this book, I understand why that happened, and maybe more importantly, why the diet works, and I can go ahead with the low-carb plan without feeling guilty about the bacon. Update: 1/20/12 My husband read the book, too, and was just as blown away as I was. He was about 3/4 of the way through it last Thursday afternoon when he said, "forget Monday, I want to start today!" And so we did. I lost 4.3 pounds in the first week. Today is day one of week two. We cleared ALL the carbs out of our house. Our big dining room table, and one of our kitchen counters were full of stuff from the pantry. It kind of felt like handing out poison to all the friends and family members who took the stuff, though. Cupboards nearly bare, we came up with a menu. We're following the "new" Atkins plan, simply because it's so popular and so accessible. Let me put this in perspective: I am an almost 33 year old woman who's put on about 50 pounds in the last 13 years. I'm a foodie, I went to pastry school in Paris, I have invested thousands in specialty baking supplies, and thousands more in baking books. To find out that I need to give up life as I've known it is HARSH. I'm going through mourning...without craving sweets, if you can believe it (at least not this first week, anyway). Second Update: 9/20/12 Well, here I am eight months later. Over the first several weeks of eating low-carb, I continued to do research online. Somehow, I stumbled across the Paleo Diet. I checked out a couple books on the subject from the library, and after reading them, felt as if I'd found more of "The Answer." My husband and I have adopted this diet, and have both been very successful with it. I am now down 30 pounds, and my husband is down the 20 pounds he needed to lose. I have about 20 more pounds to lose, and my goal is to do so by the end of the year, making 2012 "The Year Of Becoming The New Me." We'll never go back to our old ways, and couldn't be happier with our new lifestyle. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.pt/products/1608992-why-we-get-fat-and-what-to-do-about-it](https://www.desertcart.pt/products/1608992-why-we-get-fat-and-what-to-do-about-it) --- *Product available on Desertcart Portugal* *Store origin: PT* *Last updated: 2026-04-24*