Talks to Watch

Dr. Jason Fung - 'The Aetiology of Obesity'

681K views · Jun 24, 2016 · 37:32 · 3 HN recommenders · 5 mentions · discussed 2017–2023

Dr. Jason Fung, a nephrologist, presents his view of the causes of obesity and type 2 diabetes, focusing on hormones such as insulin rather than calories alone. The talk draws on research and his Intensive Dietary Management program.

Why Hacker News points people here: HN commenters recommend it as a research-heavy introduction to how food type and hormones affect fat storage.

“Here's a good talk by a doctor, heavy on research, that's a decent introduction”HN comment, 2023

What Hacker News said 5

Strongly recommendsanindhaNov 2017

“Dr. Fung's book and videos are the most informative and most scientific explanations of these concepts”

Fung's explanations of sugar and carbs seen as most scientific.

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Refined sugar is the worst and refined carbohydrates are not that much better. I found that Dr. Fung's book and videos are the most informative and most scientific explanations of these concepts [1]. [1] this video

in “Sugar industry withheld possible evidence of cancer link 50 years ago” · view on HN
RecommendsJohnWhighamJul 2021

“Dr. Jason Fung is a leading researcher on this”

Fung on how hormones regulate fat stores.

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Calories aren't equal, otherwise you'd feel sated for the day with 2000 calories of sugar (spoilers: you don't). Every year, we're finding out how much we still don't know about the body regulates our fat stores via hormones. Dr. Jason Fung is a leading researcher on this ( this video )

in “Yes, drinking more water may help you lose weight” · view on HN
Recommendsuser3939382Jul 2021

“I’d refer you the research of Dr. Jason Fung or Dr. Robert Lustig”

Research on insulin's role in weight loss.

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I’d refer you the research of Dr. Jason Fung or Dr. Robert Lustig, for example: this video Here’s an article on keto from a medical journal link Even the experts debating here aren’t contesting the role of insulin in weight loss, but rather the secondary effects like those on LDL. Here in turn is a talk by a doctor from UC Berkeley explaining more about that: link From what I can tell, the sole focus on calories is the result of early misunderstandings and oversimplification of biochemistry in 1980s nutritional science. Anecdotally, I did a 3 month experiment where I increased my calories (lots of olive oil, avocado, nuts, butter, etc) but consuming almost no carbs (and mostly carbs from vegetables) and I lost 8 notches off my belt.

in “Yes, drinking more water may help you lose weight” · view on HN
Recommendsuser3939382Dec 2022

“here's for example a pretty good talk that discusses some of the research”

Talk discussing research on hormones and metabolism beyond calories.

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Weight isn't the product of calories in vs out, that's an overly simplistic model that doesn't account for the effect of hormones on how we metabolize different compounds and nutrients. This area of nutrition science is nascent and unsettled, and fraught with research funded by parties with conflicts of interest, but here's for example a pretty good talk that discusses some of the research this video

in “Effect of Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet versus High-Carb, Low-Fat Diet” · view on HN
Recommendsuser3939382Sep 2023

“Here's a good talk by a doctor, heavy on research, that's a decent introduction”

Research-heavy decent introduction to food type and hormones.

Full comment

People get very heated and religious about this topic so I'm hesitant to bring it up but there are strong arguments that this model is overly simplistic and that the types of food you eat are strongly related to hormonal changes that dramatically affect your metabolism and fat storage. Here's a good talk by a doctor, heavy on research, that's a decent introduction: this video

in “You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much” · view on HN