Several people have posted similar objections to Engber's science below, but to reiterate...just because differences between people in a study population are due to genetic differences, it doesn't mean that a change in environment won't have a profound effect! Also, just because something is "highly heritable" doesn't mean it has nothing to do with behavior. It just means that related peole tend to engage in the same behavior. So, on this topic...differences in obesity are 80% due to genes, but also 100% due to how much people eat. How much they eat is, in turn, largely genetically influenced.

The bottom line is the bottom line...every time you burn about 3500 calories more than you consume, you lose a pound.

Engber's links are hogwash. The Minnesota Starvation Study blog he links to goes on and on about how miserable the participants were when losing weight, and what it took to restore them to health. Nowhere does it present evidence that calorie-restricted diets don't cause weight loss. There's one quote, totally unsupported by the rest of the article, that makes the claim..."Someone genetically predisposed to obesity will become obese independent of their caloric intake, he explains"...but by and large it's a propaganda piece without relevant details, just sweeping, overblown generalizations. The NYT article is similarly off the mark...sure, people who tried modern diets didn't succeed in keeping a lot of weight off. However, it's not because it doesn't matter what they ate...they just ate more if they were genetically predisposed to. The truth still holds...eat more, gain weight. Eat less, lose weight. (Same, but opposite, for exercise.)

On to Wall-E. Engber takes upbridge at the idea that Wall-E blames the future on fat folk. Poppycock. In fact, the one person MOST responsible for the dystopia of the world in the movie was the CEO of Buy 'n' Large...the one skinny dude in the movie. No, the film had nothing to say about the differences between the fat and thin folk of today. The message was that a society of easy calories and no effort will CREATE a homogenized, fat society. Looks like this is already turning out to be true, as obesity rates have been on the rise.

In fact, I was struck mostly by how much Wall-E soft-sold the obesity angle! These people, who had never taken a step in their lives, were suddenly able (and motivated!) to walk around as soon as the need arose. They were fascinated by social interaction, and seemed happy to be rid of their cushy lifestyle. That's giving them a lot of personal credit if you ask me...I might be the one leading the "Back to the Axiom" movement! Not only that, but the movie attributed their infantile shape to the effects of "low gravity"...hmm, the gravity seemed just fine up there, so I think they were trying to avoid saying "lazy and worthless lifestyle".