> Sure, if you stop eating you will lose some weight, but, you can die of starvation while obese.
This guy[1] went for over a year on vitamins and water. He didn't die, and he did drop a lot of weight. Actually, "prolonged fasting in this patient had no ill-effects." Though it's probably one of those things you really shouldn't try at home.
Taubes gives the example of rats bred or genetically modified to be fat - if you starve them, the body eats the heart and the brain before it gives up on the fat - the animal can starve to death while still fat. Getting fat changes you - a person who was 400 lbs and diets down to 200 has a very different metabolism than a person who has always been 200 lbs. It's possible that something we've been doing is making fat more prone to stick around than it was in times past.
The hypothesis that the problem is too many carbs is plausible but not proven and the full truth is certainly going to be more complex.
Starvation guy is an interesting data point in any cace.
This guy[1] went for over a year on vitamins and water. He didn't die, and he did drop a lot of weight. Actually, "prolonged fasting in this patient had no ill-effects." Though it's probably one of those things you really shouldn't try at home.
[1] http://pmj.bmj.com/content/49/569/203.abstract