Your confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance is showing - that's not what Alan or James are saying, and if that's what you get from them, you're reading them wrong.

Taubes' claim has always been that obese individuals gained fat mass on a diet that included fewer calories than equilibrium level for their metabolism but too many carbs, which would require that the energy stored in the fat mass of obese individuals came out of nowhere. I really can't help you if you believe Taubes' hypothesis that it's even possible for a human to gain weight on a hypocaloric diet as long as that diet includes carbs - and you you want to read up on a more detailed descriptions of the factors that go into the calorie balance equation, you should start here: : http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-energy-balance-equation.html

Asked and answered upthread- ASP stores fat in the complete absence of insulin which came as a rude surprise to Taubes, Eades, Wolf and several other carb-phobes who keep trying to reduce a complex problem with complex causes to a single cause-and-effect variable to justify their disordered eating pattern. Satiety effects and protein metabolism are separate issues that goes to the psychology of dieting, but as metabolic ward studies have repeatedly shown, macronutrient composition of diet is completely irrelevant to weight loss, only calories in and out matter.

Asked and answered upthread- ASP stores fat in the complete absence of insulin which came as a rude surprise to Taubes, Eades, Wolf and several other carb-phobes who keep trying to reduce a complex problem with complex causes to a single cause-and-effect variable to justify their disordered eating pattern.

Asked and answered upthread - Acylation Stimulating Protein http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10355026 which is about two-three orders of magnitude more potent driver of fat storage than insulin is and stores fat in the complete absence of insulin in your system came as a rude surprise to Taubes and the assorted carb-phobes who subscribe to the single-cause-of-all-disease fallacy common to all pre-scientific guesswork that ends up with a Dr. Atkins, Dr. Eades, or Dr. Lustig ascribing assorted problems with a myriad of complex explanations to a single explanation for everything.

As I said upthread: Taubes was of course taken by complete surprise by the existence of Acylation Stimulating Protein http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10355026 which is about two-three orders of magnitude more potent driver of fat storage than insulin is and stores fat in the complete absence of insulin in your system, and he also failed to take into account that protein stimulates more insulin release than carbs do, which leaves both parts of his hypothesis falsified.

Beef stimulates as much insulin release as brown rice: http://www.ajcn.org/content/66/5/1264.abstract ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9356547 ) - The acute effects of four protein meals on insulin, glucose, appetite and energy intake in lean men: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20456814 - James Krieger did a write-up of this and a few other studies that excerpted the relevant graphs for anyone who doesn't have full-text access to clinical journals at http://weightology.net/weightologyweekly/?page_id=319

But that isn't what Taubes' hypothesis in "Good Calories, Bad Calories or anything he's ever written is.

His claim has always been that calories in/out doesn't matter, that you can consume 2500kcal of mixed carbs/protein/fat and grow obese or consume 3000kcal of protein/fat with 0 carbs and grow lean which is a violation of thermodynamics and completely off-base to how human metabolism actually works.

When I was 250 (okay 253) pounds I was for damn sure obese. Now that I'm around 185lbs I'm still overweight by BMI standards but since I'm hovering around 12-15% body fat depending on where I am in my training and dieting cycles I'm not too fussed.

The difference? Diet. Entirely diet - I increased exercise and it didn't do jack, I started counting calories and the pounds just melted off; and I didn't have to turn into a carb-phobe, a lipid-phobe or cut out any macronutrient to do it, I just had to learn what actual food was and what a portion really looked like.

Aragon,Bsc, Ms,= Alan is a continuing education provider for the Commission on Dietetic Registration, National Academy of Sports Medicine, American Council on Exercise, and National Strength & Conditioning Association and guest lectures at various universities: http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2011/02/23/ive-had-my-hands-full/ -

Beef stimulates as much insulin release as brown rice: http://www.ajcn.org/content/66/5/1264.abstract (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9356547) - The acute effects of four protein meals on insulin, glucose, appetite and energy intake in lean men:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20456814 - James Krieger did a write-up of this and a few other studies that excerpted the relevant graphs for anyone who doesn't have full-text access to clinical journals at http://weightology.net/weightologyweekly/?page_id=319

Underestimating of intake is proportional to level of obesity if you look at some of the studies I posted links to - which makes a lot of sense to me; when I was 250lbs I honestly didn't think I was eating that much or that many calories but when I actually started to run the numbers using The Hacker's Diet I discovered why I was screwing myself over with my portion sizes. Now at 185lbs and a 1.5x bodyweight squat (15% body fat after my last bulk, cutting down to about 12% for summer) my calorie intake is in line with my expenditure because I don't rely on guesstimating intake by eyeballing - I am as unreliable as the next person so I do need to measure my portions to actually control intake.

His hypothesis is "Eating carbs stimulates insulin which drives fat storage which makes you fat, excess calories has nothing to do with it and eating carbs can cause fat gain in the absence of excess calories"

Taubes was of course taken by complete surprise by the existence of Acylation Stimulating Protein http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10355026 [nih.gov] which is about two-three orders of magnitude more potent driver of fat storage than insulin is and stores fat in the complete absence of insulin in your system, and he also failed to take into account that protein stimulates more insulin release than carbs do, which leaves both parts of his hypothesis falsified.

He's also claiming that obese individuals will add body mass in absence of excess calories based on self-reporting of calorie intake. Which would leave you with mass appearing from nothing, or you'd go with the alternate explanation which is that people will under-estimate and under-report their intake in proportion to their level of obesity:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9312790

Taubes was of course taken by complete surprise by the existence of Acylation Stimulating Protein http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10355026 which is about two-three orders of magnitude more potent driver of fat storage than insulin is and stores fat in the complete absence of insulin in your system, and he also failed to take into account that protein stimulates more insulin release than carbs do, which leaves both parts of his hypothesis falsified.

You're kind of right - but it's Taubes' understanding of it that's too simplistic: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-energy-balance-equation.html