... stating that weight gain is due to eating more calories than you burn is neither tautological, vacuous, nor inane. It might not be satisfying to the author, but it is a cogent and useful explanation of why people gain weight.
No, it's not useful. What defines "calories absorbed" and how is that related to the actual amount of food ingested? Do all possible calories in a given bite to eat always factor in the theromdynamic equilibrium or do some of them just pass through your system? What about "calories burned"? What proportion of calories burned in a day are due to walking, exercising, thinking, or just sitting there. How much does your metabolism fluctuate, and what controls it?
It's true that if you are overweight, then you absorbed more calories than you burned, but the converse doesn't necessarily give insight into what to do? You could eat less, but then maybe the body would be more efficient about extracting calories from the food passing through, or maybe it would lower your standing metabolism so as to not burn as many calories during the day.
I have maintained a healthy weight for some time, while my food and activity level has fluctuated wildly. Clearly, my body is doing some pretty fancy stuff "behind the scenes" to maintain energy balance, and that seems like the most important factor in weight gain or lack thereof.
Lastly, I will say your post brought up an interesting thing: you mention the law of large numbers. I believe this indicates you think there's a target caloric intake, and each day our body draws a random variable of calories, with the thermodynamic equilibrium as the expected value. It's an interesting model, but I'm not sure if that's realistic. I feel like what I eat in a given day is determined more exogenously than endogenously (e.g.: who I visit, what they want to do, what restaurant I walk by, what the special of the day is, etc). It's an interesting idea, though.
No, it's not useful. What defines "calories absorbed" and how is that related to the actual amount of food ingested? Do all possible calories in a given bite to eat always factor in the theromdynamic equilibrium or do some of them just pass through your system? What about "calories burned"? What proportion of calories burned in a day are due to walking, exercising, thinking, or just sitting there. How much does your metabolism fluctuate, and what controls it?
It's true that if you are overweight, then you absorbed more calories than you burned, but the converse doesn't necessarily give insight into what to do? You could eat less, but then maybe the body would be more efficient about extracting calories from the food passing through, or maybe it would lower your standing metabolism so as to not burn as many calories during the day.
I have maintained a healthy weight for some time, while my food and activity level has fluctuated wildly. Clearly, my body is doing some pretty fancy stuff "behind the scenes" to maintain energy balance, and that seems like the most important factor in weight gain or lack thereof.
Lastly, I will say your post brought up an interesting thing: you mention the law of large numbers. I believe this indicates you think there's a target caloric intake, and each day our body draws a random variable of calories, with the thermodynamic equilibrium as the expected value. It's an interesting model, but I'm not sure if that's realistic. I feel like what I eat in a given day is determined more exogenously than endogenously (e.g.: who I visit, what they want to do, what restaurant I walk by, what the special of the day is, etc). It's an interesting idea, though.