Searching for the perfect equation

You can discuss obesity and weight loss without using math...in the same way you can discuss Astronomy without using math. While there may be a way to present a conjecture in either field using just logic and pure reason, math becomes necessary as the questions tackle more complex and defined aspects of the science. The mathematical regulation of body weight is easy understand and comes directly from a simple energy balance equation with “R” equaling the amount of weight gain or loss, based on calories in, “I”, minus calories expended, “E.”

In 1984, I was a Freshman in high school and much more interested in making the soccer team, getting kicked out of my honors classes and that girl sitting over there, than I was into the medical literature of the day. Which would explain why I missed an article by Rudolph Leibel and Jules Hirsch examining why we can't keep lost weight from coming back.

This was pre-Oprah, if such a thing can be imagined, so it seems that the public mostly missed this article as well. It appeared in the February issue of Metabolism and was titled "Diminished Energy Requirements in Reduced-Obese Patients." 

Let us start with nothing. A naive human has come to stay in your home. Perhaps it's a Tarzan type of character, just arrived from the wild, or, if you like a modern twist, it's a government agent who has been hit over the head and can't even remember his name. In any case, this naive human will, within a few hours of arrival, make his way to your kitchen and begin poking around, because he's hungry.