The Calorie Equation

KEITH

FRAYN

A leading expert on fat metabolism explains why ‘calories in versus calories out’ really is the key to living healthily and beating the obesity crisis

We all know someone who seems to eat very little yet cannot avoid weight gain or, conversely, someone who eats cakes and ice cream while remaining slim. Then there are those who argue that it’s not calorie imbalance that counts, but what kinds of foods we eat and how our hormones and other body signals control our energy intake. Some even claim that environmental chemicals are fuelling the obesity crisis. Many people, including specialists, are questioning whether we have the correct understanding of the forces that shape our body weight.

Enter Keith Frayn, one of the world’s leading experts on metabolism. Taking readers on a deep dive into the science of energy balance, he reveals why it is unlikely that some nutrients are intrinsically more fattening than others, how supposed differences between people in the speed of their metabolism vanish in the laboratory, how energy balance is altered in people suffering from obesity as well as those who have managed to lose significant weight, and why these responses –honed over millennia of evolution – make dieting so hard. With robust science and a clear-eyed perspective on the latest diet and nutrition fads, he argues how the obesity problem can be addressed by rebalancing the ‘calorie equation’.

Keith Frayn is an emeritus professor of human metabolism at the University of Oxford. He has spent his career studying human metabolism and nutrition in different conditions, from injured patients arriving in accident-and-emergency departments, through studies of exercise and recreational hill-walking, to people with diabetes, obesity and lipid disorders. He has published more than 300 scientific articles, an influential textbook and a general primer on human metabolism.

AGENT

Jeff Shreve

PUBLISHER

PublicAffairs

PUBLICATION

Autumn 2024

STATUS

Proposal and sample chapter

LENGTH

75,000 words

RIGHTS SOLD

• World English (PublicAffairs)

• Japan (Hayakawa)