ReviewEuropean journal of clinical nutrition2022
The energy balance hypothesis of obesity: do the laws of thermodynamics explain excessive adiposity?
Review in European journal of clinical nutrition, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Mediterranean Diet-Based Interventions to Improve Anthropometric and Obesity Indicators in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2023Pooled it
- The Effect of theNutrients · 2024Trial
- Does the Carbohydrate-Insulin Model Explain Obesity? Evidence from Mechanistic and Clinical Studies: A Critical Review.Current obesity reports · 2026Review
- Dietary Supplementation withAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Weight Loss Plateau: Reasons, Challenges, and Solutions: A Narrative Review.Health science reports · 2026Article
- A numerical and analytical evaluation of the consistency of the energy balance model identifies limitations and systematic relationships between mass intake and body weight dynamics.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Obesity: Prevalence, causes, consequences, management, preventive strategies and future research directions.Metabolism open · 2025Review
- Trends in adherence to physical activity guidelines from 1997 to 2018 among adults with obesity: An analysis from the US National Health Interview Survey.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2025Review
- Integrating Genetic Insights, Technological Advancements, Screening, and Personalized Pharmacological Interventions in Childhood Obesity.Advances in therapy · 2025Review
- On the pathogenesis of obesity: causal models and missing pieces of the puzzle.Nature metabolism · 2024Review
- Association Between the Serum Copper Levels and Environmental Tobacco Exposure on the Risk of Overweight and Obesity in Children: a Study Based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.Biological trace element research · 2024Article
- Nurses' Role in Obesity Management in Adults in Primary Healthcare Settings Worldwide: A Scoping Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Higher Imported Food Patterns Are Associated with Obesity and Severe Obesity in Tuvalu: A Latent Class Analysis.Current developments in nutrition · 2024Article
- Article
- Trends in adults' energy imbalance gaps over two decades in Belgium using system dynamics modelling.BMC nutrition · 2023Article
- Thirty Obesity Myths, Misunderstandings, and/or Oversimplifications: An Obesity Medicine Association (OMA) Clinical Practice Statement (CPS) 2022.Obesity pillars · 2022Article
- Skipping breakfast and excess weight among young people: the moderator role of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.European journal of pediatrics · 2022Article
- Perspective: Obesity-an unexplained epidemic.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2022Article
- The energy balance model of obesity: beyond calories in, calories out.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2022Review
- Role of Diet Quality in the Association Between Excess Weight and Psychosocial Problems in a Large Sample of Children in Spain.JAMA network open · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In this work, we reflect upon the energy balance hypothesis of obesity. International organizations, the general population and many scientists hold the belief that obesity is indisputably caused by an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure. Most of them argue that the laws of thermodynamics support this view. We identify and review the main arguments used to support this belief, and we explain the reasoning mistakes those arguments harbor. We show that the laws of thermodynamics do not support the idea that obesity is an energy problem nor an energy balance problem more than they do in the growth of any other tissue in the human body. We argue that the validity of the energy balance paradigm for obesity must be questioned. Although correction of a wrong belief is laudable per se, in this particular case harm may arise by influencing the way in which obesity prevention is tackled and obese patients are treated.
Indexed as
Identifiers
34983955What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.