If you add exercise to a person's lifestyle without adding calories, they will lose weight. It's that simple. There is research to show this. I cited some of it.
your discovery of his 'incredible dishonesty' doesn't pass the smell test -- surely someone eating 7.5 extra strips of bacon per day would notice?
Go read Gary Taube's blog post. He spends thousands of words discussing that, according to the traditional calorie counting theory (which he is attempting to refute), the difference between a fat person and a thin person is "only" 20 calories above their respective maintenance levels. He then argues this must be absurd and incorrect, because how can "only a cube of sugar in your coffee" make you fat. This is an attempt at reducto ad absurdum.
He never, in his entire blog post, mentions the fact that the fat person is also eating 7 extra strips of bacon each day. If you read his article without being extremely careful, you will come away with the impression that the only thing the fat person eats that the thin person doesn't is an extra morsel of food each day.
That's great. There is also research that shows that acceleration due to gravity at sea level is 9.8 m/s^2, but that has little to do with what the OP said, which is that "exercise tends to increase people's appetites." You're refuting something he never claimed.
"He never, in his entire blog post, mentions the fact that the fat person is also eating 7 extra strips of bacon each day."
I'm guessing because that's not the case? You're begging the question by showing that his claims don't work out according to the calories in/calories out model.
From the original post: "There is no significant research that shows adding exercise to an overweight person's lifestyle will significantly reduce their weight - typically just increases their appetite."
I'm guessing because that's not the case?
If you take as given the cals in/cals out model (as Taubes does, in an attempt to refute it via reducto ad absurdum), they do.
>Increasing exercise and holding consumption constant will reduce body fat."
I'm not sure you read the sentence you're responding to: "typically just increases their appetite."
Yes, if you lock a person in a room with the exact same meals every day, exercise will reduce their weight. A real world person who exercises though typically eats to compensate.
I'm not sure what your problem with Taubes is; your discovery of his 'incredible dishonesty' doesn't pass the smell test -- surely someone eating 7.5 extra strips of bacon per day would notice? There's a shot at his thesis being 'buy my book'; why is it more unreasonable to buy his cheap Kindle book than e.g. Tyler Cowen's to get the full scientific background? It's not like he's hawking some diet empire.