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You do realize that such an attitude is an exact illustration of the point the original article was making, don't you?

My opinion is that there are a few too many variables for a simple "formula" or heuristic to be universally applicable.

Including, for example:

Age of person
Gender of person
Body fat percentage of person
Time-dependent mapping (to childhood) of body-fat percentage of person
Time-dependent mapping (to childhood) of exercise history of person
Past diet of person (chronic sweet tooth different from healthy eater)
Type, duration, and frequency of exercise protocol
Toxic load, including lyme disease, mold, solvents
Calories consumed currently
Composition of diet currently (carb%, protein%, fat%)
Types of carbs consumed
Timing and size of meals, absolute and in relation to exercise

I think it will be found that one's profile of exercise vs. food (timing, duration, frequency of both) will have a LOT to do with epigenetics which determine how one handles food; and that it will be found that *drastic* but consistent changes to one's exercise and diet can re-set the epigenetics from "fatty" to "lean mean fighting machine" over time: requiring only titanium willpower and consistency; but that, as with so much else, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" and eating healthy with a history of exercise throughout childhood and adolescence will make it MUCH harder to gain weight later in life.

Cheers!

You're complicating the issue a great deal more than is necessary. There are numerous factors that can affect your ability to gain or lose weight. However, for the vast majority of people, the bottom line is calories. I've said it here many times, but I'll say it again, hustlers like Taubes have proven that you can sell diet advice more easily if you claim that fats, carbs, or anything else for that matter, are the problem while purposely ignoring the more reasonable (and obvious) idea that calories are the bottom line. They do this because people willingly pay you when you demonize one macronutrient over another. I suppose people are less willing to pay for the more reasonable (and obvious) explanation as it doesn't leave them an excuse for their sedentary lifestyle, or for their inability to control how much they eat.

The comments on these threads supply ample evidence for that fact.