An Economist Explains Why Losing Weight Is Kind Of Like Defeating Inflation

Joe Weisenthal (0:08)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:14)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:15)

So Tracy, we've been working together for a long time, a few years, maybe coming on three and a half years or something. And we've been doing-

Tracy Alloway (0:23)

Three years.

Joe Weisenthal (0:24)

Yeah, three years.

And we've been doing this podcast for a while, but do you think we really know each other well? Like, do you think, I don't know. Do you think so?

Tracy Alloway (0:32)

Well, the fact that you're asking me this question worries me a bit and makes me think that maybe you think that we don't know each other that well. But I also feel like you share a lot of yourself on social media, so I learn about you through that avenue.

Joe Weisenthal (0:46)

That's a good point. And we've traveled together and stuff. We've traveled to London together for work.

We've traveled to Hong Kong. And we've gone out to eat in various night markets in Hong Kong. I'd say we know each other pretty well.

Tracy Alloway (0:59)

I hope so. I really do. But why are you asking me?

Joe Weisenthal (1:02)

Because sometimes I wonder if, like, I've always throughout my life, I've had this sort of very weird interest in unconventional dietary habits, extreme diets in one way or another. I was vegan for a long time. I was raised vegetarian. I've always just sort of been fascinated by people who take ideas to the extreme in one way. And I sort of wonder whether we've ever talked about that at all.

Tracy Alloway (1:29)

Well, I was about to say that that I do know about. I know about your history as a vegan growing up. And I know I think it wasn't until you were in college or something like that, that you actually ate meat.

Joe Weisenthal (1:41)

Yeah, that's true. So you're probably...

Tracy Alloway (1:43)

Crazy. Sorry, I can't imagine it.

Joe Weisenthal (1:45)

Yeah, especially anyone who follows me on Instagram. Anyway, probably people who are listening are wondering where the heck we are going with this conversation, aren't they?

Tracy Alloway (1:53)

Yes, has Odd Lots become a cooking show, which we totally should do, by the way.

Joe Weisenthal (1:58)

I'd be totally fine with that, in all seriousness. But today, I think we're going to have a very nice crossover between multiple topics, because we're going to be talking to an economist who has been blogging for a long time and writing about various aspects of the economy and monetary policy and stuff like that, who also of late has been writing about diet and obesity and the research that he has done in this area. And much of what he talks about is of high interest to me.

Today, we are going to be talking to Miles Kimball. He is an economics professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He has a great blog called Supply Side Liberal, where he writes about all kinds of topics, including economics. But lately, he's been writing a lot about obesity and diet, and he has become a proponent of fasting, so going long intervals without eating anything at all. And why that is an important and feasible approach to losing weight. And I find his insights in this journey to be extremely interesting. So on that note, Miles, thank you very much for joining us.

Miles Kimball (3:13)

That's great that you could have me.

Joe Weisenthal (3:16)

So Miles, before we get into your interest in obesity and the merits of fasting and the merits of eating high-fat diets and all this stuff, which interests me a lot, I'm curious about your career. You're an economist. You're at the University of Colorado Boulder.

What's been your sort of primary focus of study throughout these years?

Miles Kimball (3:39)

Oh, well, actually, I'm labeled a macro economist, but I'm interested in almost everything. In fact, just like people Google themselves, I look up my ranking on this research papers and economics site, and of course, you want to cherry pick the one that makes you rank the highest. And the thing I rank the highest in is the diversity of citations across fields of economics. So I'm interested in almost everything. You have to search hard for something within economics that I'm not interested in, and many things that are outside the traditional boundaries of economics.

Tracy Alloway (4:22)

So does nutrition count as economics in this context? Or I guess what I'm asking is how you got interested in that topic.

Miles Kimball (4:31)

Let me tell you my view on that. First of all, and what I'm saying is true of other disciplines as well, what defines economics to me is the training that economists get. And of course, that evolves over time, but very slowly. And so given the training that economists have, I think that the economist should go out and address every scientific question that they are well prepared to address that they have, in economist terms, a comparative advantage at addressing. The other thing I think is that any important scientific question, you can't trust one discipline to do it.