Famine, a bit more weight for the future--not sure I agree here. The sort of rebound that comes from starvation followed by refeeds, like in the Minnesota study, doesn't generally result in obesity, it results in a weight regain overshoot that tends to correct itself with refeeding. In rodents it can also foster a binge tendency, but without obesity.

We might see a tendency to diet, refeed and gain more weight than before, diet, refeed--there can be an apparent ratcheting up effect. But I think that's deceptive. If you have an underlying trend for weight gain on a certain diet, that's not going to go away just because you've been on a different diet to lose weight, and not necessarily going to go away just because you've been eating less even on the same diet. You went on the diet because you tend to gain weight--and the tendency doesn't go away. The more usual obesity model in rodents is constant exposure to fatty, sugary chow. No need whatsoever for periods of calorie restriction/starvation to get things rolling, just a constant bad diet.

I like his stress on food choices more--and certainly I can backpeddle and admit that starvation/binge cycles can result in poorer food choices, which I do think can contribute to obesity.