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Yvain comments on Critiquing Gary Taubes, Part 3: Did the US Government Give Us Absurd Advice About Sugar? - Less Wrong
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Generally, when people restrict the type of foods they eat, they wind up eating less calories, so this statement is not entirely valid. As far as I recall, mainstream media was trying to get people to eat less fat and eat the minimum amount of protein needed for sustenance (which is arguably low but that's another debate entirely). If people had followed this advice, the total number of calories would be reduced.
Here I think you genuinely disagree with Taubes, who believes that people have a caloric set point of sorts and that they are never going to actually decrease the calories they take in, especially if they're not really trying to do so and just pursuing a separate goal like "cut down on fat".
I haven't read his book, but how does he define this set-point?
I don't exactly remember, but I think it's whatever is a healthy weight for your height/age, plus or minus a genetic factor. And drugs/diseases/diets that make people obese do so by disrupting the set point or the body's ability to conform to the set point.
See also here
The explanation offered on the page you linked seems more psychological (i.e. "I want to return to the weight I'm used to") rather than having any basis in the biological needs of the body. Is this assessment correct?
That wasn't my impression. See for example the paragraphs about the rats given foods of different caloric densities.
Defining set points isn't easy. The general observation is that cybernetic principles provide a useful model for various body processes.
Blood pressure get's for example regulated in a complex way but we have no real way to read the set point for it from the body or change the set point. It simply stored somewhere in the brain.
If you are looking at any body parameter where it's important that it stays within a certain range it's a good guess that the body uses cybernetic principles to regulate it.