So, Matheson et al basically says nothing about dieting. Just that obese individuals get more of a benefit by adopting healthy habits "(eating 5 or more fruits and vegetables daily, exercising regularly, consuming alcohol in moderation, and not smoking". Basically, all those habits that tend to lead to weightloss, and could be seen as diet and exercise. Not sure that proves her point... http://www.jabfm.org/content/25/1/9.abstract

The Mann and Tomiyama study was a literature survey with a few criteria that probably had a large effect. It only looked at randomized studies (that was good), however, it did not look at studies that compared one diet to another, and it only looked at diet studies that were low-cal or low-fat, exclusively. They did not look at studies that encouraged the consumption of a certain healthy food (like olive oil or fish). As many people here seem to say that it's a lifestyle change, not a diet that loses weight, I'm not that surprised at the outcome. They also excluded any studies that require exercise. http://www.academia.edu/4796404/Tomiyama_A._J._Ahlstrom_B._and_Mann_T._2013_._Long-term_effects_of_dieting_Is_weight_loss_related_to_health_Social_and_Personality_Psychology_Compass_7_12_861-877._doi_10.1111_spc3.12076

The original Bacon and Aphrarmor link is basically selling HAES, but here is the thing that is expressed in the article: "Critics of HAES express concern that encouraging body acceptance will lead individuals to eat with abandon and disregard dietary considerations, resulting in weight gain. This has been disproven by the evidence; no randomized controlled HAES study has resulted in weight gain, and all studies that report on dietary quality or eating behavior indicate improvement or at least maintenance [11,14-23]. This is in direct contrast to dieting behavior, which is associated with weight gain over time "

Unfortunately in Raegan's case it seems that she is not practicing HAES as she does not fit the criteria of improvement or maintenance. Nor do many of the Fat Activists. http://www.nutritionj.com/content/10/1/9

Ok. Not sure what the Wei et al study was. There seem to be many Weis, where the one I found was on how low cardiorespiratory fitness is just as good as an indication of mortality risk as diabetes mellitus and also shows for cardiovascular disease risk. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10546694

Cooper institute does a bunch of studies but which one she's citing doesn't seem to be apparent. Many of them are about physical fitness and mortality, not something that seems to support her.

Ok, that was me educating myself. I think she may actually need to read the studies she's quoting one of these days.