Critical Reasoning

In a recent study, a group of subjects had their normal daily caloric intake increased by 25 percent. This increase was entirely in the form of alcohol. Another group of similar subjects had alcohol replace non-alcoholic sources of 25 percent of their normal daily caloric intake. All subjects gained body fat over the course of study, and the amount of body fat gained was the same for both groups.

Which one of following is most strongly supported by the information above?

(A) Alcohol is metabolized more quickly by the body than are other food and drinks.
(B) In general population, alcohol is the primary cause of gains in body fat.
(C) An increased amount of body fat does not necessarily imply a weight gain.
(D) Body fat gain is not dependent solely on the number of calories one consumes.
(E) The proportion of calories from alcohol in a diet is more significant for body fat gain than are the total calories from alcohol

Source: Veritas Prep

[spoiler]OA: D[/spoiler]

I am not sure if i understood the argument correctly , but here is what i got :
1) 1st group increased the consumption of calories by keeping diet as it is and increasing the calorie intake by 25% in form of Alcohol. So assume X + 25%X = total consumption.
2) Second group replaced 25% food(or non alcoholic) consumption with Alcohol. So .75 X and .25 Alcholol = total consumption .
Then we are told that both results in equal body fat gain which is - Total Consumption 1 = Total Consumption 2.
Now scanning at the answer choices we should see if any choice supports above equation . Only E does it so that's my answer.

I got a PM on this one...

first, this is an interesting prompt right? You can see that one group INCREASED their calories by 25% and the other group did not increase their calories at all but only replaced some of their calories with alcohol.

So it is really strange that both groups gained the same amount of body fat. Notice that it does not say the same amount of weight only body fat.

This supports answer D. It is clear that the "similar subjects" gained similar amounts of fat even though one group increased the calories and the other did not. So something other than just the number of calories must be at stake here.

Does that help to support choice D?

Hi David,
Thank you for the reply. Initially I was wondering whether the information on the stimulus directly supports the option D! To tell the truth, I could arrive at the right answer instantly using my outside knowledge and not through direct use of the given information (which is undesirable for GMAT purpose). Hence I posted the question here and looked for your opinion. Now my doubt is cleared. Thank you once again for the information. BTW, I was not aware that the PM was delivered to you as the message was shown in the outbox and not in the sent folder.

I never opened the PM on BTG but read it in my email and went straight to the question. So it would not show that I opened it. I guess that is why it is still in your outbox!

David

David@VeritasPrep wrote:I never opened the PM on BTG but read it in my email and went straight to the question. So it would not show that I opened it. I guess that is why it is still in your outbox!

David

Technically, one message stays in the outbox of the sender till the message is not delivered to the inbox of the recipient. The message is saved in the sent box of the sender after the message is delivered to the receiver irrespective the message being read or not. This feature is same for outlook and many other email providers, but here in BTG it may work differently.
In outlook, lotus, and a few email applications, there can be a notification after an email is read by the recipient. That feature may not be applied here in BTG and here the sender would not know if the recipient read the PM or not.
Anyway, bottom line is, you had received my message and I got the clarification and that resolves all the problem.