I was under the impression some of the oil was taken before eating.

Either way, this diet is working because of what it is doing to metabolism. Something cannot produce complete health and shut off appetite (an excessive one) without also restoring balance to metabolism. The foundation of the diet is false, even if it works. I agree that metabolism does affect appetite to a degree but the relationship isn't absolute meal to meal. Therefore, focusing only on your appetite is not reliable, and one should always try to understand (at least the gist) of the metabolic mechanisms underlying dietary modifications. It's like building a puzzle, you know, you have to *know* what you're doing if you can be confident there is logic to your choices. Because, eventually, weight loss stops - the gimmicks lose their appeal, you begin feeling curious to break out of your box when the appeal of another pound isn't there anymore. If you really logically understand why you must do the things you do, you will continue to make these good choices even when the hoopla and novelty and everything settles into stasis.
I firmly believe you have to really be well armed with knowledge to not only *lose* weight effectively, but to keep weight off. In the long term you cant get around the education, and that's another reason I don't like these kinds of "belief" type diets.

I do TOTALLY believe the oil is helping you guys eat less and your metabolisms burn fat better. I just don't believe in this diet and it's theories or approach.

BTW, ubizmo, interesting info on ghrelin. I do notice chewing gum majorly helps my appetite and allows me to under eat. I knew it really seemed to fool appetite and now I know why.

One thing that I suspect may be a factor here is that taking oil a few times a day is suppressing an overactive GNG in some people. If a diabetic fasts, or overexercises, they experience hyperglycemia. Hyperglycemia correlates with metabolic imbalance, thus weight loss resistance and excessive appetite. Obviously diabetes is not a polar state, but a continuum, and some of us - particularly older people - are further along there. Taking fat should prevent this metabolic imbalance by giving the body a catalyst for lipolysis, thus preventing hair trigger GNG and metabolic imbalances. This might be another reason young people find it easy to lose weight by pure CR, whereas older people do not find CR produces results equal to the restriction.

I wonder if people who find this regimen helps also tend to run higher fasting blood sugars? I know you said your blood sugars, fasting, tend to run higher right Ubizmo?

Me, personally, I am pretty young and reactive hypoglycemic; my blood sugar fasting tends to be hypoglycemic if anything, and when I don't eat much, I experience delicate sugar that can drop easily. My body doesn't make sugar easily, it seems, therefore the only impediment to metabolic balance for ME is carbos (and too much protein w/o fats ).