I had to laugh, Now I can eat 500 calories consisting of Meat, fat, and veggies. Then I can stop eating.

If I eat 500 calories consisting of pasta, meat, and veggies, I'm back for seconds!

What I find funny is that they always stress that its calories that count. Okay, then why do they insist we eat low fat or be scared of it. If my energy balance is right, I could eat anything I wanted..right?

Oh thats right, calories only count when they want to bash low carb diets. They have no problem with the low fat diet...

brobin

I love how they fail to mention that all the "wholesome nutrition" in pasta and many prepared grain foods (aka cattle/pig-fattening feedlot food) comes from the ADDED vitamins.

Thanks, but I can take my own vitamins and enjoy buttered veggies, steak & salad w/full fat dressing for the same calories. But on LC I can eat 50% more calories and lose/maintain just as easily. And I won't be hungry 2 hours later, so I don't "go off" my "diet"!

I think it is funny how all these critics say those on LC diets lose weight because they eat fewer calories... I for one ate MORE LC calories on a daily basis than I EVER ate eating "normally" (do you even KNOW how many calories are in ribs?!) and still managed to maintain my weight.

I gained weight quickly (80lbs in less than 1 year) during a period of hospitalization and subsequent recovery where I was not in control of my foods. Hospital food is ALWAYS high-carb. So was the food I ate during recovery. Anyway, I managed to maintain my goal weight of 120lbs for over 2 years prior to my hospitalization, and THAT is pretty damn successful. And I did it eating large quantities of LC foods in the range of 3000 to 4000 calories per day (more on a "rib day" or "steak day")

Now I dunno if you've ever been hospitalized... But they don't exactly feed you a LOT. Yet I gained over 15lbs before leaving the hospital and the rest on my "low fat, healthy diet" during recovery. It ain't about calories. And all calories are not created equal.

That said, I do watch my calories during LC dieting (as I am now) but the weight loss is STILL faster and easier than taking in the same number of low fat calories.

Jenn,

Check this out. For a few day stretch I did nothing but sleep and eat fatty chicken and some decorative broccoli . I was clocking 1700, 1800, 1900 cals per day. At the time this was more than I was eating by a pretty significant amount, and less activity too. I lost weight. I felt bonier, and the scale reinforced this with a 110 weight. I hadn't been 110 in months and the last time I was really under eating.

Fairly amazing to me since I was eating so much more and doing so much less activity, but there you have it - sleep and not eating carbs = obesity resistance.

I used to 100% believe it was *all* about calories. I believed LC gave a mild metabolic advantage but it was really just eating less. Now I see that metabolism is really plastic, and it controls weight gain... and calories are *not* the exclusive effector of metabolism. If you are avoiding all sources of fat-gain stress (sleep deprivation, caffiene abuse, carbs)... it is *extremely* difficult to gain weight on LC. Your metabolism is much more eager to burn up food than store it. It only wants to store things in the stress state, avoid the stress state and you avoid obesity.

The unfortunate truth is it is very hard to stay out of stress state, so most of us have to restrict cals in varying degrees . It's unfortunate our culture makes it impossible to sleep enough and stay very LC (and, if I don't sleep enough, then I'm abusing caffiene and more likely to make bad food choices, a horrible cycle).