I'm sure you are interested in the book/here's a lengthy and interesting description of why calorie counting is silly. Why you should eat fat and protein first and limit carbs. Sorry it's long. Some is from his book some is from what I know.

Trying to paraphrase and summarize: some of this is from the book, some from my own exercise phisiology background. Groves doesn't think ketosis is necessary for weightloss, but doesn't say much against it.

The measuring of how many "calories" a food has is done by using a machine called a "bomb calorimeter". Each food is burned and the amount of heat measured in kcals is burned off. Each food gets a number - it's kcals or calories. But this is only part of the story. Rounding, and they do that, 1gm of carb = 4.2 kcal, 1 gm of protein 5.25 kcal but 1 kcal is deducted because protein does not oxidize readily and releases urea which must be subtracted. 1 gm of fat 9.2 kcals.

So that's how we get our calorie amounts for the food that the calorometer eats. But the calorometer does nothing with the food once it's burned. WE DO and its THERE where our bodies create the differences that lead to the metabolic advantage.

1st flaw. Our bodies do not burn foods all equally in the same way as a calorometer does (the device used to determine a foods caloric value). Our bodies produce Ketones as you all know when we do eat fat. Guess what? It take energy to MAKE ketones and the energy required to produce 1 gm of ketone is 4 calories. Okay, what was 1 gm of fat again? 9 calories? So, in this case, nearly half the energy from the fat is lost and fat truely has (if one is producing ketones) only half the caloric value of the accepted norm.

2nd flaw - Protein. When we eat protein our bodies do NOT respond as if we have eaten something with the function of producing ENERGY - it responds as if we have eaten a "building block" for cell repair and it treats protein in just that way. We use the protein for all kinds of body functioning/not energy production - and these calories must be deducted from the total protein calories consumed to get an accuarate consumption measurement of remaining available calories to the body (excess). Your body is USING protein, not just either sending it for energy or storage purposes only. This USING of protein uses calories too - and therefore less remains available once the process is completed.

Carbs. Carbs promote an instant release of insulin. Insulin surges/we get MORE much MORE than we need in our bloodstream and IF the carb are not expended (not in ketosis) then the carbs will be stored by insulin into the muscles of the body as glucose. IF this glucose is NOT used in a timely manner through exercise - then they will be converted to increasing the size of our fat cells. NOW IF YOU ARE IN KETOSIS - then there is very minimal to no insulin release due to very low carbohydate consumption. Less or no insulin release = less or no hunger and less or no conversion of carbs to glucose...leading to weight gain.

WHy fat doesn't MAKE you fat. 3 reasons. 1. Alot of fat calories are expended to make ketones. 2. Fat fills you up and you stop eating sooner. 3. Fat does not promote insulin release. So?

Eat the fat first. If your body needs 10 gms of fat to make you feel that "full" feeling, then you will continue to eat and eat until you consume that 10 gm of fat. If you eat those 10 gms of fat as cheddar cheese, you will feel full/slow or stop your eating at 125 cals.
IF you try to meet your 10g fat quota using bread thinly spread with a very low-fat spread, you will require 8 slices to meet your 10g fat need! Thats about 500 calories!!! And these are CARB calories and you now KNOW what your body does with those!
Until you get your 10g or whatever of fat you won't stop being hungry - you will crave and eat that bread (actually you are craving the fat in the bread NOT the bread itself!) until you have met your 10g fat need for that meal.

So?
Eat your protein and fats first! You'll feel full sooner, stop eating sooner (not a big deal regarding cals if you are in ketosis however) -(if you abide by your true appetite/fullness factor) and you WON'T be consuming carbs that trigger insulin release and cause glucose storage/fat production and have very little fat - requiring you to eat many many more cals to feel FULL.

Get your fat/feel full/avoid carbs - carbs.

When I eat protein I know it's being used to help my body funtion. Some is used for energy but the amount used for functioning should be subtracted from the original amount consumed. No we will never know that amount exactly which is why counting calories is not only inaccurate but not even calculat"able".
- when I eat fat I know it will make me feel full faster than any other type of calories (and also helps my body function). I avoid carbs for obvious reasons stated here.

Not enough new stuff in there? NEW TO ME.
Okay, fine, not all fat, protein is used for energy production and this is the metabolic advantage (protein is somewhat thermogenic too, these functions it helps perform actually raise body temp/metabolism and it does take more energy to BURN protein than other foods) but so? None of this is news to you???

How you lose weight on low carb whether you are in ketosis or not:

Let's talk THE GLYCOGENIC FACTOR OF DIFFERENT FOODS.

GlYCEMIC INDEX OF FOOD: How much a food raises your insulin level.

differs from -

GLYCOGENIC FACTOR OF FOOD: The process by which food is stored as glucose by your body.

So lets explore this GLYCOGENIC factor of the food!

Glycogenesis is the process by which food is stored as glcose and then to glycogen and then eventually to fat in the body. Eating foods that are highly glycogenic does lead to weight gain. Carbohydrate is 100% glycogenic. Protein is 58% glycogenic. Fat is only 10% glycogenic!!! This fat is the least likely way you will put on weight and the best at getting weight off because it makes us feel full and does not promote a release of insulin.

Barry Groves believes that keeping carbs low (high glycogenic foods very low) results in weightloss on this principle, making ketosis not necessary. I agree with this but feel ketosis is necessary for ME due to its appetite suppressant qualities and the "good feelings" it gives me of constant energy.

There is so much more in this book. I can't paraphrase it all. You can order it from the website above. It's from the UK.

Nsmith4366