OK, let me just talk about the low-calories idea and some other stuff for a second. It's gonna be a little long. This is pretty much all copy-pasted from Gary Taubes' ideas, so please don't accuse me of plagiarism!. [Notes, from
http://higher-thought.net/complete-notes-to-good-calories-ba... Really really great resource, everyone should read it if they haven't read Good Calories, Bad Calories]
1.) This guy is saying that the
Delta Fat Stores = Energy In-Energy Out
Well, which is the cause and which is the effect? Isn't it possible that when Energy Out changes, so does Energy In? And, if that's not the case, why don't kids grow obese when they start eating as if they're bodybuilders? The kids eat a lot because they're growing; they're not growing because they're eating a lot. A hormonal drive increases appetite. Pregnant women also grow fatter because of hormones.
2.) Folks say that even an extra 100 calories per day will make you get fat over a year. Bogus; the variables Energy In and Energy Out are dependent. As Energy In changes, so does Energy Out. Also, have you ever had a really, really indulgent meal? I mean, over a fat-pound's worth of calories. You didn't wake up with an extra pound of fat, though.
Based on these, it shows that trying to lose weight by adjusting the quantity of calories is pretty counter-productive.
Let's look at some people who intentionally try to fatten themselves. Massa tribe males eat an extra 1000 calories worth of milk and sugarcane. Japanese Sumo wrestlers eat a high carb, very low fat diet. Maybe it's the type of calorie that matters more than the quantity. The diets used to fatten farm animals are also high in carbs. Hmm, coincidence? Obese people tend to eat the same amount of calories, but a greater proportion of carbs. Another thing about high carb diets is that they're the only way humans get deficiency diseases; they happen usually when glucose gets crowded in a cell so it takes more of it to even be used in a cell. Deficiency diseases are usually carbohydrate wastage diseases.
(Hint: if you want to skip some boring sciency stuff, just read the last paragraph)
Hunger, satiety, and physical activity are physiologically regulated (not psychological). Imagine if people started attributing the hunger in diabetics as a psychological problem!
Most people think of fat as an inert storage medium; "like a garbage can.” Nope; fat tissue is dynamic and really kind of like a coin purse rather than a long-term savings account. Fattening is when the rate at which fat is deposited exceeds the rate it is mobilized (getting richer). Fat is controlled by hormones in the body, not by quantity of fatty acids in the blood. When fasting, fat provides 85% of energy and protein is converted to glucose (via gluconeogenesis) for the rest. Likewise, the presence of glucose or insulin (the only hormone behind storing fat) removes fatty acids from circulation; cells burn glucose first, fat second (e.g. having a credit card is more convenient than using cash).
The fat stored in adipose tissue is called a triglyceride (3 fatty acids on a glycerol backbone). Some trigs come from fat, the rest from carbs. Fat can only go past the cell membrane in the form of free fatty acids - trigs are too large and must be broken down first. In fat cells, trigs are continuously broken down into FFAs and recomposed into trigs. Fatty acids not immediately recomposed are sent into the bloodstream as fuel. The rest of FFAs are converted into trigs and loaded on VLDL (read: the super bad cholesterol) and shipped back to fat cells. Simple control mechanism: blood sugar. Glycerol phosphate is the result of burning glucose, and also happens to be the backbone of triglycerides. The rate of trig formation (fat deposition) depends on the availability of glyerol phosphate. So carbs = glucose = glycerol phosphate = trigs = fattening.
So hormones control the control mechanisms. Insulin stimulates transport of glucose to fat cells, thus controlling trig formation and fatness. Every single other hormone mobilize fat, but they can only do so if insulin is low. Virtually anything that increases insulin will decrease other hormones.
You heard of fructose? It gets turned into glycerol phosphate much more efficiently than glucose. It's the most fattening carbohydrate. Couple this with the fact that table sugar (sucrose) is one molecule of glucose with one of fructose, it's more than their sum since now glucose is increasing insulin with the higher triglycerides from fructose. Even worse? High Fructose Corn Syrup.
What I'm trying to say is that the only thing you should be monitoring when you're trying to lose weight is carbohydrates. Eat as much protein and fat (eat a whole stick of butter if you'd like) as you want. Avoid sugar and other carbohydrates. It's safe. Read the book Good Calories Bad Calories (or just the notes, which I pretty much copy-pasted: http://higher-thought.net/complete-notes-to-good-calories-ba...) for more info. That is all.