Obesity myth

Calories Don’t Matter For Weight Loss

According to studies, an increased calorie intake is more than sufficient to explain the increases in obesity (R).  If you see the graph below, our increased caloric intake matches up nicely with the obesity epidemic.

The Japanese eat 25% fewer calories than we do in the US (R, R2), which fits with the position that calories do matter.

I have a friend who  meticulously ate less than 20g of carbs a day for three months, but ate as much as he wanted.  At the end of it, he gained 25 pounds.  So, yes, you can gain weight on a very low carb diet if you increase your caloric intake.

As you will see, I don’t think calories are the only thing that matters, but saying that they don’t matter at all is bizarre.

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