Or do lowered insulin levels take care of that?

I never counted calories.
Even before I did Paleo and I lost weight just the same by getting rid of all idiot carbs from wheat, potatoes and sugary drinks.

What most people neglect to mention though is that there is more than one law of thermodynamics, and assuming that all calories are created and broken down equally violates the second law of thermodynamics.

I don't think anyone is going to get that fine grained. Put a thing under a microscope, and you cease to see the thing itself. Yes, there are small variations on the rule, but the long and short of it is: if you eat 5000 calories of a thing, you'll gain some weight; if you eat 1000 calories of that thing, you'll lose some weight. The specifics and exact numbers will vary from person to person, and from diet to diet, but assuming you are, of course, digesting all the food, then you still gain or lose based largely on consumption itself.

I have experimented with over 5000 Paleo calories per day & not visually gained body fat.... @ 5'7" 180Ib

Quote from: phrakture on September 07, 2010, 03:21:03 PM

if you eat 5000 calories of a thing, you'll gain some weight; if you eat 1000 calories of that thing, you'll lose some weight. The specifics and exact numbers will vary from person to person, and from diet to diet, but assuming you are, of course, digesting all the food, then you still gain or lose based largely on consumption itself.

That may not always be the case. Dean was eating up around 5000 calories of close to 100% fat a day and still losing or maintaining weight. After ingestion food can either be burned, stored or excreted.

Yeah, but that's a single case though. I imagine that a lot of consumed fat is excreted in that case. That's why I stipulated that it needs to be digested. Just a suspicion though

Do we need to cut calories to lose weight? Well, depends on what you were eating before and what you need.

The simple answer is that you will be able to eat more calories eating paleo than you would eating a standard food pyramid diet (high carb low fat) to either maintain or lose.

If, for example, you had to eat 1200 calories to lose weight on the standard diet, you might well find that you still lost weight on 2000 calories when you changed to paleo. You might gain, however, if you ate 4000 calories while eating paleo. There will be an upper limit but it will vary for each person depending on their age, sex, size, activity level, muscles etc.

I'm not disagreeing with samjohn, I think the composition of your diet will influence what your upper limit might be.

Do we need to cut calories to lose weight? Well, depends on what you were eating before and what you need.

The simple answer is that you will be able to eat more calories eating paleo than you would eating a standard food pyramid diet (high carb low fat) to either maintain or lose.

If, for example, you had to eat 1200 calories to lose weight on the standard diet, you might well find that you still lost weight on 2000 calories when you changed to paleo. You might gain, however, if you ate 4000 calories while eating paleo. There will be an upper limit but it will vary for each person depending on their age, sex, size, activity level, muscles etc.

I'm not disagreeing with samjohn, I think the composition of your diet will influence what your upper limit might be.

This is exactly what I was trying to say. There are still limits. Paleo just changes how we need to calculate those limits

I'm not saying that you can eat insane amount of any Paleo food and not get fat. I'm sure I could get fat very quickly eating honey and bananas.

Indeed, it seems like it's the type of food more than the amount of food that affects fat deposition.