Counting carbs not calories on a low carbohydrate diet.

There's an ongoing argument between low fat advocates and low carb advocates about whether calories count. Calories are not the focus of a low carbohydrate lifestyle. If you go by the old "calories in, calories out" model used by low fat and low calorie diets, they always count. But is that model always strictly true or applicable to low carb diets?

There are two views on this issue, as with most nutritional approaches. One says, calories still count for the most part. Dr. Michael Eades wrote that, "It has been shown countless times that when people go on low-carb diets they spontaneously reduce their caloric intake. Most foods available on low-carbohydrate diets are satiating and those following these diets get full quickly. They just don’t eat that many calories. In most studies of low-carb diets people drop their caloric intake down to the 1500-1700 kcal range and are quite satisfied." Read more.

The other camp claims low carbohydrate diets give you a metabolic edge.  The theory is a diet based mostly on protein and fat allows the body to burn more body fat even if your calorie intake isn't low. An example is Tom Naughton's experience in the documentary film "Fathead." Naughton lost 12 pounds although his calorie intake and energy output should have garnered him only a 7 pound loss. His doctor was perplexed.

Gary Taubes, author of 'Good Calories, Bad Calories' wrote that the old "calories in versus calories out" formula for weight loss rarely works. This is at least partially due to the fact hormones, and insulin in particular, determine whether fat is stored or released, ie. weight loss. If you're eating a low fat, high carbohydrate diet, insulin is released in response to rising glucose levels in the blood. And insulin tells your body not to release fat even if you're cutting calories. Eating a low carbohydrate diet prevents excess insulin production. Your body is free to burn body fat. Also, protein breakdown (in digestion) burns more calories than carbohydrate breakdown. Thus, in two ways a "metabolic edge" is created.

For  more info: Thermodynamic Edge For Low Carbohydrate Diets: SUNY Downstate Researchers Say All Calories Are NOT Alike.

PBS Frontline Interview with science writer Gary Taubes, quote: "What they don't agree is that somehow the carbohydrates, the actual macronutrient content of the diet, will do this. [Scientists] will say a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. They'll admit that a calorie of carbohydrates has an entirely different effect on your hormonal system than a calorie of fats. They'll admit that your hormones can control your weight; that insulin and estrogen have effects on weight, hunger, and body weight regulation. But they will never go from the step where they say: Hey, maybe the amount of carbohydrates and the kind of carbohydrates in the diet will have an effect -- through their effect on insulin, through insulin's effect on the deposition of calories, through that effect on hunger -- [on] being a functional diet.

It's as though the data becomes irrelevant. The evidence becomes irrelevant. Everyone knows what the answer is (low carbohydrate is healthier), and it's a little frustrating even from my point of view, because no matter how much research you do, you're going after a monolithic dogma (low fat), in effect. And dogmas protect themselves." Read more.

Dr. Andrew Weil M.D. Endorses Gary Taubes book 'Good Calories, Bad Calories' and the science behind it.

Jimmy Moore, the Examiner's Low-carb Lifestyle Examiner, and his wife Christine decided to address the issue of calories and their importance on the healthy low-carb lifestyle.