My renewed interest in caloric consumption started with my review of my first year on the all carnivorous diet. I gained about ~15 lbs, by not counting calories and stuffing myself at each meal (when I started, I ate 2-3 meals). It's unclear to me whether this weight was put on because I was eating too much protein, too much fat, too much food (too many calories) or or even too many meals (fasting has a fat burning hormonal effect).

There are so many different schools of thought on caloric consumption (sometimes called "volume", other times called "too much fat") that entertaining the idea enters the mind into a world of cerebral gymnastics. Now, I want to be very clear that I believe that hormones are driving fat accumulation, not the quantity of calories, but the question I'm interested in is:

When insulin levels are low, what is responsible if fat is still not being mobilized?

Who is to blame here? Is it volume (calories), meal timing, or a macro nutrient? And if it's a macro nutrient, which one?

We learned from GCBC that whatever makes you fat also makes you sick. This conversation is extremely relevant to obtaining optimal health. Here are some accepted theories as well as points of contention when it comes to what the body does with specific macro nutrients.

• Carbohydrates are converted into glucose and raise blood sugar potentiating the release of  insulin.
• Protein is converted into amino acids. When there is a long term deficit of glucose, gluconeogenesis is initiated, which is the manufacturing of glucose from amino acids. Short term deficits of glucose are covered by dipping into your bodies store of glycogen (stored glucose) in your liver, not by breaking down proteins. (thanks to Dr. Kurt Harris of The PaNu Weblog - read the comments for more info). The second school of thought on the protein to glucose issue is brought to us by my good friend Lex Rooker. Evidenced by his meticulous BG tracking in his wildly popular journal, Lex's data showed a different story on the conversion of protein to glucose. Lex's self experimentation indicated that glucose rises higher after eating a meal containing more protein than when eating a meal containing less protein. This rise in BG happens even when blood glucose before the meal is already at 100 mg/dl. This would suggest that at least some protein is converted to glucose independent of blood glucose levels, glycogen stores, or a "metabolic emergency". For all the details, make sure to stop by the raw paleo forum and give his incredible journal a read.
• Fat does not have a noticeable effect on insulin. Fat can be stored independently of insulin by the enzyme Acylation Stimulating Protein (ASL) - which is influenced by insulin. A very small amount of fat is converted into glucose, but is done so inefficiently by the liver. 

Let's look at some of the greats in the low carb universe and see what they think about calories (and for some, meal timing). I took all of their quotes completely out of context, mostly from message boards, so if they seem a little out of place, they are. I tried my best to represent each all-star's view accordingly. Here they are in no particular order:

The Bear

"There is no reason to worry about the amount of meat you feel like eating. Only if you want to go below 10% bodyfat like for a bodybuilding contest do you need to restrict the calories you eat. And the term is 'won't go ABOVE 15% bodyfat'. Remember, the right diet is NOT "low carb". It is only ZERO-carb. that does the job. You are right to note that there are strong social conditioning to what foods you eat, and you should explain how difficult it will be to change. For success you must be completely willing to do whatever it takes to change your body. In order to adopt this diet it will take a lot of will power, and you must make the change permanent."

"The diet is actually a high-fat diet. It usually is considered balanced at around 60-80% of calories from fat. I try to reduce the fat to around 50% (in order to force my body fat levels down below 10%), but it is still in the high-fat category. It is a ZERO-CARB diet, however, and you cannot drink milk, which is a high-carb food. Heavy cream is ok, as is butter and most cheeses. I mostly eat beef. with fresh fish when it is available. I must go to Cairns to get it, and the boats don't go out in bad weather. I also will eat lamb, I especially like the brains. Chooks are ok, too but not all the time. I never eat pork or turkey."

"A high fat diet will only support about 15% body fat MAX on a male. This means that you can gorge yourself on fat and lose weight like crazy until your fat level falls to about 15%, at which point you have to start watching the caloric level."

Art De Vany

"Calories are energy. Excess calories are stored as fat. Too many bodybuilders that I see are too fat. They only look good when they're in contest form. They do tend to follow a binge eating pattern that's close to those of bulimics and other dysfunctional eaters. Eat like mad to grow, then starve to get cut for the contest. Throw in some dehydration for good measure.

This is damaging to the brain and can eventually lead to a form of anorexia when the hypothalamus becomes damaged. Remember, your brain shrinks too when you starve yourself for a period of time. Random or intermittent hunger is good and protective of the brain.

Muscle mass can easily be gained without eating excess calories. Growth hormone directs nutrients toward muscle. Insulin sends them the other way toward fat. Eating all the time raises insulin levels and drops growth hormone levels. So, you tend to make more fat."

Peter (Hyperlipid)

"Ultimately weight loss boils down to lowering insulin levels. So we end up with a need for minimal carbohydrate. On the Optimal Diet basis that would be the lowest amount for a sedentary person to avoid ketosis, say 0.5g/kg of "ideal" weight. If a person is well adapted to a LC/high fat diet then protein requirements can be as low as 0.8g/kg ideal weight. Protein metabolism requires some insulin response and any excess protein will be mostly converted to glucose, which requires a considerable amount of insulin to be used. Fat intake should be relatively low to keep total calories below those needed by our metabolism, otherwise ASP will store more fat than HSL will release. HSL will only ever release enough FFA for the metabolic needs in a healthy person."

Charles Washington (ZIOH)

"I'm not looking to get into it with Colpo or Eades because I don't buy the metabolic advantage nor do I buy the "calorie is a calorie" nonsense either because everyone knows our bodies do something far different with beef spare ribs than it does with corn flakes. I would have to eat 8 cups of corn flakes to equal the calories of 6 ounces of beef spare ribs. I would gain weight eating the corn flakes yet I would either lose or maintain my weight with the beef spare ribs.

When we say "calories don't count" we're not invalidating the first law of thermodynamics. We're saying that calories do count, just not in a way that's relevant. Counting calories is a mental exercise with little relevance to human physiology.

People do not become obese from eating too much and moving too little. Obesity happens when your body is unable to mobilize more fatty acids than it stores in your fat tissue. This condition happens when the principle regulator of fat tissue, insulin, is chronically high in the bloodstream. This fascilitates fat storage or "lipid trapping" which basically means that fatty acids remain trapped in fat tissue for longer periods than they should be. This has little to do with caloric intake and everything to do with the insulin response to the various foods we eat. Certain foods (such as corn flakes) raise insulin levels to create this lipid trapping environment and certain foods (beef spare ribs) don't.

• The real regulator of "calories in/calories out" is hunger.
• Hunger is a request from your cells for fuel.

This should serve as the primary guide for how much one eats, not 1800's basal metabolic rate, or other nonsense. When a person eats fat and protein to appetite, their body will regulate their hunger as it's supposed to which will correct the metabolic disorder and begin to repair symptoms caused by said disorder such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's, dementia, etc. Weight loss is the result in seventy-five percent of cases.

Delfuego

"I'm over 50 and have found that I am eating more food overall. As it stands now, I consume quite a bit more than I did in my 20's or 30's. In my younger days I was a 6 meal a day, 3x a week weight trainer with a 10% bf (more or less at times). I measured and weighed everything I ate and kept my calories at 2800 a day (with one cheat day per week - anything goes day).

Once my wife became sick I traded in my protein shakes, egg whites and rice for fatty meats. My body changed. It became much easier to put on muscle even though I was eating less protein overall! The higher fat made me stronger in the gym. My muscles became fuller and more pronounced and I felt a hormonal surge that affected my life from the bedroom to the gym to the way I carried myself. I became more of a man, and I began to see things and say things and react in a more manly way. Good fun! I put it entirely upon the amount and type of fat I was eating.

Of course eating pemmican helped as well. But I've got to put a plug in here for saturated fat. The more heavy the saturation the more I noticed extra energy, better fat burning and higher testosterone. How does a man notice more testosterone? Heh, heh, heh. We do. And we LIKE it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, or over simplifying, but doesn't the body create testosterone from cholesterol? And doesn't the body create cholesterol from saturated fat in the diet? Just wondering aloud. I may need to dig up the Farmington Mass. study results. I believe they showed that the more saturated fat and cholesterol consumed the leaner the test subjects became. This has ALWAYS been the case with me. The higher the saturation of fat and the more of it in my diet the leaner and stronger (and the more desiring of sexual pleasure with my wife) I became.

Hats off to fat. Let's hear it for the ruminant animal and it's succulent, life giving, energy providing, hormonally advancing stores of sweet, sweet fat."

"Here is the quote from the Farmington Study that I found interesting (and accurate from my experience):

"We found that the people who ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories weighed the least and were the most physically active." Dr William Castelli 1992 (Director of the Framingham study)

I've found that the more fat I've eaten, the more overall calories I've consumed and the more saturated the fat in my diet the more happiness I've felt, the more sexually active I've been and the more I desire physical activity. As a result, I maintain a healthy (not starved), less than 10% body fat."

Lex Rooker

"It appears that my conjecture on gaining weight and putting on body fat while on a Zero Carb or Very Low Carb diet is not all there is to the story, and may even be just incidental in the whole weight gain issue on a ZC/VLC diet. Most of my ideas have been based on excess glucose created from protein and/or the left over glycerol from fat metabolism. Seems there’s another metabolic pathway at work here. An enzyme called ASP (Acylation Stimulating Protein). This little jewel has the ability to directly store fat in the fat cells completely bypassing the glucose and insulin pathways.

On a zero carb diet, excess fatty acids not immediately needed for energy will be directly stored in the fat cells through ASP. This stored fat will then be called upon as the body needs energy and is mobilized out of the fat cells through Hormone Sensitive Lipase (HSL) which will only allow body fat metabolism if insulin, a hormone, is low, hence ‘hormone sensitive’.

As long as the total fat stored is equal to the total fat consumed, body fat will not accumulate. However, if, on average, less energy is needed than was stored, not all fat stored by ASP from the ZC meals will be remobilized by HSL and body fat will rise."

Dr. Kurt Harris (PaNu)

"I find that calories do not matter within a really wide range -maybe 1500 to 2500 calories and my weight does not vary more than a pound. I usually eat about 1900 or less a day, but honestly don't check that often."

"Briefly, eating excess calories from any source will make you gain weight if hormones are driving fat storage, and won't otherwise. Whether the caloric excess is protein or fat or carbs does not matter if your adipocytes are storing fat under hormonal direction.

I never said excess anything would cause fat gain, only that it could under the right circumstances. Obviously within ranges excess anything can be tolerated without weight gain, even if it is carbs.

You can give a type I diabetic all the carbs you want, and without exogenous insulin they lose weight.

Conversely, if I keep your caloric intake the same with zero carbs and you are not diabetic, and I give you extra insulin, you will start storing fat (stop releasing) and become ravenously hungry. If I don't let you eat more, you will then get lethargic and your metabolic rate will decline. You will now be fatter, slower and eating the exact same calories.

Under the right (or wrong) hormonal milieu, it matters not a whit if the extra calories are fat, carbs or proteins.

Macronutrient ratios mediate weight via hormones. Hormones drive fat storage."

"You experience confirms that you can indeed store fat with no carb consumption if you are eating high enough protein and total calories. Fits with what I know of biochemistry and metabolism.

Again, calories in is not calories out, but if you eat enough to exceed the tolerable range, you may well cause enough increase in insulin to have net fat storage.

Seems simple in theory and I've sure seen it in practice."

I would be a fool to try to extrapolate any truth out of this data, but I tend to agree that when insulin levels are low you should eat until satisfaction. I have found that eating to satisfaction with a very high-fat meal (80% of calories), once in the evening, makes consuming calories more of a chore than something you look forward to. With this method, I have effortlessly shrunk back down to 150 lbs (from 164 lbs) - even with all the water I'm retaining (this will be covered in a future post). It's hard to say wether this weight loss was because of meal timing, a lowered protein consumption, ad libinum caloric restriction, or a higher fat intake. I'm currently eating pemmican (80% fat, 20% protein), and I would surprised if you couldn't get the same results with a small amount of meat and extra fat (tallow or butter).

Please share any comments, criticisms or experiences.