It all boils down to the goesintos must be lower the goesoutofs. No matter how you slice it...if you are putting in more calories than you are burning up then you will gain weight. The tricky part is figuring out what you are burning up everyday and that is something that is totally different for each individual.

If a person is burning 6000 calories a day through BMR and activities then 5000 calories is not bad. You do have to be smart about spreading those calories out across multiple meals throughout the day. Sitting down to a 3000 calorie meal will just not work.

This is as basic as it gets but you should be able to see the point.

Cody