(I apologize in advance for the INCREDIBLY long post, but this is something I've been wanting to discuss, in depth, for awhile...)

There are three factions of LCers when it comes to this issue.

1) Some people don't count calories at all and are convinced only carbs are important... these are the types who obsess about carbs in black pepper .
2) Then you have the balanced group: people that are roughly mindful of portions, but mainly are concerned with counting carbs.
3) Finally there is a third group of LCers, those who think calories are mainly important, and the importance of carbs begins and ends with not eating so much that your sugar metabolism becomes impaired via unstable sugars (increases hunger & calorie consumption)/high insulin (retards metabolic activity).

Personally, I fall into the third group. Though I definitely notice a correlation between both carbs and calories and my weight, I find that minding calories has a stronger influence than minding carbs. In other words, I lose faster when I am strictly minding my portions and loosely minding my carbs, than I am when I am strictly minding my carbs and loosely minding my portion sizes. I also find that eating slightly more carbs allows me to eat less total calories. This is because when I get the urge to snack, I can snack on really low calorie things at a higher carb level, whereas I can't do that on a lower carb level.

Anyway, it is my belief that calories are the most important factor in weight loss. I believe that the importance of carbohydrate intake begins and ends with not eating so much that you damage your metabolism (and it is very possible to do this by the way: ask people who are so insulin resistant that they can't even lose on starvation levels of high carb food). If you are one of those unfortunate people with a really damaged sugar metabolism, intake might have to be quite low for you to lose or maintain weight, unfortunately... Even still, I seriously doubt very many need to cling to the 20 gram limit that is falsely toted as magical. I believe very few people need to keep carbs at ketogenic levels to lose weight at a reasonable pace. Furthermore, I think staying in ketosis, needlessly, offers no extra benefits for it's price of limited low calorie-high nutrient snack and meal options.

I think people are losing sight of the big picture. It is important to remember what ketosis and induction are for. Ketosis and induction was considered important by Dr. Atkins because of its cleansing properties... it purged your body of the sugar and got you jump started physically (glycogen rapidly depleted, hormonal shift rapidly occurring) and mentally (fast weight loss) into the LC lifestyle. Ketosis and induction was not and was never considered that important for weight loss. There is really no reason that I can see to keep your carbohydrate grams so low, once you have been properly inducted and are "clean". The panacea that people believe extremely low ketogenic carbohydrate intakes to be, is in my experience and opinion, snake oil. Actually, it is worse than snake oil because this type of diet approach comes with a risk: low nutrients and high calories. Every day on this forum I see so many people are obviously stalling because they are snacking on high calorie/low nutrient foods like cream cheese and pork rinds. They are doing this because they think it will help them lose weight: they are trying to avoid raising their carbs above the 20 gram limit. This really irks me. These people could be snaking on carrots, lowering their calories, losing weight, and getting tons of antioxidants at the same time.

Don't get me wrong, I am not at all knocking LC. It totally saved my life, and I fully believe in the importance of controlling carbs for health and weight management. However, I do have a problem with the mindset some people have in which the goal is to be LOW carb, when the real goal should be to be CONTROLLED carb. These terms are used interchangeably by us, and I am guilty of it too, but really they don't mean the same thing. Controlling your carbs is about eating as many nutritious carbs as you can tolerate, without damaging your metabolism. Low carb means you are eating very few carbohydrates, even when your body can tolerate more. Low carb is about mindlessly adhering to flimsy "20 gram limits" for no reason at all and never questioning why. Controlled carb is about experimenting with your body, discovering what you can and can not handle, and making intelligent choices.

Anyway I guess thats the problem I have; so many sell their bodies short with these programs. They hear low carb works, arbitrarily follow the induction phase of Atkins and see results... but then they never bother to try and progress past that point. They never bother to read about the science, the reasons why it works, so they are uneducated and in a poor position to make intelligent choices about their diet.
The result of it all is this new superstitious belief in the magic of induction and the "20 gram" limit. The reason it came about is simple; once the dieter sees results (i.e. HEY on induction I am losing gobs of weight and am not hungry!), he stops trying new things and sticks to what works. Even though it is true that induction is a step up from his old flour and sugar rich diet, what he doesn't realize is adding back even more low glycemic - high nutrient foods such as berries and veggies would be even better than induction! He doesn't realize this, because he is uneducated about the principles behind low carbing. The 20 carb limit and ketosis becomes mythologically linked to instant weight loss in his mind, and it is really a false association.

In a way I really wish all these low carb plans would omit their equivalent of the "induction" phase. I know they are a good selling point for the diet because you lose water so fast when you first start the induction, and fast weight loss is a big promotion for the plan, but really all it does is help promote a superstitious crash dieting mentality. It does the dieter no good in the long term. The thing that bothers me the most is that this selling point isn't even NEEDED, because low carb is a scientifically valid and rewarding approach on its own.

I guess the way I feel can be summed up in a sentence. Keep your blood sugars normal and on an even keel, eat a nutrient rich diet, and you will see normalized hunger and good metabolic integrity. It has nothing to do with induction or ketosis, they aren't important at all. Assuming your blood sugars are stable and your sugar metabolism isn't going haywire, there is no reason to obsess over carbs, you would be better served watching portion sizes if you are stalled.

Where do you stand on this issue?