I agree Angeline. Personally, I'm now following a low-cal/low-carb regimen. That's because I found that as far as weight-reduction goes, calories, for me, do count. However, IMO, carbs, not calories, count when I am maintaining. When maintiaining, too many carbs will give my body the insulin it needs to store fat, whereas, if I control carbs, my body won't have the excess insulin to use for fat storage.

For those of us who have been fat for most of our lives, our bodies have become very efficient at storing fat, so for us, maintenance requires that we continue to keep our carbs low. And that amount varies from person to person.

I have found this out for myself through anecdotal experience. I have been in a "stall" for almost two years. Looking back on it, it goes like this:

1. When I started LC, I did actually reduce my calories without realizing it, and I reduced my carbs and lost weight.
2. My stall started when my calorie intake matched my body's requirement to maintain my current weight. I could eat more calories than I needed and not gain weight, but I wasn't eating fewer.
3. So I was stalled. During that period, I occassionally upped my carbs in an attempt to jump-start my weightloss. This actually caused me to put on a little weight. As long as I kept my carbs down, I would not gain weight, but I also did not lose.
4. Now I am incorporating low-cal into my low-carb regimen and my weight is on the way down again.
5. When I get where I want to be, I'll stop worrying about calories, but I will always watch my carbs. And because my body is so well trained to store fat, I will never be able to eat the amount of carbs someone who has not had an IR problem is able to eat.

It's all related. And what I see in the scientific community is an attitude that it has to be one thing -- that there's one magic key -- and most of time it's either fat or calories. I think it's fat, carbs, protein, and calories. If you can figure out how to manage all four so they work for your body, you have your own personal key. And it's different for everyone.

I think carbs are more important than calories as well.

That said, I do think it's important not to overeat. I am an emotional eater, and eating when you are not hungry and indulging in excess on low carb treats is just not healthy in my opinion.

So what I'm doing (I'm on the Four Corners Diet), is I'm keeping my net carbs to 40 (I don't count low starch veggies, so it's really more than that), and I'm working on eating until I'm satisfied but not stuffed, and not eating for emotional reasons. Hopefully this alone will lower my caloric intake. Also, I don't count minute things like coffee, spices, herbs, cream, etc. like some folks do. So that ups my carbs a bit as well.

I counted calories for years and years and now have a horrible aversion to it, so I'm using the "tricks" mentioned above to lower my intake.

I do agree that the main thing is keeping the carbs down, but even too much of a good thing (too many low carb portions) will stall you. Even Atkins said to eat until you are satisfied, not Thanksgiving stuffed.

That said, I love low carbing and the health benefits I have derived from it. I'll never quit! I am losing very slowly (1 pound a month), but hey, that's 12 pounds gone in a year! Some would give up, but not me, I feel so good, I'm in this for life!