[Mr Rogers]

“Eat fewer calories than you burn, you *WILL* lose weight, anyone saying otherwise is an ignorant idiot.”

Actually, one needs to be an idiot to think a human body is like a car: gas in, miles out.

The types of food you eat and your body’s hormones have a huge impact on how much your body stores and how much it passes thru. That is a big part of why we tend to gain weight as we age - less estrogen and testosterone, both of which tend to use up fat.

The US government has been pushing a low fat, high carb diet since George McGovern - yeah, him - pushed it in the Senate in the 70s. And after 40 years, obesity and diabetes are up. From what I’ve seen, my Mom was right in the 60s: if you want to lose weight or control your weight, eat proteins and fat in moderation and try to minimize carbohydrates.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/02/health/low-carb-vs-low-fat-diet.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=2

[Finny]

... your body’s hormones have a huge impact on how much your body stores and how much it passes thru. That is a big part of why we tend to gain weight as we age - less estrogen and testosterone, both of which tend to use up fat.

Exactly. And THAT is why old farts who exercise vigorously, like Jack LaLanne and senior Master Swimmers, are youthful -- because vigorous exercise triggers the body to produce hormones, including the ones listed above.

[RedStateRocker]

Nothing you said is untrue, but you still have to put IN more calories than you burn OFF to gain weight. Another huge part of it is when you eat- consuming most of your calories right before sleep will cause much slower loss, or more rapid gain than eating them first thing in the morning or over the course of a day.

but fundamentally, it *IS* like gas- you can't keep driving if you don't put gas in the car. It's true that as you get near an optimum body weight or even lower the body becomes much more efficient, but I can't believe the level of basic scientific ignorance amongst some posters; you simply cannot gain or maintain weight if you burn off more calories than you eat; no more possible than floating away because you don't believe in gravity or violating basic physics any other way. It is possible to eat very little and hardly lose weight, but if you eat less than you burn your body will burn whatever it can, starting with carbs in the blood, going to fat and then catabolizing muscle.