I agree with the 35% level.
You can only process about 25 grams of protein every meal. If you are larger you can process more.
I get some of my info from Dr. Squat... Fred Hatfield who is the man!
I might stress that in ALL of my posts that form follows function and different athletes follow different diets.
Yes, I am biased; I listen to the greatest athletes in martial arts, power lifting, and extreme sports.
I listen to superiority and science. I do not know what the proper level is for women. I do think 35% is a good indicator.
Common sense:
1) You lose weight by eating fewer calories and/or burning more calories.
2) Most of the differences between diets come down to which control hunger better for a given calorie level. A person who is not a professional athlete and not grossly overweight and with no metabolic abnormalities should just pick the diet which makes him least hungry for the calorie level. (Assuming here that the diet is not an extreme faddish one which fails to provide enough of something vital.) For the majority, this is apparently an Atkins-type diet. A pro athlete or someone with health problems will have other issues and should be advised by an open-minded nutritionist.
3) The easiest and most effective "quick diet" is the Fred Villari diet -- simply eat exactly what you always do, but cut everything in half. This works great if you are only trying to lose less than 20 pounds; afterwards, to keep the weight off, you must either start an exercise program or not return your intake all the way back to its former level.
4) When I need to lose 10 pounds I stop eating meat. This usually happens during Lent, and it's how I lose back the weight I gain over the winter when I can't get enough exercise. But many other simple measures will accomplish this, for example giving up on all between-meal food.
5) I lost 25 pounds last year because I started running 10-20 miles a week, without any dietary change -- my metabolism had slowed down as I approached 40, and this got it back up.
6) Some people simple have very strong hunger cravings or very little willpower (or both, in which case they're in serious trouble). For them, the above simple methods won't work, but the Atkins diet should certainly be tried.
--VeritatisSplendor (spouse of heartwood)