Admittedly, it's taking me a cognitive leap to move from the old ways of a calorie-in / calorie-out hypothesis. I had always gladly accepted the dogma that my success on the scale was dependent on calorie input vs output. And yes, while foods in the lab have determined to provide X amount of calories, it's the food in a closed system—on the lab table, NOT in context of being in a person. For this, a calorie is NOT a calorie is a calorie, that a calorie from carbs and its effect on our system like insulin is wholly different from a fat calorie. And while that aspect made sense to me these past years, I just never made the next logical step how total calories would be different...clearly a 1500 total calories on a low fat diet is WHOLLY different than 1500 total calories on a low carb diet. And I'm not even talking about the need for an equivalency multiplier since carbs and fats effects on the body are more than applied/relative calories. Eat enough sugar and you'll be diabetic; eat the multiplier equivalent of fat and you still won't be diabetic, right? So, clearly, there's something a lot more going on here and is worth further study.

Total Carb Approach

I'm beginning to view weightloss in terms of Total Carbs for the day, not calorie tracking. I once saw it as a function of Net Carbs and I had a diet that was crazy high on fiber, but in a context of a diet with very few carbs, I no longer buy into the benefits of fiber as I once did. I don't need fiber to help with sugar levels if consuming at maximum 30 grams of carbs a day; with a high fat diet I don't need fiber for satiety; as far as roughage: when I add 5 tablespoons of the super fiber food flaxseed into my shake, my straw's plumbing gets all gunked up if I don't add more water. That's a reasonable analog.

The 808 Day Experiment II

But, the proof is in the pudding, right? I haven't performed a low fat diet focus since 2002, but I can say that they never worked for me, so I won't consider it. Now, I do have data on my prior dieting approach—while Net Carbs were in check at <=30, the calories from Total Carbs came in at 23% in a 1150 calorie context. While the short term results were there, it ultimately failed. Hence, I'm starting a 808 day experiment, the length of my prior attempt at reaching my goal weight, yet never breaking 200 lbs. The new schema will consist of the following macro ratios: Fat 70+%, Protein 25%, and Carb 5%, with foods eaten in a context of eating when I'm hungry—no starving is allowed 'cause nothing ignites the carbo-crazy blaze of a binge like hunger! Even at the outset of this diet, I know will take FAR less willpower to accomplish than my 2018, 2019, and spring 2020 efforts.

"Future Me, or more accurately September 4, 2022 Me: how did we do?"

Until then, we've "got to ride, ride like the wind to be free again!"