Personally, I do count calories, but I use different BMR/TDEE calclualators to determine how many I eat a day. I try to make sure to eat at least 100g of protein everyday, especially on exercise days and I try (key word, try) to keep my carbs down. I don't really worry about sugar or fat because I generally don't have a problem with either and it just becomes too much to worry about. I seem to be doing best this way. This seems to be working out well so far, I just made adjustments as far as calories are concerned about 3 weeks ago. Currently I aim for about 1600 calories a day, or net at least 1200 on workout days. Before I was eating the 1400 that MFP recommended and it wasn't enough. I'd either binge or have energy issues. So far, I feel great. I don't have a lot to lose (like pretty much everyone here), so I don't expect the weight to fly off, but I've lost a pants size so far this month.

Also, I cut WAY back on my drinking. That's hard for me, cause I like wine a lot. That and adding a few calories in has made the biggest difference for me.

I try not to overdo carbs, too, altho lately I have been eating more sugar than I probably should. I try to eat 100-120 g of protein daily and plenty of healthy fats (avocado, lean meats, eggs, coconut oil), then fill the rest with carbs, and I should get most from fruits and veggies, but I am eating a little bread lately, rice once a week or so, and I've added oatmeal back in. I workout 6 days a week and eat about 1900-2100 calories a day. That's not always reflected on MFP because the meat entries here don't seem particularly accurate and I don't have the patience to search to find the right entry every time. Or create my own.

I try to eat healthy, and then I log the calories as a secondary method, I guess.



"reasons not totally understood" low-carb diets work.

This is the reason put simply:
When you eat carbohydrates and sugars (carbohydrates turn into sugars) your body produces insulin (unless you are like me and a type one diabetic) which is a growth hormone.
Modern diets high in carbohydrates cause a lot of insulin to be produced over the course of a lifetime. Sometimes this leads to insulin resistance which, in turn, cause type two diabetes. Because people with higher body fat eat more, it is likely that they eat more carbohydrates, thus this links type two diabetes to body weight and to old age. Type two diabetes thus have to take tablets in order to be able to "receive" the insulin their body produces.

You go on a diet lower in carbs and sugars, you produce less insulin = less growth hormone = skinnier.

Here is the reasoning more in depth:

Low blood glucose causes the pancreas to produce glucagon, which stimulates the liver to convert stored glycogen into glucose and release it into the blood (again, unless you are like me and a type one diabetic, because my pancreas is basically a useless hunk of junk). When liver glycogen stores are exhausted, the body starts utilizing fatty acids instead of glucose. The brain cannot use fatty acids for energy, and instead uses ketones produced from fatty acids by the liver. By using fatty acids and ketones as energy sources, supplemented by conversion of proteins to glucose (gluconeogenesis), the body can maintain normal levels of blood glucose without dietary carbohydrates.

Unless a meal is very low in starches and sugars, blood glucose will rise for a period of an hour or two after a meal. When this occurs, beta cells in the pancreas release insulin to cause uptake of glucose into cells. In liver and muscle cells, more glucose is taken in than is needed and stored as glycogen (once called 'animal starch'). Thus diets with a high starch/sugar content cause release of more insulin and so more cell absorption. In diabetics, glucose levels vary in time with meals and vary a little more as a result of high carbohydrate content meals. In non-diabetics, blood sugar levels are restored to normal levels within an hour or two, regardless of the content of a meal.

I'm trying to build muscle so, yes, I watch my micros to ensure that I'm getting adequate protein.

You also have to decide whether you're doing this to simply lose weight or to be healthy. Of course, in terms of weight, a calorie is a calorie, but in terms of health, a broccoli calorie are far superior to a twinkie calorie.