A calorie is a calorie????

lilysillycat wrote: »

It depends on your body. I'm diabetic. Even a small piece of candy will spike my blood sugar into the 400s which is very dangerous. Then my blood sugar would drop like a rock and causing so much craving and hunger my whole body would shake. I could eat 10k in calories without blind an eye and still feel hungry. People often simplify things but the human body is very complicated.

That is nutrition though, not calorie count. Absolutely if you have a condition where your body uses the calories more or less efficiently than the average person, then you will need to adjust your calorie count accordingly.
And nutritionwise, you would of course need to be extra aware of what foods will help or hinder your body"s health and ability to process more efficiently.

HvymetalMG wrote: »

I'm trying to look more at what I put in my body than how much.

If you are concerned about possibly gaining weight, you should probably look at both. You could eat all nutrient dense foods (including Quest bars, if they are something you like) and still gain. It's not like you need to look at one or the other only.

I am looking to build muscle and right now in prioritizing protein so I'm more willing to eat more calories with protein rich foods than something with less calories and devoid of protein.

If you mean you'd choose a Quest bar over cotton candy (were those the only two choices, and unless for some reason you just really wanted cotton candy on a rare day), then sure, me too (even apart from the fact that I've always hated cotton candy!). ;-) But I would NOT regularly go way over calories to fit in more protein (although you want a small surplus to gain muscle, combined with the right workout program). You should easily be able to fit in sufficient protein without eating more (indeed, many low protein foods aren't that filling and make overeating more likely if you aren't counting). If you are eating more protein on top of more than enough other foods, then you might want to cut back other things, but that doesn't make ALWAYS choosing the lower cal option the better choice. I ate a whole avocado at breakfast this morning (small one, granted), because I find it filling and nutritious. Eating fewer cal at that meal because I could doesn't do me any good, even though overall calories for the day matter even if they are all from nutrient dense foods.

I just wonder if I keep that up over time am I going to gain weight (with muscle hopefully) eating 3,000 cals a day when I used to be eating 2500 when j was just thinking about losing weight.

But that's the goal, right? To gain muscle and, therefore, weight? The biggest key there, of course, is progressive strength program.