Nutritionists have preached for years, that if you decrease your caloric intake by 500 calories a day, you’ll lose a
pound a week. There are 3500 calories in a pound. The theory is, if you eat 500 calories less than you need
every day, (roughly speaking, most women need about 2000 calories a day to break even, most men break even
at about 2500 calories a day) – after 7 days, you’ll have lost a pound. Except this just isn’t true. There’s no
science that documents this theoretical approach to weight loss. Science suggests that it makes a great deal of
difference what you eat, if you want to lose weight. There is no science that suggests decreasing your caloric
intake by 500 calories a day will make you lose a pound a week. Science suggests quite the opposite. If you are
eating a normal balanced diet of protein and fat and carbohydrate, science suggests that cutting out 500 calories
a day is likely going to produce no weight loss. The body has amazing homeostatic mechanisms in place, that can
prevent both over-eating leading to weight gain, and under-eating leading to weight loss. If you want to lose
weight, you need to cut both calories and carbohydrates. For the umpteenth time, the American obesity epidemic
is about excess carbohydrate intake, causings excess fat storage. If you want to lose weight, you need to stop
storing fat, which means you need to cut your carbohydrate intake.