RAE
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I believe it is time for another explanation, one that answers the question, "Why do I consume to many calories".
From what I have seen, many experts are moving to a "whole foods" recommendation. Whole unprocessed foods appear to be the natural diet of humans. And, like everywhere else in nature, when humans eat the correct diet, their body spontaneously maintains a proper weight. Weight appears to be an automatic system unless we muck it up with sugar, refined carbs and other low quality processed foods.
Yes, whole foods are definitely what we should be eating. The carbs (including sugar) in highly-processed junk foods are what puts weight on (and also has many negative health impacts), to a large degree. You really do not need to be concerned with calories at all if you eat mostly whole foods. The problem, of course, is that those highly processed junk foods are ubiquitous, and most people don't have the discipline to avoid eating them. Just go into any grocery store and look at what they are selling in all of the middle aisles...........I'd venture to say that 2/3 of it is stuff you should not be eating (or at least not eating very often). Another thing to avoid like the plague are the so-called industrial seed oils (vegetable oil, canola oil, corn oil......any of the jug oils). That stuff is not even food, in my book. If you do a search for how these oils are made sometime, it will make you sick.
