[john567]

Look,

Given what you just shared, I'd guess your metabolism is quite high. That just means it takes more for you to put on weight. If you're young then this even less of an issue. For me, a lot of sugar has about the same effect as a lot of alcohol because they break down into glucose all the same. Didn't use to be like this but gotten more noticable with age for me.

Refined sugar is evil. Food companies use this to sell more, lookup "bliss point". Sugar is also addictive. We are not equipped to deal with this.

Nutrition science is recovering but it was set back by some bad research that should have been abandoned post WW2. Lookup the origin of calorie counting. Since you're cutting out sugar from your diet I'm assuming you understand precisely how bad something like the standard American diet is for your health.

Insulin is key to weight gain and loss. If you struggle with high insulin levels then you cannot lose weight because your body doesn't burn fat when insulin is high.

I believe (based on what I've read) that weight gain and loss is not a mystery. If someone is fat it is because of what they eat. You may wish to find a specific chemical reaction at the core but the body is a complex system. You make one change and it will effect something else. This is what should have been studied in place of "calories". Hormones regulate and we mess with them by putting bad food into our bodies, we fix that by not putting bad food into our bodies.

Therefore, I see no reason to say that we don't know why people are fat. We know precisely why people are fat.

[quantified]

Which is sugar or too many calories altogether? About time some actual experts joined the threads or we'll just be talking past each other. I'm simply doubting the absolute simplicity that you are presenting, without saying that you are wrong.

Nothing wrong with taking out the refined sugar IMHO. I don't even like the supermarket bread, I need real bakery stuff now.

[john567]

I've been doing this long enough and I know this stuff well.

If you want a simple answer there is one. It's all about the nutritional quality of the food you eat. Everything is down stream from that.

We can go into all the specifics but it doesn't change the fundamentals. Moreover, given just how complex biological systems are you are of course going to have things like gut health play a role but it doesn't change the fact that if you eat the wrong stuff you wreck your gut. This in turn will create more complexities but the solution though is somewhat simple. Stop eating and give your body a break. This is why fasting is super useful.

You talk about going to a bakery to get "real stuff" unfortunately bread is excess carbohydrates (like sugar) no matter what. Unless you're physically active you should probably just cut down on bread altogether. Bakery stuff could be made with love and care which would make it a better quality food but it's not nutritionally important. It's just rocket fuel for your muscles and you don't need a lot of it.