This was such a great read! I ate a very sad standard american diet for the first couple of decades and dealt with (morbid) obesity for most of my life. My mother, the meal preparer, wanted us to be healthy, so she followed the "healthy" fad diet, low-fat. Which just means more sugars. A child of the 90s, I probably ate so much food dye and HFCS that my insides are partially fruit-by-the-foot, so I was always hungry, so my caloric intake was way too much just to stay feeling full (or awake from the inevitable crash after my body burned through the sugar). I cook for my partner whose body does not manage fructose well and this helps clarify a bit further as to the "why".

Fortunately, I have always been active and had a decent protein intake so I have been saying that I was doing a "dirty bulk" for my first quarter century and now I'm finally doing my cutting phase haha. Now eating a higher fat and plant ratio, I can feel satisfied on the appropriate amount of calories my body needs and with a reasonable calorie deficit, my body is eating up my excess fat nicely. I am likely going to be sharing my journey, on a one year delay, to show people what the weekly commitment looks like for improving body composition and health. The change in my belly fat has been unreal.

Thanks for always providing well-referenced health content, a lot of pseudoscience floating around in nutrition.