Roger Zoul quoted:

"Total calories dictates how much weight a person gains or loses;
macro nutrient ratios dictates what a person gains or loses"

http://www.brinkzone.com/nutrition-theory.html

Brink's Unified Theory of Nutrition
By Will Brink
www.BrinkZone.com

When people hear the term Unified Theory, some times called the Grand
Unified Theory, or even "Theory of Everything," they probably think of it in
terms of physics ....

Regardless of the topic, a unified theory, as sated above, seeks to explain
seemingly incompatible aspects of various theories. In this article I
attempt to unify seemingly incompatible or opposing views regarding
nutrition, namely, what is probably the longest running debate in the
nutritional sciences: calories vs. macro nutrients.
...
a.. A good unified theory is simple, concise, and understandable even to
lay people. However, underneath, or behind that theory, is often a great
deal of information that can take up many volumes of books. So, for me to
outline all the information I have used to come to these conclusions, would
take a large book, if not several and is far beyond the scope of this
article.

b.. A unified theory is often proposed by some theorist before it can even
be proven or fully supported by physical evidence. Over time, different
lines of evidence, whether it be mathematical, physical, etc., supports the
theory and thus solidifies that theory as being correct, or continued lines
of evidence shows the theory needs to be revised or is simply incorrect. I
feel there is now more than enough evidence at this point to give a unified
theory of nutrition and continuing lines of evidence will continue (with
some possible revisions) to solidify the theory as fact.

Good stuff above and below these points.

The "calories don't matter" school of thought

This school of thought will typically tell you that if you eat large amounts
of some particular macro nutrient in their magic ratios, calories don't
matter. For example, followers of ketogenic style diets that consist of high
fat intakes and very low carbohydrate intakes (i.e., Atkins, etc.) often
maintain calories don't matter in such a diet.

I *so much wish* folks would stop spouting nonsense like this.
It instantly becomes the weak link. With a bit of transparent
nonsense like this mixed in, how much of the rest is going to
be crap as well? Sigh, at least in this case this was the only
paragraph I could find that was nonsense. It doesn't fit at all.

It is false that Dr A says that calories don't matter while on his
plan. What he says is that during phase 1 (of a 4 phase
process) you should eat whatever it takes to get through the
initial carb cravings, but once those initial cravings are gone
then over eating is forbidden from then on. Also what he says
is that during phases 2 and 3 (of a 4 phase process) the
reason you don't need to count calories is that literally noone
who follows the directions will over eat. (This may be difficult
to believe and it clearly can't be true for every human on the
planet, but it is what the book says and it absolutely is not
the same as licence tto over eat).

Weight loss vs. fat loss!

This is where we get into the crux of the true debate

And it's one of the hardest lessons of all to learn or to teach.
The number on the scale is so overwhelming at times.

Brink's Unified Theory of Nutrition

...Thus, this reality has led me to Brink's Unified Theory of Nutrition
which states:

"Total calories dictates how much weight a person gains or loses;
macro nutrient ratios dictates what a person gains or loses"

It should include that calories out is a variable and exercise is
not the only thing that impacts calories out.

Knowing the above information and keeping the Unified Theory of Nutrition in
mind, leads us to some important and potentially useful conclusions:

a.. An optimal diet designed to make a person lose fat and retain as much
LBM as possible is not the same as a diet simply designed to lose weight.

So hard in face of the scale. Water, carbs, fat, lean, they all
register on the scale. Water and stored carbs bounce pretty
much randomly. Fat loss is the target. Lean loss is to be
avoided. What's needed is a good system to tell current
stored fat and those Tantia scales aren't good enough.

b.. A nutrition program designed to create fat loss is not simply a
reduced calorie version of a nutrition program designed to gain weight, and
visa versa.

Below some level, protein grams will trigger starvation mode.
Above some level, protein grams are just extra calories. The
same ends up being true of carb and fat grams somehow.

c.. Diets need to be designed with fat loss, NOT just weight loss, as the
goal, but total calories can't be ignored.

d.. This is why the diets I design for people-or write about-for gaining
or losing weight are not simply higher or lower calorie versions of the same
diet. In short: diets plans I design for gaining LBM start with total
calories and build macro nutrient ratios into the number of calories
required. However, diets designed for fat loss (vs. weight loss!) start with
the correct macro nutrient ratios that depend on variables such as amount of
LBM the person carries vs. bodyfat percent , activity levels, etc., and
figure out calories based on the proper macro nutrient ratios to achieve fat
loss with a minimum loss of LBM. The actual ratio of macro nutrients can be
quite different for both diets and even for individuals.

One size does not fit all. Customized plans beat one size
plans. And/but customized plans are more effort than one size
plans.

e.. Diets that give the same macro nutrient ratio to all people (e.g.,
40/30/30, or 70,30,10, etc.) regardless of total calories, goals, activity
levels, etc., will always be less than optimal. Optimal macro nutrient
ratios can change with total calories and other variables.

f.. Perhaps most important, the unified theory explains why the focus on
weight loss vs. fat loss by the vast majority of people, including most
medical professionals, and the media, will always fail in the long run to
deliver the results people want.

g.. Finally, the Universal Theory makes it clear that the optimal diet for
losing fat, or gaining muscle, or what ever the goal, must account not only
for total calories, but macro nutrient ratios that optimize metabolic
effects and answer the questions: what effects will this diet have on
appetite? What effects will this diet have on metabolic rate? What effects
will this diet have on my lean body mass (LBM)? What effects will this diet
have on hormones; both hormones that may improve or impede my goals? What
effects will this diet have on (fill in the blank)?

Simply asking, "how much weight will I lose?" is the wrong question which
will lead to the wrong answer. To get the optimal effects from your next
diet, whether looking to gain weight or lose it, you must ask the right
questions to get meaningful answers.

Asking the right questions will also help you avoid the pitfalls of
unscientific poorly thought out diets which make promises they can't keep
and go against what we know about human physiology and the very laws of
physics!