The first thing to realize is that changing eating habits must be more than a short-term means to an end. Changing eating habits is the cornerstone of permanent weight control. The old myth was that pasta, bread, potatoes, and rice are fattening. In fact, carbohydrate rich foods are perfect for permanent weight control. Carbohydrates contain less than half the calories of fat, which means that replacing fatty foods with complex carbohydrates automatically cuts calories.
Calories are only part of the story.
Caloric intake has decreased in America, but at the same time Americans have gotten fatter. Earlier studies had shown that obese people do not consume more calories than non-obese people, in many cases, they consume less. The body treats carbohydrates differently than fat calories. It's very inefficient for the body to store the energy of carbohydrates as body fat since it burns twenty-three percent of the calories in converting. Fat is converted easily.