If you are eating a diet primarily consisting of fat and protein you can start to trust your appetite to govern your calorie intake, instead of having it confused by refined-carbohydrate induced sugar rushes.

Calorie counting wasn't invented until the 1950s - for most of the time since we've been in the grip of an obesity epidemic. For at least 200 million years before that our calorie intake was governed by our appetite and obesity was rare or non-existant.

I don't believe that carbs make you fat per se, but I do think that (in large quantities) they disregulate your appetite to the extent that you end up taking an excess of calories.

Ignore the calories. Trust your appetite.

what are your body composition goals? current height and weight and target weight or bodyfat percentage?

for weight loss you will likely need to be around a 10-20% caloric deficit from your daily caloric requirements in order to keep your metabolism from slowing down on too low of an amount of calories. First figure out that number (try bodyweight in lbs x 13 for a rough estimate), deduct 10-20% from that number, then get your macronutrient ratios in order, maybe starting with the following:

50% calories from fat
35% calories from protein
15% calories from carbs

at an intake of 1800 calories per day this would look like:
fat = 100 grams / 900 calories
protein = 158 grams / 630 calories
carbs = 68 grams / 270 calories

keep your food sources clean, aim for .7 to 1 gram of protein per lb of lean body mass and adjust your fat and carb ratios accordingly based on your body composition goals. This can start you at a good baseline to see if you are in range or headed in the right direction

In response to borofergie,

While it tempting to endorse the "trust your appetite" approach (Grok didn't need anything but his/her instinct to guide his/her eating), it shouldn't be a general rule of thumb for newbies. People who display the signs of metabolic syndrome (central obesity, high triglycerides, low HDL, and exaggerated post-prandial glucose readings (>140 mg/dl after 1 hour), are likely to have distorted reactions to and preferences for food for a long time after switching to a better diet. A brain scan study contrasting the reactions of anorexics and obese people in response to images of food gives some evidence that obese people are literally wired differently. Although we can re-wire our brains to some extent, it's unclear that the distortions of obesity are entirely reversible. For those new to the paleo way of eating, tracking intake for a few months ensures that they get some empirical confirmation of what appropriate amounts of food are.

Also, regarding whether carbs make you fat per se, that's a topic that's debatable, given studies of the wide range of carbs eaten by indigenous groups today and extrapolations from ethnographic studies and biologic analyses of paleolithic hominid bones. It may be that the location of one's ancestors, particularly Western Europeans, predisposes them to obesity with large consumption of carbs, since their ancestors didn't eat nearly as much of them as those people in the tropics. It may also be the case, as Lustig and Taubes speculate, that excessive refined sugar consumption initially breaks people's carbohydrate processing mechanisms and then makes eating all types of carbs problematic.

I'm happy to share my experience. I make no claim that it'll work for everyone. I was about 20lbs overweight and lost the weight over 4 months. I reduced the carbs, no pasta, bread, rice, potatoes or sugar, but kept eating a couple of pieces of fruit a day. Luckily I didn't much fancy alcohol during this time, so only had a couple of glasses of wine at weekends to be sociable. In less than a week I could feel that I was fat-burning.

I am now at a weight I am comfortable with. I'm not super-skinny. I eat when I like & stay off the pasta etc. In the transition phase I occasionally got hungry for fat. I ate double cream with my fruit. Strawberries and cream, anyone?

Now I only get hungry after a big workout, when I eat pretty much what I want.

My feeling is this. It is actually quite difficult to eat a lot of fat if you are not eating processsed foods. If you have got to the point where you know you are fat-burning then your appetite will regulate things much better than before. If you are not there yet, keep your fat intake relatively high, so you don't get hungry. If this means having to postpone your weight loss for a couple of weeks, so be it. It's worth it. If you get the fat-burning right, you can do this for a life-time.

If you eat normal portion sizes 3 or less times a day you will be hard pushed not to create a caloric deficit, if you stay off the carbs and don't eat processed food.

good luck

Occasionally, I track my food intake on Cronometer (there are other sites). I don't do it all the time, but once in awhile to see where I am. This means keeping track of your food intake, but isn't an exact thing. I don't weigh my food, but will think, "I used 3 teaspoons of butter/olive oil/cocnut oil for X today." It just gives you and idea of whether you're doing okay or vastly undrestimating your intake.

AFAIK, there are three parts to this answer:

• The calories in your food
• The calories you spend processing your food
• The caloric deficit required to lose weight safely

I'm going to take the issues in reverse order. From what I've read, a 200 cal/day deficit is a safe target for many people. That level encourages the body to use its stored energy (fat) for fuel without prompting a starvation response, leading to slower metabolism and stopping weight loss. But this number is highly individual,varying with gender/sex, age, activity level, reactions to specific foods, and hormonal health.

There's a single study (published in 2012) that gives an indications that a low-carb diet (carbs 30% or less of calories) is less metabolically efficient than a high-carb diet, and so, causes a person to spend about 300 calories/day extra just to meet the body's energy needs.

So, it's plausible that you could eat a 2,000-cal., low-carb, high fat diet and lose weight. But given how different we are metabolically, plus sex, age, and activity variations, it's equally plausible that you would need only 1400 calories to lose weight. You need to track your eating for awhile to see what caloric (and carb) level permits you to lose weight. That's the only way to be definite about how much and what types of foods work for your body.

I buy the same cuts of fatty lamb and beef from the same sources regularly. On my VLC/ZC days (leangains rest days) I slap the same grams of meat on the scale every day. As I lower my calories over a cutting leaning out cycle, I trim more and more visable fat from those same cuts of meat. So I keep thing constant and have one variable. As you get lower calories, you'll hit your minimum amount of protein required, do the only thing to give is fat. So added fat is an unnecessary variable, and trimming your fatty meat cuts a little more each week is the only option to lower calories. I eat super lean beef on workout days, with sweet potatoes. On those days, I can decrease carbs to lower calories. Protein intake thus remains constant all days.

People lose weight on paleo diet because it pushes us toward food our bodies evolved to eat. Hence, thus the paleo delivery company I use slogan “eat the way your body was made to.” We did not evolve eating refined flours. Most Americans eat food made from refined flours daily. These foods are loaded with carbohydrates. Carbohydrates turn into fat if they’re not burned right away. Second, refined flours work against us causing spikes in our blood sugar. Why does this matter? These spikes cause our bodies to gain weight. The Paleo Diet helps people lose weight because it eliminates grains and refined sugars from our diet. It encourages muscle growth and balances out blood sugar. Third, carbohydrates cause our cells to hold onto the unnecessary water that comes along with the carbs. People on the paleo diet will not have this excess water weight. Finally, the Paleo Diet can cause weight lose because it removes many of the foods that people are commonly sensitive to: dairy, soy, and refined sugar. Many people are sensitive to gluten and they don’t even know it. Unless the label says “Gluten Free” gluten is a protein that is found in breads, pastas, cookies, crackers, most pastries, tortillas, cereals, granola, and on and on that unless it says “Gluten Free.” Food sensitivities can distress your hormones and thyroid function, not to get deep into it now but these systems have much to do with body weight. Also if we eat foods we are sensitive to, our bodies will hold onto water to use as a buffer to protect itself. So when you take out a sensitive food from our diet, the excess water goes with it.

Hope this helps.