Mindset; less guns, less fat, more time in the gym.

[WillBrink]

That's the core issue, there are so many widely varying opinions, and even varying research that this issue is very muddy.

Especially if it gets to "what's the right value", people always want an analytic answer. When the reality is probably a behavioral answer, entangled with "don't eat more calories than your body can use or metabolize". I understand there are valid reasons for high calorie diets when doing significant strength training, Etc. But physics are physics, any calories you don't use get stored somewhere. Your behavior and chemistry dictates whether that's fat or something else.

Physics is physics, but that's one of many reasons we find ourselves in these muddy waters, over simplifications on topics not that simple. For example, see:

http://www.brinkzone.com/weight-loss...-loss-correct/

and

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/is...a-calorie.html

Much of what you're talking about is not as much in dispute as you may think. People over complicate in areas they don't need to, and over simplify in areas they should not.