people don't maintain their caloric restriction or macro-proportions-pattern because their metabolism doesn't allow them to do so, after some time.
for instance a low carb diet is famous for allowing you calorie restriction without any painfull hunger. it's true! it's awesome.
but after you hit your metabolic plateau months later, even the slightest hint of hunger will magically drive you to eat something, preferably something with some carbs in it. your psyche becomes supersensitive to physical hunger. you have lost all discipline.
calorie restriction is imho usefull, as long as it's not a restriction of nutrients.
high nutrient density is the major reasoning for a low carb diet.
arguing about insulin, like gary taubes does, is problematic, because of "how the body works" is a variable and what's true for overweight high-carb-conditioned people may be no longer true for them, after they have done a low carb diet for many months.
calorie/carb restriction is usefull because loosing 50 of 70 pounds fat (as i did last year) can be verry usefull for health, ...
... even if it does not fix metabolism and your crazy metabolism will "make you" gain back 10 or 15 pounds quickly, as soon as you begin to eat by appetite again. by making you eat almond choclate, if need be.
if a fat metabolism, that is a body who's hormon system "thinks" that he must save fat, because it thinks that "food is a scarcity", can be "fixed" at all, then this fix can be applied after the initial weight loss period.
remember that this body's opionon about gaining weight is not relative to body weight. this type of body feels like he is starving even when he has 70 pounds of overweight.
the reason he does not gain indefinately is onyl because he also cares about having to carry it around and possibly other factors. so i don't believe that having lost 40 or 50 pounds makes fixin the metabolism harder.
i got some interesting ideas from
a guy named gabriel about how metabolism "thinks".
so i reached my plateau at 20 pound overweight, after losing 50 pounds. i am currently testing the effects of eating as much as i can, once a day. 1400kcal in the morning. doing this for two days now. didn't feel hungry in the evening. signaling my stomach abundance in the morning and never having a thought about restricting food/portions (as if it was a scarcity) might have an effect on my metabolism. it's just a test. i really never expect one method to work for a long time.
another idea of his, besides signaling abundance, is teaching your body, that it's better off without excess weight, by making it do things, that it can hardly do with all the weight. like running away from the cops. this is what he has observed with his cat, who wanted to become slim, after being chased by a dog for the first time in her life. it's not about sports, like gaining muscles or burning calories, albeit gaining muscles is probably a good idea too.
another strategy is to make sure there is no incomming toxic load. the body needs time to give up fat, because the fat dumps toxins and they have to be relased when the fat is burned, and that is dangerous and needs to be done slowly.
if you have any wisdom on hacking metabolism, share it.