Bottom line, food is fuel for the body, not pleasure. That's all this comes down to. I guess I really don't know how to respond to what you're saying here about blaming carbs and sugars for weight gain. I mean, I know in my case and in so many other cases, that is exactly what is the source of the problem (and, thus, the weight gain). As I said, we don't know enough of the particular details to really get into all the caloric breakdown of his diet...so I'm not even going to go there. But I stand 100% by my original response. If one makes a conscious effort to cut out those unnecessary processed simple carbs (which your body just does not need regardless of your target caloric intake) you will see pretty dramatic changes. If you're fueling your body with clean calories, you'll get much better results and feel much better.