I appreciate your thoroughness. It's been motivating me to hold Sisson et al. to a higher standard, which is utterly a good thing, by spending some time doing further research. Specifically on this relatively new meme that's appeared: that the insulin response is a major root of excess fat storage. Predictably, it's not that simple, and there are in fact numerous scientists and bloggers who would say that the insulin response has next-to-zero blame.

So in my original point -- where I claimed you weren't going far enough in your advice -- my follow-up wasn't far enough as well. I guess the rabbit hole never ends, and you can stop additional postulating where you see fit.

The position I still hold is that running a net caloric deficit is the ultimate principle in weight-loss, but to facilitate a sustainable diet and body composition which requires manageable and not impossible levels of discipline and motivation, the quality of calories matters a lot: it affects your satiety, your mood, your energy level, and your health. And you gotta throw some weight lifting in there, too.