I've recently hit a barrier on my inability to lose off my waist, and although I'm far from eating a high-fat diet, I'm wondering if the few peanuts I eat every day may be making the difference? I only eat one ounce a day, but it's a lot of fat. And I get enough fat every day in what I eat to not need the "healthy fat" in peanuts (God knows I have enough fat without needing more).

I had been keeping track of only my calories, but I think it may be time to start tracking my fat, too. If anyone else does this, what kind of daily limit should one shoot for?

I have broken plateaus before by cutting nuts (not peanuts, usually almonds). Try it for a week or two (no nuts), and I bet you can break this barrier.

These guidelines are good for macronutrient levels. An ounce of peanuts a day does sound like a significant enough amount that it could make a difference, yep. I agree, try a few weeks without them and see how you do.

Peanuts have, for some reason, always derailed me. Not only from weight loss, but from my diet altogether. Once I start to add peanuts back in, I add a few more, then a few more, and before long I go off my plan and I don't come back for years. No more peanuts for me!

I was actually thinking sodium content might be doing it, too, if they're salted.

Fat is lost through a caloric deficit.

Cutting out peanuts will reduce your caloric intake.

There is nothing magical about peanuts, or any other food for that matter.

Calories matter.

I eat some kind of nut everyday and haven't had issues with them. I agree, if they are salted that could make a difference, but it doesn't sound like you are eating enough of them for it to matter.

You could try cutting them out and see what happens.

So, what if I do regular situps and get some abs to see - of course they're covered in fat now. I get down to around 178, below which I begin to look too thin. Since I was at that weight not all that long ago, and I do recall having some pudge around my middle at that time, I know that that weight won't make *all* the fat around my middle disappear. If you're correct, getting skinny is my only alternative, regardless of how much or how little fat I consume.

I'm not sure what you mean by "if I'm correct". It is a well established fact that we cannot influence where fat is lost signifigantly - if at all.

All you can do is lose fat and the body will decide where it wants to lose it from.

There are no magic foods.

Some people find themselves triggered to overeat by the fat/salt combo in things like popcorn, French fries, and yes, even roasted nuts, but John is right - calories are the bottom line. If nuts are an easy place for you to cut calories without feeling significantly more hungry, I say go for it, but there is nothing inherently problematic about the nutrition of peanuts that they, in and of themselves, would cause a plateau.

The problem might be that you crave them and then overeat, certainly, but there is no chemical compound in peanuts that is strongly associated with triggering hunger cues (quite the opposite, actually).

I am wondering if you and JohnP really believe that a calorie is a calorie and it doesn't matter, in terms of weight loss, where you get your calories from. I have lost weight eating a large number of fat calories, but just a few carbs can shut me down completely even if I'm eating low in calories.

For me, peanuts are some kind of trigger. I don't know if it's because of the carbs in p'nuts -- I know they aren't super carby, but I'm pretty sensitive to carbs. I don't know if p'nuts themselves in a limited quantity would cause me to gain, but I always want more of them and I think they lead me to eat other bad-for-me things.

A calorie is a calorie of course - because a calorie is just a unit of measurement.

All calories are not created equal because of macro and micro nutrients.

The rest of the answer is extremely complex because of a large number of variables but the simple answer is:

Protein intake must be sufficent to maintain lean body mass.
Calories must be lower than maintinence to cause net fat loss.
Everything else is variable depending on the situation and goals.

However, those everything else things really pale in comparison to the importance of sufficient protein intake and a caloric deficit.

I know that nuts in general cause me to become EXTREMELY hungry. I realized this after introducing them to my breakfasts (which normally I find very satisfying and don't feel the need to eat lunch until 1:30-2) and realizing that I was already hungry again just mere hours after eating. The same result comes when I snack on nuts any time of day, and I know it is not simply a psychological desire to keep eating, as I rarely get this sort of gnawing hunger even from starches.