Welcome! I, too, had a hard time at the beginning getting my head wrapped around the calorie intake/calories-don’t count (except when they do) discussions. Setting initial macros is very important, as is revisiting them periodically as you progress, both as you lose weight and if, for some reason you don’t. The calorie issue snapped into place for me when I finally realized that there are calories on the plate and then there are those calories in the body. On the plate, it is a mathematical computation: x g/oz of fats, y g/or of proteins, z g/oz of carbohydrates (sugars and starches), so you simply add up the caloric values for the amounts of the macronutrients on the plate, and there you are! You are eating 1,500 calories, and in the mouth they go. Your body gets 1,500 calories of energy to run on. Sadly, the metabolism does not run on math, it runs on carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, as each has a specific job to do in maintaining the human body. So if the bulk of that 1,500-calorie intake from the plate is from carbs, how is the body to repair and rebuild its parts needing amino acids which result from the breakdown of protein? If little comes from fat, how will the body deal with supplying tissues with the needed fatty acids? That’s when I realized that it is the source of those calories on the plate that makes the big difference. Break the plate down into its macronutrient components and now you are talking your metabolism’s language. And now you can begin to intervene and rebalance your food intake. By setting up macros, you have inadvertently set a calorie amount because proteins and carbs are 4 cal/g, and fat if 9 cal/g. But they are balanced in a way to promote metabolic healing and balance in your body, and, especially when combined with intermittent fasting, a way to manage insulin spikes. It sounds scary, but 20g fibrous carbs, moderate protein, and fat to satiety really, really works.