You are missing the point, the point is that 4lb of chicken breast has the same amount of calories as one lb of french fries, so you can be one of those who say a calorie is a calorie, but I will stick to my 4 lb of chicken thank you very much.
or how about 6 cups of veggies versus one cup of rice.
I will stick to the veggies, 6 cups of veggies and 4lb of chicken breast = 2000 calories or one super size double big mac meal with a chocolet sundae that also has 2000 calories.
We're both sort of right if you think about it. You're right, a calorie is not just a calorie. However, the importance that people place on this is incredibly out of alignment and is very subjective as well. For a fat ass who's 20% body fat, those calories don't really matter all too much as long as they've brought down in a large abundance. They could probably eat a diet loaded with fries but as long as the total calories are low their composition will probably change tremendously. If they're fat, everything's just going to blend in and you can't tell what they've eaten because they're just a huge mess.
For guys like us, sometimes at a super low body fat when the fat cells are small and rigid you can eat a cheat meal, balloon up for the evening and wake up peeled and the next morning. Our bodies are more resilient because of our hormones, our genetics, the way everything is tuned so finely, our bodies are better with glucose management and the fat cells are retarded and don't store free fatty acids in them and puff up like they used to. So while we have this luxury on one hand, if we want to take it to the next level and get more conditioned it unfortunately becomes exponentially more difficult. And that's when you DO ironically have to watch what you eat if you want some striated butt cheeks and feathered muscles that have striations flaring down them.
When I see a fatty confused about putting salad dressing on their shit, I just tell them to look at the dressing. If it's full of sugar, they probably should go with something like a vinaigrette. But if they're going to get fries instead of that salad, then I'd say "no man, have all the dressing you want". It's all subjective and you need to look at the context. That's why I don't like giving people too rigid of a set of rules. I like to mentor them instead to get them more into the mindset, not just reading a check list. They have to live it and adapt it to their life style. And worrying about calories is not a good way to do this. Instead, load them with an armload of good recipes and ideas for how to eat good but also get to their goals. Unless you want your ass cheeks to be feathered and ripple in the mirror, you don't need to be eating cardboard tilapia fillets or dried out steaks.