Not counting wheat bran comes from empirical data! I have seen no difference in leanness in my clients and myself for years from eating one cup of wheat bran or 7 cups a day. wheat bran is one of the richest sources of dietary insoluble fiber, it literally comes out the same way it was eaten! it is used for horse colon cleansing too.
I am not consistent with this reasoning: I count veggies, but I don’t count my mustard. Is there a real, real reason for those rules? nope! It’s all from my experiences with clients and myself.
I am a “don’t change if it aint broke” and I believe you can “get away with” eating a lot of foods because they are not digested perfectly etc.
I don’t count chewing gum, soy sauce, mustard, truvia, diet drinks, BCAAs, glutamine.
BUT when I ever bump into plateaus I make sure I get a lot more serious and skip these “free foods” until I M once again convinced it does not matter.

I strongly recommend everyone to make their own truth about how to approach calories and counting them. Everyone must learn their own body and mind. I created Fighter Diet out of necessity. I needed a way to live to look the way I wanted without being miserable. I had to find a way to be able to eat to be full and be shredded. When there is a need, there will be innovations. Fighter Diet has proved itself time over time over time to work. because it makes sense! It’s about consistency.
Like yesterday, someone asked me about if I have oats in the morning and I said most of the times NO. WHY? don’t I enjoy oats? yes! But I prefer to eat more volume and for the half cup of oats I can get one pound of broccoli instead. It’s a pick and choose, pick and choose.

Refeeds: yes I include fast carbs. I enjoy reading Lyle McDonalds writings and in many of his theories I sympathize. Not all though;-).