Yes.
You are gonna gain weight on the latter, unless you have a crazy metabolism.
I don't understand why it has to be so binary for people. Eat decent most of the time and count your macros. Have a piece of pizza, or a cookie or whatever occasionally, daily if it fits your macros and calories.
One of my favorites from my college days (I still eat this) is something my brother and I affectionately call 'meat slop':
ground venison/elk
a quarter to half a cut onion
2+ cups of cut green or red cabbage
some garlic
spice to taste
Pan fry veggies, add meat, season, pan fry together. Add...
IMO, making a poor shot with a 300 or bigger is much higher than a 6mm for almost everyone.
So, it's a question of diminishing returns of hit rate vs "damage" or whatever you want to call it.
I've shot close to half my elk with a bow, so I never really bought into the "300 Win Mag" or bigger...
I've shot both and seen quite a few animals killed with both (I have not used LRX, so can't comment there). The Hammers, to me, are the perfect balance of tissue damage and minimal meat damage. They are also really accurate, for whatever reason.
Ask yourself this question...Would you rather have the legislature deciding everything when it comes to Fish and Wildlife or the current Commission?
I get the process isn't ideal, or ever will be, but having it be elected, IMO, has a higher probability of making it worse.
Here's a one from "back in the day" when we packed in late November with horses and shot these 2 bulls. They slid 200 ft down the mountain and hung up with each other, providing a sweet photo.
Ugh, fine.
I don't have a daughter, but my dad died when I was 19 and my younger sister was 12, so I was the one that brought her up hunting. I was there when she shot her first deer, antelope, elk, watched her dump damn near a box of shells standing in the same place during the youth pheasant...