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You are mistaken - all life forms including humans obey the laws of physics. If you eat at a caloric deficit you will lose weight no matter your age or if you d

You are mistaken - all life forms including humans obey the laws of physics. If you eat at a caloric deficit you will lose weight no matter your age or if you do exercise.

shawn 8y ago
They are not necessarily mistaken just because we have a hypothesis. It's a fact that it's harder for women to lose weight than men in certain cases. Their point was that "caloric deficit" is different for each person, and sometimes dramatically so.
- inertiatic 8y ago
  No, a caloric deficit is not different for each person. Every living person that is maintaining their weight can eat 500 kcals a day less than they do now and they'd lose weight.
  - arsenico 8y ago
    Now imagine a woman who eats 1000 kcal a day already. How is she supposed to survive and maintain a liveable lifestyle at 500 kcal/day?
    - highace 8y ago
      If she's eating 1000 kcal a day then she probably isn't overweight so wouldn't need to cut down further.
    - ionised 8y ago
      Pretty sure that would be bordering on anorexia.
    - inertiatic 8y ago
      I would wager that woman: a) Doesn't really eat 1000 kcals a day if she's active, and should, instead of building a diet by counting calories (doing which she's prone to miscalculation), simply eat less of whatever she usually eats. b) Doesn't need to lose half a kg of fat every week.
YvetteBrooks 8y ago
Metabolism is not as impactful as nowadays is though. Simply - you eat more, you gain more weight. If this is not the case, checking out your overall health would be the way to go.
k__ 8y ago
The rule is simple, but finding your real caloric consumption isn't. Most online calculators are veeery optimistic (off by >500kcal). If you take the general advice and only restrict to a 500kcal deficit, you won't see much happening :/
ZeroMcMuffin 8y ago
We aren't talking about physics. We are talking about a complex, open system. Something closer to macroeconomics. There is truth to what you are saying, but the certainty you are saying it with hides an ocean of complexity. Why are people excessively hungry? Does cutting calories linearly affect everyone the same way? What if we looked at the type of weight lost, is purely focusing on calories the best way to lose predominantly fat while maintaining muscle, organ tissue, and bones? Is focusing purely on calories effective for everyone (compliance) or does it set up some potentially disastrous consequences for some people?
arsenico 8y ago
That is absolutely correct. However the problem is that human's body needs energy to run - think, work, feel emotions. So if you can imagine someone on the bed 24/hrs a day, then indeed a simple calorie reduction will help. Because calories will be used for simple body functions, and not anything else. Restricting calorie intake for someone who has to go to work daily, work, live a life, will not work beyond certain limit, which actually allows to live that life.
dwaite 8y ago
You may not lose weight healthily if your deficit makes consuming proper nutrients impossible. The body can adjust its usage of calories way down in the event of a perceived famine, making the amount of calories consumed no longer contain a deficit. The RMR can change during a diet as both fat and muscle require maintenance, and you nearly always lose both during a period of deficit. This can make maintaining a significant deficit very difficult Finally, there is evidence that people who have lost significant weight have a reduced metabolic weight (and hunger for more calories) even five years after they completed their dieting. This may explain why the failure rate of people >100 lbs overweight losing and maintaining is nearly 95%
FPGAhacker 8y ago
Ok, this is true, but what happens is the calories burned part changes dramatically based on hormones. And hormones change quite a bit as you age and or gain weight, and not in favor of weight loss. The hormone mix basically tells your body to store some percentage of calories in as fat. When young and/or fit, this percentage is low. Calories above your burn rate are stored as glycogen in your muscles, giving you usable energy stores that will be used when you exercise. When older or fat or both, calories above your burn rate go to fat cells waiting to fill back up. As the weight packs on, the percentage increases and more and more of the calories you consume are going to fat instead of being burned. Your caloric burn alotment goes down. You lose muscle density. Testosterone goes down, and the percentage of calories dedicated to fat stores climbs. So it is still true, calories in < calories out to lose weight. But perhaps it would be better to say “calories in < (calories out + calories stored)” Where calories stored will vary and for fat people it’s much higher than fit. A fat man can eat the same food and calories as a fit person who does not exercise, and gain weight and feel tired while the fit person feels an energy boost.
- LitFan 8y ago
  Your hormone levels and how your body responds to different types of calories can be changed by changing your diet. There's also the fact that muscles burn fat whereas fat begets fat storage. I believe metabolism does slow year over year once you get to a certain age, but it's difficult to find data on that.

You are mistaken - all life forms including humans obey the laws of physics. If you eat at a caloric deficit you will lose weight no matter your age or if you do exercise.

shawn 8y ago

They are not necessarily mistaken just because we have a hypothesis. It's a fact that it's harder for women to lose weight than men in certain cases. Their point was that "caloric deficit" is different for each person, and sometimes dramatically so.

inertiatic 8y ago
No, a caloric deficit is not different for each person. Every living person that is maintaining their weight can eat 500 kcals a day less than they do now and they'd lose weight.
- arsenico 8y ago
  Now imagine a woman who eats 1000 kcal a day already. How is she supposed to survive and maintain a liveable lifestyle at 500 kcal/day?
  - highace 8y ago
    If she's eating 1000 kcal a day then she probably isn't overweight so wouldn't need to cut down further.
  - ionised 8y ago
    Pretty sure that would be bordering on anorexia.
  - inertiatic 8y ago
    I would wager that woman: a) Doesn't really eat 1000 kcals a day if she's active, and should, instead of building a diet by counting calories (doing which she's prone to miscalculation), simply eat less of whatever she usually eats. b) Doesn't need to lose half a kg of fat every week.

YvetteBrooks 8y ago

Metabolism is not as impactful as nowadays is though. Simply - you eat more, you gain more weight. If this is not the case, checking out your overall health would be the way to go.

k__ 8y ago

The rule is simple, but finding your real caloric consumption isn't. Most online calculators are veeery optimistic (off by >500kcal). If you take the general advice and only restrict to a 500kcal deficit, you won't see much happening :/

ZeroMcMuffin 8y ago

We aren't talking about physics. We are talking about a complex, open system. Something closer to macroeconomics. There is truth to what you are saying, but the certainty you are saying it with hides an ocean of complexity. Why are people excessively hungry? Does cutting calories linearly affect everyone the same way? What if we looked at the type of weight lost, is purely focusing on calories the best way to lose predominantly fat while maintaining muscle, organ tissue, and bones? Is focusing purely on calories effective for everyone (compliance) or does it set up some potentially disastrous consequences for some people?

arsenico 8y ago

That is absolutely correct. However the problem is that human's body needs energy to run - think, work, feel emotions. So if you can imagine someone on the bed 24/hrs a day, then indeed a simple calorie reduction will help. Because calories will be used for simple body functions, and not anything else. Restricting calorie intake for someone who has to go to work daily, work, live a life, will not work beyond certain limit, which actually allows to live that life.

dwaite 8y ago

You may not lose weight healthily if your deficit makes consuming proper nutrients impossible. The body can adjust its usage of calories way down in the event of a perceived famine, making the amount of calories consumed no longer contain a deficit. The RMR can change during a diet as both fat and muscle require maintenance, and you nearly always lose both during a period of deficit. This can make maintaining a significant deficit very difficult Finally, there is evidence that people who have lost significant weight have a reduced metabolic weight (and hunger for more calories) even five years after they completed their dieting. This may explain why the failure rate of people >100 lbs overweight losing and maintaining is nearly 95%

FPGAhacker 8y ago

Ok, this is true, but what happens is the calories burned part changes dramatically based on hormones. And hormones change quite a bit as you age and or gain weight, and not in favor of weight loss. The hormone mix basically tells your body to store some percentage of calories in as fat. When young and/or fit, this percentage is low. Calories above your burn rate are stored as glycogen in your muscles, giving you usable energy stores that will be used when you exercise. When older or fat or both, calories above your burn rate go to fat cells waiting to fill back up. As the weight packs on, the percentage increases and more and more of the calories you consume are going to fat instead of being burned. Your caloric burn alotment goes down. You lose muscle density. Testosterone goes down, and the percentage of calories dedicated to fat stores climbs. So it is still true, calories in < calories out to lose weight. But perhaps it would be better to say “calories in < (calories out + calories stored)” Where calories stored will vary and for fat people it’s much higher than fit. A fat man can eat the same food and calories as a fit person who does not exercise, and gain weight and feel tired while the fit person feels an energy boost.

LitFan 8y ago
Your hormone levels and how your body responds to different types of calories can be changed by changing your diet. There's also the fact that muscles burn fat whereas fat begets fat storage. I believe metabolism does slow year over year once you get to a certain age, but it's difficult to find data on that.