4 ms·

It's literally an equation, calories in = calories out. Any sustained inequality will lead to either eventual obesity or a slow death by starvation.

beaconstudios 8y ago
I think you're arguing past each other - magicalhippo is arguing that it's easier, willpower-wise, to eat one less slice of pizza than it is to go to the gym and run on a treadmill for 20 minutes. Either way it's less caloric surplus.
- craftyguy 8y ago
  I'm not arguing with anyone. I agree with their comment. They are addressing the 'calorie in' part, and I the 'calorie out' part. Obviously you can't focus only on one and not the other. Limiting intake is sometimes easier, but increasing usage of calories isn't as 'hard' as going to the gym all the time (e.g. walk to work, take stairs, etc)
  - beaconstudios 8y ago
    Then ignore me :^) [edit]: > but increasing usage of calories isn't as 'hard' as going to the gym all the time (e.g. walk to work, take stairs, etc) Not all the time, but given some baseline of activity predicated on having a normal routine that's fairly good (ie including routine exercise like your listed examples), increasing activity further is likely to be more strenuous than lowering consumption. Or in other words, once you're past the quick wins that you can easily integrate into your day you're more likely to get results from decreasing/improving consumption.
    - craftyguy 8y ago
      Yea totally agree with your edit/point. I was originally advocating for adoption of the quick wins, since I still see lots of folks who want to lose weight but couldn't be bothered to, for example, walk up a flight of stairs (despite being physically capable of doing so).
1stranger 8y ago
It's literally not. The human body is much more complicated than that. Repeating this mantra is never going to help anybody. The most important thing is for people to fix the kind of food they consume so their appetite (hormones) self-regulates. Were people thin in the 1960's because they were counting calories? https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/debunking-the-calorie-myth https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/debunking-the-calorie-m...
- d0lph 8y ago
  From the article, which does also mention the second law of thermodynamics. > Saying that weight gain is caused by excess calories is true, but meaningless. It tells you nothing about the actual cause. Most likely people were thin in the 60s because they consumed less calories then we do now.

beaconstudios 8y ago

I think you're arguing past each other - magicalhippo is arguing that it's easier, willpower-wise, to eat one less slice of pizza than it is to go to the gym and run on a treadmill for 20 minutes. Either way it's less caloric surplus.

craftyguy 8y ago
I'm not arguing with anyone. I agree with their comment. They are addressing the 'calorie in' part, and I the 'calorie out' part. Obviously you can't focus only on one and not the other. Limiting intake is sometimes easier, but increasing usage of calories isn't as 'hard' as going to the gym all the time (e.g. walk to work, take stairs, etc)
- beaconstudios 8y ago
  Then ignore me :^) [edit]: > but increasing usage of calories isn't as 'hard' as going to the gym all the time (e.g. walk to work, take stairs, etc) Not all the time, but given some baseline of activity predicated on having a normal routine that's fairly good (ie including routine exercise like your listed examples), increasing activity further is likely to be more strenuous than lowering consumption. Or in other words, once you're past the quick wins that you can easily integrate into your day you're more likely to get results from decreasing/improving consumption.
  - craftyguy 8y ago
    Yea totally agree with your edit/point. I was originally advocating for adoption of the quick wins, since I still see lots of folks who want to lose weight but couldn't be bothered to, for example, walk up a flight of stairs (despite being physically capable of doing so).

1stranger 8y ago

It's literally not. The human body is much more complicated than that. Repeating this mantra is never going to help anybody. The most important thing is for people to fix the kind of food they consume so their appetite (hormones) self-regulates. Were people thin in the 1960's because they were counting calories? https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/debunking-the-calorie-myth https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/debunking-the-calorie-m...

d0lph 8y ago
From the article, which does also mention the second law of thermodynamics. > Saying that weight gain is caused by excess calories is true, but meaningless. It tells you nothing about the actual cause. Most likely people were thin in the 60s because they consumed less calories then we do now.