CI doesn't have to be 0. That's total nonsense. You think if you eat one grape per day suddenly you won't lose weight, or something? Who said anything about 0?

CI doesn't have to be 0. That's total nonsense. You think if you eat one grape per day suddenly you won't lose weight, or something? Who said anything about 0? CI-CO is accurate if CI<CO. There is absolutely no way it cannot be. This doesn't depend on any kind of reasoning about biology or insulin or hormones at all. It's the law of conservation of energy. That's the beauty of it. It always works. If CO<CI, you will lose weight. There has never been an exception to this in the history of life, and there never will be. Even fasting, which you mentioned, only works as a means to an end. And that end is CI<CO. Research shows that the actual timing of fasts is irrelevant; the same calories eaten in 6 hours per day have the same effect if eaten over 16 hours of the day. But when people fast they tend to eat less overall; it's all that matters. So many people try to follow your path, and figure out a way to manipulate complex metabolic systems they don't understand to try to wheedle the body into dropping pounds. It works only rarity, and 98% of people on this path are just deluding themselves to avoid facing the fact that they need to get CI down under CO. So they take refuge in complexity, endlessly finding ways to rationalize away the need to do the actual work.