3 ms·

I agree that appetite is the most important factor. But I think CICO is still helpful. It's not a panacea, lots of people struggle to just eat the right amount

I agree that appetite is the most important factor. But I think CICO is still helpful. It's not a panacea, lots of people struggle to just eat the right amount (see appetite). But you can use CICO as a check to make sure you aren't bullshitting yourself. If you try a diet (eg. cut sugar, intermittent fasting, low carbs, etc), you will only lose weight if you have a caloric deficit. Eg. if you cut sugar from your diet but eat huge portions of whole grain pasta instead you aren't going to lose any weight.

matthewdgreen 4y ago
Other measures are also helpful but we don't generally think about them. For example, carefully counting "water-in, water-out" (WIWO) seems like it'd be necessary to avoid dehydration. However in normal circumstances (i.e., when you're not running marathons or exerting yourself in the desert) we don't need to think about this very much. Your body will manage its own hydration levels by making you thirsty only at the appropriate times. WIWO is still a thing but we don't obsess about it. Now imagine your body couldn't manage its own hydration properly, perhaps because we contaminated our water supplies with something that disregulates the thirst response. Then you'd have a society that spends a lot of time talking about WIWO and it'd be a pretty sick place to live. It's much healthier to treat the underlying disregulation than to force people to constantly be thirsty.
dwaite 4y ago
counting calories gives you knowledge of what you are putting in. The problem with people who pitch it as the answer (rather than one line on four full whiteboards) is that calories out is very difficult to control or measure, and will tend to reduce in proportion to calories in. On the flip side, many people find that their base metabolic rate increases when they switch to a very low carb diet - this is both because using the nutrients in their food takes more energy, and because they are no longer suppressing their body's use of energy with overabundant insulin. Low carb aka Atkins are typically hormonally-focused diets, not a caloric deficit diets. Paleo is an autoimmune-friendly diet, not a caloric deficit diet.

matthewdgreen 4y ago

Other measures are also helpful but we don't generally think about them. For example, carefully counting "water-in, water-out" (WIWO) seems like it'd be necessary to avoid dehydration. However in normal circumstances (i.e., when you're not running marathons or exerting yourself in the desert) we don't need to think about this very much. Your body will manage its own hydration levels by making you thirsty only at the appropriate times. WIWO is still a thing but we don't obsess about it. Now imagine your body couldn't manage its own hydration properly, perhaps because we contaminated our water supplies with something that disregulates the thirst response. Then you'd have a society that spends a lot of time talking about WIWO and it'd be a pretty sick place to live. It's much healthier to treat the underlying disregulation than to force people to constantly be thirsty.

dwaite 4y ago

counting calories gives you knowledge of what you are putting in. The problem with people who pitch it as the answer (rather than one line on four full whiteboards) is that calories out is very difficult to control or measure, and will tend to reduce in proportion to calories in. On the flip side, many people find that their base metabolic rate increases when they switch to a very low carb diet - this is both because using the nutrients in their food takes more energy, and because they are no longer suppressing their body's use of energy with overabundant insulin. Low carb aka Atkins are typically hormonally-focused diets, not a caloric deficit diets. Paleo is an autoimmune-friendly diet, not a caloric deficit diet.