3 ms·

> Counting calories isn't that hard and it works by the very definition of energy. It doesn't "work" unless your definition of "work" is "lost a few pounds of

> Counting calories isn't that hard and it works by the very definition of energy. It doesn't "work" unless your definition of "work" is "lost a few pounds of water weight over a few weeks." Certainly does not work when going from obese to normal weight.

kaba0 4y ago
As per your blog, your test is n=1. Besides, if people can really accurately count their calorie intakes and won’t overeat what they use up, then it is thermodynamically impossible not to lose weight. It is really hard to do in practice, especially for longer periods of time, but the theory behind is sound and straightforward.
- exfatloss 4y ago
  This is the experience of practically everyone who's ever tried to lose weight, not just me. You think we had an obesity epidemic that's growing if counting calories really worked? > Besides, if people can really accurately count their calorie intakes and won’t overeat what they use up, then it is thermodynamically impossible not to lose weight. This is false. The body is a self-regulating system. You eat less, the body can just burn less. You eat more, the body can burn more. What you eat and what you do also plays a huge role.
  - kaba0 4y ago
    It ain’t going to burn less than like 2000 calories. We are just surprisingly efficient at turning food into energy, and too efficient to burn enough energy with even hard-core movements. And it doesn’t hurt your last point in anyway, both statements can be true.
    - exfatloss 4y ago
      It absolutely will. I've tried it myself and stayed stable around 1,000kcal/day for 2 months straight.
vkazanov 4y ago
I don't understand how counting calories can not work. It's the law of evergy conservation: energy in, energy out. This is not about water at all. Fat is just your main energy storage mechanism. And what's good about fat is that you can burn through it relatively quickly unlike building muscle which takes years. You can even count how many steps you need to do to burn through a kg of fat. I've lost "post-covid" 15 kg (93kg to 78kg, 180cm height) in about 3 months with counting calories and ensuring a reasonable deficit. MyFitnessPal did help here. I was just getting about 1800-2000 calories daily (which is not too bad), walking about 10k-15k steps a day (a morning walk, lunch-time walk and an evening one) and doing some very lightweight kettlebell exercises. There are details on how you might want to track weekly averages instead of daily weight values. Certainly, i was never obese just slightly overweight. Obesity can mean certain serious food-related disorders but most of the time it's just a bad diet together with not moving a lot.
- exfatloss 4y ago
  > I don't understand how counting calories can not work. It's the law of evergy conservation: energy in, energy out. It's very easy. Your calories in depends on your calories out, and your calories out on your calories in. The body regulates both intake and expenditure dynamically, so if you mess with one of them and don't change anything else, it's most likely just going to adjust the other one. This has been mainstream science for a generation or longer, read The Hungry Brain by Guyenet for a good introduction. > Certainly, i was never obese just slightly overweight. Then it works, of course. Your metabolism was not "broken." This is like buffing out a bump in your car door. Won't work to fix a full-on collision. It's just not the same problem.

kaba0 4y ago

As per your blog, your test is n=1. Besides, if people can really accurately count their calorie intakes and won’t overeat what they use up, then it is thermodynamically impossible not to lose weight. It is really hard to do in practice, especially for longer periods of time, but the theory behind is sound and straightforward.

exfatloss 4y ago
This is the experience of practically everyone who's ever tried to lose weight, not just me. You think we had an obesity epidemic that's growing if counting calories really worked? > Besides, if people can really accurately count their calorie intakes and won’t overeat what they use up, then it is thermodynamically impossible not to lose weight. This is false. The body is a self-regulating system. You eat less, the body can just burn less. You eat more, the body can burn more. What you eat and what you do also plays a huge role.
- kaba0 4y ago
  It ain’t going to burn less than like 2000 calories. We are just surprisingly efficient at turning food into energy, and too efficient to burn enough energy with even hard-core movements. And it doesn’t hurt your last point in anyway, both statements can be true.
  - exfatloss 4y ago
    It absolutely will. I've tried it myself and stayed stable around 1,000kcal/day for 2 months straight.

vkazanov 4y ago

I don't understand how counting calories can not work. It's the law of evergy conservation: energy in, energy out. This is not about water at all. Fat is just your main energy storage mechanism. And what's good about fat is that you can burn through it relatively quickly unlike building muscle which takes years. You can even count how many steps you need to do to burn through a kg of fat. I've lost "post-covid" 15 kg (93kg to 78kg, 180cm height) in about 3 months with counting calories and ensuring a reasonable deficit. MyFitnessPal did help here. I was just getting about 1800-2000 calories daily (which is not too bad), walking about 10k-15k steps a day (a morning walk, lunch-time walk and an evening one) and doing some very lightweight kettlebell exercises. There are details on how you might want to track weekly averages instead of daily weight values. Certainly, i was never obese just slightly overweight. Obesity can mean certain serious food-related disorders but most of the time it's just a bad diet together with not moving a lot.

exfatloss 4y ago
> I don't understand how counting calories can not work. It's the law of evergy conservation: energy in, energy out. It's very easy. Your calories in depends on your calories out, and your calories out on your calories in. The body regulates both intake and expenditure dynamically, so if you mess with one of them and don't change anything else, it's most likely just going to adjust the other one. This has been mainstream science for a generation or longer, read The Hungry Brain by Guyenet for a good introduction. > Certainly, i was never obese just slightly overweight. Then it works, of course. Your metabolism was not "broken." This is like buffing out a bump in your car door. Won't work to fix a full-on collision. It's just not the same problem.