Calories in and Calories Out. Is it really that simple?
Options
Replies
-
Is it time for gifs?
0 -
OsricTheKnight wrote: »lindsey1979 wrote: »And that's such a shame -- because when you attack people, they tend to shut down and not really listen, so it defeats the whole purpose (unless you just get off on being cruel -- which, sadly, I think is the aim for some people on MFP).
I prefer Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
Rather than assuming these posters are "getting off" on being cruel, consider that they are probably just bad at communicating effectively. (Stupidity might also explain some of what they're trying to communicate, too.)
Osric
That's good. People can bear Sturgeon's Law in mind when evaluating the quality of your posts.0 -
queenliz99 wrote: »Head west for 1500 miles is not irrelevant. CICO is not irrelevant either. But if you told me to head west for 1500 miles I'd give you that blank stare. The same blank stare as people get when they answer the question of how did you lose weight. I ate less, moved more.
Yes it is. If it was good enough for the Pioneers in wagons, it's good enough for us. If they needed help they hired a guide or for us they asked more questions.
Tell that to the Donner Party.
Their timing was bad 0 -
-
-
tennisdude2004 wrote: »Head west for 1500 miles is not irrelevant. CICO is not irrelevant either. But if you told me to head west for 1500 miles I'd give you that blank stare. The same blank stare as people get when they answer the question of how did you lose weight. I ate less, moved more.
Agreed, for many eating less is there issue. They know they need to eat less but don't know how to - that's what they need help with.
OP thread - I'm thinking of cutting back on my sugar (or carbs).
Answer from many is: you don't need to do that, it's just about CICO!!!
Nope -- that response is to "I need to eliminate all sugar."
(And from me it's always "I did that for a while, if you mean added sugar, blah, blah.")
Why people find it weird is that as a general question the answer seems so obvious -- eat less sugar. If there's a specific issue, share that. Can't eat certain sweets in moderation? Didn't know sugar was in fruit and worried about that? So on. The answer will be different.0 -
UltimateRBF wrote: »Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »
Love it. The little dog is all "yep, deal with it. Outta my way."
Adorable!0 -
Clearly, I am in the minority here but I have found the information in these forums to be incredibly helpful. That restriction/binging Peachy mentions was SO me. Oh well, as long as I'm "off" I might as well go nuts . . . I have been able to maintain a weight loss for months now because when I took a break from trying to lose, I didn't need to go off the rails. I was never able to do that before.
So much this. I knew logically how to lose weight, I'm not even a binger. But I'm an all or nothing person and over and over I'd start an eating plan and blow it (or an exercise plan and blow it) and figure that I might as well go nuts and start later. I lost weight before doing a clean eating thing (although I thankfully did not call it that) and I think that's why I assumed that was the way to do it. My natural inclinations are "clean eating," but that goes along with a really bad case of perfectionism, and reading the forums that it was about calories -- although in theory I knew that -- helped so much in holding steady through stressful periods when my exercise plans went to hell and I didn't eat perfectly.
And I didn't feel bad about myself.0 -
When there is so much "7 foods to never eat", "8 foods you must eat", "Follow this 1 simple trick", hearing honestly what works is actually novel information even if we knew it on some level.Maybe, for limited number, CICO is a new concept. But I highly doubt it. As Lindsey put it, they are asking how to do it.
I disagree. I have seen multiple threads every day for the year + I have been here where OP can't believe it doesn't matter what they eat. They have magazines, workout programs, supplement commercials, nutritionists, all telling them the 150 rules they need to follow. They post 5 paragraphs of all the hoops they are jumping through to no effect. And it turns out they aren't logging accurately and consistently, because they thought what they were or weren't eating was more important than counting calories.
THIS TIMES A MILLION.
Yes, so much.
(And when sometimes the dumb stuff is MFP's own blog or the ads one sees here!)0 -
goldthistime wrote: »To me, the biggest problem with using CICO exclusively (meaning ignoring hunger cues) is that while CI can be measured quite accurately, CO can't. Not only is there the difficulty in calculating how many calories you are burning during a physical activity, there is the effect of that extra exercise or reduced caloric intake on your general activity level. The harder I exercise, the more deeply I rest at other times of the day. How are we ever going to be able to measure fidgeting?
I've noticed this -- I've exercised super hard and been basically sedentary the rest of the day and thought I was better off just walking a lot (although usually that's after a race where the training was a motivation).
But for me once I started losing weight I found I was naturally much more active -- bouncy and fidgety. I think this was part of eating and living more healthfully. (It did not relate to lowered carbs or some such claptrap, although I'm also willing to accept that in some ways I'm lucky. I feel better being active so the more I've active the more I want to be active.)0 -
lindsey1979 wrote: »kommodevaran wrote: »tennisdude2004 wrote: »In theory its simple, in practice it's not..similar to telling a smoker to "just stop smoking"..."Just CICO" or "Eat less, move more" is completely useless in terms of helpful information
It is rather a cope out answer.
Q - I need advice and tips on how to eat less and move.
A - Just eat less and move more.
Yep great advice.
Kinda like.
Q - I need advice and tips on how to successfully run a sub 30min 5k.
A - just run at 6.32 miles an hour.
It's not really like that, more like:
Q - I love this food and that but I can't eat it because it will make me fat, help me I need some willpower and someone to motivate me!
A - That's not necessary. You don't have to cut anything out. Just eat less and move more. It's all about the calories!
Q - How rude! Why are you so mean?? I thought this forum was intended to help others succeed! I'm outta here!
Don't forget the part where (A) is flagged, reported, and/or given a warning for hurting someone's feelings.
There are ways to do (A) respectfully and kindly. And there are ways to do (A) with mockery, ridicule and by demeaning or belittling people. The latter is wholly unnecessary, but some people here think that so long as you're honest, cruelty doesn't matter. That that is tough love.
And that's such a shame -- because when you attack people, they tend to shut down and not really listen, so it defeats the whole purpose (unless you just get off on being cruel -- which, sadly, I think is the aim for some people on MFP). Then there are others that are kind and respectful, and I think are genuinely appreciated and respected accordingly.
I really can't think of anyone on MFP who is as insulting and condescending as you, including accusing others of not being literate and slamming the intelligence of a super helpful mod like niner. So that's funny.
Hint, suggesting people can't tell if the foods they eat make them hungry=assuming that they are idiots. I do not overeat because I'm dumb, sorry. Sometimes I overeat for other reasons.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »But for me once I started losing weight I found I was naturally much more active -- bouncy and fidgety. I think this was part of eating and living more healthfully. (It did not relate to lowered carbs or some such claptrap, although I'm also willing to accept that in some ways I'm lucky. I feel better being active so the more I've active the more I want to be active.)
The more active I am, the more I just want to run everwhere, or jump on random things. I mean, I usually refrain, but the temptation is there, whereas it wasn't before.0 -
OsricTheKnight wrote: »lindsey1979 wrote: »And that's such a shame -- because when you attack people, they tend to shut down and not really listen, so it defeats the whole purpose (unless you just get off on being cruel -- which, sadly, I think is the aim for some people on MFP).
I prefer Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
Rather than assuming these posters are "getting off" on being cruel, consider that they are probably just bad at communicating effectively. (Stupidity might also explain some of what they're trying to communicate, too.)
Osric
Eh, better explanation is that Lindsey can't read well.
For example, everyone got niner's point but her.0 -
VykkDraygoVPR wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »But for me once I started losing weight I found I was naturally much more active -- bouncy and fidgety. I think this was part of eating and living more healthfully. (It did not relate to lowered carbs or some such claptrap, although I'm also willing to accept that in some ways I'm lucky. I feel better being active so the more I've active the more I want to be active.)
The more active I am, the more I just want to run everwhere, or jump on random things. I mean, I usually refrain, but the temptation is there, whereas it wasn't before.
Yes! When I was in high school and college part of my (self-perceived) nerdishness was that I just wanted to run when I was going somewhere. When I was fat that wasn't the case. As soon as I started losing it came back and I embraced it.
0 -
I vote Aye! Definitely Aye
CICO advice was extremely useful for me. I'm sorry some find that it's too little information or otherwise inadequate, but dang. Clean eating, appetite suppressants, starvation mode, cleanses, eliminating certain foods, even well meaning statements like "exercise is for fitness only" - those were just some of the things I had been told or otherwise thought were necessary for weight loss. Imagine the relief and sense of clarity I got when I saw OVER and OVER: calories in, calories out. It helped settle the noise that was going on, even in my own head.
"But I'm not losing weight today/this week"
CICO
"But I didn't get a chance to exercise this week"
CICO
"But I had way too much pizza"
CICO
As far as people needing an expansion on CICO, I completely agree they just have to ask (or search, nothing wrong with searching, by the way!). I wouldn't assume what aspect of CICO they need more detail on. Is it the exercise I like to do? The foods I like that you may not even recognize? There are so many ways to skin this cat that you just have to ask specific or follow up questions, or search
As for discouraging users from doing certain plans, I think that sometimes comes from our own lack of success with said plans, or our prior thought process that they were necessary, which we now know to not be the case. We therefore try to save users the same experience and aggravation, since they did after all come to a forum asking other users for weight loss help.0 -
lindsey1979 wrote: »kommodevaran wrote: »tennisdude2004 wrote: »In theory its simple, in practice it's not..similar to telling a smoker to "just stop smoking"..."Just CICO" or "Eat less, move more" is completely useless in terms of helpful information
It is rather a cope out answer.
Q - I need advice and tips on how to eat less and move.
A - Just eat less and move more.
Yep great advice.
Kinda like.
Q - I need advice and tips on how to successfully run a sub 30min 5k.
A - just run at 6.32 miles an hour.
It's not really like that, more like:
Q - I love this food and that but I can't eat it because it will make me fat, help me I need some willpower and someone to motivate me!
A - That's not necessary. You don't have to cut anything out. Just eat less and move more. It's all about the calories!
Q - How rude! Why are you so mean?? I thought this forum was intended to help others succeed! I'm outta here!
Don't forget the part where (A) is flagged, reported, and/or given a warning for hurting someone's feelings.
There are ways to do (A) respectfully and kindly. And there are ways to do (A) with mockery, ridicule and by demeaning or belittling people. The latter is wholly unnecessary, but some people here think that so long as you're honest, cruelty doesn't matter. That that is tough love.
And that's such a shame -- because when you attack people, they tend to shut down and not really listen, so it defeats the whole purpose (unless you just get off on being cruel -- which, sadly, I think is the aim for some people on MFP). Then there are others that are kind and respectful, and I think are genuinely appreciated and respected accordingly.
Honestly you write this, but i dont think you have applied it to yourself. Just re read some of what you have been writing in your last few posts. I think you just want everyone to agree with you and if they dont you throw your toys out the pram.0 -
To answer the OP's original question. I think the answer is yes it is that simple, just not always easy to implement but I guess everything in life needs effort.0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 392.1K Introduce Yourself
- 43.6K Getting Started
- 259.9K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.7K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.4K Fitness and Exercise
- 403 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.8K Motivation and Support
- 7.9K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.4K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.4K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions