Why do people say nutrition is a secondary issue

CurlyCockney

I haven't noticed anyone saying that exercise isn't part of CICO, but I've seen (and said) that exercise isn't necessary for weight loss. It's hard to get the context of what you're saying when you're talking about a totally different thread though.

WinoGelato

MelanieCN77 wrote: »

In almost every thread you'll get 2-3 people who can't help but point out that exercise isn't part of CICO. They'll also say CICO is for weight loss and exercise is for health. It's way more nuanced than that, as half of us will acknowledge and half will hardline "eat in a deficit" and comment no more.

I've never seen someone say exercise isn't a part of CICO. What I often see is people saying that weight loss comes down to calorie deficit, and exercise isn't specifically required.... maybe you are extrapolating that to mean that they think exercise isn't a part of CICO.

CO is the sum of all the calorie output including BMR, daily non exercise activity, and purposeful exercise. Some people don't do purposeful exercise and that doesn't invalidate CICO or mean that it wouldn't be part IF they chose to do it.

MelanieCN77

I think you're confusing me with someone who thinks otherwise. I guess we read different threads.

lemurcat12

WinoGelato wrote: »

MelanieCN77 wrote: »

In almost every thread you'll get 2-3 people who can't help but point out that exercise isn't part of CICO. They'll also say CICO is for weight loss and exercise is for health. It's way more nuanced than that, as half of us will acknowledge and half will hardline "eat in a deficit" and comment no more.

I've never seen someone say exercise isn't a part of CICO. What I often see is people saying that weight loss comes down to calorie deficit, and exercise isn't specifically required.... maybe you are extrapolating that to mean that they think exercise isn't a part of CICO.

Yeah, this was my thought. Obviously exercise is part of CO, but what's important is a calorie deficit, whatever CI and CO are. So when someone says "exercise for health, calorie deficit for weight loss," they aren't saying exercise isn't part of the equation. And we are discussing ELMM in another thread, where obviously MM is part of it.

Machka9

mactaffy428 wrote: »

I've seen so many posts where people say nutrition is a secondary issue to weight loss. I don't understand why. If people want to lose weight, isn't the reason to be healthy? How can you be healthy if you lose weight by eating Twinkies? Yes, I know the whole CICO argument, that you can lose weight eating anything you want. But why would you want to do that? Don't get me wrong, I have my bit of chocolate; however, i think the quality of food that one eats is going to play a major part of weight loss. Refined carbs can cause an insulin spike which promotes fat storage which seems that it can change parameters for that whole CICO argument. It seems that, perhaps, we are learning that a calorie is not, perhaps, a calorie. I guess what I don't understand is that some people want help in making their diets more nutritious and people come back with the whole "you can eat anything to lose weight, nutrition is secondary". It seems very short sighted to me. I think we are learning just how much the quality of food matters in weight loss (not to mention health). I'd just like to know what others might think.

1) I wanted to lose weight so I could cycle up hills easier. Health is a secondary issue.

2) For me, it is healthier to be lighter. Happily I can accomplish that any way I want.

3) As it happens, vegetables are both low cal and healthy. Win win. But that's not to say I won't eat what might possibly considered less healthy (what is healthy anyway?).

Machka9

malibu927 wrote: »

goldthistime wrote: »

I felt the same way when I first came to MFP. I was trying to unlearn the habit of eating so many treats. Why all the posts celebrating Twinkies and gelato? But I was still thinking of my diet as being temporary. I've taken to heart the idea that slow weight loss is best and that I'll be following a similar program for the rest of my life, and a future completely devoid of treats is unnecessarily bleak. Personally I'd like to see more conversations about good nutrition but the problem is that when they do pop up they don't get many responses. There's just not that much interesting or debatable to discuss.

The funny thing is, I never see Twinkies talked about unless they're in threads like this one. I don't even think I've had one since Hostess brought them back.

My husband and I tried them once on a 6-week trip across the US in 2012 just to see what the fuss was all about ... we kept hearing, on the radio, about them not being made anymore.