Is Calorie Counting the same as CICO?

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Bex953172
Bex953172 Posts: 4,073 Member
in Food and Nutrition
And if not then what's the difference?

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  • Bex953172
    Bex953172 Posts: 4,073 Member
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    Ohhh I though it was another method!
    Like burning off everything you eat haha
    Thought it didn't sound right! Didn't think that would even be possible?!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Bex953172 wrote: »
    Ohhh I though it was another method!
    Like burning off everything you eat haha
    Thought it didn't sound right! Didn't think that would even be possible?!

    Technically, if you're maintaining you are burning off everything you eat...if you're losing you are burning off everything you eat and then some. You burn calories 24/7...for most people, the biggest calorie burn comes from you merely existing...like I burn 1800ish calories just being alive...I would burn that in a coma. Then I burn more calories going about my day to day stuff, and then finally exercise which for most people is relatively insignificant compared to everything else.

    I maintain on 2800-3000 calories per day which means I'm taking in those calories and expending them...but only about 300-500 of that burn is from exercise (unless I'm actively training)...everything else is just me being alive and going about my day to day living.

  • kgeyser
    kgeyser Posts: 22,505 Member
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    Bex953172 wrote: »
    And if not then what's the difference?

    Calorie counting is a tool to manage your weight, and you can lose, gain, or maintain while using.

    CICO refers to Calories In, Calories Out in the sense of the energy equation, which is not something you can "directly" manage - you can adjust calorie intake, calorie output, etc, but you won't know for certain if you are in a deficit/surplus/maintenance unless you see weight loss/gain/maintenance. So when you see someone say something like "you need a calorie deficit to lose weight," they are referring to the energy balance, but many people need a tool like calorie counting, different ways of eating, exercise programs, etc to help create that deficit.

    One caution: sometime people do use the CICO acronym on the forums interchangeably with calorie counting, so you need to look at the context to figure out what they mean.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    Bex953172 wrote: »
    Ohhh I though it was another method!
    Like burning off everything you eat haha
    Thought it didn't sound right! Didn't think that would even be possible?!

    If you are losing weight, you are burning everything you are eating (plus some extra, so you're using your body's stored energy).

    The trick to this is understanding that your body is using calories all the time, even when you are sleeping or watching TV. So you don't have to do a ton of exercise to burn everything that you're eating.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    CICO is kind of the equation that describes fat management. It describes your body functioning. It is not a diet.
    Any time you lose fat it is because you are taking in fewer calories than you burn. Your calorie in is smaller than your calorie out. This is called a calorie deficit.
    If you are gaining fat it is because you are taking in more calories than you burn. Your calorie in is larger than your calorie out. This is called a calorie surplus.
    If your calorie in and calorie out are pretty equal then you should be maintaining your weight. This would be your maintenance calorie level.

    Calorie counting is just being aware of the calories you are taking in and burning. It is a tool to manipulate the equation and thus what your body is doing. It often involves tracking or logging your food and exercise to some degree. You can use this method to lose, gain or maintain your weight.

    You can lose weight without counting calories/being aware of your CICO if you happen to hit upon the right deficit. It can be more difficult to lose consistantly for many people without some calorie awareness/counting.
    A lot of diet programs or fads don't talk about calories but their plans usually have restricted calories much lower than most would need to for healthy sustainable weight loss. This is why people might lose fast at first but it is hard to stick to these plans long term.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    edited December 2018
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    mph323 wrote: »
    Bex953172 wrote: »
    Ohhh I though it was another method!
    Like burning off everything you eat haha
    Thought it didn't sound right! Didn't think that would even be possible?!

    People who don't understand what CICO stands for tend to use it as a way of eating, like "I tried CICO and it didn't work, so I started [named diet] and the pounds melted off!". What they're actually saying is that calorie counting didn't work for them. It's easy to see how someone who isn't familiar with the energy balance shorthand CICO would find posts like that confusing :)

    Yup!

    I'll just drop this here. Might help clear it up.

    bfcj52qeeoa5.jpg

    The 'creating a calorie deficit' part? That's CICO. :)

  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    edited December 2018
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    And "Calorie Counting" although not a 'diet plan' in the strictest sense of the word, could be added to the list this way:

    Calorie Counting

    Keeping track of calories consumed
    by weighing and measuring

    By creating a calorie deficit
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    Calorie counting is a method for maintaining, losing or gaining weight. CICO is a rephrasing of the first law of thermodynamics (conservation of energy) where calories are the unit of energy. One is a strategy, the other is a law of nature.

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