Science of What Works For Me Works For You

Along these lines I've always been bugged by the fact that people recognize, or at least seem to, that there are "hard gainers." That is, someone is skinny and has trouble gaining mass. However when someone says they have trouble losing or seems to gain very easily it's dismissed.

I suspect it's the same problem, just in a different direction: inaccurate tracking...

...and I say this as a former "hard-gainer" myself. My biggest problem was that I simply wasn't eating enough.

Ooh perfect! I'll probably butcher the quote, but it'll sum things up simply.

-What has the better odds? That the laws of the universe were temporarily suspended specifically in your case, or did you get something wrong?

If the laws of the universe are so universal than why is the first thing people say after they point you to any one of a dozen calorie calculators, "But that's just a starting point. You'll have to try it a few weeks to see if it's working. If not reduce your intake. Or eat more. Or use magic. Something."

because calorie calculators give you an estimate based on averages.

Your body is made of cells. Each of these cells needs a certain amount of energy to function every day. Some kinds of cells need more energy than others, e.g. muscle cells and brain cells need quite a lot more energy to function than fat cells do, because they work harder while fat cells just sit around storing fat.

Different people don't have the same number of cells. Small people have fewer cells than big people, so smaller people don't need so much energy (calories) from food as big people do to stay alive. People with more muscle mass and less fat will need more energy than other people their size, because they have more muscle cells, which all need more energy to function. So the exact amount of energy needed to keep someone alive varies from person to person, based on how many of each kind of cell they have. And people also need calories to move around (exercise/activity calories) and that's going to vary from person to person based on how active they are and how heavy they are (it takes more energy to move heavier bodies than lighter bodies).

Anyway, the total amount of energy you need to keep each of your cells alive - your BMR - is not something you can calculate exactly, unless someone can actually count exactly how many of each kind of cell you have and measure exactly how much energy each of those cells are using. But using estimates based on size, weight and body fat percentage, because human bodies all have the same organs and stuff, you can get a pretty good estimate from a mathematical formula based on an average human, when you put in the height and weight (or height and body fat percentage in the case of the Katch McArdle formula).

......But yes, this is just a starting point, because it's only an estimate of how much energy your cells are burning. And that's just calculating BMR... you also have to calculate exercise/activity calories too, and because your body follows the laws of physics, i.e. physicists can work out how much energy it would take to move a person of a given mass a given distance, it's still going to be an estimate, because there are far too many variables to be able to know precisely how much energy someone is expending in any particular activity BUT because our bodies follow the laws of physics, using the right formulas, you can get a reasonable estimate. Heart rate monitors and similar are also good at giving estimates for calories burned, though they measure different things and use different formulas.

So, calories in versus calories out is still true. The practicality of accurately measuring calories out make it impossible to ever have a precise measurement of calories out (maybe some future technology will be able to do this, but it's not currently possible). However, the calculators for the majority of people will give a close enough estimate that it gives them a starting point. Your actual real world results reflect the reality of what's going on in your body... if the calculator has overestimated your daily calorie burn, then you won't lose weight as fast as predicted, so you just reduce your calories by 100 or so. Calories in versus calories out is still true and it's still what is happening in your body, it's just that the calculators can't tell you exactly how many calories your body's burning daily, it can only give an estimate based on averages.

I'm so confused on how people can be so convinced weight loss is simply CICO, like nothing else matters. My bf and I BOTH ate ate a huge deficit yesterday, worked out, and I gained 1 lb, and he 5! The reason? Because we went through a highly stressful event together and likely had cortisol raging through our blood! Hormones actually do matter, and in this case, they beat the hell out the CICO theory for us both. Other things matter like sodium and water intake. Even more than that matters, but it's not a simple formula, if it was that would greaaaaaaaaaaat. But it's not.

It is *impossible* to draw any relevant conclusions from your weight change in any one day period. Im. Poss. I. Ble. It almost certainly had nothing to do with cortisol.

I'd even say that it's impossible to draw any relevant conclusions from weight change over a one *week* period either. The noise in the measurement exceeds the amount of possible change.

Yeah, sodium and water are a couple of the MANY variables that might explain weight change over a very short period...but those are present regardless of your beliefs on CICO.

CICO is a simple basic fact regardless of the temporary influences of sodium, water, etc. Finding a measurement period that you think disproves CICO does not. It simply confirms that there are numerous variables that also (temporarily) influence weight.

But I weighed, then pooped, then weighed again and I was a pound lighter. That proves that not eating for 3 minutes=fat loss.
*not srs

Seriously though, there's a reason weight loss studies are longer than 24 hours. It's a long term trend, not one day of starving yourself to see what the scale does. If I have a high sodium meal today it won't show on my scale until Friday. If I increase potassium and water it will be gone by Sunday. Sodium doesn't store fat, it stores water.

Also, it's fat loss, not weight loss. There's a difference.

Was going to 'defend' CICO, but a nice job of that done already!

The poster may not have study on themselves, but quite often will have read studies on the topic to draw their conclusions from.

Certainly a lot of my views on sugar have come from people claiming it's an evil-nasty and linking to studies. Yet, when I've read through them, I've found that in reality the study doesn't really conclude that and certainly not for someone in my position.

Let's go with thermodynamics. Is the theory that, outside of known conditions like diabetes, that the efficacy of diet, etc. comes down only to thermodynamics and nothing else? So that, two people, A and B, neither suffering from any diabetes or similar conditions, should, on the same diet and regimen, perform exactly the same?

(I have no ulterior motives for starting this discussion, it's not out of some butthurt, it's not to refute anything about exercise or calories in vs. out, it's a) to expand my own knowledge and b) to see if there is evidence for something that I see presented often in these forums as fact is, in fact, a fact... as a matter of fact.)

I find droll those people who demand to be spoon-fed science for entertainment. Go do research.