Is CICO based on calories that are absorbed?
KittenTamer91
Posts: 54 Member
I know to lose weight you have to be in a deficit and to gain you have to be in a surplus. What I'm asking is if digestive issues have the potential to change either CI and/or CO due to absorption issues. For example: gallbladder problems, IBS, SIBO, Crohn's, Dumping Syndrome, etc. I've been having lots of digestive issues lately and despite being very on track with weighing my foods, logging, and keeping active, my results aren't even close to what they should be. I plan on seeing my doctor next week because my GI symptoms have been getting out of hand. But I would like to know if digestive issues can affect CICO differently than someone with a healthy/normal functioning GI system.
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Replies
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How are your results differing from what's expected? Standard calculations for calories adjust for what will be processed and what will just be passed through (insoluable fiber, for instance). GI issues can change the CI portion of CICO if calories are going through faster than they can be processed or absorbed - that would cause you to lose weight faster than expected. It's not possible to extract more calories than the food contains and stall fat loss, though bloating and water retention related to GI issues can certainly play havoc with the scale.10
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How are your results differing from what's expected? Standard calculations for calories adjust for what will be processed and what will just be passed through (insoluable fiber, for instance). GI issues can change the CI portion of CICO if calories are going through faster than they can be processed or absorbed - that would cause you to lose weight faster than expected. It's not possible to extract more calories than the food contains and stall fat loss, though bloating and water retention related to GI issues can certainly play havoc with the scale.
A few examples are 25 pound weight gain in less than a month. Another example is 15 pound weight loss in one week. These are a few out of many. My progress over the past several months looks like an exaggerated yoyo. I can't quite tell where it's going because of the HUGE rapid fluctuations in either direction. My GI symptoms are constipation, diarrhea, bloating, gas, tarry/black stool, pale/white stool, yellow oily stool, reflux, early satiety (sometimes), and frequent urination (sometimes).7 -
How are your results differing from what's expected? Standard calculations for calories adjust for what will be processed and what will just be passed through (insoluable fiber, for instance). GI issues can change the CI portion of CICO if calories are going through faster than they can be processed or absorbed - that would cause you to lose weight faster than expected. It's not possible to extract more calories than the food contains and stall fat loss, though bloating and water retention related to GI issues can certainly play havoc with the scale.
Pretty much RTing everything said here. To the extent that gastro issues would cause issues with absorbing all the calories you intake, that would speed up weight loss, not slow it down. However I will say personally as someone with IBS, even though I frequent the bathroom far more than the average person, my weight loss is more or less correlated to my calorie targets. I don't think it is having any meaningful effect on my absorption of calories.
More likely is that if you are truly intaking less calories than you are burning but not seeing the result on the scale, then there is a water retention related issue from something.6 -
KittenTamer91 wrote: »How are your results differing from what's expected? Standard calculations for calories adjust for what will be processed and what will just be passed through (insoluable fiber, for instance). GI issues can change the CI portion of CICO if calories are going through faster than they can be processed or absorbed - that would cause you to lose weight faster than expected. It's not possible to extract more calories than the food contains and stall fat loss, though bloating and water retention related to GI issues can certainly play havoc with the scale.
A few examples are 25 pound weight gain in less than a month. Another example is 15 pound weight loss in one week. These are a few out of many. My progress over the past several months looks like an exaggerated yoyo. I can't quite tell where it's going because of the HUGE rapid fluctuations in either direction. My GI symptoms are constipation, diarrhea, bloating, gas, tarry/black stool, pale/white stool, yellow oily stool, reflux, early satiety (sometimes), and frequent urination (sometimes).
Then this is definitely water weight related. It's impossible to gain/lose that much weight based on fat loss/gain from calorie intake. You don't either intake or burn that many calories in a week. So even if your Calories in was 0 or your calories out was zero (the former is not possible if you eat and the latter is not possible period, but just for illustration purposes), you couldn't gain or lose that much.
Going to the doctor is definitely the right move. Something is going on with your system that doesn't have anything to do with calorie intake.11 -
KittenTamer91 wrote: »How are your results differing from what's expected? Standard calculations for calories adjust for what will be processed and what will just be passed through (insoluable fiber, for instance). GI issues can change the CI portion of CICO if calories are going through faster than they can be processed or absorbed - that would cause you to lose weight faster than expected. It's not possible to extract more calories than the food contains and stall fat loss, though bloating and water retention related to GI issues can certainly play havoc with the scale.
A few examples are 25 pound weight gain in less than a month. Another example is 15 pound weight loss in one week. These are a few out of many. My progress over the past several months looks like an exaggerated yoyo. I can't quite tell where it's going because of the HUGE rapid fluctuations in either direction. My GI symptoms are constipation, diarrhea, bloating, gas, tarry/black stool, pale/white stool, yellow oily stool, reflux, early satiety (sometimes), and frequent urination (sometimes).
It certainly sounds like you're having some really big water swings. You really need to see a doctor for the issues you describe - we can advise you as far as how calories and weight management work, but medical issues need to be discussed with a doctor. Hugs!4 -
KittenTamer91 wrote: »How are your results differing from what's expected? Standard calculations for calories adjust for what will be processed and what will just be passed through (insoluable fiber, for instance). GI issues can change the CI portion of CICO if calories are going through faster than they can be processed or absorbed - that would cause you to lose weight faster than expected. It's not possible to extract more calories than the food contains and stall fat loss, though bloating and water retention related to GI issues can certainly play havoc with the scale.
A few examples are 25 pound weight gain in less than a month. Another example is 15 pound weight loss in one week. These are a few out of many. My progress over the past several months looks like an exaggerated yoyo. I can't quite tell where it's going because of the HUGE rapid fluctuations in either direction. My GI symptoms are constipation, diarrhea, bloating, gas, tarry/black stool, pale/white stool, yellow oily stool, reflux, early satiety (sometimes), and frequent urination (sometimes).
I am not a doctor but my understanding is that both of the bolded are potential indicators of a serious medical issue. If you haven't actually scheduled the appointment with your doctor already, you really should. At this point I think CICO is not what you should be concerned about.10 -
Thank you everyone for your answers! Here's a screenshot of my progress from the last 3 months alone! I can't tell where it's going. The REALLY big spike by the way was during a one week vacation where I didn't weigh myself for a week. I usually weigh in every 1-3 days.
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KittenTamer91 wrote: »How are your results differing from what's expected? Standard calculations for calories adjust for what will be processed and what will just be passed through (insoluable fiber, for instance). GI issues can change the CI portion of CICO if calories are going through faster than they can be processed or absorbed - that would cause you to lose weight faster than expected. It's not possible to extract more calories than the food contains and stall fat loss, though bloating and water retention related to GI issues can certainly play havoc with the scale.
A few examples are 25 pound weight gain in less than a month. Another example is 15 pound weight loss in one week. These are a few out of many. My progress over the past several months looks like an exaggerated yoyo. I can't quite tell where it's going because of the HUGE rapid fluctuations in either direction. My GI symptoms are constipation, diarrhea, bloating, gas, tarry/black stool, pale/white stool, yellow oily stool, reflux, early satiety (sometimes), and frequent urination (sometimes).
I am not a doctor but my understanding is that both of the bolded are potential indicators of a serious medical issue. If you haven't actually scheduled the appointment with your doctor already, you really should. At this point I think CICO is not what you should be concerned about.
I mentioned in my post that I do have an upcoming appointment next week. In the meantime, I wanted to know if digestive issues affect CICO so I asked on here.1 -
This won't necessarily answer your questions or help with any health issues, but are you using a weight-trending app like Libra (android) or Happy Scale (apple) or Trendweight (links to FitBit, I think?)
The graph you posted looks like a maintenance trend to me, albeit with bigger swings than I'm accustomed to seeing on my own graphs. A weight trending app might take some of the guesswork out of that, once you get enough history in it.2 -
This won't necessarily answer your questions or help with any health issues, but are you using a weight-trending app like Libra (android) or Happy Scale (apple) or Trendweight (links to FitBit, I think?)
The graph you posted looks like a maintenance trend to me, albeit with bigger swings than I'm accustomed to seeing on my own graphs. A weight trending app might take some of the guesswork out of that, once you get enough history in it.
Thank you for your insight. I couldn't really tell what the trend is. This is the progress graph on MFP app.1 -
KittenTamer91 wrote: »This won't necessarily answer your questions or help with any health issues, but are you using a weight-trending app like Libra (android) or Happy Scale (apple) or Trendweight (links to FitBit, I think?)
The graph you posted looks like a maintenance trend to me, albeit with bigger swings than I'm accustomed to seeing on my own graphs. A weight trending app might take some of the guesswork out of that, once you get enough history in it.
Thank you for your insight. I couldn't really tell what the trend is. This is the progress graph on MFP app.
Here's my Libra snapshot so you can see some of the info it gives you. There are settings to control how your trend is calculated based on how long you tell it to look back. I'm maintaining with a range of 130-135, BTW.
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They could affect CICO by making it harder to get the nutrients and calories from your food. That won't result in unexpected fat gain, but would result in unexpected fat loss (and could be dangerous).
They could affect weight in other ways, as others have mentioned, such as huge water weight swings or the weight of food in your body. That's not CICO (which is about fat gain and loss, not water weight).
Anyway, glad you are going to be seeing a doctor, and it sounds unpleasant so hope it's nothing serious and that you get it fixed.2 -
Definitely an issue for your physician, not an Internet forum. Glad you have an appointment, you are right to be very concerned.0
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