The 3,500 calories-per-pound myth...
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... Of course the Earth is flat. Just look at a map...
I know you're actually trying to be helpful here, I'm posting this in response because it's funny. I'm having a stressful day and a laugh helped.
I hope we've helped the OP, before this thread went off the rails. The key takeaway is the first few results from a Google probably aren't reliable, you have to be discerning about how and where you get information. Also, 3,500 has worked well for many in here. Finally, the actual number isn't worth getting hung up on because of CICO, you'll lose weight, mostly fat, by eating a calorie deficit, and hopefully doing strength training.7 -
NorthCascades wrote: »I know you're actually trying to be helpful here, I'm posting this in response because it's funny. I'm having a stressful day and a laugh helped.
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Don't fall for the "myth" thing, OP. There's an entire diet industry that feeds and sustains itself by taking uncontroversial, established facts or axioms, like "eat less and move more to lose weight", and declaring them myths. Shockingly, the way you get past the myth is by adopting some kind of New Thinking, which means buying some dumb product or joining some program/plan at a cost.
Myth: "calories matter". New Thinking: Anything but calories matter. Reality: only calories matter.
Myth: "a pound of fat = 3500 calories". New Thinking: That's a myth. Reality: A pound of fat = 3500 calories.
And so on.
Been weighing myself daily and tracking calories and exercise very precisely for a year and a half, and a pound of fat = 3500 calories. Could it be 3498 or 3505? Sure, I guess. It isn't more than 5 or 10 calories off.4 -
Right, well, leaving alone shape of the earth.......
I don't think this 3500 calories thing is a myth, I think it is an approximate average.
However I also don't see how or why it matters to your weight loss plan.
Just adhere to your recommended calorie allowance for, say, 1 month. If you have not lost weight, just decrease your calories.6 -
NorthCascades wrote: »... Of course the Earth is flat. Just look at a map...
I know you're actually trying to be helpful here, I'm posting this in response because it's funny. I'm having a stressful day and a laugh helped.
I hope we've helped the OP, before this thread went off the rails. The key takeaway is the first few results from a Google probably aren't reliable, you have to be discerning about how and where you get information. Also, 3,500 has worked well for many in here. Finally, the actual number isn't worth getting hung up on because of CICO, you'll lose weight, mostly fat, by eating a calorie deficit, and hopefully doing strength training.
That map is really wrong. Nz is in the absolute wrong place. At least its on there I guess5 -
NorthCascades wrote: »... Of course the Earth is flat. Just look at a map...
I know you're actually trying to be helpful here, I'm posting this in response because it's funny. I'm having a stressful day and a laugh helped.
I hope we've helped the OP, before this thread went off the rails. The key takeaway is the first few results from a Google probably aren't reliable, you have to be discerning about how and where you get information. Also, 3,500 has worked well for many in here. Finally, the actual number isn't worth getting hung up on because of CICO, you'll lose weight, mostly fat, by eating a calorie deficit, and hopefully doing strength training.
That map is really wrong. Nz is in the absolute wrong place. At least its on there I guess
Came to say the same thing! We are, sadly, most definitely not tropical. But yeah, at least we're on that one.2 -
but... but... but it must be true... the OP read it on the internet!2
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NorthCascades wrote: »I know you're actually trying to be helpful here, I'm posting this in response because it's funny. I'm having a stressful day and a laugh helped.
You certainly made me laugh and provided some desperately needed distraction from a statistical and fluid in porous media movement problem. (I just hope nobody though you were serious, as you got a big fat Disagree)1 -
It's around that number.
Just like 2000 calories a day for women and 2500 calories a day for men to "maintain and be healthy" are general guidelines on nutrition labels.
3500 is a general guideline. It's very safe logic though that eating 500 calories less or 500 calories will generally make you lose or gain around a lb. Of course it always fluctuates.1 -
NorthCascades wrote: »... Of course the Earth is flat. Just look at a map...
I know you're actually trying to be helpful here, I'm posting this in response because it's funny. I'm having a stressful day and a laugh helped.
I hope we've helped the OP, before this thread went off the rails. The key takeaway is the first few results from a Google probably aren't reliable, you have to be discerning about how and where you get information. Also, 3,500 has worked well for many in here. Finally, the actual number isn't worth getting hung up on because of CICO, you'll lose weight, mostly fat, by eating a calorie deficit, and hopefully doing strength training.
That map is really wrong. Nz is in the absolute wrong place. At least its on there I guess
And there's no Mongolia! It's just not even there at all.0 -
I didn't know it had been established as a ''myth''???0
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domeofstars wrote: »I didn't know it had been established as a ''myth''???
It hasn't, because it isn't a myth. We have established that the myth is a myth.5 -
Redordeadhead wrote: »A ramdom Google search is pretty much guaranteed to return nonsense answers near the top, when it's in the realm of health, diet or fitness. There's money to be made by convincing people that the simple truth is not really true, and that the site (with something to sell) knows the secret tricks/hacks/strategies.
Yes, and even more so when your search is so leading. If you search for the words "3500 calories 1lb myth", of course you're going to pull up sites featuring the same words. I just searched "earth is flat" and some of the first results are "5 facts that prove the earth is flat" and "why the earth is actually 100% flat".
Yes, for this reason I strive to not be leading with my google searches.1
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