How can CICO and plateaus both be real?

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joyanna2016
joyanna2016 Posts: 323 Member
edited February 2021 in Health and Weight Loss
Just having trouble wrapping my head around the reality of both. I've put full faith in CICO, but I also dont doubt the reality of plateaus- too many people have them. Can anyone explain?
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  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,522 Member
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    Usually it's due to inaccurate logging.

    There is also a small effect due to metabolic adaptation, where your calorie burn (TDEE) reduces due to prolonged calorie restriction. For healthy people at a healthy weight and eating at a sustainable deficit (<25% TDEE), this effect is small and can be counteracted by being somewhat more active.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,867 Member
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    The balance of effectively absorbed CI vs actual CO will determine how your body energy reserves will change.

    The determination of the values is affected by numerous measurement errors even under perfect and predictable conditions (endlessly discussed water weight variations).

    But it is also true that dynamic adjustments can take place during shorter or even longer time periods that make the measurement errors based on static data even more difficult to account for.

    While I don't disagree with pretty much anything said above, I would differentiate the concept of CI-CO from knowing the effective value of CO at any one particular time. Heck even CI can change with seasonal food variations; though I don't think in the whole slew of counter balancing errors that it is worth worrying about that.

    Thyroid issues or adaptive thermogenesis issues or even less (or more) than expected calories burned during exercise issues would all fall under the rubric of correctly estimating one's current CO, and not under a violation of the principle.

    The benefit of recognizing the principle is that you can now just concentrate on managing your CI and CO in a way that makes sense to you!

    But it is a dynamically changing equation and part of the issue is that a lb is not always 3500 measured Calories because of this. Hence the (more often than not) perception or (more rarely) actuality of plateaus.

    They said, I didn't run into a true plateau till I tried to maintain... so I wouldn't count on the inevitability of one.
  • joyanna2016
    joyanna2016 Posts: 323 Member
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    Thank you for the many thoughtful responses. Food for thought!
  • SnifterPug
    SnifterPug Posts: 746 Member
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    You're not a car running on one type of fuel, with a gauge to tell you how much you have used up. There's so many variables even in the things you can measure. Add in hormonal fluctuations and the myriad of other things that go on behind the scenes and in some ways it's remarkable that CICO is as reliable as it is.
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
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    CICO is science is fact.

    But humans are imperfect. We are going to have errors in our logging, some big some little. Forgetting oils, not realizing the scale batteries need changing and thus its reporting is off, having to estimate to some extent about the CO portion... Just a few examples.
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
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    Water retention, hormones, food waste (not pooping) ... inaccuracies in the equation (underestimating intake, overestimating output). The scale really isn’t everything. Persistence is.
  • temazur
    temazur Posts: 76 Member
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    Psychgrrl wrote: »
    Water retention, hormones, food waste (not pooping) ... inaccuracies in the equation (underestimating intake, overestimating output). The scale really isn’t everything. Persistence is.

    Oh god, water retention for sure. Have a salty meal or two, even if your calories are inline and you will see a jump on the scale. Same for if you naturally eat a bit lower carb and then have a high carb day, that will keep a touch of water on, too. If you see a bit of a plateau and everything else is in order, stay hydrated and cut back a bit on sodium to see what happens.

    Hard workouts can lead to water retention afterwards, too, if I recall correctly. I would imagine it will look normal if you're always working out, so you won't notice. But if you just got back at it after a break, you might see a jump on the scale then, too.

  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,306 Member
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    Just having trouble wrapping my head around the reality of both. I've put full faith in CICO, but I also dont doubt the reality of plateaus- too many people have them. Can anyone explain?

    Exactly. If CICO was absolute there would be no plateaus. CICO is simply a way to diet and lose weight..it has never worked for me.. and I get creamed on here when I mention that. However it works well for a lot of people. I find the key to losing weight and fitness.. is finding the plan that works for you.

    As for plateaus? The body doesn't lose consistently on any weight loss plan.. it takes breaks to adjust.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,668 Member
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    Just having trouble wrapping my head around the reality of both. I've put full faith in CICO, but I also dont doubt the reality of plateaus- too many people have them. Can anyone explain?
    Yes. The body doesn't lose weight in a linear fashion due to it's complicated system overall. Unlike a car that loses weight volume as gas is burned up, hormones in the body help to dictate things like water level, metabolism, etc. for survival.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

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  • MaltedTea
    MaltedTea Posts: 6,286 Member
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    Readjustments and recalculations of both CI an CO required on occasion.
  • Speakeasy76
    Speakeasy76 Posts: 961 Member
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    Listen, bodies are weird, especially when losing weight. If you lost a lot of weight in the beginning, your body is adjusting. Also, as others have explained there are so many things that can impact that number you see on the scale. Here's a perfect example from me (who is eating in a slight deficit): A few days ago my weight was all the way up to 147; today it was 142.6. That's obviously not all fat loss, but things like hormones, water retention from a salty meal the night before and from strength training all played a part in those number differences.