So how do you explain people paying thousands of dollars for a gastric bypass surgery and losing weight? The main purpose of the surgery is to force you to eat less. The surgery is recommended for obese patients with risks of heart diseases, diabetes and so on … It is a scientific fact that creating a calorie deficit is the only way to lose fat. OP did not ask for a diet that maintains muscle mass index, be good for his skin, boost energy, allow him to feel full, high in protein, high in antioxidants, or any of that. Although beneficial and is the right way to a healthier and long lasting lifestyle, its not what he’s looking for. If he started with the calorie deficit rule, he should eventually find out the benefits of why healthy choices would benefit him more.
No, it is NOT a “scientific fact”. It’s a popular saying.
So, how has the popularity of this junk-science saying decreased the overweight/obesity rates? Oh wait, people keep getting fatter. Cause it doesn’t work like that.
Wehn i dont exercise i lose weight. Lost probably 15 pounds ever since i stopped working out regularly
i have, i’m working with a personal trainer who tracks my body composite too, we do a two hour session each month where he evaluates my progress through maximum strength exercises and weight lifting to monitor the gain/loss of strength and he evaluates body fat % changes as monitoring weight alone is obviously not an accurate measure of fat loss.
Simply amazing how people can just ignore all research and put their earmuffs on. Almost like part of their brain didn’t develop. From the article, and there are many references- “Fact: Calories count. Every controlled study in the last century has found that people don’t lose weight unless they’re in a caloric deficit. This doesn’t mean you’re a failure or weak if you’ve struggled to get lean. It means you were focusing on the wrong actions, something everyone does sometimes. Simplify your efforts; create a caloric deficit. You’ll hear all sorts of reasons for why this isn’t true, but they’re all easily broken if you look at the research. This doesn’t mean calories are the only thing you should think about, but if you want to lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than you burn. Period.” And another one. Irrefutable. http://www.completehumanperformance.com/simple-weight-loss/
Seriously, step away from the computer if you manage other people’s money. You have no control or awareness of your bias.
Amazing how homo sapiens can ignore reality, desperating clinging to a flawed theory, because “nature MUST work like I assume it does dammit!”. The most obvious reason it isn’t working – the theory is wrong.
Pretty sure everyone who is fat tried that. They are still fat. So now what smart guy?
My roommate from college was obese, he did absolutely nothing but laying down on his bed and eating all kinds of junk food, he wakes up at 3 am eats a burger or 2 and goes back to sleep. He eats in one meal what three average people eat in one, he eventually ended up on the verge of getting diabetes and suffered high blood pressure when he was only 22. Had a gastric by pass surgery and now he is thin, because he has eating disorders which he did not even try to solve even after the surgery, as he kept his habits of choosing the wrong foods and ignoring his vitamins, wasted all the small space left in his stomach on ice creams, jello and chips , he still managed to drop a 100lbs , why? His body, due to the high weight, simply burns more than what he’s eating. He started losing his hair, still not energetic, craves bad food and seems on the way to gain it all back since his stomach is widening again, BUT HE DROPPED THE WEIGHT. All because of the simple fact that he ate less…
calorie deficite works to a point… but when it stops working depends on the genetics of the individual. If you put anyone on a 500cal/day diet they will lose weight until they are bone thin. That is not sustainable though.
What I am saying is this… I used run 50miles a week(+have an active job) and tried to lose body fat by only eating 2000cal/day. That should have been a 500 calorie/ day deficit. I should have lost 4 pounds a month. Instead it took me 3 months to lose 4 pounds. I felt hungry and obsessed with food the whole time. Now, I run less, weigh at the low end of my spectrum, and eat over 2000 calories a day. How does that make any sense? I have also seen reports of elite female ironman triathletes training 30hours/ week and only eating about 2500 calories/ day to maintain their weight. According to the math they should be wasting away on that kind of intake.
The body adapt to its environment and calorie intake. Caloric restriction just works against you if you were already eating about what you need. Overweight people who are overweight because they don’t know how to recognize or obey hunger signals will lose weight on calorie restriction because their bodies don’t acually want to be that size. Overweight people who are naturally overweight and not overeating will probably not lose weight through calorie restriction(in the long run) because too many calories was not the problem… genetics are.
All that being said… if you starve someone to death, they will lose weight. Every time.
The moral of that story – Americans go to desperate extremes to find proof for flawed theories. Next up – “we starved some people and they died, but they died thin”. 
If it is simply calories in/calories out, then why is it that low carb diets work? Calories are calories after all right? Or, why is it that drinking diet soda instead of regular isn’t successful in reducing weight? It has zero calories compared to sugary soda?
Bodily functions are more complex than calories in/out. Although that is a big part.
You are right that it’s complicated, way more complicated than the “just create a calorie deficit” crowd thinks.
Actually, we have observations of animals and humans dying of starvation fat! We also have observations of them dying of starvation thin. Even in this extreme example, it’s not so simple.
Amazing. Most of you won’t even read anything that you dispute. Obvious because the article I posted debunks the myths mentioned. Just about word for word regarding KMD’s argument. PA actually believes that fat people that failed to lose weight by restricting their calories where really in a calorie deficit. Do yourself a favor. Read the article. Check the references. And if you don’t see the light, consider yourself one of the majority of the people with a mental disorder.
sorry Ghibli… we are all very impressed with ourselves this evening 
Seriously. Do you think the rest of their diet stayed the same? If the only change made is regular to diet soda, the subject will lose weight, or gain less weight if they are still in a calorie surplus. Shown repeatedly in many studies and repeated. What more do you need? This is unbelievable. I’m assuming most of you are intelligent people…
Not sure what to make of this, but if your conclusion is based on my story, you are misguided, i’m not from the US, nor is my friend, but I’m living in the US now.
Anyways, if anyone is taking my word for it: - Eating calories less than you burn will make you lose weight, it can be fat, it can be muscle, most likely a combination of the two. You can research how to maintain LBM while losing fat. - Making healthy choices will benefit you beyond your imagination, try to go for the right choice as much as you can, if you stumble, we’re only human, long term goals. - Generalised nutritional rules are very close estimates, so adjust as you see fit, as someone pointed above many other factors can come in play, but this doesn’t mean that the basic rules do not apply. You can actually apply a lot of CFA knowledge here if you think about it.
This can totally happen! Since the blood-brain barrier can only take carbohydrates, the body cannot survive on fat molecules alone which cannot transverse the barrier. The body can convert protein into carbohydrate though… but if all the body’s proteins are used up, even if fat is left, you willl DIE!
Exactly, now you are getting into evolution/biochemistry.
The other big mistake people make in reasoning thru this problem, is that they look at small windows of time. That’s not how nature works. Fat accumulation happens over decades of drinking that Pepsi, nasty biochemical shit happens inside you that we do not understand. You are permanently changed/damaged by this. When you try to “just create a calorie deficit” it doesn’t come off. Maybe for someone with “healthy fat”, it comes off easy, and they say “see I have the magic answer!”. Maybe it comes right back after your little homo sapien micro-calorie pseudo-science study. It’s complicated.
And then there’s more – that nasty biochemical shit that is happening inside you when you drink that corn syrup, it may be passed to your kids. You may pop out some obese infants. Is that infant not exercising enough? LOL, now the real absurdity of the theory shows. It’s been 100 years since the industrial revolution food nightmare began, some people are fucked for life as soon as they are born, some people are fucked for life after 40 years of Pepsi and “vegetable oil”.
It’s complicated, we do not understand it, and if anyone thinks they do, they are wrong. Werd.
Come on KMD. Look up gluconeogenesis. This is becoming the twilight zone.
Yawn, we have heard this all before. They tried your little theory, they are still fat. “But they should just try harder!”.
For one thing, the body could receive a pepsi and the biochemistry could say “Oh sugar, it is summer time and I found some fruit, I better put on fat for the winter”. The body then decreases available energy to the lifeform so as to put on fat and survive (see stereotypical lazy fat person image). This is within your dimwit “calorie in calorie out” thinking, yet more complicated than you think.
Good luck beating biochemistry with your willpower, might as well fight gravity.
There are almost zero serious science people working in the field of nutrition, I’ve heard all their moron theories.