Don’t be alarmed if I stir up any emotion when I say that the CICO (calories in, calories out) model has been grossly misunderstood.
For years, our country has been a victim of thinking that energy balance is the only thing that matters when it comes to losing weight, but recent research tells us otherwise.
Those of you who don’t know what CICO is, well… I’m sure you’ll get the picture when I say it’s the concept of how many “pros” believe that the only thing that matters is eating less and moving more to lose weight.
While energy balance is crucial for optimal health, we forget the simple fact that what you do to cut calories may be the reason you get stuck in weight loss.
When you eat fewer calories than you burn, you can certainly start to lose weight. We will not discuss that fact. I will also advise those using this analogy to think about “balance” with their diet so that they don’t feel restricted to certain foods.
After all, you can lose weight despite eating Twinkies for 10 weeks like Kansas State’s Dr. Mark Haub did in 2010.
The one thing I would like to remind everyone of is that when it comes to fat loss, not all foods are created equal. Fat loss is not the only thing that is affected by what happens in the mouth. Things like blood lipids, blood sugar, systemic inflammation, gut health, and adrenal health all have important factors when it comes to fat loss.
All of these things are affected by nutrition, stress, and recovery. If you don’t have all three pieces aligned… your weight loss efforts will come to an eerie halt.
Let me post some research on you:
A study of 36 men dieted for three months at 3,200 calories per day. Suddenly for the next 6 months they were almost starving on 1570 calories per day. They were given carbohydrate-rich foods for energy and rarely ate meat and dairy products. They walked between 20 and 22 miles a week.
Once they reached six months, they began to increase calories and showed drastic behavior. His resting metabolic rate dropped almost 40%! They began to feel cold and irritable and had no motivation.
They were restless sleepers and began to obsess over food…creating borderline eating disorder behavior.
He showed that calories in and calories out are dependent variables. A simple analogy that occurs to you is this:
Imagine that you earn $100,000 in a year with a philosophy of money in and money out. If your income drops to $25,000 all of a sudden, what would happen to the money that goes out? Do you think you would continue to spend the $80,000 to $100,000?
Not if you have brains and don’t want to go broke! Money coming in and going out are dependent variables.
So now applying this to calories in and calories out… you can see that reducing calories into your body to lose weight only works if the number of calories you burn is stable. Where most people go wrong, though, is that they drastically reduce their intake of calories and don’t realize that they just messed up their body’s homeostasis and their calories are now lower, which stops weight loss. while your body tries to balance the energy budget.
You see, your body is smart! When you play around with it, like crash dieting, cutting carbs, excessive exercise, you’ll naturally start to burn less. Then you get angry and eat even less.
What happens then? You cut calories further and end up feeling worse, putting more stress on your body. Your cortisol becomes chronically elevated with the disruption of other important hormones like ghrelin, estrogen, testosterone, and others.
So the next time you start your diet, remember that you may be setting yourself up for a long road of recovery ahead if you don’t get it right. These things need to be strategically planned just like your training.
You can’t step forward and expect to hit a home run if you’ve never played baseball. Don’t start messing with your body’s natural ability to burn calories without a proper plan.
Remember:
Total energy expenditure = basal metabolic rate + thermogenic effect of food + non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) + post-exercise binge eating (EPOC) + exercise.
Energy expenditure is not just your workouts. In fact, they only account for 15-22% of the total calories you burn on a daily basis…so you want to make sure your “under the hood” parts are working well.
That’s one of the key building blocks of my “Simple Seven” method that I teach in my Revive program to prepare your body for fat loss.
If you’re tired of constantly feeling like you’re dieting and exercising to get nowhere, you’re not alone.
And if you want, you can schedule a free call with me where I’ll help you make your own personal roadmap to stay healthy! To go bit.ly/3RfWSxS.
Mike Over is the owner of Over-Achieve Fitness in Chambersburg. Follow him on Instagram at @mjo_oaf.
