Calories in calories out (CICO).

Anyone else get annoyed at the mere sound of this short sentence? For some, it may trigger an automatic grimace. An involuntary contraction to the days of calorie counting and dieting.

Although understandable, this is the general mechanism for body weight gain and loss. It’s an unavoidable truth. We have enough evidence and anecdote to support this now, but the truth is that it doesn’t really give you the how, only the why.

Over the last number of years, the calories for weight loss concept has taken a beating. Most notably from individuals like Gary Taubes, who have leaned into the idea that carbohydrates and insulin are the main drivers of obesity. Much of this has been, in my opinion, sorted through better evidence, but incase you are still skeptical of the calorie equation, I offer you 3 odd & interesting anecdotes to support this.

Before you out me for using anecdotes, I realize the hierarchy of evidence, and these are meant more for entertainment than scientific discourse.

Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds

Imagine eating Twinkies to lose weight…well, it was done by a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University.

For a class project, Haub limited himself to less than 1,800 calories a day. A man of Haub's pre-dieting size usually consumes about 2,600 calories daily. So he followed a basic principle of weight loss: He consumed significantly fewer calories than he burned…

I wish I could say the outcomes are unhealthy. I wish I could say it's healthy. I'm not confident enough in doing that. That frustrates a lot of people. One side says it's irresponsible. It is unhealthy, but the data doesn't say that.

Man loses 40 pounds drinking only beer during Lent

While a man was saying "Bottoms up!" for Lent, the pounds were coming down.

Now that’s a hook. Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like. A man named Del Hall drank only beer for 40 days and lost 41.5lbs. Hall drank from 2 to 5 beers per day, and at the end of it, he said he felt like he was in his twenties!

A Snickers a Day Keeps the Cravings Away: A Case for Flexible Dieting

Throughout the duration of this 10-week experiment, I lost a total of 5.2lbs off the scale and 2 inches off my waist, dropping from 110.8lbs to 105.6lbs and 25.0 inches to 23.0 inches, respectively.

Sohee Lee is a former bodybuilder, owner of Soheefit, and a role model and educator in the health and fitness industry.

During her bikini show prep, she substituted a percentage of her macros with a Snickers bar. Her experiment was to emphasize the role of calories in weight loss, and from my own perspective, that irrespective of food quality you can still lose weight while enjoying the foods you like (within reason).

Sohee successfully dropped down to her show weight despite the Snickers bar, and her bloodwork looked good too!

References

(All photos belong to their respective owners and website)

A Snickers a Day Keeps the Cravings Away: A Case for Flexible Dieting - (soheefit.com)

Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds - CNN.com

Man loses 40 pounds drinking only beer during Lent (local10.com)