Okay well maybe weight loss is just calories in, calories out but long-term fat loss is much more.
Some history: I’ve always been overweight. Five or so years ago I found this sub and decided to take a proven approach to lose weight: CICO. I downloaded My fitness pal and started tracking everything I ate. I learned about micros and macros, sugar and fiber, fasting and eating several small meals. The weight came off steadily. It was such a relief knowing that if I just tracked what I ate accurately and stuck to my caloric budget then I would lose weight. Yeah sure, tracking could be a pain and I could be a little bit obsessive at times but I was feeling better, sleeping better, and (most importantly at the time) looking better. People were proud of me. People asked me how I did it. I told them how easy it was and converted many serial dieters to CICO. Overall I lost over 100 pounds!
Sounds great right? Well yeah, in some ways it was but in others it was a disaster.
I quickly realized there was a tremendous difference in losing 100 lbs and losing 100 lbs of fat. I looked terrible with my clothes off. What muscle mass I had was long gone. Some days I even thought I looked worse than before.
I (obviously) never had an great sense of knowing what to eat intuitively but now any sort of regulatory system I had was completely shot. I relied on mfp for so long it felt like I had forgotten how to eat without it. When, what, and how to eat seemed strangely foreign to me.
I never learned what made me overeat in the first place. I believe that most people who are obese are self medicating with food. Maybe it’s childhood trauma or maybe it’s just stress at work. Either way, relying solely on CICO bypasses the need to confront these issues and develop healthier coping mechanisms. I believe this is why studies show that only about 5-10% of people who lose a significant amount of weight keep it off long term. The other 90% do not learn to handle their emotions without food which in turn doesn’t provide them the opportunity to develop new habits that would allow them to sustain their fat loss. Without these new habits you are very, very likely to go off the rails and gain all the weight back (and then some statistically.)
Finally my hormones were out of wack. I’m not a doctor so I won’t go into the specifics but the newest medical evidence suggests that hormones do play an important role in weight management and when they are not properly balanced it can make the process more difficult. Now, I’m not saying that you’re overweight because you have a hormonal issue and so you might as well not try. I’m just saying that it is a factor worthy of consideration.
I say all that to say this: Long term fat loss must be more than just CICO. Calories are definitely a big part of the equation, no one can deny that. But so is strength training to preserve and/or build lean mass, hormonal balance, and emotional wellness. CICO should not be the only tool in your toolbox if you want to be successful long term.
I hope you all can learn from my mistakes and start developing these skills now so that you are successful in your journey. I wish you the best of luck and believe in all of you!
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