CICO in the Context of Overall Diet

Calories In, Calories Out (CICO) is ultimately what matters when it comes to weight loss. It is simply the laws of thermodynamics; if you put less energy into your body than it uses in a day, it will have to source that energy elsewhere.

However when you apply CICO to your daily life and overall diet, while its rule still applies, we have to consider how it impacts our diet in terms of longevity and sustainability. I read many posts and questions referencing this and, while they understand and successfully apply the concept of CICO, they feel hungry, sick, and they can't sleep. What good is CICO if after three days you feel ill enough that you need to quit?

This post is an attempt to help guide those who the previous paragraph describes; those not only looking to implement CICO into their diet, but change their habits and approach to food in a way that allows them to more effortlessly apply CICO to their diet in a sustainable way.

Below in the tables I have created two meal plans loosely based off meals I've had in my life. For each meal, I'll break down each ingredient into its weight in grams and the total calories it contributes to the meal. Note that zero or near-zero calorie ingredients are not included (spices, water, etc.)

Ingredient	Grams	Calories
Breakfast Omellete
Eggs x3	159	210
Spinach	15	4
Onions	20	8
Tomatoes	30	7
Lunch of Chicken Breast, Butter and Salted Asapargus, Apple
Chicken Breast	210	210
Vegetable Oil	4.5	40
Asparagus	120	29
Butter	2.5	18
Apple	215	112
Dinner of Beef and Vegetable Stew
Lean Ground Beef	275	577
Russet Potato	165	134
Cauliflower	177	44
Carrots	129	52
Broccoli	106	36
Onions	60	25
White Flour	28	56
Beef Boullon	16.5	15
Vegetable Oil	4.5	40
Total:	1,737	1,617

The total weight of food in this meal is 1.737 kg (3.82 lbs) for 1,617 calories

Ingredient	Grams	Calories
Breakfast Toast and Peanut Butter
Rye Toast x2	69	190
Peanut Butter	15	80
Lunch of Chicken, Rice, Broccoli, and Nuts
Chicken Breast	150	150
Vegetable Oil	4.5	40
Rice (cooked)	200	221
Broccoli	106	36
Cashews	28	157
Dinner Quesadilla
Tortilla x1	64	190
Cheese	30	110
Sour Cream	15	25
Guacamole	15	25
Lean Ground Beef	200	420
Total:	897	1,644

The total weight of food in this meal is 0.897 kg (1.97 lbs) for 1,644 calories.

From a CICO standpoint, these two meals are nearly identical. However, when you look at the total amount of food ate in grams, the first meal is nearly 2x times the amount of food. So while you will lose approximately the same amount of weight on each diet, the one that has you consuming nearly 2x the amount of food is going to have feeling fuller, happier, and sleeping well, which ultimately leads to long-term sustainability and successful long-term weight loss.

Another way to look at this is how many calories you'd eat if you ate the same amount of food in both meals. A lot of people comment that they eat the same amount of food as others, but they gain weight while others naturally stay fit. This has a lot to do with composition of food. If we gross-up the second meal to match the weight of the first meal, you would be eating approximately 3,200 calories a day, which is easy to see how you would gain weight over time.

One last thing I would like to mention, is that all these meals from a flavor-quality standpoint are the same. The first meal plan is not more bland than the second in any way. Purely from taste alone, I'm quite indifferent on which I eat.

While this isn't a perfect example, I hope it can begin to shed some light on how composition of diet matters. While CICO is still ultimately what matters, what you eat and how much you eat plays a huge role in sustainability.

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