Okay maybe not “disproving” but certainly “presenting evidence against.”
I had to get you guys to click somehow :)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35102369/
TL;DR: in a 12 week randomized controlled trial, overweight subjects eating “good food” lost more weight than those eating “bad food” even though both regiments were an equivalent 25% decrease in energy. The high quality energy restriction diet led to 2kg more weight loss than the low quality diet. Those on the high quality diet also saw improved metabolic markers.
So… what you eat, how much of it, and when you eat. It all matters.
CICO is a good metric and works very well when comparing apples to apples so to speak. 2000 calories of steak and 2000 calories of cupcakes aren’t the same calories. It’s what comprises those calories that counts, and a CICO study of comparable calories is what shows the purest results.
Just chiming in to recommend Prof. Lustig’s talk on “Is a Calorie a Calorie?” it’s very US centric but the research presented also suggests that eating a clean diet is more beneficial to humans than simply eating at a caloric deficit.
The study showed that people who reduce calories lose weight. People who ate more nutritionally dense diets lost slightly (but statistically significantly) more.
One explanation is that people who “eat better” also feel better and therefore move more, and therefore create an even larger deficit.
I’d also be interested in how they accounted for the fiber. The article said that the “good diet” included increased amount of fiber. If the calorie total included the fiber in the carb count the way nutritional labels do–despite the fact that the fiber (and the calories) literally pass right through us—then the “good diet” group actually had a calorie reduction of more than 25%. That would also explain the additional weight loss.
YoU caNt reFuTE thErmoDyNaMics – CICO Zealot
Calories in labs are measured by burning it. It doesn’t come anywhere close to emulating how the body uses it. People want to believe CICO because it seems so easy, you just add up the numbers and make sure it’s under some arbitrary number you read online. If CICO works for you it’s not because of biology, it’s by coincidence that your insulin is low.
Our weight is controlled by hormones not calories. Eating food that doesn’t trigger insulin spikes insures your body isn’t in fat storing mode the whole time.