One passionately debated concept is that of “calories-in, calories-out” (CICO). This is colloquial phrasing for how energy balance relates to bodily energy stores. And this gets translated as shorthand for indicating how energy balance influences gain/loss of body mass.
When looking at some of the commentary related to CICO, there are two opposing positions that are both incorrect. On one hand you have people who clearly focus too heavily on calories alone. But on the other you have people claiming that “CICO is wrong” and that looking at energy balance as the main driver of changes in body mass is misguided.
In this episode, we focus in on the latter of those positions, i.e. the claim that “CICO is a myth”, or “calories don’t matter” or “fat loss has nothing to do with CICO” or several other similar statements that we’ll look at one by one.