[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

I find that to be unlikely, frankly. There are a lot of strategies to achieve a better CICO ratio, and I think those have incredibly varied success rates for different people, but when it comes right down to it if you don't find a way to change that ratio then you will never succeed. In my experience, the most expedient way to do it is to count calories.

I also don't think this is anywhere near as "unhealthy" as people want to believe it is. I think that largely arises from our discomfort with being hungry, and our general intuition about which foods are "healthy" and which aren't. However, consider the case of nutrition professor Mark Haub, who ate nothing but garbage convenience store snacks for 10 weeks at a caloric deficit and not only lost 27lbs, but had all of his health metrics improve: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/...

[makeitdouble]

Reducing overall stress is a pretty well known way to improve health, and it often leads to better diets/lower fat ratio one way or another. I don’t think it’s hard to find stories of people losing weight after getting out of shitty jobs/damaging relationships.

Focusing on numbers (calorie counting etc.) can help people who like numbers and need to focus on something. But these people don’t need any push to go find numbers to follow. The same way I fundamentally like sport, I needed nobody’s advice to go do hours of sports when I felt my body was getting rusty.

[mountainboy]

not surprising to me. fasting has many health benefits. I've experienced it for myself.

If interested, check out "The science of fasting" documentary.