[slimbods]

That's great if we all live in control rooms. The part 'calories in calories out' misses is that what you eat, how you eat, where you eat, how your body reacts to what you eat, who you eat with, where you live, what food is available, the price of food....all impacts how much you eat.

[paco3346]

I think of 'calories out' as including all the the what, how, where, etc. I think 'calories in calories out' is true, but I think often only things like exercise and BMR are considered in the sum of the out.

[LanceH]

The part that it gets right, though, is that way too many people are lying to themselves about how many calories they are actually consuming. It's not like the average overweight-obese person is sitting at 2000 calories a day and can't figure out why they aren't losing weight. They're eating 1000 calories a meal, drinking soda, eating snacks.

Sure there are metabolic outliers and everyone loves to bring them up. They are, however, outliers. Horrible diet and a sedentary lifestyle are the main culprits where calories in/out very much holds.