[phil21]

The simple act of tracking things - even with no intent to change - typically makes me eat far less, or do the activity far more. Anecdotes with friends makes me believe this is quite common.

There is literally no way to take in more calories than you expend and not gain weight - short of hyper-specific and exceedingly rare medical conditions you'd be quite aware of.

Some people find this easier or harder than others due to a whole host of factors. Physics is physics though, and there is no way to run a calorie deficit and not lose weight. It's why this drug class is so interesting/popular - it lowers the bar for many people, making the effort of taking in less calories than they expend much easier to achieve.

[eyelidlessness]

> The simple act of tracking things - even with no intent to change - typically makes me eat far less, or do the activity far more.

When I started tracking things so closely, I was already concerned that I’d been losing weight and feeling very strong cravings for sweets which I don’t usually care for. The effect wasn’t that I ate less: I started making an effort to eat more, again much like I used to eat. The biggest change is that eating enough has been a concerted effort rather than fairly automatic.