[simonbarker87]

People get fat through consuming more calories than they burn for energy during the day. There are extra but around the edges but no matter the ratio of fat to carbs to protein, if someone consumes (food or liquid) 3,000 calories a day but only burns 2,500 calories a day then a decent portion of that 500 cal difference will get stored as body fat. You could eat 0 calories of fat but if that total of carbs and protein is over your energy burn then over time you will add body fat.

I believe most people gain excess body fat through eating a little bit more than they need each day and then two or three weeks a year they eat and drink much more (holiday, Xmas, birthday etc), rather than consuming vast amounts of food day in day out of the wrong macro nutrient make up.

[_heimdall]

The calorie hypothesis isn't the most likely from all the research I've done. The calorie as a unit of measure doesn't even make much sense IMO.

A calorie is measured by burning food a specific distance away from a specific amount of water and measuring how much the water temperature rises. It's based on an assumption that the body uses all energy in the food the same, and that fire is analogous to the complex process from digestion to energy use in the cell. The calorie as a measure effectively equates the body to a coal power plant.

[simonbarker87]

Which the body basically is.

Anyone who tracks their calories daily for a long period of time will see that when they eat more they gain weight, when they eat less they loose weight.

Like I said above, there are other aspects that can factor but “calories in calories out” accounts for 80% of weight loss and weight gain (applying the broad brush of the 80:20 rule)

[_heimdall]

If a calorie is a calorie, would you agree that I would be just as well of eating 1800 calories of fat rather than a balanced diet? Could I stick to 1800 calories of gasoline?

We can't simply burn food and deem that an accurate analog to how the body processes and utilizes different food. Ask anyone that live(d) primarily on rabbit meat.

And to be clear, the 80:20 rule is am extremely broad and inaccurate rule of thumb that isn't useful when applied to something specific. You can't claim that calories in equals 80% of calories out because Paredo.

[funcDropShadow]

> “calories in calories out” accounts for 80% of weight loss and weight gain

That is simply not true for people that are already obese.

[francisofascii]

But it does depend on the type of foods. For example, let's take a serving of almonds listed at 160 calories. Your body may only absorb 120 (depends on the person) of those calories to be burned due to the fiber in the almonds. While foods with sugar and little fiber, you get close to 100% of the listed calories.

[simonbarker87]

Sure, and that kind of thing falls into the 20% of the 80:20 rule of most things. The vast majority of people loose or gain weight based on their calorie in take / expenditure

[earthling8118]

This is counter to the point that was made regarding fat. The almonds have a higher ratio of fat to other macros.