Originally posted on ketochow.xyz/2017/06/one-cause-one-effect-conventional-wisdom-switched/.
So I was listening to the 2 Keto Dudes podcast and something Richard Morris said struck me as extremely important. There’s a lot of heated debate in fitness and nutrition about Calories In = Calories Out? also known by the shorthand CICO. The basic premise is that: You lose weight if you eat fewer calories than you need, including calories from exercise. This thinking also assumes that people who are fat got that way because they eat too many calories (it’s a character flaw they should be deeply ashamed of) and they stay that way because they are too lazy to just exercise (again, it’s a character flaw they should be ashamed of). People who are fat?got that way and stay that way because they indulge in ‘sinful? behavior and as a society we condemn them, mock them and denigrate them openly. It’s pretty much the only socially acceptable prejudice nowadays.
I think that line of thinking is stupid and reprehensible, among other things.
Here’s what I got from Richard’s comments. Conventional wisdom says that:
(Calories Consumed) (Calories Burned) = (Calories Stored as fat)
Everything I’ve seen (with decent science behind it, and the fundamentals of how insulin works) say that instead:
(Calories Consumed) (Calories Stored as fat) = (Calories Burned)
It’s a slight change in the order which one is the cause and which one is an effect, but let’s look at what this means