Why ‘CALORIES IN VS CALORIES OUT’ DOESN’T WORK

AS LONG AS YOU CONSUME FEWER CALORIES THAN YOU BURN, YOU SHOULD LOSE WEIGHT, RIGHT? WELL, THAT’S NOT STRICTLY TRUE. HERE’S WHY…

- ASHLEIGH ROMAN AND REGISTERED DIETITIAN JANDRI BARNARD

The idea behind the CICO (calories in, calories out) weight-loss strategy is that in order to lose weight, you can eat anything you like as long as you take in fewer calories than you burn every day. In other words, it doesn’t matter what you eat, but rather how much of it you eat.

Calories do have a bearing on weight loss, but it’s not as simple as a direct relationship. Most nutritionists agree that CICO has more to do with shedding kilos fast than it does with shifting your attitude towards food, and as such is unsustainable in the long term. A CICO strategy may help you lose weight, but it won’t necessarily help you create a better relationship with food, or create healthy food habits to ensure that you keep the weight off once you’ve lost it.

CICO EXPLAINED

With CICO, calorie counting is put front and centre. To maintain a stable weight, the calories you take in need to balance, not exceed, those you burn; to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume. That is what’s important, not what those calories are made up of. For example, if your daily calorie intake is capped at 1500 in order to lose weight, the theory goes that you could eat ice cream and cookies to fill those 1500 calories and still lose weight by staying within the calorie limit.

But the reality is, our individual experiences with weight loss and our specific needs are vastly different, which makes it difficult to accurately determine how much weight can be sustainably lost using the CICO method. And, when it comes to weight management, there are many other factors to consider, such as metabolism and individual health concerns.