The idea that the calories you take in through your mouth are the “input” and that the exercise you do to burn them is “output” and that the balance between the two is all that matters is bullshit.
Well, if you manage to consistently gain weight while consuming fewer calories than you expend, this has interesting consequences for thermodynamics.
It’s not bullshit, but it’s also a red herring for the actual question, which is how to actually reduce body weight in a sustainable, healthy manner.
The thing is, it’s both bullshit and strictly false. There’s always some amount of food energy that goes in your mouth and comes straight out the other end, and this varies based on a host of poorly-understood factors.
Edit: I’m arguing against the extremely common assertion that energy eaten = energy expended + weight gain, which is what your original comment looked like. If you’re talking strictly about fat cell behavior, you’re right, but this is rather useless information for the purpose of weight loss. What SoullessAutomaton said was energy eaten >= energy expended + weight gain, which is indeed true.
Well, if you manage to consistently gain weight while consuming fewer calories than you expend, this has interesting consequences for thermodynamics.
It’s not bullshit, but it’s also a red herring for the actual question, which is how to actually reduce body weight in a sustainable, healthy manner.
There’s a difference between “false” and “bullshit”. You could argue that the equation is bullshit without saying that it was strictly false.
The thing is, it’s both bullshit and strictly false. There’s always some amount of food energy that goes in your mouth and comes straight out the other end, and this varies based on a host of poorly-understood factors.
Edit: I’m arguing against the extremely common assertion that energy eaten = energy expended + weight gain, which is what your original comment looked like. If you’re talking strictly about fat cell behavior, you’re right, but this is rather useless information for the purpose of weight loss. What SoullessAutomaton said was energy eaten >= energy expended + weight gain, which is indeed true.
If you have diabetes mellitus you lose a lot of glucose in your urine. Certainly that simple case complicates the energy in energy out dogma.
“out” would have been a better word than “expended”—to cover all the ways that energy can leave your body, including glucose in the urine.
Fair enough, but I think making the distinction explicit is important, and that Eliezer’s edited post is better for it.
Call me superstitious, but I prefer to avoid anything that might get the Laws of Thermodynamics angry. You don’t wanna mess with those guys.
Nah—they’re cool
Edited to make clear the difference.
Isn’t that exactly what he said?