It is a strong argument and I know to many examples where this is just simply not the case.
I myself have been eating all my life big portions of food couple times a day, mainly with meat and potatoes, sometimes with some salad though a lot of times without any. I'm not a big fan of sweets, but I do eat bread and some other stuff containing carbs, simply because it is almost impossible to avoid it these days.
At the same time I'm developer spending most of my time in front of computer and I do not go to gym. It has been like this for the last decade, though in the last 5 years I have spent much more time in front of computer and much less doing anything else. Yet my eating habits hasn't changed, neither did my weight. Since I was 16 and my wight was always 90-95 kg, I'm >1.9m height. I believe that this case just proves that calories in vs calories out doesn't always apply. Otherwise by now I should be obese whereas nothing even remotely close has happened.
Don't forget that your basal metabolic rate is not constant in different circumstances and over the duration of your life. It actually goes up if the calories consumed go up. I guess in some lucky individuals it may go up high enough to offset all extra calories - but, surely, to a certain limit.
Also, this BMR varies between different people - even if their bodies are very similar. So that is probably the source of the confusion "i know this guy who eats all the time and is skinny, therefore the calorie theory is wrong".
This page has links to numerous studies that prove the calorie in - calorie out theory. As far as I know, this theory was not yet disproved by any clinical study.
> So that is probably the source of the confusion "i know this guy who eats all the time and is skinny, therefore the calorie theory is wrong".
If we have evidence that something isn't true, and we even have theoretical reasons why it wouldn't be true, why continue calling it "confusion" when someone points out that it doesn't seem true?
(By the way, no one, anywhere, is disputing the laws of thermodynamics when they say that "calories in / calories out" isn't the whole story.)
Except you don't. A guy who eats all of the time and is skinny has a high metabolism. That's still 'calories in' < 'calories out'. The reason it's being called 'confusion' is because someone has made the mistake of thinking 'calories in' = 'weight'.
>By the way, no one, anywhere, is disputing the laws of thermodynamics when they say that "calories in / calories out" isn't the whole story
That's precisely what they are doing. Metabolism, poor calorie absorption, exercise, etc all fall under 'calories out'. It is the whole story, it just doesn't provide a lot of useful details about how to boost the 'calories out' category.
Unless you are done kind of magical machine, or perhaps have some kind of digestive problem which prevents you extracting energy from food, then you are obviously burning the calories you consume.
Even given a relatively sedentary lifestyle, you probably require around 2500 calories a day to maintain your weight. That's actually quite a lot - it's perfectly possible that you don't consume more than that with a couple of big meat-and-potatoes meals every day.
Things like alcohol, soda and snack can add huge calorie counts, and I suspect that in many people these are the factors that are causing weight gain. Have you ever actually added up your calorie intake for a day? It might be lower than you think.
I've been 1.8m and 64kg since I stopped growing. I know I overeat most of the time. Where does the additional energy go? Why is it stored as fat in some people, not in others. There is more to health than simple calories in = calories out.
Can you run us by a typical day of food? I'm not discrediting you, but from experience, what for you is overeating, for others is considered undereating.
It is a strong argument and I know to many examples where this is just simply not the case.
I myself have been eating all my life big portions of food couple times a day, mainly with meat and potatoes, sometimes with some salad though a lot of times without any. I'm not a big fan of sweets, but I do eat bread and some other stuff containing carbs, simply because it is almost impossible to avoid it these days.
At the same time I'm developer spending most of my time in front of computer and I do not go to gym. It has been like this for the last decade, though in the last 5 years I have spent much more time in front of computer and much less doing anything else. Yet my eating habits hasn't changed, neither did my weight. Since I was 16 and my wight was always 90-95 kg, I'm >1.9m height. I believe that this case just proves that calories in vs calories out doesn't always apply. Otherwise by now I should be obese whereas nothing even remotely close has happened.