Creating a caloric deficit

Many people who argue against the CICO theory fall into the trap of believing that we are dealing with a static system, when we are actually talking about a dynamic in which our body varies its response according to the caloric intake. In other words, the amount of calories we ingest affect the amount of calories we expend. It has been shown in several studies (1-6) that when we increase the caloric intake (and thus increasing body weight) it can lead to increases in the total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), while when we cut down our caloric intake, we are reducing the amount of calories we burn in a day. In this way, we will see that de actual long term weight loss will be inferior than expected (7) regardless of whether we are on a low or high carb diet. Even so, we have to take into account that the person’s behavior will influence more their weight loss results than the metabolic adaptations.