When trying to lose
weight, the specific diet plan you're on might not matter much. What experts
say gets you pound-shedding results is an equation called CICO or
"calories in, calories out." For weight loss to work, you have to
restrict calories in some way, so it doesn't quite make a difference if you're
eating keto, Whole30, Paleo, or gluten-free, so long as you're making sure you
take in less calories than you're burning.
What Are the Origins of the CICO Diet?
"In 1780, French
scientist Antoine Lavoisier used a guinea pig to measure heat production
as a way to measure energy (or calories) in food," explains Dr. Deena Solomon, a Los
Angeles-based weight-management expert and cognitive behavioral psychotherapist
and author of Immaculate Consumption: The Path to Lifelong Weight
Management. Lavoisier devised a mathematical formula that could be easily
calculated.
Measuring energy (or
calories), he came up with the name calorimeter for a device to determine how
many calories are consumed when eating. "In the early 1920s, Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters, an
American doctor, came up with a simple formula based on Lavoisier's precise and
scientifically-proven equation: The one and only way to lose weight is to lower
calories. This became the universally accepted method for weight
reduction," Dr. Solomon says.
CICO and the idea of
calories in, calories out follows the notion that weight loss requires a
balance between the energy consumed and energy used. "Increasing your
calorie expenditure beyond what is consumed will result in the number on the
scale going down," says Dr. Adrienne
Youdim, an associate clinical professor of medicine at UCLA's David
Geffen School of Medicine and a diplomat of the American Board of Internal
Medicine, the National Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists, and the
American Board of Obesity Medicine.
Related: 6 Ways To Cut Calories Every Day
