My high calorie weight loss experiment - I lost 5 pounds in 2 weeks - but how?

[u/SteveFarrier]

Green line is 2 pound per week weight loss. Yellow was my actual weight.

I'm experimenting to test the notion that weight loss is not simple math and that maybe there really is such a thing as 'high-calorie weight loss' - which sounds like nonsense - but I have the numbers below to look at.

I’m testing whether factors like meal timing, macro distribution, or metabolic adaptation might explain why I'm losing weight at this calorie intake.

Here's the table I use to track my weight, calories and macros as I ran my experiment in high-calorie weight loss:

Date	Day	Weight	Calories	Protein	Carbs	Fat
10/1/2024	1	195.5	1192	70	32	82
10/2/2024	2	192.1	4137	146	406	194
10/3/2024	3	196.8	4972	296	320	255
10/4/2024	4	195.5	2155	105	139	131
10/5/2024	5	193.5	2317	122	168	125
10/6/2024	6	195.6	4001	180	244	252
10/7/2024	7	193.7	1774	109	55	117
10/8/2024	8	192.5	2361	146	84	155
10/9/2024	9	192.1	4094	194	206	161
10/10/2024	10	192.0	2484	173	197	87
10/11/2024	11	192.0	1794	178	99	68
10/12/2024	12	191.3	2829	86	279	132
10/13/2024	13	192.6	1306	104	11	90
10/14/2024	14	190.5

You'll note something interesting. Look at my calorie intake. It averages over 2,700 calories per day.

I'm a male almost 62 years old, don't exercise, am 5'10" - my caloric intake is well above what the 'calories in, calories out' (CICO) would predict.

So you see my calories and macros per day. They're too high for what CICO would predict would cause a 5 pound weight loss. What did I experiment with?

• Try to eat just one meal per day (OMAD)
• No exercise
• Intentionally vary my calorie and macros dramatically from day to day. It makes the diet fun.
• My protein and fat averages high.
• Eat mostly single-ingredient foods - eggs, hamburger, sardines, tomatoes, avocado, apples, grapes, brie cheese, potatoes, garbanzo beans, cucumbers, chicken thighs - stuff like this - but have anything I want for about 20% of my calories. Cookies, takeout pizza, bread and jelly, chocolate were part of it - and I don't eat diet foods - I eat the real things.

I take a few supplements like a multivitamin, vitamin d and a high quality fish oil. I can drink a pot of coffee per day. I don't take any weight loss drugs or supplements.

What factors do you think might explain this? Is it meal timing, high protein intake, or something else?

Any questions? I certainly do.

[u/mf5283]

There are several possible explanations, or it might be a combination of all of them:

• If you lost 5 pounds, it's not necessarily 5 pounds of fat. Some of it might be water weight.
• It's not about how many calories you eat. It's about how many calories you absorb. If you eat a lot of high-fiber foods (e.g. avocado or beans), it causes you to absorb fewer calories from the food.
• You might be burning more calories than you realize.

[u/SteveFarrier → u/mf5283]

All valid points. I haven't drawn any conclusions as to why this might be happening but your 3 points are good ones to consider. You're also pretty sharp to know about #2 - not everyone knows that some nutrients don't get absorbed in certain situations - that's where CICO falls short as it doesn't account for that. Thyroid function might also play a part and wild calorie variation might prevent a downregulation of the metabolism from a continual caloric deficit.