Watch the video below to be reminded of one of life's great lessons.

  
You've heard it a million times, Eat Less, Move More.

You’ve may have also heard that that ELMM = Eat Less Move More is a failed strategy for weight loss. The rationale is something like one, or more, of the following:

• A calorie is not a calorie, because two people who eat the same amount won't weigh the same, or gain or lose the same amount of weight.

• The 3500 cal/pound fat figure is wrong because with deliberate overfeeding
or caloric restriction, people don't gain or lose exactly as this formula would predict.

• If you eat less your metabolism will just slow down to compensate.

• If you move more deliberately, aka exercise, you'll just move less later in the day
and/or be so hungry you'll compensate by eating more.

A study of body composition of small children as related to total body fat and physical activity level published in 2012 indicates that non-exercise activity thermogenesis is genetically hardwired. This means that naturally more active babies put on less body fat than the naturally less active ones because they naturally expend more energy.

There are many studies which show that there’s a wide variation between the resting energy expenditures of different individuals. A study of Thermogenesis after cold and overfeeding published in 2007 indicates that thermogenic responses are genetically hardwired.

Although it appears possible that both non-exercise exercise activity and thermogenesis is genetically hardwired, there are many gurus and diet book authors who say that eating this or that macronutrient, taking this or that supplement, exercising or not exercising this or that way, or adopting their particular food and/or exercise plan holds the magic answer.

Maybe I’m a pessimist, but I don’t believe there’s a whole lot that we can do about our genetic hardwiring. Personally I prefer to manage calories-out in a manner I know there is some control over, rather than chase after false promises of boosting metabolism through various other, largely untested/unsubstantiated, and often expensive, means.

I'm not aware of any clinical evidence that supports the notion
that a person can't lose weight eating less total calories of whatever.
*How* a person prefers to eat less is individual.
Different diets or food plans seem to really be merely variations of the same general theme. The amount an individual need to eat or the amount they need to exercise to accomplish weight-loss is different from person-to-person.

Calories-in is just a shorthand way to describe the amount of food we put into the body.
Calories-out is just a shorthand way to describe the amount of energy the body uses.
Calories-in/Calories-out is merely a shorthand way to generally describe how energy in the body works. That's it. That's all it means. 

However, what’s true is that those calories numbers are often different for different people
…even for those people who have the same height, weight, age, a...

       
Below are Eight charts showing Yearly Averages of my own Daily Food Intake. Beginning 9/20/2004 through 8/8/2012  ...  an 8 year period (approx 7 years 11 months) 2880 consecutive days of detailed record keeping.

Despite low-calorie eating, one can see that my nutritional needs were adequately met during the entire 8 years. I find it personally interesting that although I experimented with a great many different "diets" and eating plans, my nutritional yearly nutritional ratio averages wound up overall being quite similar.

One CAN see slight differences in nutritional ratio due to various experimentation with various low-carb eating plans during the past 3 years in that the fat ratio increased slightly; the carb ratio decreased slightly, while the protein ratio remained fairly constant.

                                                     

FOLLOW UP NOTE: 
Be sure to read the Final SUMMARY
showing average weight and average calorie comparisons.

1st chart Below started on 9/20/2004 - therefore the yearly average is 42 days less than 1 year.

SUMMARY
9-2004 through 8-2012 
8 year period (approx 7 years 11 months)  2880 consecutive days of record keeping

Date        Weight

9/2004: --- 190.5 lbs.
8/2005: ----145.2 lbs.
Loss 45.3 lbs. - 1235 average daily calorie intake
11 month pe...

I consistently record my food intake and weight data in various computer programs.  I have now been doing this consistently every day for almost eight years. ..…. as of the time of this writing, for the past 7 years and 11 months.

The Computer and software program in which I record my food is a useful TOOL. There are many such food journaling programs,  but my own personal choice (at this time) is a program called DietPower. (Update 2018: My Recommended Food Journal for beginners is now  "My Fitness Pal". My behavior of RECORDING my food intake every day forces me to stay aware of my actions, and it keeps me out of Denial. I know what I'm doing, and what I've done, and I continually face my own actions head-on.

 Sitting at the computer and entering the daily data has become a Habit which …most of the time….is an enjoyable one.  It is sometimes emotionally difficult to actually write down Everything I've eaten, but in a way it's similar to a Catholic going to Confession. My frequent input of my total food information often brings a sense of relief and sometimes even personal Absolution, a feeling of pardon or forgiveness.

I am Accountable for my eating BEHAVIOR every day, no matter what it is.
My weights are the RESULTS of my eating Behaviors, and those RESULTS are actually outside my personal control. I am responsible for the food that I put into my mouth (my behavior). I am not responsible for what the scale says (my results) because I cannot control what my body chooses to do with that food.

Therefore,

I am responsible for my Behavior, but not for my Results.

The scale is merely a TOOL that reflects the total weight of one's total body, including fat, water, bones, fecal material etc. It shows the RESULTS of my eating BEHAVIOR.

The scale is without personality. It is not a Judge and Jury of my actions, but is merely a reflection of them.
Ones individual weight on one single day might not be very accurate, but graphing many days of those individual weights gives an extremely accurate picture of the RESULTS of one's eating BEHAVIORS.