I get what you are saying. And you put forward a nice argument. The problem is that the ANTI-CICO-Crowd takes the stance that "CICO WONT WORK BECAUSE MY CO IS REDUCED HAH TAKE THAT CICO-FUCKTARDS"
Which is stupid.
If you want to loose weight and maintain a reasonable BMI during the long run you need 2 things.
1) A healthy diet, if you are in America this requires a bit of planning, if you live in Europe its easier. Limit the portion size (and if you are fat you don't know what a normal portion size is, look to you skinnier friends for inspiration).
2) Get your heart rate up a couple of times a week. If you are fat this might be the _walk_ to the store. If you are just weak weight training is great. And for 99% you most likely should aim to increase the amount of condition training, brisk walks, joggins, biking, chopping wood whatever.
Diet and exercise are indeed the keys to weight loss.
By focusing exclusively on CICO, one dismisses the fact that people dislike feeling hungry. To say it's simply an issue of willpower dismisses the importance role of hormones in driving behavior. When it comes to weight loss, some people are dominated by their hormonal responses, while others have more regulated responses.
I think I've found a good analogy: advocating CICO as primary strategy to lose weight is like saying all you need to do to complete a road track is to drive forward and stay on the track. The track shape analogizes to the unique dynamics of a person's hormonal feedback loops. Completing the race analogizes to hitting a weight loss goal, while going for fastest lap time is like a doing a 30-day weight loss challenge.
There's roughly 8 billion unique tracks in the world. Some tracks may be a drag strip, others may be Nurburgring-style circuits, and an unlucky few get the Baja 1000. Virtually everyone rides a normal car with gas, brakes, and a steering wheel, though performance characteristics do vary. At all times, you are the only driver on the track. Completing a drag strip track is trivial: just drive straight. Some tracks (like a NASCAR circuit) have banked turns which allow for high speeds with minimal focus on turning or braking. Many tracks, however, require different strategies. As an example, you MUST brake at turns on the Nurburgring because failure to break WILL cause you to leave the track, potentially causing a spinout or even a crash. If a racer aims for a specific lap time, they'll need to maintain a minimum average speed across the lap, which requires learning optimal driving, turning, and braking strategies specific to that course.
I think you can mine this analogy for more insight, but the primary point is: CICO is in all weight loss strategies, but because of personal hormone dynamics, not all weight loss strategies can be CICO.
Which is stupid.
If you want to loose weight and maintain a reasonable BMI during the long run you need 2 things.
1) A healthy diet, if you are in America this requires a bit of planning, if you live in Europe its easier. Limit the portion size (and if you are fat you don't know what a normal portion size is, look to you skinnier friends for inspiration).
2) Get your heart rate up a couple of times a week. If you are fat this might be the _walk_ to the store. If you are just weak weight training is great. And for 99% you most likely should aim to increase the amount of condition training, brisk walks, joggins, biking, chopping wood whatever.