I used to believe in that, and I felt my problem was I was eating too much and not moving around enough, however, I recently started a "lazy keto" diet and am currently down 30 pounds (back to a normal BMI - and I didn't even change how much I exercise). I don't watch my calories at all, nor do I starve myself. I just watch my carbs. It's been really eye opening.
There's a lot of talk online about how processed foods are making us fat and I think there's something to that. The CICO model doesn't factor in how our body processes macronutrients. We didn't evolve to eat the diet we're currently eating (ex: sugary drinks). I think there's something to eating a diet that's more in-tune with how the body works.
CICO doesn't mean that every diet that works counts calories. It means that all diets require the calories you consume to be lower than the calories you burn. Including keto.
Can some diets impact how many calories you burn? Sure. Not really to the extent that you need to worry about it, though.
Can some diets be effective but unhealthy? Of course. You can follow CICO and lose weight by eating nothing but twinkies[1]. That doesn't mean it's healthy.
At the end of the day, your lazy keto diet allowed you to consume fewer calories than you burned. You just didn't have to keep track.
CICO still applies to Keto, the macronutrient breakdown is just more satiating for many people. It's important for people doing keto to understand this as
1) Keto has a dramatic water weight effect, so people can overindex on their early results "I lost 10 pounds in 5 days!"
2) If you go off track with carbs it becomes a terrible diet, you fall out of ketosis for multiple days and need equivalent carbs to feel ok, boosting your total calories very high.
> I don't watch my calories at all, nor do I starve myself.
The key question though is not whether you are paying attention, but whether they are down or not. It is possible that you are getting full on fewer calories.
It's possible, but if I am, it means protein and fat are better at keeping me satiated. The standard American diet is high in carbs, and it could be that processed carbs aren't very good at keeping someone full.
There's a lot of talk online about how processed foods are making us fat and I think there's something to that. The CICO model doesn't factor in how our body processes macronutrients. We didn't evolve to eat the diet we're currently eating (ex: sugary drinks). I think there's something to eating a diet that's more in-tune with how the body works.