Great to hear from someone who’s walked both sides! I can’t believe so many don’t see the common sense of it. Congrats on all you’ve done…keep it up.
I don’t completely agree with the other posters. It’s not simply a matter of calories in - calories out, because the body does not only know calories, it knows nutrition.
Thus, while you might be able to create a caloric deficit by eating 1500 calories of Cheetos, and while you might lose pounds, those pounds will likely be from muscle not fat.
So, while you can drop weight, you would not really be achieving the desired body composition. You need good nutrition and a calorie deficit to reduce fat and maintain muscle mass.
So, maybe from an absolute truth standpoint–yep, less calories leads to weight loss. But I am pretty sure that the average dieter doens’t just want to weight less but still look bad–they want to weight less and look better.
All this talk reminded me of yet another Simpsons episode:
Homer: Bart! Butter your bacon!
Bart: But dad, my heart hurts…
Homer: Butter it!!!