>>76465479Calories don't exist. CICO is just a model that has been studied and works. The only thing that it is, and is trying to be, is useful.
That is, if you calculate the magic number of your "TDE", and you eat foods for which the sum of their magic number we call the "calorie count" is less than the TDE, then the prediction of the calorie model is that you'll lose weight.
The calorie model was not designed to account for gigantic binges for which the formulas refined by research to accurately predict weight changes break down.
CICO is a practical model. It is not an actual principled study of the underlying nature of human digestion. Something that accurate would be far to complicated and high resolution for the purposes of not being a fat ass.