So certain are you? How are we measuring the calories for this bet, by what's on the package?
How does that number on the package get measured?
When I eat nuts, cashews, etc., did 100% of the food get digested and absorbed? A day later or so, there seems to be counterevidence of that plainly visible in the bathroom.
You are mixing up 2 issues here. We're not debating what % of food gets digested, so it's off topic.
We are talking about the theory that if you eat fructose, or if you eat 'highly processed foods' there is some complex hormone response that causes those calories to be preferentially stored as fat or to slow the metabolism down so they aren't burned.
For sure you are correct when you say that the calories on the label of a food is just an estimate, and not a very good one.
When people talk about "restricting your caloric intake", they are very obviously talking about what's written on the package and not after making calculations based on whether it's fat, protein or carbohydrates. So I think both issues are very tightly related.
Unfortunately I never look at the calories on the label as I only look out for salt and proteins.
However, you can make the calculations based on the numbers I gave in my other comment - which are taken from Why Calories Don't Count from Dr Giles Yeo.
I think you still can't overcome 500 calories of deficit. If you ate pure protein you will still be in 150 calories of deficit using the most conservative numbers (30% overhead to process protein).
But this is assuming you calculate your daily calorie burn with one diet that is pure protein and then convert to one that has 100% calorie availability, you still can't overcome 500 calories of deficit on paper!
Realistically you would change diets, then find your baseline based on the new diet, and then calculate a calorie deficit from there. In that case you would be very close to a 500 calorie deficit, and you would unavoidably lose about 1lb of fat per week. A 500 calorie deficit sucks but you will adapt to it in a few months if you stick to it. I've managed to lose over 50lbs in the last year, probably close to 75lbs of fat mass. (I did use a GLP1, dieting is hard)
Our metabolism slows down primarily because it takes more energy to keep a fat person alive than it does to keep a healthy person alive. After you lose 20% or more of your body weight you might start to notice this, it isn't a real concern. The effect is negligible and again notice that people taking drugs thet let them comply with a calorie deficit diet don't have to resort to excuses like this to explain a failure to lose weight.
The cause of a failure to lose weight with moderate calorie restriction is always a failure to maintain the calorie restriction aka cheating on the diet (because it is incredibly hard to do when you aren't used to it).
I think you know more than me on the subject. I have never cared about calories in my life and never really cared about my weight.
I lived abroad for a year and, when coming back home, started eating healthily (i.e. more greens and less reds, avoiding added salt). In about 3 months, I managed to reduce my weight by 10% - about 6kg. Although I have to admit, if anything, I wanted to keep those kilograms because it was helping me for weight-training lol. My objective was never to lose weight.
How does that number on the package get measured?
When I eat nuts, cashews, etc., did 100% of the food get digested and absorbed? A day later or so, there seems to be counterevidence of that plainly visible in the bathroom.