Terminology

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BMI (Body Mass Index): A commonly used formula for determining whether an individual is underweight (<18.5), normal weight (18.5—24.9), overweight (25.0—29.9), obese (30.0-39.9), or morbidly obese (≥40.0). It is calculated by taking the person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of their height in meters. While it is often considered to be an imperfect system, BMI is useful to get an idea of where someone’s weight is relative to other people of their same height.

BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate): The calories you burn at rest. Many people refer to this as the amount of calories you would need to consume to maintain your current weight if you were in a coma.

Budget: The number of calories that you allot yourself to eat over the course of a day, week, or other period of time.

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Calorie Cycling: Tracking your calories out over a week (or other timeframe) instead of over a day. This means you can eat more calories on some days but still maintain a bigger deficit by eating less on other days. Some people refer to this as “counting weekly.” Some calorie counting apps even have this built in as a function, through being able to view your budget on a weekly level or even adjusting your budget to be higher on some days than others.

CICI (Crave It? Count It!): Our community. At Crave It? Count It!, we follow evidenced based science to make long term and sustainable weight loss attainable. We view weight loss as a long term lifestyle change rather than a short term diet.

CICO (Calories In, Calories Out): Your weight and how your weight changes is a result of the number of calories you eat (calories in) compared to the number of calories your body burns (calories out). Calories out includes all of the calories your body burns, including exercise, activities of daily living, and even just keeping your organs running. In weight loss communities, CICO can also refer to the act of counting calories.

Counting Calories: Keeping track of the amount of calories you are taking in (calories in). Many people use this to try to moderate the amount they are consuming, so that they will be taking in less calories than they are burning (calories out) in order to facilitate weight loss.

CW (Current Weight): The weight you're at right now.

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Deficit: When you are eating less calories than your body uses, you are “in a deficit” or “creating a deficit.” Being consistently in a deficit will mean you should lose weight. The size of your average deficit will determine how quickly you lose weight.

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Fluctuations/Daily Flux: Your weight is not only determined by the amount of muscle and fat on your body but also by many things that are constantly changing like how much food is making its way through your digestive tract, how much you have had to drink, how much fluid your body is retaining from salt, and many other factors. Due to this, your weight will not decrease linearly and will change by as much as several pounds throughout the day. If you weigh yourself constantly you will find that the number bounces around a lot. Over time, the overall trend is what you want to be looking at to determine if you are losing weight successfully.

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Gains (Gainz): Progress, whether in weight loss or muscle building, is sometimes called gains or gainz. These are most often shown off in progress pictures, but they do not have to be visual. Gains can also refer to mental or emotional changes.

Guesstimating: Making a best guess at the caloric content of a meal. This is usually used for food prepared by other people, either at home or in a restaurant, where nutrition information is not readily available. It can also be used when, for whatever reason, accurate measurements are not possible.

GW (Goal Weight): The weight you are trying to reach. This number can change over time, and you might not have one at all or quite know what you want it to be. That is totally okay! Some people also like to make “mini goals” so that they have something they are working towards that seems more attainable than their ultimate goal weight.

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HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training): A style of workout that involves short bursts of intense cardio activity interspersed with short periods of rest or low intensity activity.

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IF (Intermittent Fasting): Giving yourself a limited time frame during which you eat, referred to as a daily eating window.

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Macros (Macronutrients): The various types of nutrients that make up calories. These are carbs (both complex carbohydrates and simple carbohydrates i.e. sugar), fat, and protein. Some people choose to track their macros in addition to tracking their calories.

Maintaining/Maintenance: The state of maintaining your current weight. A member who is in maintenance is not currently trying to lose or gain weight. “Eating at maintenance” means eating the same number of calories on average that your body needs to sustain your current weight.

Maintenance Break: Choosing to take a break from losing weight for a period of time and instead eating at maintenance. This can be useful for someone who needs a break from losing for any reason, but wants to maintain the progress they have already made.

Metabolism: The chemical processes that your body facilitates to maintain your bodily functions. The “speed” of your metabolism is a function of many things such as age, weight, height, body composition (muscle vs fat), and activity level. While most people’s metabolisms will slow down a small amount when they lose weight, this is a natural change! It takes less energy for the processes that are needed to sustain a smaller body than it does to sustain a larger body.

Mindful Eating: Using mindfulness to pay attention to your experiences, cravings, and physical cues when eating.

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NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis): Calories burned from daily activity not related to intentional exercise.

NSV (Non-Scale Victory): A weight loss or fitness victory that does not have to do with a number on the scale such as finishing a workout, fitting into that pair of jeans you have held onto, or seeing visual differences in pictures.

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OMAD (One Meal a Day): A specific type of intermittent fasting that is more strict than a daily eating window. It can sometimes be used to refer to a one-off day where someone only eats one meal.

Onederland: Weighing in under 200 lbs.

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Progress Picture/Progo: A picture that shows various types of physical changes to your body. The most commonly posted are weight changes and body composition changes (through building muscle). Some people will make a collage with their “starting” picture on the left and their “current” picture on the right. Some people will take pictures with old clothes that fit at one point in time and compare how they fit now. A progress picture can be posted at any point in your journey, and does not have to be reserved for when you hit a goal. Common sentiments from people who have lost significant weight include wishing they took earlier photos and took photos from more angles, such as from the side and from behind, instead of just straight on from the front.

Plateau: When your weight loss stalls and you weigh in at around the same weight for an extended period of time. This is a perfectly normal thing that happens to most people at some point in their weightloss journey.

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Recomp (Recomposition; Recomping): The physical changes that occur from working out as someone loses fat and gains muscle, changing the composition of their body.

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Salt Monster: When you eat a lot of sodium, your body will retain water. This will make your weight go up temporarily due to the extra fluid present in your body. A lot of our members like to refer to this as the “salt monster”.

Sedentary: Someone who does not exercise intentionally and spends most of the day seated or lying down is considered sedentary.

SV (Scale Victory): A weight loss victory related to the number on the scale. This can be your first loss, a big milestone like losing 10 lbs, 50 lbs, 100 lbs, or more, reaching a new “decade”, weighing in under 300 lbs (“twotopia”), weighing in under 200 lbs (“onederland”), reaching your “goal weight”, maintaining your loss over a period of instability, or any other scale milestone that you have personally set or are excited to reach.

SW (Starting Weight): The weight you were when you made a decision to lose weight.

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TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure): The amount of calories that you burn in a day. This is typically higher than your BMR as it includes not only the amount of calories used for basic bodily functions but also the calories burned through movement.

Treat Day/Treat Meal: Having particularly indulgent things that you would not normally eat while trying to maintain a deficit. In this group, we prefer to say “treat” over the more commonly used “cheat,” as it tends to create a healthier mentality. If you view this as a lifestyle change rather than a temporary diet, there is nothing to cheat on.

Twotopia: Weighing in under 300 lbs.

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Volume Eating: Eating extremely low calorie foods to maximize portion size.

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Water Weight: A temporary increase in weight caused by fluid that your body is retaining due to various reasons such as a high sodium intake, hormonal changes, or a medical condition.

Whoosh: When your weight changes suddenly, decreasing by a significant amount compared to past weigh-ins. Oftentimes a woosh will “break” or end a plateau.

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