"Calories in, calories out" still holds true. Some people just need less calories than others.
For me I was lucky and my BMR is around 2400, so when I started counting calories and was averaging 3000, it.. well, dropping to a 2000 calorie diet was hard and it has its moments, but it was DOABLE. I could see going from 3000 to say, 1200? Like if your BMR was 1400? OH MY GOODNESS I bet that's a nightmare.
And even then there's days where you don't sleep enough and feel hangry. And for the first couple of months sometimes staying under 2200cal was really hard. It's gotten easier. Seeing the 16lbs lost since late February has been incredibly motivating lol.
I often question this. It is something I really don't understand.
Gads, up until a few years ago, I was doing 4000-6000 cals most days. Other days, I was doing four shots of vodka and nothing else. I'm real thin, generally muscular, great health. Great health (to repeat) and quite capable of 20 mile hikes with a 40-70 pound backpack (absolutely no f' joke), at a very fast pace.
I still don't grasp this.
Also, muscles take energy to maintain. As you lose muscle as you get older your burn rate will also go down because of that.
Finally, most people eat at set times even when they’re not hungry and snack outside of set times when they are. Needless to say this automatically results in overeating. Skipping meals when you’re not that hungry is great but harder to do when you live with other people.
Also, if you were actually doing 4000cal one day and ~300cal the next (4 shots of vodka), your average cal count would still be 2150 across two days, which is perfectly fine.
Alternatively, if you actually are doing 20 mile hikes very regularly with that sort of weight, you truly could just be burning that much extra in calories. Long distance running/hiking burns an immense amount of calories.