Adipose tissue retains an epigenetic memory of obesity after weight loss

The only reliable way to lose weight is through a caloric deficit. And the only reliable way to be on a caloric deficit is through counting your calories. If you're dieting without actually counting your calories, then at best you are only hoping and guessing that your diet is sufficient enough to put you in a caloric deficit.

You don't have to count calories to eat in a caloric deficit. Counting is not the only reliable way to hit a deficit. Tons and tons of people on GLP-1 drugs are not counting calories but are in a deficit.

I'd argue that taking a drug to suppress your appetite is way more extreme and unhealthy than simply counting calories, but I guess to each their own. And yes even in that case you're still guessing and hoping you're in a caloric deficit because different foods will satiate your hunger for different caloric cost. If you're not counting calories you could be cutting calories too aggressively or not aggressively enough, or you might not be getting required macronutrient intake with your given diet.

This thread is not discussing the relative merits of different weight loss mechanisms. Your claim was simply that calorie counting is required for weight loss; it is not.

> If you're not counting calories you could be cutting calories too aggressively or not aggressively enough

This, too, can be monitored without calorie counting (e.g., periodic scale measurements will tell you this).

Wrong. My claim is that the only reliable way for weight loss is through calorie counting. You can guestimate it without counting calories but that is not reliable. You can't rely on taking a drug indefinitely for weight loss.