You broke the code. The calories your body takes in are like 99% balanced with the calories that go out, no matter what happens. Almost all of what happens to gain or lose weight comes down to what your body decides to do with it. Personally I think this is why intermittent fasting works well: It demonstrates to your body that the food source is 100% predictable on a very set schedule, which means it's probably organized and reliable, which means we don't need to hoard a bunch of extra energy in case one day there is no food.

If the amount going in swings up and down wildly and strong hunger signals get ignored some of the time no matter what, then it's going to decide we're in crisis mode, and ramp way way down on how much energy goes to the organs, general maintenance, building stuff we need, running the brain so you can think and have energy, and instead it's going to just store it all so we can survive. And that's what most people who are trying to lose weight do, and that's why it doesn't work unless you push it all the way to the starvation barrier where your body physically can't expend any less calories, and starts burning the reserves and crossing its fingers. And then, of course, once you start eating again, you gain all the weight back because oh fuck what's going to happen next.

That's not to say you can eat a ton of ice cream every day and just have it be fine. Eating a normal amount of healthy food and exercising will do good for you. But in my opinion if you're trying to lose weight, strictly counting calories doesn't really work because your body can ramp down expenditure of calories way more easily than you can ramp down the intake.

Think of calories as energy stored. That drink has carbs in it. 1g of carb is approximately 4 calories. Liquid calories are much easier for your body to absorb than solid calories. Can’t pee anything out until it gets processed.

Liquids don’t “simply get pee’d out”, afaik they get into your system like everything else, maybe just faster.

Say for example, you drink liquid poison, you die. Or a (hopefully) more common example, alcohol, will make it into your blood.

I’m far from an expert here, but my understanding is that calories are just energy, your body will store it for later as fat if you don’t need it.

You should stop weighing yourself so rigorously. Weigh yourself at a set time once a week to keep an eye on trending numbers. Tens of factors go into how much you weigh at a specific time. Water retention, the weight of food in your stomach, and how quickly your digestive system is working are a few of those factors.

Take a macro view, shoot for a set amount of calories for the WEEK, and if you notice the opposite trending of what you want after a few, adjust by increments.

Intermittent fasting is a great way to control calorie intake. Exercise is a great way to help push toward weight loss if you don’t eat more to compensate, but try not to cut more than 500 or so below your calorie needs estimate by a bodyweight/height calorie counter otherwiae your body might think it’s starving and fight against weightloss.

Some water “just goes through,” but that never gets to your bladder, it’s what keeps your poop moist enough to shit out. The water in your pee was absorbed through your intestines and colon, went into your blood, and may have flowed all around your body before eventually getting to your kidneys and washing some stuff your body didn’t want out through your bladder and urethra.