Sure, if you ignore all the psychological and habit forming benefits that it provides. Saying that the only benefit to exercise is increasing CO workers would be true if you were just a robot who was fully capable of making rational choices 100% of the time. And if that's you, then you wouldn't need weight loss in the first place..

Exercise does a lot to help individuals stick with the Calorie restriction part of CICO, for the reasons I mention.

And also like I said, pure** weight loss is rarely anyone's actual goal**, id wager that close to 100% of people trying to "lose weight" are actually working towards either looking better, or being more healthy (or both, of course) - and for both of those goals, exercise is very important.

Targeted exercise doesn’t do anything for targeted weight loss. Your body loses fat however the fuck it wants to and the only way to lose belly fat is to lose fat everywhere else your body chooses to first. And that happens with or without exercise.

Yes, I know? When did I say otherwise?