Liposuction

A simpler solution is just taking a piss. But do you really want to go into highly specific and precise definitions which take care of all technicalities? I don't think you have anything to win there.

The laws of thermodynamics don't require a fat cell to release lipids

No they don't. But they require you to lose mass. Notably, CICO does not claim you'll lose fat -- it claims you'll lose weight and in most cases some of that weight will come from fat and some from muscle.

Thermodynamics is not any more useful than quantum mechanics in understanding obesity.

I disagree.

I think it was Taubes who compared CICO to telling an alcoholic that it's drinking alcohol that makes him an alcoholic. He used it as a put-down, but I'm totally fine with the metaphor. Understanding that is only the first step on a long and twisty road, but you have to make it. Otherwise people tend to believe that alcoholism can be fixed by, say, switching to drinking port from drinking whisky, or that as long as they take supplement X they can eat all they want.

I think for you (and many other people) CICO became associated with a moralizing stance of "you just need to exercise self-control to stop shoving things into your mouth and then your weight will be fine" -- but it says no such thing (and the stance is stupid, of course).