People have different ideas of weight accounting depending on what they are trying to track and what their goals are. I won't knock their methods if they suit their goals, but think my method makes sense for me.

When I say gear weight I am looking at packing choices so my body weight, bike weight, food weight, and so on while important are not part of those basic choices so not relevant to me in those choices. So for me, base weight is packed gear weight including bags, clothing, tent, and all camping/cooking gear, but not consumables (food or water). I generally also exclude the one set of clothing that I have on at all times while riding.

I don't include consumables because they vary too much during the trip or even during the day in the case of water. Food doesn't generally amount to much on most trips since I try to shop daily where possible, but for backcountry bike packing, like backpacking food adds 2.5 pounds per day or so. For "normal" touring food choices are a daily choice for backcountry trips where you may be away from resupply for longish periods food packing can take on some of the same challenges. I guess that could be true for very rural back road touring as well, but I have not found that to be the case on my tours.