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Ask HN: Any weird tips for weight loss?

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Re: Ask HN: Any weird tips for weight loss?

#151
post #141

Only drink water. I know it might sound weird for some, but the amount of calories that people get into them by drinking all kind of juices, alcohol and all kind of drinks is insane. You if want to spice it up, just drink coffee (high quality, "hipster" brewing methods - you will never feel the need of sugar or milk to make it drinkable) and tea. This includes orange juice or any other kind of fresh juices. Just eat…

Swapping fizzy drinks and juices with water can easily save 500 kcal a day, which can tip the balance from net caloric surplus to net caloric deficit, that is, from weight gain to weight loss. 10/10 can recommend.

Re: Ask HN: Any weird tips for weight loss?

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

any unhealthy side effects of only eating one meal a day? what if that meal is 1800+ calories?

Eating only once a day is very bad advice. If you make a regular meal, one meal a day nets a negative of 1300/1500 calories per day, which will cause considerable muscle tissue loss (note how the parent writes "losing weight", not "losing fat", but also "yes, I have significant fat even at 150lb and 5'10"), besides having no energy. If you make instead a massive mels, you're going to give a massive glucose shot to yo…

Eating once a day is a type of intermittent fasting, which has been well studied and shown to have some of the health benefits of fasting.

Re: Ask HN: Any weird tips for weight loss?

#154
post #64

Weird tips like that? No, no definitely not. Just eat less man. It's pretty straight forward. Just eat one meal a day (lunch) and you'll see the weight fly off. It's what I did for a bit and lost the weight quickly. You'll lose 5lbs/month easily even for people who have a relatively lean body mass already. (Easier to lose a lot of weight when you're heavier because your BMR is high to begin with) I've done it as some…

any unhealthy side effects of only eating one meal a day? what if that meal is 1800+ calories?

Anecdotal, but just make sure you don't lose weight TOO fast. This is one of the ways in which gallstones are formed.

Re: Ask HN: Any weird tips for weight loss?

#155

Drop alcohol consumption. Less sugar. Less of everything. Start moving more. Throw in some simple body weight exercises (push ups, sit ups burpees). Most people can drop 1kg a week by being mindful.

Check out some before and after pictures of drinkers who've quit.

I've never had an issue with weight, but alcohol clearly a major factor with many other people's. Stopping drinking was the one change that worked for me in most parts of my life.

Re: Ask HN: Any weird tips for weight loss?

#156
I know this is hard to hear, but stop with the "tricks" thing. If you want to lose weight, eat less, eat healthier, and get more exercise. I know, I know, it's not just a simple "calories in minus calories out"; there's more to it, but this is where you need to start.

You need to eat fewer calories. As lame as it may sound, install an app like MyFitnessPal and count calories for a while. You don't have to do it forever, just until you start developing an intuition as to how much things "cost" calorie-wise. The most important thing is that, when modifying your diet, you do it in a sustainable way, something that you will stick to. If you hit your target weight and then go back to your old eating habits, you will gain that weight back in no time.

You're also gonna have to exercise (in addition to the diet changes; exercise alone probably won't help that much). This doesn't have to mean going to the gym for two hours every day. A half hour walk once a day, or a half hour run three times a week is fine. There are many other aerobic options if walking or running isn't your thing. If you aren't feeling fit enough for something, start slow and work your way up to it. You can also do some light resistance exercises like push ups, tricep dips, squats, lunges, planks, etc. to build some muscle (running will build muscle, just it's mostly only in your legs). These exercises will burn calories in their own right, but adding muscle will increase the amount of calories you burn even while you're sitting around doing nothing.

I'm not saying this is easy. It's fairly simple. But it's not easy. Don't go for silly "tricks". They won't work, and you'll be trading one unhealthy situation for another. Change your diet and exercise more. That's it. Find something you can stick with and... stick with it. Simple. But not easy.

Edit: the only real "tricks" I can think of are mental. Throw out all your snacks at home and don't buy any to replace them. Only keep food that you'll eat as part of your regular meals. Avoid restaurants if you can; if you can't, only eat 2/3 of what you're given, as portion sizes and calorie counts are high. Keep a water bottle with you at all times, and if you're tempted to eat when you aren't supposed to, drink a bunch of water until you start to feel a bit more full. Oh, speaking of that: don't drink anything but water.

Re: Ask HN: Any weird tips for weight loss?

#157
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intermitted fasting works on the principle that if you eat 1800kcal in one sitting you are going to puke. I can easily eat even 3000-4000kcal in 1 day, but in one meal going over 1500kcal is very hard. Edit: Yes I'm wrong I should have said "if you eat 1800kcal of clean food", I forgot the existence of fast food because it is not something common in my country

What country is that? I've never been anywhere that doesn't have junk food available.

It is available, it is just not common, I'm from Sardinia, in my province ( Oristano: an area of 3000 square km) there's only 1 McDonald's, and only teens go there. If you don't live in the main city, a trip to McDonald's can take easily 1 hour or more.

We dove a lot of pizza places, but it is Italian pizza and it is not as caloric as the American version, ours is made with 200grams of dough and has less stuffing as possible, one pizza should be around 800kcal and majority of people I know usually eats 3/4 of it and leaves the remaining 1/4 for the day after

Re: Ask HN: Any weird tips for weight loss?

#159
Keto + no dinner is extremely effective. Being in keto makes it easy to skip dinner because you never get very hungry. Skipping dinner makes it easier to be in keto because you don’t have to as strict about carbs during the rest of the day. Works like magic.

Re: Ask HN: Any weird tips for weight loss?

#160

Get ADHD meds. Appetite suppression is an effect. :P Joking aside, the path to losing weight is not dieting, but changing what and how you eat permanently. Weight is an equilibrium, and to reach a new equilibrium, you need to change something about your habits permanently or you'll just bounce back once you stop "dieting". For me personally, reducing sugars and filler carbohydrates was the most effective change to ma…

> Get ADHD meds. Appetite suppression is an effect. :P

This is a dangerous joke, since people will tend to take it seriously. Some of the other comments here did. ADHD meds will not solve the problem underlying weight gain. In fact, someone I know gained tons of weight since he is on ADHD medication.

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