Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Any weird tips for weight loss?

news.ycombinator.com

301–310 of 1001 posts

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

#301
I'm not a doctor, but breathing pure oxygen for extended periods of time probably isn't going to help you lose weight, and seems like something that could harm you.

Eliminate all sugars and most carbs from your diet, and lift weights. Pay attention to how you feel, and learn to differentiate between cravings and real hunger. Ignore cravings and eat when you're hungry. If you can't easily control the composition of your diet, then calorie count. That 3rd slice of bread loses its appeal once you realize it will blow up your daily budget before 3pm. Don't "reward" yourself with cheat days to look forward to, but rather schedule in days with a bigger budget, or give yourself a weekly use-it-or-lose-it bonus budget to eat into. If you're doing the calorie counting, then be diligent about it. If you do it every meal it becomes effortless, but if you allow yourself to skip it for one reason or another, it won't become a habit.

You're going to have to get used to some amount of discomfort to lose weight, whether it's physical or mental. The sugar cravings subside after a week or so, but you have to cut it out like it's poison. Sore muscles from lifting hurts, but it's a mark of accomplishment. If you use food as a comfort, you're going to need to rewire your brain to not do that anymore.

The low carb diet or calorie counting literally causes you to lose weight, but it's a means rather than an end and it takes discipline to sustain long enough to get meaningful results. If you stop and fall into old habits, you'll just gain the weight back. The purpose of the weight lifting is to build up muscle so that your metabolism changes. You may end up the same weight as when you started a year later, but you'll carry the weight differently. The exercise also releases some pleasant hormones that make you feel good, and helps you get in touch with real visceral hunger. A sugar craving is mindless and hollow, "oh let's just open up this cabinet and grab an Oreo. One won't hurt even though it's bad for me. What, the bag is empty?! Now I'm sad," while exercise hunger has some primal depth to it, "I don't care this can of tuna is expired, it's the most delicious thing in the world right now, and eating it will make me stronger than I've ever been. I'm glad I live in a society, because otherwise I'd be in a river trying to punch a salmon unconscious right now. Who am I kidding, that would be awesome."

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

#302
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…

> Just eat less man. It's pretty straight forward. Just eat one meal a day (lunch) and you'll see the weight fly off. You're suggesting a diet that requires a discipline that, empirically, is obviously beyond the reach of most people. Here's much, much simpler advice, that is also more enjoyable to do: Just eat better. Or just somewhat better, and do some exercise. You'd be surprised how easy it is to purchase or coo…

I'd say it's mostly personal. For me it was much easier to switch to one meal a day but not pay TOO much attention to what I eat than it was to keep eating multiple times per day but healthy all the time. The hardest part was only drinking water, but that's more a case of just not buying other drinks.

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

#304
post #287

If you have a habit of mindlessly browsing Youtube, subscribe to some cooking channels. That way if you end up mindlessly browsing Youtube you might end up learning techniques and meals that improve your cooking - which in turn will improve your diet, which will make you lose weight. (I'm talking about healthy meals / nutrition-oriented channels. If you subscribe to generic cooking channels that include sugary desser…

If you want to increase your passive fat consumption, one option is gaining some muscle.

Muscle tissue consumes glucose even at rest. When there's no sugar left, your body will start using reserves. (That's when you will have to be careful since you might have cravings, if you are used to eating too much - slow carbs like beans or oats can help with those).

The counter intuitive part is that bulking up usually means gaining some weight at the beginning. This happens because muscle tissue is denser than fat deposits. So when you start the scale will complain. Look at your trousers instead. If they feel a bit looser, you are on the right direction.

Finally, drastic changes to your body composition are usually a bad idea. What gets lost quickly gets gained back quickly too. Slow and steady is the name of the game. If you can find some physical activity that you enjoy doing, that's the best way to bulk up. Doing 30 minutes every day is better than doing 3.5 hours once per week in one go.

Exercise (for most people) is only a complement for most people in the western world; we just don't do enough of it to "cancel out" what we eat, the calories are so easily available. "You can't outrun the fork", as they say. Your main tool for loosing weight is still your diet.

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

#305
There is only one trick I am aware of, eat less while doing more stuff.

The oxygen idea is pretty bad. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_toxicity

The oxygen thing works the other way around hypoxic environments increase metabolic rate for a small number of days. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4091035/

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

#306
Delete all delivery aops, burn your credit cards, sell your car and refrigerator. Only buy fresh food regularly that you can carry in walking (or public transport). Buy a bicycle and ride everywhere possible. Never carry money unless you are buying grocery.

If you do all this, you are guaranteed to lose not just weight but also any leftover fun in life

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

#308
post #176
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've done this before switching from bulking season, to leaning season. I found the hardest part being stomach growling. I'd be talking to people and my stomach would start complaining to everyone. I've been told to drink a glass of water when the happens but I didn't find it helped a bunch. I usually went for a light plain peanut butter sandwich once a day at very "tactical" times to cut the growling. Yes peanut but…

I've found that laying off carbs (Atkins, keto, etc.) gets rid of the growling and hunger pains entirely. On a carb-restricted diet you eat because you want to, not because your stomach is craving for food.

yeah, carb-restricting is what did it for me, when i managed to shed significant weight. But I couldn't sustain it for more than a couple of years.

Also, protein-based diets are heavy on one's liver.

Post reply on HN