Ask HN: Any weird tips for weight loss?

i started drinking only water and tea which helped with my weight loss. before that i already was cutting out most carbs from my diet and felt stuck. for the longest time i did not believe that drinking soda that contains no sugar but art. sweetener could sway my weight in anyway, but now, without the sweet drinks, i dont feel the need to snack so much, so i eat less sweets and snacks across the day, so i lose weight.

look... its working for me, im not saying you should do this, or try to breathe 100% oxygen from a tank, talk to a doctor maybe... i think i heard of people who set themselfs ablaze because there was oil/grease on their skin when the oxygen hit... :shrug: maybe you could try running high up in the mountains until you are used to being deprived of oxygen a little so you get more down here? idk

1. Figure out your relationship with food. This is the most important thing. People eat for a variety of reasons. You could be bored or anxious or treat food like a reward or simply a sense of comfort. Whatever it is you need to adjust your thinking to view food as nothing more than fuel. Whatever you do, you are doomed to failure if you don't figure out your own motivations for eating;

2. A lot of people (myself included) find a lot of value in intermittent fasting. There are many forms of this. I started just eating lunch and dinner. Now it's just dinner. You realize how much of eating is just habit not need. You certainly don't need to be eating 3+ times a day. This will actually save you both time and money too;

3. Get sufficient nutrition. The main thing here is actually protein. Protein shakes are convenient as a supplement to your main meal(s). Other than that, don't worry about it too much. You can theoretically lose weight just eating cupcakes if they're under your calories;

4. Exercise has little to no impact on weight loss. You see this once you start looking at the calorific value of foods and the calorific expenditure of certain activities. Compare a Big Mac to how long you need to run for and you realize very quickly not eating the Big Mac is WAY easier. Exercise is for your health and wellbeing only. Walk half an hour every day;

5. Particular diets don't matter. Assuming sufficient nutrtion, the only thing that matters is managing appetite;

6. If this is a factor for you make it require effort to eat. This means where possible don't have junk food or snack food in easy reach. The effort required to leave your house and get chips and salsa (for example) vs just getting it from your kitchen makes a difference; and

7. Don't view the weight loss as a goal. That's a daunting long-term goal. View this as a permanent lifestyle and attitude change.

Good luck.

For me, I found reading how other people made changes to their lifestyle to improve their health to be motivating. After seeing enough stories about that, eventually I started thinking, why not me? So here's my personal account, should you care.

Personally, once I switched from eating out/ordering DoorDash for my one big meal of the day to cooking all my meals, I began to eat far fewer calories. Turns out the average meal you make at home has fewer calories than a delicious al pastor super burrito or a dutch crunch sub.

I did Hello Fresh for a few weeks, and I appreciated the variety of meals but eventually canceled it because I want more flexibility/spontaneity in my cooking, which is something you lose when you subscribe to a meal plan. Many of the meals left me feeling like I did a damn good job, so I can see myself trying the service again in the future.

I found a very easy breakfast I can make in 15 minutes that I like. 2 slices toast with jam, 2 eggs in a tortilla with cheese and salsa, and 2 pieces of bacon. Before I had always skipped breakfast, leading me to that one big meal a day strategy, which always led to me overeating. My dog appreciates the now frequent bacon in her life (don't worry, she hardly gets any).

I found cooking to be much easier once I got an induction stovetop, because you can see the actual temperature you're cooking with. I always hated the guessing game of turning a gas stove knob, which prevented me from cooking regularly.

At the same time, I've started going to the gym every day, doing a simple linear progression PPL program. I also make a delicious shake every day, which I look forward to after every workout.

Over the last couple months I made these changes and they are now part of my daily routine.

Before, I couldn't really see myself randomly going to the gym or cooking at home. Now that's absolutely flipped- I can't really see myself not doing these things. It's early, but I feel I've done the work to change my habits for good.

And to bring it back to the topic at hand, with these weird tricks of changing my daily defaults my weight is trending down at a rate I'm happy with.

Oh, and I did count calories for like a month, but only to get a feel for how many calories are in the foods I tend to eat, and how my body weight fluctuates based on my intake. I don't any more, at least I don't write it down. It's all just sort of done on my head in a wishy washy way.

For example, I absolutely love good pizza (with the emphasis on good), and just get it whenever I crave it because I know that overall, I'm doing more than fine. I only ranted about Big Macs earlier because that particular product is crap; some restaurants here produce just absolutely fantastic cheese burgers and I enjoy them every now and then.

But I also enjoy a good Pho, which is basically just hot water with some rice noodles, and an immense amount of flavor.

I think the trick is just finding the balance of these things, not some form of overall abstinence.