Ask HN: What's your secret diet tip you can share?

That tasty Christmas cake is allowed if you compensate by lowering other Energy in, or alternatively increasing Energy out.

Think like an engineer.

And stay away from processed food, sugars, wheat, and eat what your ancestors for thousands of years ate. That is what your body evolved to process.

Also, fasting is great for detoxing, cleaning your intestines, and regenerating cells. Try 7 days of cold pressed vegetable juices only (make 2L every morning), no solids. Do this every 3 months.

Also, park in terrible locations, furthest parks in a lot, a block or two away from your destination so you have to walk more. Just inconvenience yourself into walking more. You'll also save a bit of money in the process.

As best you can to phase out any full sugar soft drink for soda water or the light equivalent. I've been trying this for a few years and I like the difference, though I'm not too rigorous. I do find in winter the sweet of a zero sugar soft drink to be a good morale boost.

The first is experiment, experiment, experiment. Consciously try different things with clear intent and be curious about what happens next. Two things that I've tried more than once are eTRF and Whole30, but I suspect the specific interventions matter less than the way experiments make you pay attention.

The second is to understand what you use food for. Food is such a primal thing; your relationship to it extends well beyond your memories and goes much deeper than just fuel for your body. But a lot of us don't notice. Just for myself, I have used food for entertainment, distraction, pain relief, celebration, avoidance, human connection, and to fight sadness. Experimenting will help you see this too. E.g., if I take a month off of sugar and other refined carbs, then I won't be able to use ice cream to cheer myself up. So I'll have to be present in the sadness for a while and figure out what else, if anything, to do with it.