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Ask HN: Have you tried weight loss drugs?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you tried weight loss drugs?

#41

Post by palata »

sk11001 wrote: post #28
palata wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would think that the main mechanism is that if you "use" more than you eat, then you lose weight. You have two levers to lose weight: "use more" and "eat less". And then there is the part where not everything you eat is egal, so "eat better", somehow.

Technically correct about the balance, but practically people overestimate the amount you can burn with extra activity. The main reason to exercise while losing weight is that if you do resistance training, you preserve more of your muscle and lose predominantly fat - it’s not to burn more calories. And I disagree about emphasising “better” instead of “less”. “Better” than doesn’t lose weight.

> “Better” than doesn’t lose weight.

So you're saying that feeding oneself exclusively with chocolate will has the same result as feeding oneself with vegetables? Sounds counter-intuitive.

Re: Ask HN: Have you tried weight loss drugs?

#42

Post by sk11001 »

palata wrote: post #41
sk11001 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically correct about the balance, but practically people overestimate the amount you can burn with extra activity. The main reason to exercise while losing weight is that if you do resistance training, you preserve more of your muscle and lose predominantly fat - it’s not to burn more calories. And I disagree about emphasising “better” instead of “less”. “Better” than doesn’t lose weight.

> “Better” than doesn’t lose weight. So you're saying that feeding oneself exclusively with chocolate will has the same result as feeding oneself with vegetables? Sounds counter-intuitive.

Let's say that you eat n calories of junk food every day (maybe that's all you eat or a part of your diet). Replace those with n calories of healthy foods. Great - you've probably made a good change for your health long term. But you haven't made progress towards losing weight because your calories are the same.

Re: Ask HN: Have you tried weight loss drugs?

#43

Post by dyingkneepad »

slayerjain wrote: post #38
dyingkneepad wrote: post #35

To me what worked was going the slow route: do small but *permanent* adjustments to the diet in order to slowly decrease calorie consumption. This is the path that is safest against eating disorders. Having soda 5x per week? Well, let's see if I can survive a month doing it only 3x per week. Perhaps later replace it with the Zero version, or buy a smaller bottle. Once I do one step and "stabilize" on it, then I can f…

I think developing these habits requires real will power. Its relatively easy getting pumped and aggressively dieting or exercising for few weeks/months, and then later slowing down and gaining back all the lost pounds. A habit that seems to be making a difference for me is consciously chewing food 2x longer than usual. I end up eating less food and have improved bowl movements.

> I think developing these habits requires real will power.

That's why the modern method suggests you to take *small* but permanent steps forward. Cutting a slice of bread per week was easy. Cutting M&Ms was easy. Cutting soda cups to be 60% of what they were before was, well, manageable. Biking for 15 minutes 2x per week was easy. If you feel a step is too big then it's going to require a lot of willpower, so you try to take a smaller one. Over time you accumulate a ton of tiny gains and realize it all adds up to make a big difference.

Re: Ask HN: Have you tried weight loss drugs?

#44

Post by palata »

sk11001 wrote: post #42
palata wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “Better” than doesn’t lose weight. So you're saying that feeding oneself exclusively with chocolate will has the same result as feeding oneself with vegetables? Sounds counter-intuitive.

Let's say that you eat n calories of junk food every day (maybe that's all you eat or a part of your diet). Replace those with n calories of healthy foods. Great - you've probably made a good change for your health long term. But you haven't made progress towards losing weight because your calories are the same.

Now say you eat exclusively chocolate when you are hungry, during the whole day. And let's compare that to a day where you eat exclusively vegetables when you are hungry.

Will you have eaten the same amount of calories both days?

Re: Ask HN: Have you tried weight loss drugs?

#45

Post by muzani »

slayerjain wrote: post #11
muzani wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sports is actually extremely inefficient when you look at the science. However, when you look at anecdotes, it seems to be consistently impactful. I think it's more an issue with how we're calculating calories out.

I think weight loss is more than just calories in/out. Maybe our body reacts to adapt to situations and tried to change the body shape to make it easier for itself. So I think healthy habits are more important and can depend on genetic history too.

A clear example is something like cortisol. It damages your body to give you a short term advantage to survive a situation.

Being under stress might make you burn lots of calories, but stress ends up being weight gain in the long term because the body tells you to save up more energy for next time.

Re: Ask HN: Have you tried weight loss drugs?

#46

Post by daly »

ttymck wrote: post #40
daly wrote: post #23

My kids call it my "Dad-kins" (a pun on Atkins) diet. Buy a scale. Record your weight. (e.g. 200.0lbs) Week 1: you can eat anything you want in one sitting if the scale shows less than 200.0lbs Week 2: you can eat anything you want in one sitting if the scale shows less than 199.9lbs (200.0-0.1) Week 3: you can eat anything you want in one sitting if the scale shows less than 199.8lbs (199.9-0.1) ... Week X: you can…

Are you weighing yourself before or after the meal?

Before the meal. You have to be below this week's target weight before you can eat today.

Re: Ask HN: Have you tried weight loss drugs?

#47

Post by seekingcharlie »

daly wrote: post #46
ttymck wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you weighing yourself before or after the meal?

Before the meal. You have to be below this week's target weight before you can eat today.

Weight loss isn't linear though.. your weight varies daily by sodium, water intake, ovulation cycle (for women), etc.

Re: Ask HN: Have you tried weight loss drugs?

#48

Post by xmonkee »

muzani wrote: post #22
xmonkee wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am fairly certain I know the answer to this. They normally do these kind of studies on untrained humans, because the point is to prescribe (or not) exercise to people who need to lose weight, which are typically not athletes. The anecdotal success comes from people who play sports (tautologically). The problem is you cannot compare across these two groups because the metabolism and sheer volume of exercise is not c…

I mean the typical advice I get is 1 hour of running burns as much calories as one large slice of pepperoni pizza (~700 cal). Trained or untrained, this seems off by a lot.

Why does it seem off? It's hard to measure calories when running, but with cycling we have power meters which are incredibly precise, and you will burn around 700 calories an hour (as a beginner). Trained athletes can burn maybe double of that.

Re: Ask HN: Have you tried weight loss drugs?

#49

Post by muzani »

xmonkee wrote: post #48
muzani wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean the typical advice I get is 1 hour of running burns as much calories as one large slice of pepperoni pizza (~700 cal). Trained or untrained, this seems off by a lot.

Why does it seem off? It's hard to measure calories when running, but with cycling we have power meters which are incredibly precise, and you will burn around 700 calories an hour (as a beginner). Trained athletes can burn maybe double of that.

Because it burns off about a whole large pizza's worth, rather than one slice, and I'm not trained.
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