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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?

#461
I think your theory is flawed because of the Bohr effect. CO2 in your blood increases the affinity of oxygen for hemoglobin. Higher oxygen and less CO2 means that most oxygen can't combine with hemoglobin and just ends up oxidizing somewhere which is definitely not ideal. You can easily test this by hyperventilating, which despite taking in much more oxygen and breathing out much more CO2 will cause less oxygen to reach your brain until you pass out.

The only way to breathe out more CO2 and lose weight would be to make more CO2 by increasing your metabolism, for example by taking thyroid hormone. This brings us full circle to your theory as it shows that increased CO2 breathing isn't the cause of weight loss, but a consequence of a faster metabolism which will in turn burn more calories and create weight loss.

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

#462
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…

> Weird tips like that? No, no definitely not.

Yep. The best “weird tip” is to avoid weird tips. I'm sure they've all worked for someone, though I suspect in many cases by some variant of a placebo effect or an indirect effect, and some work for a noticeable subset of people, but very few work generally and trying all the tricks and having them not work is a recipe for “I'm just not destined to manage this” style demotivation.

Always start with the practically undeniable basics: eat less if you can, try eat better whether you are eating less or not, do more physical activity where you can, try not to undo the effect of the activity by using it as an excuse to eat significantly more, monitor what effect your changes have, and try not to have too high expectations or push too fast (weight lost slowly is more likely to stay off, because you fall into better habits/routine over the longer period and are less likely to flip straight back into all your old habits once you get close to your goal).

Once you have those habits down, then maybe think about tweaks & tricks to optimise the process. Getting yourself into the habits might require some self-management tricks, but don't think of them as weight-loss or getting-into-shape tricks as they are really general self-management behaviours.

One note on monitoring: be careful not to obsess over single readings. The human body can be more random than you expect and your daily/weekly life is not as predictable as you think. I stand on my scales almost daily, but don't care about individual readings: things could be high because I've been at parties recently, low because I've had two long-ish runs this weekend, weight can vary a fair amount either way just be hydration levels. I tend to watch a fortnightly average: two weeks of my normal routine seems to be enough to aggregate out most of the blips most of the time.

On being more active: the challenge there is to find something that is either easy to fit into your routine, or that you enjoy enough to want to make the effort, or both. I accidentally discovered I enjoy running, though I've since gone off pounding the streets for speed and now take more steady paces, often but not always for longer distances, through countryside trails. Some prefer cycling. Martial arts are good too (wrestling can be a great full-body workout, and if you actually enjoy it you don't realise how much work you are actually doing). Just walking more can make a noticeable difference, and is usually easy to fit into daily/weekly life.

[for reference: about six years ago I dropped from ~110KG to <64KG over the course of about two years (most of this in the middle year of that period), mostly through diet but partly through activity, <64 I feel is too little for me though over the last couple of years I've put on more than I want to (hit ~75 at one point in 2021) and not in useful mass (its around the gut, I can feel it jiggle when I run!) and I'm slowly (more slowly than I'd like, but at least steadily) getting back down to hovering around the 68KG point which seems to feel optimal]

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

#463
I failed to keep it up but it worked for a few months. A simple food portion control measure: identify a geniunely small bowl, the calorie dense portion of all main meals must not exceed it's volume. For snacks come up with a similar shorthand, a tablespoon portion, or a small handful. If you eat mostly complex carbs, fats and protein while following rules around portion sizes you should get a good calorie deficit while mostly avoiding excessive hungriness, and saving effort you might spend weighing and journaling foods which you need to resist over eating and redirecting attention. Its almost "just eat less" but with a bit more how-to.

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

#465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

You’re suggesting a strategy that, empirically, is obviously beyond the reach for most people. That’s the mainstream method of losing weight. Every single person that’s wanted to lose weight has tried it, likely many times. I’m not saying IF is the solution, but it’s insulting to say it’s as simple as “diet and exercise”. If it was, 80% of Americans wouldn’t be overweight.

Why is it insulting? It's the truth. Unless you have some metabolic disease, eating less (or better) is the way to lose weight, along with a little exercise. There is no shortcut available.

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

#467

I've lost 30 lbs since October without significant effort or exercise. I count all the calories I consume and keep my daily intake to 1400-1800, except for 1 day a week where I am allowed up to 3000 (but I haven't gone over 2500 yet). This yields a roughly 5000 calorie deficit per week which is good for 6lbs of consistent weight loss per month so far. I also don't eat anything after 7pm which automatically eradicates…

Even at 1850 calories (a deficit which should result in about 1 pound loss a week for me), I find myself getting really hungry all the time. My body knows it's starving itself, and tells me to eat. This makes it hard to stick with calorie deficits over the long term. 1400 is extreme and would be pretty difficult for most people.

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

#468
Weight loss follows the 80/20 rule, so 80% diet, 20% exercise.

Unfortunately, humans are terrible at eating less, since you've been well trained by both evolution and society to eat as much as possible. So then there are things like, eat mostly fruits and vegetables, which aren't very efficient at giving you calories (since you're not a cow, that can extract the full set of calories from vegetables using its 4x stomach). Or become a vegetarian or choose a no-carb diet, maybe that makes it easier by just deciding ahead of time you won't eat anything calorie-efficient. Or exercising and living a more healthy lifestyle, can also help you not feel as hungry as often. Or keep a food diary. Or count calories. Or track your weight. Or train your self-control. But ultimately all just psychological tricks to just eat less calories, and which one works is different for everyone, since everyone's mental makeup is different.

If you can't make it happen psychologically, then you can also make it happen physically, by getting a gastric band or gastric bypass surgery.

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

#469

Self loathing. You do not deserve to eat to excess. You deserve the discomfort of eternally unfulfilled hunger. You deserve the pain of exercise, and the struggle of lifting weights, and the only thing you can look forward to, if you get comfortable with the current weight you're lifting, is adding more weight. I can't recommend it though as the cons far outweigh the pros. Lifting weights though, do it, but start slo…

You do not deserve the shower, you must earn the shower.

Motivation taps discipline on the shower.

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

#470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've tried eating less for weight loss, but when I do I sometimes (multiple times a week) feel really low on blood sugar (break out in a huge sweat and feeling the shakes) and the only thing that helps is eating. (I've tested for diabetes and it's not that...) So on these threads that say "just eat less", is there a way of eating less while preventing that crappy, hypoglycemic feeling? (I exercise a lot, so I've got…

Have you tried a ketogenic diet?

Yes, that was when I was mostly fasting at the same time. I couldn't last that long, especially when all I could think about all day was food.

... weird when you start having vivid dreams about eating food.

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