Ask HN: Most sustainable diet long term? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Most sustainable diet long term?

#51

Post by mwnorman2 » Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 2:19 AM UTC

I am avoiding diets because they only end up with me gaining more weight further down the road.

Everyone remember the 'Biggest Loser' show? Turns out some researchers followed-up with a statistically- significant sample size of contestants, a little less than 200. About 93% re-gained their weight after the show (> 1yr) and of that 93%, half gained back MORE than they lost (around 10% more). The show gave contestants access to great food, exercise, trainers, diet counselling ... on a per-person basis this was thousands and thousands of dollars that most people can never afford to spend themselves - and STILL the outcome was ... gain more weight :-(

Edging closer and closer to the idea that the only choice now is surgery (scares the HECK out of me!)

Re: Ask HN: Most sustainable diet long term?

#52

Post by lamchob » Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 7:08 AM UTC

"The best diet is the one you follow". This is preached by many people in the Fitness industry, body builders and profrssionals. I was a chubby teen, although I did a lot of sports. But I ate even more. Now I lost a lot of weight in last few months and I'm the leanest and strongest I've ever been. How?

The thing is, there is no diet required. A diet is nutrition for sick people. What most people need is a more healthy relationship to what they eat. Realizing the discrepancy between what your body needs vs. what you consume on a daily basis is a huge help. Initially I suggest to track their calories for a few weeks and then adjust your intake to serve your specific goals. After a few months you will have great intuition about the things you eat on a regular basis and don't need to track anything.

Weight is a simple game, if you want to loose weight, consume less calories than you burn. Do this over a long time and you will see progress. You always want to play the long-term game, so if you go out for dinner once in a while, enjoy yourself and don't agonize over your "diet". The progress is made in the little things you eat every day, not during a nice evening with friends.

Also, don't banish any macro nutrients, this will make your everyday nutrition harder. Eat lots of greens, some meat and fish, fruits, rice, pasta and potatoes, and an occasional donut or pizza.

Re: Ask HN: Most sustainable diet long term?

#53

Post by jlengrand » Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 7:40 AM UTC

I'll have a shorter answer than most.

Don't focus on diets. Find a lifestyle that suits you. If anything, sports if what will help you most feel healthy. Find something that you can keep doing with your condition.

Whether it is keto, fasting or anything else, you want to find something that fits you and does not frustrate you or you'll end up worse.

Re: Ask HN: Most sustainable diet long term?

#54

Post by redcodenl » Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 8:56 AM UTC

The most sustainable long term diet is: eat less.

Re: Ask HN: Most sustainable diet long term?

#55

Post by throwaway7827 » Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 9:57 AM UTC

https://www.intentapp.com/blog/weight-loss-cost/

All DIY dieting is very unlikely to work, and low-fat dieting is slightly worse than other diets.

If you can pay $200-300 a month, weight loss medication has a fairly high success rate (50%-70%)

Re: Ask HN: Most sustainable diet long term?

#56

Post by swah » Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 10:17 AM UTC

tmaly wrote: post #49

I like the Scott Adams approach to just pre-preparing carrots and celery in small containers in your fridge. Design the system so that when you go to snack, the healthy things are what is available. For coffee, I only add cinnamon to black coffee. No sugar. If you like ice cream, try making it yourself, once you see how much sugar goes in a pint, you kind of get sick to your stomach about eating it.

When I'm aware enough, a banana or apple replaces a Snickers bar just fine. (And it doesn't really matter if bananas aren't great food - because the alternative are cookies, ice cream.)

Re: Ask HN: Most sustainable diet long term?

#57

Post by magic_beans » Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 10:29 AM UTC

dlivingston wrote: post #25

coldtea wrote: post #7

The canonical advice, as someone already wrote is: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." I'd add: - Eat mostly what your grand-grandparents would identify as food (e.g. no preprocessed stuff, no chips, etc). - Don't eat constantly. Leave 14+ hours that you don't much (if you sleep 8 hours that's just 6-wake hours off of food). - Don't eat refined sugars, wheat, etc. Whole grain is OK. - Mediterranean diet has been…

Very great advice. A little nitpick - lifting small dumbbells is probably useless. The main benefits from weightlifting come through Progressive Overload, where those small weights must necessarily\* turn into big weights. If (s)he must stick to small weights, there is a very small window of benefit to weight lifting. \* - note that in Progressive Overload you can also increase total number of reps (the true metic is…

This is not true at all. You CAN achieve hypertrophy and strength with small weights and resistance bands. Just ask a glute girl.

Re: Ask HN: Most sustainable diet long term?

#58

Post by helloindia » Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 11:26 AM UTC

ikeyany wrote: post #11

The best two things you can do long term are to learn how to cook and to make friends who like playing sports regularly. Note neither of those two things require being in shape to start making progress.

I wanted to say the same thing. Learning to cook your own food, gives you so much control. That is necessary, if one wants to control their weight.

Re: Ask HN: Most sustainable diet long term?

#59

Post by imtringued » Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 11:29 AM UTC

codingdave wrote: post #5

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

You forgot the most important part: forever.

Re: Ask HN: Most sustainable diet long term?

#60

Post by imtringued » Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 11:46 AM UTC

mwnorman2 wrote: post #51

I am avoiding diets because they only end up with me gaining more weight further down the road. Everyone remember the 'Biggest Loser' show? Turns out some researchers followed-up with a statistically- significant sample size of contestants, a little less than 200. About 93% re-gained their weight after the show (> 1yr) and of that 93%, half gained back MORE than they lost (around 10% more). The show gave contestants…

The reason they failed is because they stopped. For some reason people expect doing something healthy to their body for a few weeks is going to outweigh the years of eating bad food that they will repeat doing after losing weight.

Just look here at this prime example:

"Researchers followed 14 of the contestants from season 8 of The Biggest Loser, including the winner, Danny Cahill, for six years after the show ended. Thirteen of the 14 regained some of the weight back, and four of those gained back what they had lost – and more."

Imagine what would have happened to that person if he didn't go to the biggest loser and just ate the same unhealthy food for 6 years? Do you think he wouldn't have gained 10% more weight? It wouldn't make headlines if he did.

[0] https://people.com/bodies/the-biggest-loser-contestants-perm...