511–520 of 1001 posts
I've been exploring "weird" approaches to health improvement (including weight loss) for years. In response to your post: it's not necessarily the case that more oxygen will lead to positive outcomes. Respiratory illnesses like asthma and sleep apnea can be caused by overbreathing/hyperventilation. The lungs need to maintain a certain level of CO2 in order for oxygen to be properly absorbed into the blood, and where…
also if you can get into walking, I've found that to be the easiest way to lose weight, and if you combine it with a friend or an audio book it can be really enjoyable.
calorie tracking has worked well for me too- the first 2 weeks you should just be getting a sense of how much you're consuming though, don't try to cut right away
I'm a naturally obese person, and I've read a thousand of these threads over the years. Nearly every comment is either:
* Telling you to "hack your body", with keto or whatever the latest low-carb fad is called. They are so adverse to exercise, that suggesting exercise seems offensive to them. They emphasize that it's entirely about diet.
or
* Telling you to "just eat well and exercise". Which is about as useful as telling drug addicts to "just stop using drugs", and is usually more about the speaker smugly moralizing to feel superior.
There are two things that ARE really useful for obese people to hear, and that hardly anyone says:
1. Exercise helps you eat well. When I was 100% sedentary, I had constant cravings for all kinds of junk. And the portions that I ate at mealtime were double those of a normal person. When I'm lifting weights (has to be lifting weights, I don't see this benefit from cardio alone)... the cravings magically disappear and I have a normal appetite at mealtime.
2. It... takes... so... LITTLE! You don't have to go full ham, with extreme workout advice that you find in bodybuilding magazines and forums. A 30 minute workout, two or three times a week is sufficient (i.e. hit 6 or 7 machines, for 3 sets each). If you're just trying to keep your hormones and appetite on a healthy track, then you don't have to go "to failure" either. Just enough to feel like a mild challenge.
Just remember that it gets easier, I think a lot of people struggling with addiction to unhealthy food try to resist temptation for a day and go through hell. They think "I can't live the rest of my life like this," but the thing they never make it far enough to learn is that it doesn't feel this hard all the time. Every night I go to bed resisting a sugar loaded soft drink I wake up stronger, and the sabotaging gut bacteria is one battle weaker than the healthy gut bacteria.
Persoanlly, I've swung a quarter of my body mass in the past five years. It really came down to eating less, but it wasn't a healthy situation. The key is change behaviors that you don't need to actively think about. Just change habits.
What worked for me really well was fasting. It's a radical thing for sure and not to be taken lightly, but is much easier for me to maintain. If I just don't eat anything, its a lot easier on the brain than "I'll eat here a bit, but will abstain from eating more".
Started with "no breakfast" and now I'm in the "no lunch and breakfast" camp. Takes about 2-3 weeks to get used to each, and wouldn't recommend jumping cold turkey on just doing dinner, but it has made it way easier to accomplish.
And an added (and very significant) benefit to this is the whole longevity science thing which is pretty much in agreement that eating just dinner should give you a significant lifespan boost, as well as reduce various other illnesses throughout one's life.
I love to eat, and would usually treat myself to bigger than normal portions, and got teased about it by friends quite a lot. But now since I'm eating only dinner, I can devour comical amounts of food and still be getting less or about as much calories as are required, even if you count desert!
Anyone saying just eat less is full of shit. Sorry man. I went from 18st to 12st (and back up to 15st). I found a few key things. 1. Decide you want to loose weight. 2. Up your plain flat water intake... Like a ton. Your body will get used to it after a day or two and you'll start feeling naturally thirsty. You notice all these skinny fit people are always drinking? That's plain water they are drinking. Seriously if…
But man does it help with weight loss and alertness throughout the day.
Agree with everything this person above said.
I've been exploring "weird" approaches to health improvement (including weight loss) for years. In response to your post: it's not necessarily the case that more oxygen will lead to positive outcomes. Respiratory illnesses like asthma and sleep apnea can be caused by overbreathing/hyperventilation. The lungs need to maintain a certain level of CO2 in order for oxygen to be properly absorbed into the blood, and where…
aluminium is not a heavy metal
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone who lost 20kg in 5 months by eating less, I don't appreciate being called full of shit. First, too much water can cause hyponatremia. Drinking 2 to 3 litters of water / day is fine, but reach 5L and it's getting dangerous. And one of the main advantages of drinking water is it keeps your stomach full, meaning you don't feel hunger, and thus eat less. Second, what's the purpose of your 3rd point if not to r…
> but reach 5L and it's getting dangerous Maybe if you drink it all at once. 5L/day is perfectly fine for everyone in the world. If you’re drinking more than 2L/hour, that’s a problem. So space it out and drink a liter an hour or two and you’ll be fine. In the US, that’s two gallons and is a ton of water. It’s pretty common to see friends carrying a gallon jug around to make sure they drink their gallon a day.
The weirdest part is that I liked hunger. It made me feel alert. My body felt better, my mind was clearer, I needed less sleep. The less I ate the more energy I had. I ended up eating one good meal at lunch time and little or nothing for dinner. Combined with long walks the weight kept dropping steadily and quickly. And it’s not like I suffered. Hunger comes and goes in cravings that last less than half an hour two or three times per day. It’s quite easy to ignore them.