Ask HN: Any weird tips for weight loss?

Many “quick” weight-loss tips are not-so-healthy, if done for an extended period of time.

Also, the human body is an amazing machine. It adapts quickly to stressors. Since most “quick” weight-loss techniques are actually stressors, their effectiveness can decline, as soon as your body adapts.

As I’ve gotten older, losing weight (actually, not gaining weight) has become more difficult, but also, a lot of foods that I used to eat with impunity, now make me ill. I haven’t had ice cream in a couple of years, which is sad. I've also almost eliminated between-meal snacking.

I've always been a fan of moderate, consistent, exercise, and a moderate, varied, healthy diet, with small portions, eaten slowly (note the use of the word "moderate," there).

But I’ve heard that deliberately infecting oneself with a tapeworm works. It’s probably not as crazy as some of the stuff I've read about.

This might help for people with a very small, specific goal in mind - lose n pounds or y% body fat by a certain event - and who are already pretty strong and consistent mentally. But if you are trying to lose weight to look better or not have a heart attack at 40, it's not a sustainable way to approach things. It's much more sustainable, and healthier, to focus on small habits you can add over time.

If you eat fast food four times a week and have five regular cokes a day, you're much better cutting that to three sodas a day and stopping there than you are eating kale salads and protein shakes for a couple weeks before going right back to where you were. And cutting a couple sodas a day is much easier to boot.