Ask HN: Any weird tips for weight loss?

Five years ago, I was diagnosed with the sole medical condition for which GHB was approved for therapeutic use: narcolepsy. After other medications started to fail, my doctor prescribed Xywav, the commercial version of GHB. I’ve been using it as directed for about a year. And I’ve lost about 30 pounds. I’m probably at an even lower body fat percentage (the metric I care about, not bodyweight) than the weight loss reflects because I began lifting weights three times per week at around the same time.

A comprehensive scientific understanding of all of the ways how sleep, sleep disorders, and GHB all affect health still eludes us, but enough correlations have been established to allow us to hypothesize without being too far afield, i think:

Correlation 1: 80% or so of narcoleptics struggle with healthy weight control Correlation 2: 80-90% of narcoleptics have abnormally low levels of the neuropeptide orexin, which has been shown to control sleep, arousal, and appetite Correlation 3: One characteristic feature of narcolepsy is an abundance of REM stage sleep, with a deficit of so called slow-wave stage III sleep compared to baseline. Correlation 4: Stage III sleep is where a lot of beneficial physical restorative effects of sleep happen, like muscle repair. Correlation 5: The therapeutic dose of GHB sends a person straight to stage III sleep. For narcoleptics, this restores the stage III sleep that they are lacking.

Putting it all together: quality sleep is important for maintaining healthy weight and neurological/physiological aspects that tie in, like satiety, appetite control, muscle repair, metabolism, etc. The specific stage of sleep that appears to have the strongest correlation with same appears to be Stage III. GHB artificially prolongs the amount of time a person is in stage III sleep, thus fortifying weight management.

As an aside, GHB is also noted to stimulate the indigeonous production of Growth Hormone, and before GHB was regulated as a recreational drug, it was banned by athletic organizations as a doping agent.

In no way do I suggest that off-label or illegal use of GHB is a safe, or even effective method of weight-loss for people who don’t suffer from a hypersomnia disorder. However, now that your curiosity has been piqued by the “weird” tip, it suggests a much more mundane weight loss tip that is probably just as if not more effective for neurotypical people: start a sleep log, and focus on getting the highest possible quality sleep you can.

In most cases, the reason you are overeating is rooted in something else. Not fixing that would not really give you a proper solution - and you need to have a critical eye to analyse where it is coming from.

Some potential examples are;

* You are stressed - the way you deal with it is by eating. (You could explore ways of reducing stress and/or different coping strategies such as daily nature walks etc.)

* For whatever reason, you don't sleep early. Research shows that when you don't sleep, you are more likely to eat and eat bad (e.g. McDonald's, KFC etc.).

In my case this was because I was doing what's called "reverse bedtime procrastination" (I hope I remember it correctly). Essentially "I don't want tomorrow to come, I haven't spent time for myself/my project etc. I will stay up a bit more."

* You have been conditioned to "clean up your plate" to the point that you eat even when you are full. (Usually from childhood)

Apart from these;

* Remember to drink water (if hungry, just drink a glass of water and then if you are still hungry, eat.) * Prefer "unprocessed over processed" and "protein over carbs". You don't need to avoid everything - just make sure to pick one over the other when you can. (e.g. instead of bread with Nutella as your lunch, eat bread with an egg.) * Do NOT starve yourself. If you feel hungry, eat! Otherwise you will end up bingeing. Just keep your portion size "intentional". * In order to keep your portion size intentional - prepare your food on kitchen, put it on your plate in terms of whatever is a "good size" and then leave the kitchen, eat in another room. Having food on the table where you eat as much as you want usually leads to overeating - mainly because at some point you switch to "eating for pleasure" and it takes a while to notice that. * While this won't make you lose weight by much - please walk for 20 minutes a day. Make sure to leave your house for this. Don't use your phone, don't listen to a podcast or anything just go out, and walk for 20 minutes. It will be good for your mind and your weight (it is quite a short period of time but it is your _disconnecting_ time.). * Finally - sleep, sleep, sleep! I am saying it twice but it is extremely important that you get your proper amount of sleep. There is always a next day, and you need rest. A well rested mind & body makes for better decision making & will-power as well.

I hope it helps. Remember - weight loss is not a goal, a balanced life is. You need to find a sustainable lifestyle that is healthy for you, and then your weight will fall into place.

Extra weird: adopt a tapeworm.

It's a form of extreme intermittent fasting, but it works quickly and I'd argue it is not painful.

The first 2 weeks are going to be hell coming from a 3 meal lifestyle, especially towards the evening, but your body will adapt and after these 2 weeks, from my experience, I felt completely okay.

The big advantage is that you can eat whatever tasty, unhealthy food you want, but only during a meal and, hopefully, you will still lose a lot weight just because you eat less overall. You still need to be careful about sweets I'd say, if you want to have quicker results. I pretty much also removed sweets from my diet when I started the OMAD "diet", leaving only the occasional exceptions like eating cake at a birthday party.

Another advantage is that you save money!

This might not work for everyone and it most probably isn't (very) healthy, but it's relatively weird and it managed to help me lose weight. I lost about 30 kgs in 8 months with little effort imo.