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John's Amazing Diet Secrets Revealed

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Re: John's Amazing Diet Secrets Revealed

#31

Post by philk »

Weightlifting is a useful adjunct to a well thought out diet as it encourages the body to retain muscle and drop fat.

Ideally you'd add in some decent lifting with free weights three times a week with the standard compound exercises (bench press, squats, deadlifts, overhead press and pullups/chins).

Additionally, as far as dealing with hunger there's a few things you can do:

1) Prepare a whole lot of salads and other calorically sparse things. The volume of food will displace more energy rich foods. One particularly easy implementation of this I've seen includes eating three apples each day.

2) You can stave off hunger by chewing ice chips or drinking water (even just chewing with an empty mouth seems to promote satiety).

3) Find more interesting distractions. Often it's hard to avoid eating food because there's not much else around to occupy yourself with. If you find something better/more interesting you can often go much longer without eating.

Re: John's Amazing Diet Secrets Revealed

#32

Post by WilliamLP »

alrex021 wrote: post #21

There is no real "secret". Its simple mathematics. Getting to know what the caloric numbers mean is the starting point. (Its like in personal finance knowing what the debit and credit columns mean.) For the "math" part, I wrote this short blog post: http://www.hackersinshape.net/archives/109 Oh and the diet part will get you only so far and it is the most challenging part, but without exercise you are missing the big…

> There is no real "secret". Its simple mathematics.

It's math but it is definitely not simple math. Both overeating and undereating lead to adaptations and those adaptations can be very different in different people and different conditions, for example stress levels and macronutrients. Those adaptations can affect the body as well as the mind (through perceived energy levels). And body and mind are intertwined in a way you cannot ignore.

Ultimately there is a delta calorie equation that is simple, but it's as useless and trite as saying that a pregnant woman gains weight because she eats more calories than her body burns. It's trivially true, but misses the most important levels.

Re: John's Amazing Diet Secrets Revealed

#33

Post by Mc_Big_G »

philk wrote: post #31

Weightlifting is a useful adjunct to a well thought out diet as it encourages the body to retain muscle and drop fat. Ideally you'd add in some decent lifting with free weights three times a week with the standard compound exercises (bench press, squats, deadlifts, overhead press and pullups/chins). Additionally, as far as dealing with hunger there's a few things you can do: 1) Prepare a whole lot of salads and other…

2) You can stave off hunger by chewing ice chips or drinking water (even just chewing with an empty mouth seems to promote satiety).

Chewing gum really helps me in the same way.

Re: John's Amazing Diet Secrets Revealed

#34

Post by larsberg »

JadeNB wrote: post #18

I don't know why we need 'amazing diet secrets' at all; it seems to me that, barring metabolic disorders, most of it is just "Do something , anything, about your diet". I pursued the following program for a semester: 1 meal a day (a sizable, but not huge, dinner at the end of the day --often McDonald's), and a 2/3 mile walk. I lost 15 kg, from over 80 kg to just over 65 kg, in the semester, and a few of those kilogra…

You'll find that something more substantial can be required once you're no longer in your 20s :-)

Re: John's Amazing Diet Secrets Revealed

#35

Post by TrevorJ »

gvb wrote: post #16
rms wrote: post #5

>And, boy, was I hungry at first. After a while I wasn't hungry any more... That's the real secret, and it could use some expansion. Isn't that where 99% of dieters fail? Why were you able to overcome your hunger when so many people find that an impossible challenge? People have a great deal of difficulty overcoming that feeling of hunger -- realizing that just because they feel something, they don't have to act on i…

The Atkin's theory, which I believe has been largely substantiated, is that carbohydrates (sugar, HFCS) do not satisfy hunger, they tend to trigger hunger. John cut out the sugar and his hunger dropped. FWIIW, my experience was the same and there are many others who echo this. See "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" (UCSF lecture) which goes into detail on the metabolism of carbohydrates, especially HFCS http://www.youtube.com…

Amazing lecture on sugar, I highly highly recommend it.

Re: John's Amazing Diet Secrets Revealed

#36

Post by e40 »

This is essentially the diet I've followed over the years. There are a couple more things I do:

1. Only eat when hungry. When I gain weight, it's always because of this one. Over time, I become less sensitive to the state of my stomach. It's OK to skip or push back a meal if you really aren't that hungry. There's a difference between "yeah, I could eat now" and "my stomach is completely empty from the last meal".

2. Absolutely no snacking between meals.

3. Walking. I walk a lot and I think it aids in digestion. My body doesn't work as well without it. I'm sure any other exercise would do.

4. Drink lots of water. (I realize this isn't a new item, but it's important, so I listed it.)

Lastly, on the hunger aspect: yes, it's very difficult to work through the desire to eat. After a few weeks I find that it subsides and I can easily ignore it. What I did was make a game of it. "I'm hungry now." "I'll bet I can wait another hour and not be distracted by it." "Wow, an hour's gone by!"

Re: John's Amazing Diet Secrets Revealed

#37

Post by unexpected »

forinti wrote: post #23
GFischer wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also read the Hacker's Diet, but I went to a doctor-controlled diet, and lost about 34 pounds so far (15 kg), in two months (not 6 months). It's fairly similar to what John advocates actually :) - it's eating WAY less, slower, and mostly vegetables (the main thing about this diet was that the clinic provides the food so you can't overeat). And yes, I was very hungry at first, what I did was drink lots of soup (the…

Instant soup is dangerous because it has lots of sodium.

Sodium is not that bad for you unless you have a specific health issue. Our bodies are amazing regulators and can handle sodium just fine.

Re: John's Amazing Diet Secrets Revealed

#38

Post by kingkongreveng_ »

gvb wrote: post #16
rms wrote: post #5

>And, boy, was I hungry at first. After a while I wasn't hungry any more... That's the real secret, and it could use some expansion. Isn't that where 99% of dieters fail? Why were you able to overcome your hunger when so many people find that an impossible challenge? People have a great deal of difficulty overcoming that feeling of hunger -- realizing that just because they feel something, they don't have to act on i…

The Atkin's theory, which I believe has been largely substantiated, is that carbohydrates (sugar, HFCS) do not satisfy hunger, they tend to trigger hunger. John cut out the sugar and his hunger dropped. FWIIW, my experience was the same and there are many others who echo this. See "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" (UCSF lecture) which goes into detail on the metabolism of carbohydrates, especially HFCS http://www.youtube.com…

You have to say specifically "carbohydrate" and not single out sugar. People try to make this false distinction between "complex" and simple carbohydrates and sugar. ANY starch is broken down rapidly in the small intestine and absorbed as sugar.

Re: John's Amazing Diet Secrets Revealed

#39

Post by kingkongreveng_ »

GFischer wrote: post #15
rms wrote: post #5

>And, boy, was I hungry at first. After a while I wasn't hungry any more... That's the real secret, and it could use some expansion. Isn't that where 99% of dieters fail? Why were you able to overcome your hunger when so many people find that an impossible challenge? People have a great deal of difficulty overcoming that feeling of hunger -- realizing that just because they feel something, they don't have to act on i…

I also read the Hacker's Diet, but I went to a doctor-controlled diet, and lost about 34 pounds so far (15 kg), in two months (not 6 months). It's fairly similar to what John advocates actually :) - it's eating WAY less, slower, and mostly vegetables (the main thing about this diet was that the clinic provides the food so you can't overeat). And yes, I was very hungry at first, what I did was drink lots of soup (the…

> no butter and other dairies except for yoghurt

Nonsense. I'm 8% body fat and eat loads of butter (almost a stick a day) and whole fat yogurt. I don't exercise that much either. Dairy fat is one of the best possible foods. Excellent satiety and virtually no insulin response.

Re: John's Amazing Diet Secrets Revealed

#40

Post by pasbesoin »

rms wrote: post #5

>And, boy, was I hungry at first. After a while I wasn't hungry any more... That's the real secret, and it could use some expansion. Isn't that where 99% of dieters fail? Why were you able to overcome your hunger when so many people find that an impossible challenge? People have a great deal of difficulty overcoming that feeling of hunger -- realizing that just because they feel something, they don't have to act on i…

I find distraction a very simple method. When I'm absorbed in a problem, I can go the better part of a day without eating. Often then, when I finally eat, it's because the lack of food / nutrients is starting to significantly hamper my thinking and focus. But it takes (this well/overfed U.S. resident) some time to reach that point.

The problem is to keep this mode of life up for a sustained period of time.

I also tend to lose significant weight while on vacation. This is usually because my vacations involve: 1) Intense, extended interaction with people (very occupying, if "distracting" is perhaps not the best word to use re social company) in non-food settings; 2) A lot of traveling and getting around from one novel place to another, again very occupying and without much of a food context.

I guess I could add that vacations for me involve very little TV.

Finally, as an aside, I've remained a fan of "TV host" Craig Ferguson's simple comment on the topic: "Eat less, move around more." I realize that it's not that simple for everybody, but for a fair number of people -- myself included -- it is. And his phrase, especially delivered in his accent and trademark combination of absurd and serious, is very memorable. This makes it useful to me on an ad hoc, day to day basis.

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