Ask HN: Food hacks for eating well?

My best tip is to equate the foodstuff to exercise equivalent. Ask yourself: How much exercise would I have to do to not gain weight by eating this junk?

A chocolate bar is roughly equivalent to, say, a 30 minute jog. If you think that what you're about to eat is as bad for you as a 30 minute jog is good (or that they basically cancel each other out), it doesn't seem quite so appealing. Then if you choose the apple instead, you've done the equivalent of a 30 minute jog better than the quantum-choice-alternative-less-disciplined-and-slightly-fatter-you.

Before you eat any junk snack, take a long look at the nutritional information and think about what it is going to do to your body.

Your body craves what it is used too. It takes some length of time before your body adjusts what it's used to. In my experience this is 1-2 months depending on how radical the change. Every month you go on with a given diet seems to amplify the effect.

So the real trick is to spend 1 month suffering (don't eat a single bit of candy) and then make the much easier choice to limit yourself to some reasonable amount (1 per week, for instance).

I have heard a lot about not having your biggest meal last in the day. Something I do when I have late sleeping hours is get up in the afternoon, have some coffee and toast. Then have dinner at the same time as the rest of my household who have much more normal hours, so the biggest meal is halfway through my day. Then later on I try to fit in some exercise and either have a health shake or fruit, something light later on.

My biggest problem now is probably energy drinks, have cut back but still enjoy them regularly.

From the foods you describe I'm guessing you are used to eating quite a large amount of sugar. You don't mention, for example, craving steak. (Mmmm....steak :)

If "nutritional replacements aren't hitting the spot" it might just be that you're ingesting fewer calories and are hence hungry. Junk food tends to be very energy dense so you have to eat a larger volume to maintain the same amount of energy coming in.

One way to blunt sugar cravings is to exercise. Particularly if you're a lard arse your insulin response can go out of wack. Exercising depletes muscle glycogen which can help bring things back to normal. You can find out a whole lot more here: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/training-the-obese...

Another way to blunt sugar cravings is to fast. You'll find various people promoting "intermittent fasting". Basically, don't eat for about 12 hours. Fairly simple to say; may not be simple to do.

Also, make sure you're eating plenty of protein and fat. Don't just replace one pile of carbohydrates with another (e.g. nachos with bread). If you do this you'll stay on the sugar treadmill.

I hope that is useful.

A good place to start is to remove "junk" from your diet. In the past, chocolate/candy etc was considered a treat and we should all go back to thinking that way.

Next up is hydration. If you are dehydrated, evenly slightly, it is easy to think you are hungry.

I also echo the views of those saying that sugar is worse than fat. Very refined carbs, such as white bread, are terrible due to the speed at which you metabolise it. Look into the GI of various foods and you may be surprised.

When you do have a meal, consider timing. The old saying "Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and have a paupers dinner" is apt.

Also eat plenty of low carb, bulky foods such as onions, carrots, mushrooms etc. This will fill you up for longer, as well as giving numerous health benefits