Earlier quoted context omitted.
If people want to lose weight, the worse advice you can give them is to "exercise to lose weight". Exercise has little to no effect on losing weight. You have to exercise at such a level of intensity and duration to make any meaningful difference that most people can't or won't do it. Losing weight is almost entirely about what you eat. As I said in another post, I was a part time fitness instructor for 12 years and…
I would disagree on this point. Although I am not very experienced in exercising, from time to time I start to jog or go to the gym for a couple of months and the only reason I do this is to get into shape; losing the weight was always a part of it. After all, there is a reason why thousands and thousands of people go to the gym only to lose weight. I'm not saying that exercising is only for this and of course it bri…
There are multiple reasons for that, but none of them are because it's the best way to lose weight. I used to think it was, and I've been going to the gym religiously for a couple of decades. I was always fit, but never lost the weight I wanted until recently when I discovered that eating less is the best way to lose weight. When I would go to the gym, I would compensate by eating more, which is why I never lost weight.
The high level bit, the primary action is exercise makes you stronger. Not exercising makes you weaker. Eating adds mass, not eating removes mass. It's so simple and symmetric, it just astounds me how long I believed that the primary way to get skinnier was to exercise.
I was afraid to eat less, and extremely resistant to counting calories (and I believe many many people are in the same boat). How many diets advertise being able to eat as much as you want of certain kinds of food and still lose weight? How many gym commericials advertise gyms for weight loss? Most gym ads sell gyms as a way to lose weight, most of society talks about gyms as a way to lose weight, it's no surprise that people think of the gym as a weight loss tool and as a way to avoid counting calories, or worse: being hungry.
The replacement technique in the article is exactly what I had to use to get over the fear of hunger. I had to figure out a way to mentally realize that my hunger meter was mis-calibrated, and that if I didn't feel a little bit hungry, then I was eating too much. I had to re-adjust to realize that not being hungry was a bad thing. This is opposite of feeling like I need willpower to overcome hunger.
> I cannot neglect the fact that after 3-4 months of gym I get in a perfect shape and lose 8 lbs minimum.
You're lucky; your eating is under control and you don't over-compensate when you work out. But many people do if they're not careful, which is why advising gym use for weight loss is usually ineffective (and can even damage some people's will and/or self image). Advising gym for getting stronger is great.