Ask YC: How do you lose weight?

Don't buy into the "genetic limit" line of thinking. The limit on the amount of muscle mass you can pack onto your body is much higher than most people have the will to achieve.

My issue is not length, but intensity. I understood "not doing too much in the gym" to mean "don't work too hard." If instead you meant use your time in the gym wisely, then that I agree with. But if you want to see continued improvement, then you need to increase the intensity over time. Despite being in the gym the same amount as some people, I'm in better shape because I work harder.

I agree with your summary, but I would stress "work hard." I've found that working hard and continually trying to improve actually makes workouts more fun.

I am not overweight and not a specialist for diets. However, recently I read one book about nutrition that made a big impression on me: The China Study by Colin Campbell. It doesn't give you a specific diet plan, except for the recommendation to avoid all animal proteins. But if that sounds hard, the book provides ample motivation, because it summarizes lots and lots of studies that show that most "civilization diseases", like heart disease, cancer, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and more can be avoided by such a diet. But the author is not a crank or self-announced health guru, but a scientist who has devoted his life to studying these things. The most extensive study is the China Study that gave the book it's name, but it is not the only one.

As for losing weight, I remember that he writes that people with a mostly plant based diet tend to actually eat more calories than meat eaters, but stay slimmer nevertheless - the energy is used in a different way. He also criticizes some popular diets, for example while Atkins dieters lost weight in studies, what is less known is that they also lost critical amounts of calcium. Overall, Atkins is apparently very unhealthy.

Also, apparently people who switch to plants based diets also lose weight, without calories counting.

Of course I am not a health scientist, so I can't judge the book. But it sounded convincing to me, also because even before I read it I had a feeling I should try to avoid dairy products. I did some google searches but found no refutations of The China Study (it has a section on the grip of the food industry on the dieting market).

In fact, I would be interested in hearing other people's opinions.

Bikram Yoga is my way. It's a style of Hatha Yoga. Bikram Yoga is very intense but, also very rewarding. I can't recommend it enough.

Being reminded about stress from another comment, I just remembered the second health-relevant book I read in recent times: "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers", a book about Stress. One relevant tidbit: during a stress event (like a lion jumping out of the bush to eat you), the body doesn't care for hunger. Rather, it tries to use as much energy as possible (for example for running away). After the event (IF you escape the lion), the body wants to replenish the resources, so you get very hungry.

Why then, do some people lose weight during stressful phases of their life, and others gain weight? The explanation put forward is that people might experience stress in different ways. The one kind really experience a prolonged stress experience, so they forget to eat (stress suppresses the hunger). The other kind of people experiences lots of small stress events. For example driving to work: first red traffic light - stress, second red traffic light - stress, call customer - stress. So they have lots of short stress experiences, each one followed with the natural hunger reaction after stress. So they tend to eat a lot, and gain weight.

I totally agree with you on your last point about sloppy record keeping. You've learned over time how to properly estimate calories. Once I started to actually measure and record the food I consumed my weight changed dramatically.