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The grandmaster diet: How to lose weight while barely moving

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Re: The grandmaster diet: How to lose weight while barely moving

#81
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "The chess players are forgetting to eat. " This surprises me. I find that being hungry dulls my edge and makes me noticeably less clever. It's easy for me to forget to eat if I'm doing something mindless, but when I'm actively problem solving I find that I become more aware of my hunger (and other forms of general discomfort.)

Interesting. For a lot of gamers and programmers it's the opposite. Intense focus and engagement often results in forgetting to eat and/or sleep. This is well known in the gaming community.

Gaming is an activity that I filed under mindless, I don't play many games these days but I have in the past and generally noticed myself eating less. Typically when I play games these days I listen to an audiobook or podcast at the same time and my attention is on the audio more than the game, for which I'm basically on autopilot.

I never been big on puzzle games though, I prefer games like doom or quake. Fast games that focus on reaction time and spatial awareness, rather than problem solving. If I were playing something slow and complex (chess, minesweeper, etc), I expect I'd probably be more aware of my hunger.

Re: The grandmaster diet: How to lose weight while barely moving

#82

I did tests for weight loss. I found that you don't lose weight until you sleep. (stay up all night and weigh your self repeatedly, in the morning, no loss, but after you sleep and wake, your weight goes back to "morning weight") I found that if you don't sleep well, you don't lose as much. If you eat too late before going to bed, you don't lose as much. If you adjust your diet (however you want is my experience) to…

> I did tests for weight loss. I found that you don't lose weight until you sleep.

What would be the physical mechanism that would account for this? You are probably just measuring hydration + gut contents.

Re: The grandmaster diet: How to lose weight while barely moving

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to be blunt. But this is as much pseudoscience as the anti vaxers. Losing weight and gaining weight is simple physics. There is also a big difference between losing weight based on water weight and losing real body mass. I sweat like a pig anytime I work out. I use to teach two hour fitness classes and even now after the end of a workout, I’ve “lost 5 pounds” but that’s pure water weight. I’m burning around 10…

This. It's all an input/output ratio. The quickest way to gain two pounds is drinking 32oz of water.

>It's all an input/output ratio.

Except it's not. The body is not a closed system. The law of conservation of mass & energy just means you have to balance your chemical equations. It doesn't necessarily mean eating more will make you fat. (Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't ... it's just not necessarily the case.)

Appeal to intuition: you can eat 10k calories of straight lard, and you will crap most of it out. You can do other things to "burn off" that excess energy, too, like build muscle, raise your body temperature, etc.

To be clear: I don't know to what extent (if any) the body does any of the above things. My point is that the "calories in vs calories out" meme is so inaccurate that it borders on dead-wrong.

Re: The grandmaster diet: How to lose weight while barely moving

#84
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to be blunt. But this is as much pseudoscience as the anti vaxers. Losing weight and gaining weight is simple physics. There is also a big difference between losing weight based on water weight and losing real body mass. I sweat like a pig anytime I work out. I use to teach two hour fitness classes and even now after the end of a workout, I’ve “lost 5 pounds” but that’s pure water weight. I’m burning around 10…

I never understood this point of view. It’s like people who didn’t believe in washing hands until bacteria were discovered. Yes sure calories in calories out. But metabolism has so many variables. It can be revved up and burn a lot of calories. It can become quiescent when you are in starvation mode. What causes it to start using the fat reserves is definitely more than a univariate analysis. If there is a catalyst t…

> But metabolism has so many variables.

You're drastically overestimating the difference in people's metabolism.

> Some people are naturally skinny and others put on weight quickly.

This is about appetite. Skinny people have a smaller appetite than overweight people.

Show me a "skinny" person who can eat 4,000 calories a day and I'll show you a fat person.

Re: The grandmaster diet: How to lose weight while barely moving

#85

I did tests for weight loss. I found that you don't lose weight until you sleep. (stay up all night and weigh your self repeatedly, in the morning, no loss, but after you sleep and wake, your weight goes back to "morning weight") I found that if you don't sleep well, you don't lose as much. If you eat too late before going to bed, you don't lose as much. If you adjust your diet (however you want is my experience) to…

I hate to be blunt. But this is as much pseudoscience as the anti vaxers. Losing weight and gaining weight is simple physics. There is also a big difference between losing weight based on water weight and losing real body mass. I sweat like a pig anytime I work out. I use to teach two hour fitness classes and even now after the end of a workout, I’ve “lost 5 pounds” but that’s pure water weight. I’m burning around 10…

> I hate to be blunt. But this is as much pseudoscience as the anti vaxers.

There's a scientific term for what it is. It is called bro-science

Re: The grandmaster diet: How to lose weight while barely moving

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to be blunt. But this is as much pseudoscience as the anti vaxers. Losing weight and gaining weight is simple physics. There is also a big difference between losing weight based on water weight and losing real body mass. I sweat like a pig anytime I work out. I use to teach two hour fitness classes and even now after the end of a workout, I’ve “lost 5 pounds” but that’s pure water weight. I’m burning around 10…

>Losing weight and gaining weight is simple physics I assume you're referring to the "energy in" vs "energy out" meme in weight-loss. The body is not a closed system. While you _do_ have to balance your chemical equations for glucose catabolysis (or whatever), weight loss is far from a "simple physics" problem.

Surely energy going into and out of the body, which is the point of the "meme", is mutually exclusive with the body being a closed system.

Re: The grandmaster diet: How to lose weight while barely moving

#87
I lost 10kg in 90 days. I didn't follow any fancy diet. Just counted calories.

Yes, I know, I know it's flawed, but many of you are reasoning your way into eating what you want and the problem is discipline.

I ate ice cream along the way. I too ate what I wanted, but I just tracked everything (I used lose it) and never overate my budget.

The first diet that ever really worked. Nothing can replace discipline.

Re: The grandmaster diet: How to lose weight while barely moving

#88
post #64

After 30, one should seriously evaluate breakfast. Three meals per day becomes just too many calories to burn. Two meals for an adult is plenty. Coffee in the morning suppresses hunger, so one can go until 12-12:30 before getting woozy. At some point I noticed that I was force-feeding myself lunch if I ate breakfast. Hunger is a normal feeling - embrace it.

I've done this for years. Still fat. I'm not skipping dinner, and I'm dropping pounds really quickly

Re: The grandmaster diet: How to lose weight while barely moving

#89
post #64

After 30, one should seriously evaluate breakfast. Three meals per day becomes just too many calories to burn. Two meals for an adult is plenty. Coffee in the morning suppresses hunger, so one can go until 12-12:30 before getting woozy. At some point I noticed that I was force-feeding myself lunch if I ate breakfast. Hunger is a normal feeling - embrace it.

Change what you eat, not how often you eat. A yogurt and some fruit is fine for breakfast.

Re: The grandmaster diet: How to lose weight while barely moving

#90

Sounds like amphetamine abuse to me. Presumably de rigeur in chess.

The game is exhausting at those levels.

Also, not to validate your presumption, but anecdotally I can say that amphetamine and nootropic use is pretty rampant within chess.

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