The grandmaster diet: How to lose weight while barely moving • Hacker News Board

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

#161

Post by scarface74 » Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 7:09 PM UTC

nscalf wrote: post #91

scarface74 wrote: post #51

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…

While this is probably mostly true, there is good science indicating that certain hormonal portfolios "hold" onto calories better than others. There is a reason power lifters are spiking insulin post workout, people are taking steroids, and medical conditions can make you fat. If my mother wants to cut weight, I'm telling her this. If an athlete has to make weight for a fight, this is a stupid way of thinking. At the…

“medical conditions can make you fat.”

Medical conditions don’t cause mass to appear from nowhere that goes against the laws of physics. Yes medical conditions can cause your metabolism to slow down - decreasing calories out.

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

#162

Post by stronglikedan » Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 7:11 PM UTC

papito wrote: 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.

Anecdotal, but I'm well past 30, and I notice a marked improvement in cognition when I have a small, high-protein breakfast. Granted, I'm on a portion-control, no-processed-food diet the rest of the day too, so I'm rarely ever consuming more than I need.

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

#163

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 7:12 PM UTC

mattsfrey wrote: post #148

hoschicz wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a common misconception, let me explain. > Losing weight and gaining weight is simple physics. > you are losing weight because you are consuming less calories. This is only true in the first up to 6 months of a calorie-restriction diet. Then, body adjusts its metabolism (lower body temperature, making you feel more lethargic to keep you from exercising, etc) and your weight begins to slowly climb back up, sans…

This is absolutely false. Having lost 160 lbs over the course of two years I can say it is absolutely possible to continue losing weight from calorie restriction. Does it get harder to lose the same amount of weight? Absolutely. You are getting lighter and your base metabolic rate diminishes. You have to eat less food or do more exercise to maintain the same deficit. In reality, your burn rate just goes down. I was i…

[deleted]

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

#164

Post by thanatropism » Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 7:12 PM UTC

snazz wrote: post #3

rajacombinator wrote: post #2

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

Did you read the article? It’s about diet, exercise, and the energy burnt playing chess.

It's well possible that Magnus and Anand and cohort are having the lifestyles of active sportsmen with nutritionists and physical trainers and all that good stuff, while amphetamins or at least Provigil is rampant among middling players breaking into the middle ranks.

I've been in a 52-versus-one simultaneous (offline) game with a Champion (not a Grand Champion). I'm mediocre at chess, but can you imagine the kind of skills you need to beat 52 mediocre-to-interested-amateur players? At Magnus's level stimulants possibly no longer work -- much like amphetamines wouldn't help me pass a calculus exam; probably even set me back.

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

#165

Post by partialrecall » Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 7:14 PM UTC

berdon wrote: post #132

partialrecall wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're describing difficulties with precise measurement of inputs and outputs, but I don't think the difficulty of making those measurements refutes the core idea of CICO at all. The difficulty of actually implementing CICO suggests we should have sympathy for those who fail. This doesn't refute CICO.

Your strawman is implying I was trying to refute CICO. I never said that - I said people don't count all the outputs.

It was not my intention to strawman you. I apologize for misreading your intent.

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

#166

Post by ska » Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 7:14 PM UTC

RobertRoberts wrote: post #137

kerkeslager wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to try to reiterate more clearly what your parent comment was saying: Your experimental methodology is flawed because it fails to control for water loss. This isn't negligible: in the summer when it's hot and I sweat a lot, I can easily drink a 1 liter Nalgene bottle in the morning, about 2 pounds of water. It's likely that what you've measured is simply the slow loss of water through perspiration and exhal…

>Your experimental methodology is flawed because it fails to control for water loss. I absolutely tested for water loss. What I found was that some extra (?) water retained until we sleep. And that something happens with fat or other processing that occurs during sleep. Again, I charted my weight carefully multiple times a day over a month. Carefully testing when weight loss occured. I Recorded my diet as well as my…

> It has to come out of our body somehow.

Mostly you breath it out, excepting water.

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

#167

Post by dpark » Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 7:15 PM UTC

hoschicz wrote: post #153

I first wrote this as a reply in this thread and now I'm looking at it, I think it's relevant to the article as a whole -- sugar, insulin, calorie reduction, stress, fitness in general. I believe that the "diet" mentioned in the article is in effect a calorie-restriction one. > Losing weight and gaining weight is simple physics. > you are losing weight because you are consuming less calories. This is only true in the…

> This is only true in the first up to 6 months of a calorie-restriction diet. Then, body adjusts its metabolism (lower body temperature, making you feel more lethargic to keep you from exercising, etc) and your weight begins to slowly climb back up, sans any further calorie restriction. At this point, it's easy for a dieter to blame himself of lacking willpower: "it worked, and it stopped working now, I must've been not strict enough!".

> The same thing happens if you force someone to overeat even if they're not hungry. They will gain weight -- for up to 6 months. Then, the body increases its base metabolic rate and adjusts to the new food intake level.

This is pseudoscientific garbage. There is some amount of adaptation that the body experiences in response to a caloric deficit or surplus. It varies by person but is generally not a major effect. A few hundred calories is typical and is largely attributable to changes in NEAT.

This is also not an unbounded effect. It won’t prevent continued weight loss if the starting deficit is greater than the adaptation nor will it prevent continued weight gain if the surplus exceeds the adaptation. The many obese people in the world are proof that the “natural set point” does not place a cap on weight gain.

There is also definitely nothing magic that happens at the 6 month mark and the absurdity of this should be enough to make it clear that this is garbage.

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

#168

Post by dpark » Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 7:18 PM UTC

berdon wrote: post #156

hoschicz wrote: post #153

I first wrote this as a reply in this thread and now I'm looking at it, I think it's relevant to the article as a whole -- sugar, insulin, calorie reduction, stress, fitness in general. I believe that the "diet" mentioned in the article is in effect a calorie-restriction one. > Losing weight and gaining weight is simple physics. > you are losing weight because you are consuming less calories. This is only true in the…

Yeah, I lost 100lb from calorie restriction over the course a year. Eating the exact same things just less of it. There is no panacea for weight loss - everyone is different. A book is not a source. Providing a book and then cavalierly saying people should read it because it's backed by science is pretty rude.

> There is no panacea for weight loss - everyone is different.

You described the panacea: Eat less. If you eat less than you burn, you will lose weight. This effect is so predictable and reliable that taken to its logical conclusion it results in death. We call this starvation.

And everyone really isn’t different. The only thing different for most people is what sort of diet they find more tolerable. The fundamentals don’t change though.

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

#169

Post by jacobwilliamroy » Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 7:18 PM UTC

castlecrasher2 wrote: post #37

Eat less, lose weight. I read long ago that if you want to maintain weight, eat until you're a little bit hungry. If you want to lose weight, eat until you're still pretty hungry. I've been following the latter on and off over the years, and have been doing it again for the past 8 weeks and have lost a pound a week. I've found it to be much easier than calculating BMR/caloric rate then calculating calories and settin…

You can actually eat more and still lose weight. You just have to eat foods that are low in calories, like cruciferous vegetables, water-based oatmeal, brown rice. You can eat a few apples and still be eating fewer calories than if you ate a single bran muffin. The whole carbohydrates in the apple also mean that you're less likely to spike your blood sugar and experience glycation, than if you were to eat the processed carbs in the muffin.

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

#170

Post by aoro » Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 7:19 PM UTC

I've never seen an overweight person who exercised regularly and ate decently well. I'm not talking about hitting the gym 6 days a week but a healthy amount of daily activity be it walking, running, surfing, hiking. It is not and never has been complicated to lead a healthy lifestyle.