Ask HN: Any weird tips for weight loss?

This. I lost 12 kg in a few months when I was 20 by basically just stopping to drink sweet stuff and only eating one meal a day. I simply was too lazy as a student to buy and carry soda bottles and cook more than once a day. I have kept that weight for over a decade now by strictly adhering to the one meal per day rule, and only drinking tap water and coffee. Exercise was never for me (again, too lazy).

> Just eat less man. It's pretty straight forward. Just eat one meal a day (lunch) and you'll see the weight fly off.

You're suggesting a diet that requires a discipline that, empirically, is obviously beyond the reach of most people.

Here's much, much simpler advice, that is also more enjoyable to do: Just eat better. Or just somewhat better, and do some exercise.

You'd be surprised how easy it is to purchase or cook a meal that is delicious and filling, but not all too heavy on calories. Vegetables are boring when you boil them. Properly seasoned and roasted, grilled, braised, or sauteed, they can be an absolutely amazing side dish. Hell, throw a bit of cheese on them, that little bit of Parmesan or Gruyère won't make a difference calorie-wise but will add a divine dimension of flavor. It's easy to make a delicious desert that doesn't contain >50g of fat.

Get some exercise. I enjoy lifting weights but you don't lose weight with that, you do it with endurance sport which I absolutely hate. Luckily, there's a solution for that: any halfway decent gym opened in the past decade has bikes, treadmills, cross-trainers etc. with built-in viewing screens and Netflix, Youtube, etc. An hour flies by when you're enjoying yourself, and with a heart rate of 130bpm or so, you're basically not even sweating, yet burning tons of calories. Imagine enjoying a full hour episode of House of Cards, Narcos, or whatever your thing is and getting healthy in the process. You're losing weight by watching TV.

I think most advice that requires a dramatic change in lifestyle (like limiting yourself to one meal a day) is extremely poor because it requires effort that most of us aren't willing to expend.

I enjoy food. A lot. I like to go out and try it, I like to cook it, I like to share it with others. For me, "eating one meal a day" is absolute punishment, I'm missing out on least two occasions to taste something enjoyable, maybe even remarkable. And it's easy to do that 3x a day when you just watch what you eat. Eat proper food for a while and you'll never crave a Big Mac again, because you can actually taste what crap it is.

My weird tip would be don't follow weird tips from the internet.

Most fad diets are either unhealthy or counterproductive. Or both.

At the very least ask for some citations of studies about them so you know if they work or are total bullshit.

Join some kind of group, share your progress. Or share your intent/progress with your friends. That makes you feel more responsible and helps with motivation

Don't have snacks at home. Don't buy them at all.

Start home cooking if you are not doing already.

Track your progress, make a graph. It feels great to see that line going down. Track it even after you reach your goals so you don't bounce back.

Track what you eat, especially at the beginning. There are a lot of stuff that are very high in calories but people often have very little idea about them.

Exercise is a nice bonus but don't think you can out-exercise a bad diet.

That seems really dangerous because you are dramatically increasing your risk of malnutrition. If there is a nutrient that happens to be somewhat lacking in that one meal, there is nothing to make up for it.