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You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

physiqonomics.com

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Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#71

Post by magicalhippo »

sharken wrote: post #31
lr4444lr wrote: post #8

Someone finally wrote this article. So refreshing. It's obvious when you live with a fat person why they have trouble losing weight, even when they're on a diet: they're usually not actually following it. Whether they don't understand portion sizes for calorie math, or look at calories at all, or eat things that they say "do not count", there is almost always a failure to understand what and how much they are eating.

It's more like they DO NOT want to believe how small portion sizes are required to consistently lose weight. Even if there was a device that could scan all food before eating it, they would still exempt some meals with the "do not count" argument. Rule of thumb, that if a meal is easy and fast to prepare, then it is probably not suited for a diet. To lose weight you have to do a lot more exercise than you think consi…

> It's more like they DO NOT want to believe how small portion sizes are required to consistently lose weight.

I found the same when I started counting calories. An extra slice of wholegrain bread is how much?!

Even just a thin spread of butter or margarine on the bread would blow my daily budget by a lot, so I had to find alternatives for that (like mustard).

Given my own preferences for having a "proper meal", I ended up only eating twice a day. I focused on making it high-protein and high-fiber to make me feel full longer, cutting down on regular carbs as needed.

Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#73

Post by csours »

I weigh 350 pounds. I'm very obese. I know this.

When I was a teenager, I looked at people who weighed 300+ pounds and though, how do you get that way. Don't you realize that you are gaining weight? Don't you know that you just have to eat less to lose weight?

Anyway, now I realize that I am hungry. It never goes away unless I eat a significant amount of food. My body told me to eat, so I ate.

It doesn't even take that much extra food to gain a lot of weight. One extra piece of cake a week is a few pounds in a year. If you live a few years, it adds up. You gain weight in kilograms and lose weight in grams.

Hunger is a sensation that happens inside a person's body and mind. You cannot compare your hunger to my hunger.

So many diets talk about not being hungry while you are on the diet. I've been to dieticians and told them I'm hungry, and they suggest eating more protein or more fiber. That does help, but I still feel hungry.

There is a very good chance that someone is writing a reply with some suggestion as to how I should eat so that I'm not hungry. Thank you for the thoughts, but realize that you don't live in my body, you don't know how I feel, you don't know what I've tried.

Hunger sounds like a problem to people. Hunger feels like a problem inside the body. People still tell me I shouldn't be hungry. Maybe part of the solution is realizing that eating to satisfaction is ... bad for some people. Maybe it's Ok to be a little hungry.

Anyway, these are just some thoughts. I'm down 30 pounds from my max. I think I have a good mentality now, but it took years to get here.

Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#74

Post by thomond »

Sparkle-san wrote: post #4

This seems like a good primer on how to look at food differently. The problem with diets is that people relapse due to the fact that dieting is done through force of will and willpower is limited. For long lasting change, you need to reshape your relationship with food and be content with what and how you eat. Understanding some of the things in this article can be a good place to start.

Learning how to cook is a great way to do that. You know exactly what's in what you eat.

Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#75

Post by rnd420_69 »

bavell wrote: post #55
sharken wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more like they DO NOT want to believe how small portion sizes are required to consistently lose weight. Even if there was a device that could scan all food before eating it, they would still exempt some meals with the "do not count" argument. Rule of thumb, that if a meal is easy and fast to prepare, then it is probably not suited for a diet. To lose weight you have to do a lot more exercise than you think consi…

> To lose weight you have to do a lot more exercise than you think consistently. And you have to eat a lot less than you think. Exercise doesn't help very much, it's really all about diet. Plus if you are exercising a lot, you'll feel hungier and it'll be harder mentally to not eat more to compensate.

I lost 60lbs in about a year almost exclusively based around a large amount of exercise.

My diet was bad and I was eating far above 2000kcal on many days. I just exercised a lot. 1h of fairly intense cardio at least 6 days a week, though I would always round up to the next 10 min mark and do more like 70 or 80 min per day.

Some days I would order pizza or something and some dessert in the evening when I knew this would push me into the 3000kcal range and in return did 2h or 3h exercise routines fairly regularly, often times while eating the pizza.

Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#76

Post by huntertwo »

scarface74 wrote: post #34
SnowHill9902 wrote: post #25

If you squat, deadlift and walk enough, and are generally healthy, you physically won’t be able to eat yourself fat.

You can just do the math and see how much exercise you have to do to make any difference in your weight loss. You definitely can’t “walk” your way to weight loss

Walking 5 miles a day can be done in an hour and a half and can burn ~250-500 calories. That’s half a pound to a pound of fat per week, which is pretty significant.

Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#77

Post by NoOneNew »

retrac wrote: post #60
lr4444lr wrote: post #8

Someone finally wrote this article. So refreshing. It's obvious when you live with a fat person why they have trouble losing weight, even when they're on a diet: they're usually not actually following it. Whether they don't understand portion sizes for calorie math, or look at calories at all, or eat things that they say "do not count", there is almost always a failure to understand what and how much they are eating.

One of my roommates tried everything, including good hard exercise and all sorts of diets. Nothing seemed to be working. It was kind of perplexing me, actually. Then we started working the same schedule, breakfast together. The whole thing unravelled with a casual comment he made. "Wow, you're really stingy with the sugar in your coffee." Except I wasn't. I was actually indulging myself, like two tablespoons. Show me…

You, this.

I can second this fully. Figured out the same thing when I spent a solid week nazi tracking my eating.

The thing that blew my mind. I always used heavy cream in my coffee. 150cal per 2 tablespoons. I would use like a quarter cup. I switch to milk, just 150cal per cup.

The little things really damn matter.

Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#78

Post by OkayPhysicist »

Etheryte wrote: post #26
elmerfud wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not wrong because it's about calorie deficit of which exercise can help you achieve. Also since the way fat gets "burned" for weight loss is by exhaling carbon atoms, aerobic exercise can assist with this process. As always do not add more mass than you expel.

Saying exercise can help you reach your calorie deficit is fairly misleading. Yes, exercise burns calories, but even a hard workout is a small part of your daily calories spent at best.

And if you do find yourself in circumstances where you're burning a significant enough amount of calories on a daily basis (say, a highschool water polo player treading water for 3 hours a day, working out to somewhere between 1000-2000 calories), then it just builds bad eating habits, because you get used to eating too much.

The only real long-term solution to weight management is not wanting to eat too much. Willpower controlled diets work on the short term, which might be fine if an individual's level of desired consumption is sufficiently close to their daily caloric needs, but are doomed in the long term.

Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#79

Post by tayo42 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #54
tayo42 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

its exhausting to do that. Im switching my diet up a little to bit to reduce cholesterol and some liver enzyme thing lately and Im starting to get tired of thinking so much before every meal and shopping trip. wish it was easier to not fall in to unhealthy traps. so many labels, and so much meal planning.

I've hit this before as well, and have come to the conclusion that, at least for me, detailed meal planning is not sustainable in the long run. This is one reason why I think that dieting advice that is simple and straightforward has the most success. Some examples: 1. Cut out all sugar-sweetened beverages. This is a pretty easy rule to follow, and even if you find yourself missing a soda or something, my recommendat…

carbs is actually where im struggling the most. I defaulted to just making sides of white rice with everything for so long. I at least switched to brown rice, quinoa and couscous to make it a little easier but learning new sides to go with proteins is tedious. I struggle with feeling full too.

Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#80

Post by dheera »

doctorhandshake wrote: post #44

I am bothered by the author’s written use of ‘quote-unquote’ in place of actual quotes. This is a spoken form of scare quotes and takes ‘write like you talk’ too far for me.

It does make it more accessible if you're passing it through a TTS engine for reading.
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