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

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271–280 of 501 posts

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

#271
post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is actually the most common experience. Everyone says they want to lose weight, but they just can't bring themselves to eat a sensible amount. Heck, I'm trying it now, writing down everything I eat, weighing myself each day, and it's still going pretty damn slowly. > 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 eat…

> Have you thought about eating something that just has very few calories, in order to fill you up? Carrots have barely any calories and need a fair bit of chewing. In my experience, this works kinda ok, but it doesn't actually feel like being full or sated. It feels like having a full stomach but still being hungry.

Isn't the feeling of having a full stomach what people normally mean by being full? I've never thought you could feel full bit hungry.

The other side of that is you can feel like you need to eat despite not actually feeling hungry. I've lost a bit recently, but not often with that hole in the stomach feeling. I still often get that "I should eat something" feeling while not feeling the physical "belly empty".

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

#272
post #73

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 th…

Try different cousins, as many different new fruits, spices, etc as you can, along with vitamins and minerals.

To me, this sounds like your body wants something and it never gets it.

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

#273
post #146

Keto diets are both safe and effective. I have yet to meet somebody following one who didn't lose weight. I feel like this topic is basically resolved. Stop eating carbs.

So are vegan diets. (By which I mean: whole food, plant based.) But you don't need to pick a team with all the tribalism that's involved. It really is as simple as eating less, like the article lays out. And eating less is much easier if the foods you are eating are fiber rich (more filling).

You are describing most of a keto diet, which is high in fiber, and sources most of its calories from fat instead of carbohydrates.

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

#274
post #73

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 th…

> 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. Actually I was wanted to ask the opposite: what prevents you from letting yourself go hungry a fraction of the day? You might get a stomachache for a bit, I know, but have you tried and seen any consequences beyond that? Note I'm not suggesting "eat absolutely nothing the whole day", but l…

You could ask the same of someone addicted to smoking or cocaine or whatever. Every fibre of your body is telling you to go eat/smoke/get high etc. It is an all consuming urge that relentlessly interrupts whatever else you are trying to do or think about. You literally cannot stop thinking about your next think you are going to eat.

For me, it is not even physical stomach ache as you suggest, it is the mental aspect of total and complete brain derailment until you go eat something.

I guess I could ask someone to lock me in a room or something. That is not practical though as unlike smoking or drugs you need to eat something to stay alive - you cannot just go 100% cold turkey to try and break the addiction because you need to eat eventually.

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

#275

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.

“Write like you talk” has been a genuine abomination on the internet. It has destroyed a lot of spaces for me

Like it's kinda super awful(ish), child-esque.

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

#277

This article is quite accurate I think. I use MyFitnessPal on and off. It is easy - you just scan the barcode and it tots up the calories. MFP is excellent at making you face up to what you are actually eating. At first it was a huge eye-opener for how many calories were in everyday things - like a slice of bread is 80-120 calories etc. The article mentions fruit juice too - that was a big one for me as well. I figur…

Just want to note here that I recently switched off MFP for Cronometer because MFP had a literal week long outage and is architected in such a way that it must phone home in order to save anything like a recipe you make. So that was a whole week where I couldn't save a new recipe. I've found Cronometer to be a lot faster in every way, and actually has an up to date database and when you scan something it doesn't have…

Cronometer I found was missing lots and lots of food items and restaurants though, and that makes it harder to report.

I unfortunately travel a fair amount and this means I can't just make restaurants a "cheat meal" some days. I try going to the grocery store while traveling, but it takes so much more time when I'm taking taxis and trying to cook in a hotel room.

HOWEVER

This is a lot of whining and excuse my brain is probably using to let me eat more when I travel.

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

#278

While correct and useful advice for some people, this advice is useless for many (I suspect most) overweight and obese people. I'm on the border of overweight/obese. I can lose weight if I focus on losing weight. I've dropped from 100kg to 74kg and back. I've gone back down to 91kg and back. How? Eating less, of course. By counting calories. But here is the problem. Anything below 95kg and my body and mind is hyper a…

It's genetics. I think it's called the set point theory. You're genetically programmed to keep a certain body fat percentage. Anything below (or above) that set point and you're body will regulate your appetite with hormones. You can manipulate this set point with things like diet or exercise, but there is only so much you can do. If you're genetically programmed to keep a body fat percentage of 25% for example you're not gonna have a lot of fun staying below 15%.

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

#279

Keto diets are both safe and effective. I have yet to meet somebody following one who didn't lose weight. I feel like this topic is basically resolved. Stop eating carbs.

I got bad news for you: I know multiple people who lost weight for two months (as anyone can on literally any calorie-restriction diet) but simply couldn't follow it for much longer than that. I myself stopped being keto a couple of days after the evening crying started.

What is the bad news? It sounds like they stopped eating healthy, and got fat as a result of it.

Eating a healthy diet for two months doesn't mean you can go back to eating trash and expecting to stay healthy.

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

#280
post #73

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 th…

I think this is actually the most common experience. Everyone says they want to lose weight, but they just can't bring themselves to eat a sensible amount. Heck, I'm trying it now, writing down everything I eat, weighing myself each day, and it's still going pretty damn slowly. > 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 eat…

> Carrots have barely any calories and need a fair bit of chewing.

Not to undermine your point, because it's a good one, but the same guidelines should apply to anything you eat, even carrots. I was losing weight and tracking "calories" very closely. I started eating carrots for exactly the reason you mention and gained two pounds that week. At my next doctor visit, she told me she's never asked this question before, but "are you orange?" I was, from carrots.

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