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

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

#311
post #60
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…

I recently returned home from a trip to the United States where I’d not been since the before times. They put so much sugar in everything and I just couldn’t understand it. I basically felt like I was eating pudding (that is, desert) for every meal. Breakfast was particularly bad (bread has sugar for some reason and I got a sausage that had apparently been soaked in maple syrup) and obviously less sugary things existed (eg sushi didn’t seem to have much). I think I have a sweet tooth but I still found it unpleasant there (and I avoided soda and mostly things that looked obviously sugary). Even if things didn’t have sugar in they would have sweeteners.

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

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try to take a period of reprograming, where you just stick with it. Also consider a detox. Get all the garbage you don't want to eat out of the house, and insist on not buying it. Whenever you get a craving, just go drink water instead. Lastly, consider carnivore or alternate day fasting. You can get there, if you want to.

I have done fasting, I have done alternate day fasting. I have done fast-5. Yes, I can get there if I want to. My point is that "there" is a miserable place, and so I don't stay "there".

Since you haven’t tried low-carb: low-carb is supposed to go well with intermittent fasting and fasting because of the effect it has on your insulin.

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

#313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eating less candy isn't going to feed anyone in impoverished countries.

If any whole country gave up candy then they'd save a lot in direct cost and even more in related costs (diabetes, etc.) that they could certainly help feed many many people. Sure, the effect of one person not eating candy is easily lost, but I spend a few pounds a month myself on sweets (ie candy, I'm from the UK). I know that money could likely feed someone in a developing nation for a month. It's so easy to tell o…

I don't know who needs to hear this, but being overweight doesn't make someone a bad person. Flying from New York to San Francisco a couple times a year also doesn't make someone a bad person.

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

#314

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…

Counting calories may not be correct and useful advice for most people. It ignores what the calories do in your body. As an absurd example, sand is very calorically dense, and you'll lose a lot of weight and then die if it's all you eat. Telling people they "eat too much" is usually ineffective, it just makes people feel bad that they can't tolerate hunger. Ketosis will work (it's very low carb, not zero carb). You (…

Ketosis can really mess your health though. My dad had serious problems after trying it, so be really wary if you want to try it.

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

#315

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.

Ego depletion (limited willpower) turns out not to be true [0]. It could not be replicated and is no longer considered how willpower works. > Results from the current multilab registered replication of the ego-depletion effect provide evidence that, if there is any effect, it is close to zero. [1] > Taken all together, experiments conducted at 24 different labs showed no signs whatsoever of Baumeister and Tice’s orig…

It's a really interesting result because the concept of limited willpower - over extended periods of time (years) - fits my lived experience very well.

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

#316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of health, being overweight doesn't make someone a bad person.

I'm not sure about that. Being overweight is selfish and wasteful in a world where many people don't have enough food to eat.

Do you donate your uneaten calories to hungry people?

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

#317
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…

> It doesn't even take that much extra food to gain a lot of weight. One extra piece of cake a week [...]

I honestly only say this in case it helps, and I'm firmly on the upper end of 'healthy' UK BMI so not in any health freak position of judgement by a long shot, but I last had a slice of cake months ago, so the casual 'just an extra slice of cake every week' really stands out to me.

(On a complete tangent I don't at all think regular cake eating is incompatible with a healthy diet, but I do think that in 2022 it's highly inversely correlated, and that going against that almost requires baking your own.)

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

#318
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…

Periodic fasting for 24 hours (few weeks between) can improve health and help you gain mastery over your appetite.

Good luck with your journey. Years of life can be hard to change.

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

#319

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…

By the way, I recently read Slime Mold Time Mold's hilarious diet proposal (https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2022/04/29/potato-diet-communi...), namely "only eat potatoes, fry them lightly in vegetable oil if you want but prefer no extra fat, use hot sauce if you want but ideally literally just potatoes, supplement B12 and Vitamin A, definitely no dairy". They claim that this diet… just doesn't require willpower? Might be worth a quick go. God knows what nutrients are absent from the diet, but :shrug:

Since the big selling point is that it doesn't take willpower, you'll know nice and quickly if it's failed - it's a very low-commitment diet. (I have never tried it, I lift and I want more protein than the diet can provide.)

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

#320

I've had this unbearable urge to binge eat and it started a week ago. I'm sure it's something psychological that is causing this but I can't isolate the root of the problem. I have tried to fight it by taking walks, being social but it's failure every time. I always cave in and eat all the fast food, ice cream, cookies I can get my hands on but literally nothing seems to get rid of the urge to binge. How can a person…

In my experience, you could be craving something you are not getting in you diet. Try multivitamins and a gallon of water a day. If that doesn't cut it in a coue weeks, get a comprehensive blood panel.
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