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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)

#381

Post by stjohnswarts »

jimmydoreornot wrote: post #232

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…

Yes, 75% of the diet is psychology and not calories-in-calories-out. Obviously CICO is a thing inasmuch as it's a thermodynamic process. Those people who parrot it though aren't really using their brain and are trying to simplify a complex human process down to "eat less". Nutrition in humans is complex and psychology is more important than other factors (assuming you don't really have some limiting health issue). The only way I could lose weight was low carb. It lowered my cravings and I started eating two meals a day (I usually had a sizeable breakfast which I dropped). the first two weeks to a month were rough but after that the amount of will power needed decreased dramatically. I lost 80lbs this way and have kept it off by staying away from refined carbs and eating much much less sugar. Will it work for everyone? Probably not, but even if it works for a sizeable minority it's worth it, and I think it's like hitting a reset button on your relationship with food. You realize you're in control, your physical cravings lessen. I had tried all kinds of diets before, but low carb worked for me.

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

#382

Post by stjohnswarts »

mathverse wrote: post #254
jimmydoreornot wrote: post #232

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…

Have you tried protein heavy diet? Just try drinking protein whey protein powder drinks the whole day for a week and see what it does to you. I dont have a problem with losing weight but It's incredibly difficult and annoying to get lean and burn fat while building muscles. I literally cant force myself to eat more if I try to do at least 200g protein every day. 2xmozarella light (42g protein), 2x66 protein drinks (1…

This seems dangerous unless you are very young and fit and your kidneys can take it. I can see replacing 1 meal a day with say a 200 calorie casein protein drink but that being all you consume seems like a bad idea.

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

#383

Post by relaxing »

milankragujevic wrote: post #223
csours wrote: 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 have just accepted being hungry all the time. Lost 61 pounds in 6 months, still got 44 to go before reaching my ideal weight. Being hungry all the time became normal after 2 months. It was difficult, still is. So, my diet plan was - eat less. And of that which I eat, avoid sugar like poison and avoid carbohydrates as much as possible, while still having at least some daily intake split between meals. And regular bl…

How?

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

#384

Post by lmariscal »

stevebmark wrote: post #304
jimmydoreornot wrote: post #232

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 (…

What is this answer? Are you being serious comparing eating actual sand to caloric dense food?

Obviously calories aren't everything in terms of diet and health; vitamins, nutrients and other parts come into play. But when it comes down to actual physical weight, nothing else matters, unless you have a medical problem. Learning how calories work and counting them for some time, so you understand what you are actually eating, is the first step.

Ideally this work would be done with a professional nutritionist, since calorie counting will get you to the weight you want, but it speaks nothing of how healthy your diet is. Sadly this is not something everyone is privileged enough to be able to do.

It is also important to remember that most people who struggle with their weight, and are making an effort, are actually struggling with their relationship with food. This is something that no matter what diet you are on, or how deep your understanding of biology and nutrition is, nothing can replace actually working that deeper issue, which is not trivial and something truly personal.

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

#385

Post by stjohnswarts »

Smaug123 wrote: post #319
jimmydoreornot wrote: post #232

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? Migh…

this is nutritionally a very bad idea. Potatoes are actually pretty nutritious but they are not a complete food. If you're going down the "bland food diet to kill cravings" then follow one of the nutritionally complete diets like soylent green (or any of the numerous competitors)

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

#386

Post by stjohnswarts »

blobbers wrote: post #255
jimmydoreornot wrote: post #232

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…

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 just want to add that a "detox" as a holistic medicine approach is total bullshit. If you're talking about hitting reset on what you have in your house then that's different. That's just getting rid of temptation.

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

#387

Post by juanjmanfredi »

hypersoar wrote: post #377
paintman252 wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"And those benefits to dieting are very much "potential". Study after study has shown that diets don't work in the long term; people usually gain the weight back." I'm sorry, but this is misleading BS. Studies have found that diets don't work for most people cause most people just suck at sticking to diets, not because CICO is somehow fundamentally flawed. To imply the second is dishonest. It would be like saying tha…

The fact that people don't stick to diets is why they don't work. This is what I mean about discounting the human element. A solution requiring every individual to do something incredibly difficult is no solution at all. It's like if we tried to help everyone having a hard time with technology to RTFM and ridiculed those who didn't. It's not what you do when you're actually trying to solve the problem.

You said it yourself in your original comment: small and sustainable changes are the way to go. I agree that much of the cultural discourse around dieting is harmful. The promise of every diet commercial is that if you eat in this special way for three months you'll be the picture of health and then there is no need to worry about what you put into your body. This is not only a bad plan for being healthy, but it also heaps additional shame on a person when they are unsurprisingly unable to maintain the significant lifestyle changes required by the diet.

The bottom line for me is that both 1) CICO is the dominant consideration in weight loss and 2) small and sustainable changes made over time are far healthier in the long run than an instantaneous and significant change. Of course, point (2) applies much more broadly to any health or lifestyle goal.

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

#388

Post by stjohnswarts »

louhike wrote: post #314
stevebmark wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ketosis is not going to mess with a healthy person. Obviously if you have something like kidney problems then it could put a real strain on your kidneys if they are not healthy. If you have preexisting conditions obviously _any_ diet should be carefully monitored by your physician.

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

#389

Post by stjohnswarts »

ThrowITout4321 wrote: post #356
jimmydoreornot wrote: post #232

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…

I've been told that the reason carbs are such a problem is that once metabolized into glucose the body has to produce insulin to balance the blood sugar. Eventually this process makes us hungry especially if we eat too many carbs. One way to reduce the affect of excess carbs is to follow a low glycemic diet similar to what people with diabetes follow. You might want to look into it.

The basic theory is that humans never evolved to handle the sheer amount (at least, a lot of us can't) of simple carbs and sugars that modern life makes available to us via a “typical” diet. The sheer amount of insulin that is needed to handle that much sugar in the bloodstream is constantly pumping, the body builds up a tolerance to it, which in turn stresses the pancreas. That can lead to pre-diabetes and diabetes, which is one of the most common chronic diseases, at least in the USA. Also leads to weight gain as a primary side effect.

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

#390

Post by dataflow »

csours wrote: post #369
dataflow wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

There are different levels and kinds of hunger. When I do what you suggest my brain and body don't work very well. After some time, blood sugar gets low and the glycogen stores in the liver are depleted. At this point my body tells me I'm dying. Obviously I've gone through this and lived. My main point is that people will give mechanical advice for losing weight, but it's very hard to tell someone what feelings they…

I wrote a long comment, but I kept erasing it because I don't really want to come across as trying to give medical advice, or telling you how to feel. I'm just hoping that the medical assessments you're describing (about glycogen, risk of death, etc.) are accurate ones given by your doctor in response to cutting your portions, not your own personal extrapolations or speculations—otherwise you might be letting your fears harm you rather than help you.
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