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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)

#421

Post by alasdair_ »

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.

>Exercise doesn't help very much, it's really all about diet.

For me, exercise leads to me feeling pretty crappy if I eat badly/too much and drink alcohol. So the exercise leads to me not wanting to feel like that, which leads to improvement in diet.

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

#422

Post by pjerem »

411111111111111 wrote: post #416
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…

At my maximum I weighed 192kg. Then I really tried to eat only salads and generally healthy things while doing a lot of sports. I lost almost 95kg within less then 2 years and for most off the time, the hunger was gone. At some point, the hunger came back however, and I'm back up to 160kg. It is a terrible feeling, and while it's possible to ignore it for a while ... At least I cannot for months or even years. I'm no…

First : a lot of love and empathy to you. I mean it.

Second : > Then I really tried to eat only salads and generally healthy things while doing a lot of sports.

Did you continue this after your weight loss ? If not, do you think you could (and not should) have done it ?

I’m from a different place : I weight "only" 93kg but I’m currently unable to loose anything. I just manage to keep it this way but watching my family tree in terms of obesity really scares me for what is to come.

For what it’s worth : I think buying a connected scale helped me a lot stopping my weight gain : you weigh yourself every morning and it allows you to clearly see the trend : up -> Pay attention to what you eat, stable -> ok, down -> nice. Generally when the trend goes up, I know I’ll eat less because it will be in my mind just before breakfast.

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

#423

Post by throwaway20220a »

sgc wrote: post #171
throwaway20220a wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The WHO recommends staying below 50g/day, or, for additional health benefits, below 25g/day, which is ca two tablespoons.

But this is another reason why people don't lose weight / get fit / make progress on so many things. 50g / day is fine according to WHO. If that is correct (for argument's sake), we can't then use their 'better' guideline to mean "no adult should". The perfect is the enemy of the good. People stop trying when they set unrealistic goals for themselves. We don't all need to be hyperfit. Etc. I have made a ton of person…

I fully agree, there needs to be some room for error or things get expensive, complicated, or just depressing (no cake at birthday parties).

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

#424

Post by Lio »

This article has some excellent advice.

One thing I would add is about the importance for avoiding processed food when you can and why.

Not all calories are equal and basically it's about if your body can absorb them or not.

To borrow an example from Gerald Yeo[1] if you eat 400g of sweetcorn a large amount of it will turn up undigested in your poo. i.e. It's just passing through you and not making you fat.

If you process that corn though, by grinding it up and making something like bread out of it, it will become much more easily absorbed by the gut.

The calorie count will be the same on each packet but one case is clearly being used by the body and the other is not.

Also, processing foods thends to strips them of flavour, so to compensate manufacturers will often compensate for that by adding in more salt, sugar and fat to get closer to that "bliss" point mentioned in the article.

For the same absorption reason I personally try to avoid liquid calories where ever possible. e.g. no milk in coffee, keep the beers and wine to a minimum, etc.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5BE49fCRqo

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

#425

Post by Smaug123 »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #385
Smaug123 wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

I can barely stick to an only-Huel diet (one of the competitors you speak of) for even a few days. It does sound like the potato diet may be uniquely interesting for someone who is desperate enough.

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

#426

Post by Smaug123 »

thepasswordis wrote: post #363
Smaug123 wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your advice is not actionable. I know several people including myself who were simply unable to action it for longer than the two months that anyone can stick to any diet. If you are capable of sticking to a diet that literally brings you to tears on a daily basis, then sure, but do realise that you're probably in about the top percentile of willpower. (I imagine you were not in fact brought to tears by this diet, or…

Are you saying you were brought to tears because you weren’t eating carbs? I have known many people who have lost weight very successfully by switching a healthy, safe, and effective low carb/keto diet. In fact I’ve never even heard of crying being a side effect. How are you suggesting these things are even linked?

All I know is that I couldn't think of anything other than carbs, and started crying because I wanted carbs so much, and then when I ate carbs it was blissful and I stopped thinking about carbs and I stopped crying. I don't know what more evidence it would be possible to have that they were linked.

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

#427

Post by nephanth »

jmyeet wrote: post #175
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…

The most important thing anyone who wants to manage their weight has to realize is why they eat. You feel hunter but why? Food is complicated and people eat for many reasons. People can eat because they're bored or they're anxious or even just to feel better, even briefly. A healthy state to get to (which is easier said than done to be sure) is to treat food as fuel not as medicine or even a reward. You put gas in yo…

Do remember that, while it does make coffee insipid, the milk some people add in theirs is a good source of vitamins, calcium and protein. The fact that it has "calories" shouldn't deter them from using it, especially if, like most people (at least where i live), you aren't overweight, and do not need to reduce your energy intake

I do agree that coffee with milk has no taste tho

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

#429

Post by Lio »

pjerem wrote: post #422
411111111111111 wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my maximum I weighed 192kg. Then I really tried to eat only salads and generally healthy things while doing a lot of sports. I lost almost 95kg within less then 2 years and for most off the time, the hunger was gone. At some point, the hunger came back however, and I'm back up to 160kg. It is a terrible feeling, and while it's possible to ignore it for a while ... At least I cannot for months or even years. I'm no…

First : a lot of love and empathy to you. I mean it. Second : > Then I really tried to eat only salads and generally healthy things while doing a lot of sports. Did you continue this after your weight loss ? If not, do you think you could (and not should) have done it ? I’m from a different place : I weight "only" 93kg but I’m currently unable to loose anything. I just manage to keep it this way but watching my famil…

One suggestion, it's not just how much you eat but what you eat and when.

When dieting people generally want to loose weight from fat and not muscle.

Try to delay or skip breakfast if you can. It gives your body a longer overnight window for blood sugar to fall and start using fat stores to compensate.

Then try some low intensity exercise whilst you're in that pre-breakfast fasted state.

It's very important to keep the intensity low because you can only get so much energy from fat at a given time.

At higher intensities, in the absence of carbs, your body will break down protein i.e. muscle, for energy and you want to try to minimise this.

Give yourself some protein immediately afterwards to compensate for the loss as you can't totally avoid it. In the window just after exercise you should be able to absorb protein more efficiently.

When you want to do high intensity exercise make sure you have enough carbs to power that intensity. In cycling, we have the amusing phrase "avoiding the bonk".

The "bonk" being the point where you've used all your muscle glycogen stores and can't replace them. You generally slow right down, vision gets a bit blury and you get emotional as your body eats itself.

Everyone ends up doing it once but no one wants to do it twice. So eat carbs when you need to.

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

#430

Post by HumanReadable »

My god there are many people in this comment thread who trivialise weight loss, clearly having never done it themselves.

I'm a healthy weight, do heavy workouts 5 days a week and am in very good shape. When I cut my body fat down to ~10%, I go through hell in terms of hunger. There's not a minute I'm not thinking about how hungry I am, and how much I want to eat. I'm completely unable to do productive work, spending a majority of my mental energy restraining myself from getting food.

It's very clear to me, that the only difference between me and someone obese is at what point our brains start telling us that we're hungry.

The only purpose this article serves is to make people who have never struggled with diet feel superior.

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