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Ask HN: What's your secret diet tip you can share?

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81–90 of 95 posts

Re: Ask HN: What's your secret diet tip you can share?

#81
Try to switch to lower sugar, higher fat/protein products with as few ingredients as possible. Fat is generally good for you and helps satisfy and keep hunger controlled. Protein is similar in this regard and the two together are really good for dealing with hunger. Try to avoid simple carbs since they break down into sugar immediately; if you must, have them with a fat and protein to help reduce the glycemic load. For example, if you want a bagel, use a good amount of butter and/or cream cheese to help ease the escalation of your blood sugar.

Stay on the outside/perimeter inside of the center aisles in grocery stores. That's where the money really is for them and its mostly junk. Also, checkout the organic aisle(s) as most people think its too expensive and eschew all the deals that are happening with the actually decent food that otherwise goes bad or takes up needed space like any other food products.

Buy lemon/lime juice or pure cranberry juice and use it to make flavored water to help distract you from sugary drinks. Get a SodaStream to make soda water if you like and experiment with various pure juices to flavor the soda. Try to avoid fruit juice since its basically pure sugar without any of the fibre or need to digest that comes with actual fruit. If you must, go for ones that are 50% less sugar and do not use any sweetener (just the constituent fruit juices themselves) like Oasis Hydrafruit or whatever but still try to move away from juice.

Hemp seeds are insanely nutritious, use them wherever you can. Particularly salads, parfaits, shakes/smoothies, etc. They have it all: healthy fats, fibre, minerals and vitamins, etc. Great for satiety and pleasent subtle flavor.

Re: Ask HN: What's your secret diet tip you can share?

#82

This isn't much of a secret, but this has helped me immensely. I am a egg-etarian and have a reasonably healthy diet (no sodas, simple carbs etc). But I wasn't feeling sleek and light on my feet. The following changes did it for me ... I lost 6 kg in three months and my knees thank me every day. 1. Two cooked meals a day. Late breakfast (9:30-10), early dinner (6:00). If I call it "intermittent fasting", I feel hungr…

I’m not an egg-etarian, but I love eggs, tofu and mushrooms so much that I got this diet, too!

Put differently: Only eat veggies + protein. Protein with the above is e.g. eggs, tofu, mushrooms, but can also be cottage cheese, chicken, protein powder.

No bread, pasta, noodles, heavy sauces, carb-y dressings. It’s all about the veggies.

I like to steam veggies, it’s both fast and easy and preserves the nutrients while making them more digestible.

Re: Ask HN: What's your secret diet tip you can share?

#83
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats not sad. Looking up the actual meaning of chemical names from ingredients in fine print on every damn thing you eat, and filtering in and out based on gossip hype superfood of the year... is sad. Very sad. Eat boring food is solid advice. Veggies, fruits, no bullshit carbs and protein, stuff that grows in the region where you live. Takes some effort to search and then its just autopilot mode.

That’s not boring food to me! I can cook very exciting meals from what you mentioned. If you meant “avoid junk food” than I agree, but the alternative to processed food doesn’t have to be boring.

I think that “boring” here means “low sugar, few additives”. And yes, you can cook even better tasting food with pure ingredients and the right spices and cooking methods. But I also like to cook “boring” most of the time, in the sense of “giving my body something fulfilling with expectable taste”.

Re: Ask HN: What's your secret diet tip you can share?

#84
This is what works for me. I am not a doctor, dietician, etc. Not expert advice, etc.

Under normal circumstances I eat when I’m hungry, and I don’t eat when I’m not hungry. I realize this doesn’t work for many people as the mechanism that tells them when they are hungry does not function the same way.

If I want to lose weight, I change to plan B. Plan B is to only eat meals. I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but no eating at other times. No snacks, no desserts, no nothing. Just eat whatever I feel like for the three meals.

My weight generally goes up in winter and down in summer because I do a lot of bicycling outdoors when it’s warm.

Re: Ask HN: What's your secret diet tip you can share?

#85
post #64

Integrate a substantial calisthenic exercise into your daily routine. Something like a hundred pushups and a dozen pull-ups. Increase the count as you get lighter and stronger so you're always within 10-20% of the maximum you could do in a set. Make it a non-negotiable part of your day akin to brushing your teeth and showering. This way when you fuck up your diet/lifestyle, you have a very strong negative feedback si…

100 pushups?? I can't even do 5 in a row. No upper body strength at all.

I can’t do 1 in a row.

Re: Ask HN: What's your secret diet tip you can share?

#87
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100 pushups?? I can't even do 5 in a row. No upper body strength at all.

I can’t do 1 in a row.

https://hundredpushups.com/

Poke about. I've done the challenge twice now. The progression was at the correct rate for me. It's tough, but it does work.

Re: Ask HN: What's your secret diet tip you can share?

#88
This is not a popular answer, but it's the primary reason I, and many others I know, have gotten into shape and stayed that way for well over a decade:

Hate yourself. Be fatphobic. Hold yourself to nearly unattainable standards and consider yourself a failure for not meeting them. Be disgusted by what you see in the mirror.

IMPORTANT CAVEAT: Note that I absolutely do not recommend this course of action for anyone prone to depression, but for anyone with normal seratonin chemistry and solid self-esteem elsewhere in their life, this is a mentality that absolutely works for attaining, and maintaining, fitness.

Re: Ask HN: What's your secret diet tip you can share?

#89
post #64

Integrate a substantial calisthenic exercise into your daily routine. Something like a hundred pushups and a dozen pull-ups. Increase the count as you get lighter and stronger so you're always within 10-20% of the maximum you could do in a set. Make it a non-negotiable part of your day akin to brushing your teeth and showering. This way when you fuck up your diet/lifestyle, you have a very strong negative feedback si…

100 pushups?? I can't even do 5 in a row. No upper body strength at all.

Pushups are easy to build up, start with 2-3 sets of 5 everyday and adding 2 pushups per set every week. Don't rush, exercise is something that takes time but I found that push ups was one of the easiest to build up to, now pullups are another story...

Re: Ask HN: What's your secret diet tip you can share?

#90
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats not sad. Looking up the actual meaning of chemical names from ingredients in fine print on every damn thing you eat, and filtering in and out based on gossip hype superfood of the year... is sad. Very sad. Eat boring food is solid advice. Veggies, fruits, no bullshit carbs and protein, stuff that grows in the region where you live. Takes some effort to search and then its just autopilot mode.

That’s not boring food to me! I can cook very exciting meals from what you mentioned. If you meant “avoid junk food” than I agree, but the alternative to processed food doesn’t have to be boring.

Boring here refers to "nothing new".

It can be made super sexy and delicious. But it needs making. Point I was trying to make is its not hard after a few tries.

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