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You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much

physiqonomics.com

11–20 of 48 posts

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

#11
post #3

Calories in. Calories out. What's new? Aside from the "HOLY SHITBALLS!" Gen-X branding.

People get very heated and religious about this topic so I'm hesitant to bring it up but there are strong arguments that this model is overly simplistic and that the types of food you eat are strongly related to hormonal changes that dramatically affect your metabolism and fat storage. Here's a good talk by a doctor, heavy on research, that's a decent introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKC3hiyLeRc

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

#12
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

500 calories a day sounds miserable. Did you have similar success (or similar suffering) on an intermediate caloric number without cycling on/off?

I think they meant eating 500 calories below their normal need. Eating 500 calories per day will loose you 4 pounds a week, not one (as they mentioned).

Yes this exactly. Apologies for not being clear.

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

#13

You're not losing fat because you're too sedentary. You absolutely can outrun your fork. You just have to run a lot further than you think. Show me a fat person who runs 50 miles a week.

I agree in general, but most people that run 50 miles a weeks also eat healthy. So there's a lot of correlation there. IE show me a person that runs 50 miles a week but also eats mostly process foods and drinks lotsa soda.

If one is running 50 miles per week one needs to orient eating around the runs. It's difficult to run right after a full meal. The result tends to be restricted eating to have a comfortable run in the first place.

PS: A bunch of extra work is near mandatory to maintain weekly mileage like this. Proper stretching and recovery--maybe some yoga. Lots of distractions from eating too much in the first place.

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

#14
post #8
post #4

Annoying article to read. Why swear so much? Anyway. I used to believe this. Every few months I'd flip between dieting, and not dieting (putting on weight). When dieting, I'd go on a 500 calories restriction. This meant religious calorie counting, going to bed every night hungry, and generally being grumpy constantly. Waking up in the night because I wanted some toast or something and trying to work out if I could fi…

I'm doing CICO and I have been since February, but the thing I found helped make it a lot more livable was to do a small deficit (200-300 calories) instead of a big one (500-600 calories). Ultimately, the most important thing? Just logging everything I eat and hoping to hit said goal. Some days I end up eating 100% of my 'sedentary' calories. Oh well. I still end up losing weight when I look at it in the scale of a m…

Once going on my fasting and only eating 3 meals a day, I lost 8kg and for the last two months have been maintained a stable weight without having to think about calories at all.

I won’t be going back.

Edit: also, I was never massively overweight. Generally my waist at its height was around 33inches. It was just a hard way to live.

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

#15
post #3

Calories in. Calories out. What's new? Aside from the "HOLY SHITBALLS!" Gen-X branding.

People get very heated and religious about this topic so I'm hesitant to bring it up but there are strong arguments that this model is overly simplistic and that the types of food you eat are strongly related to hormonal changes that dramatically affect your metabolism and fat storage. Here's a good talk by a doctor, heavy on research, that's a decent introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKC3hiyLeRc

It can both be overly simplistic and also true enough for large portions of the population. Not unlike BMI as a metric where in aggregate it works and for most people it's a reasonable approximation, but there are outliers for whom it makes no sense.

Too many people like to point to the "yeah but's" on this topic when their underlying problem is that they eat too much and move too little. And then yes, there are people who have already fine tuned eating less and moving more and aren't seeing the expected deltas. Those are the people who should be worrying about the details. But for that bulk population it just turns into an easy excuse.

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

#16
post #4

Annoying article to read. Why swear so much? Anyway. I used to believe this. Every few months I'd flip between dieting, and not dieting (putting on weight). When dieting, I'd go on a 500 calories restriction. This meant religious calorie counting, going to bed every night hungry, and generally being grumpy constantly. Waking up in the night because I wanted some toast or something and trying to work out if I could fi…

I wouldn't say 12/12 counts as intermittent fasting, but it sounds like it's been working for you so keep on.

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

#17
post #4

Annoying article to read. Why swear so much? Anyway. I used to believe this. Every few months I'd flip between dieting, and not dieting (putting on weight). When dieting, I'd go on a 500 calories restriction. This meant religious calorie counting, going to bed every night hungry, and generally being grumpy constantly. Waking up in the night because I wanted some toast or something and trying to work out if I could fi…

It's funny how people will get concerned if you fast, but if you eat yourself into morbid obesity nobody says anything.

Likewise, as I've switched to more whole foods I might eat, let's say, 4 whole peaches one day. My family speaks up, "4 peaches is a lot of sugar" they say, and they're right. But I used to eat 4 large candy bars in a day, plus a row of Oreos, and they said nothing.

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

#18
post #4

Annoying article to read. Why swear so much? Anyway. I used to believe this. Every few months I'd flip between dieting, and not dieting (putting on weight). When dieting, I'd go on a 500 calories restriction. This meant religious calorie counting, going to bed every night hungry, and generally being grumpy constantly. Waking up in the night because I wanted some toast or something and trying to work out if I could fi…

500 calories a day sounds miserable. Did you have similar success (or similar suffering) on an intermediate caloric number without cycling on/off?

As the other commenter said this was less than my necessary calories. So generally I needed 2800~ calories, and when cutting i’d eat 2200~ calories. Sometimes less when I wanted to step it up to 1.5~ or so lbs a week., but a lb a week was what I found maintainable without facing a binge eating session that I couldn’t stop myself from committing

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

#19
post #4

Annoying article to read. Why swear so much? Anyway. I used to believe this. Every few months I'd flip between dieting, and not dieting (putting on weight). When dieting, I'd go on a 500 calories restriction. This meant religious calorie counting, going to bed every night hungry, and generally being grumpy constantly. Waking up in the night because I wanted some toast or something and trying to work out if I could fi…

I wouldn't say 12/12 counts as intermittent fasting, but it sounds like it's been working for you so keep on.

Everyone has their own rules on this stuff. On 16/8 I couldn’t get enough calories

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

#20
post #4

Annoying article to read. Why swear so much? Anyway. I used to believe this. Every few months I'd flip between dieting, and not dieting (putting on weight). When dieting, I'd go on a 500 calories restriction. This meant religious calorie counting, going to bed every night hungry, and generally being grumpy constantly. Waking up in the night because I wanted some toast or something and trying to work out if I could fi…

It's funny how people will get concerned if you fast, but if you eat yourself into morbid obesity nobody says anything. Likewise, as I've switched to more whole foods I might eat, let's say, 4 whole peaches one day. My family speaks up, "4 peaches is a lot of sugar" they say, and they're right. But I used to eat 4 large candy bars in a day, plus a row of Oreos, and they said nothing.

Yes, it’s mad how accustomed we all are to sugar. I think I was getting around 20-30% of my calories from sugar, and regularly would have chocolate at work as a pick me up when I started flagging.

I thought the energy was fueling my brain but in hindsight it was more akin to nicotine withdrawal than nutrition.

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