Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Being fat is a trap

federicopereiro.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 373 posts

Re: Being fat is a trap

#291

Post by dgfitz »

j_w wrote: post #232
maketheman wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Science disagrees. On an individual level, yes, "try harder" is all we personally can do (well, until GLP-1 agonists, LOL). So, sure, it's "good advice" in that it's all there is. On a policy level? As far as medical intervention efficacy? It's entirely useless. Even crazy-expensive interventions involving several hours of professionals' time per week, for months on end, are wildly less effective than one might think…

On a micro level you can change your environment easily - stop buying foods that are bad for you at the store. Don't go down the chip and candy aisle. If you are not the one who shops for food in your household, inform the one who is that for your health they need to not purchase snacks. In my anecdotal experience, fat people grossly underestimate how much they eat or lack the understand of how calorically dense the…

Taking a picture of everything you consume in a week that isn’t water, and reviewing it at the end of the week is fucking mind blowing if you’re honest about it.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#292

Post by dang »

DrillShopper wrote: post #254
Balgair wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember two churches I attended. In the first one, the communion was actual wine. The priest was adamant about it being real wine. But, we had a guy who was a recovering alcoholic in the congregation. Now, if you know anyone that is recovering from alcohol abuse, then you know that even one sip of booze is enough to send you on a bender. But, our priest was adamant that we all take communion in full bodied wine. T…

[flagged]

Could you please stop posting flamebait comments? We've already had to ask you this. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for, so we eventually ban accounts that keep doing it.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#293

Post by nradov »

rich_sasha wrote: post #290
nradov wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do or do not, there is no try. When you frame the issue as a matter of willpower or trying harder then you're already setting yourself up to fail. Everyone that I know who has succeeded in maintaining a healthy body composition has done so through permanent lifestyle changes in which they set up better defaults and positive habits. The daily exercise program then becomes something that they have to do whether they wa…

I think sticking with is is still hard. You can commit to doing hard things and still fail - aka "trying hard".

The longer you stick with it, the easier it becomes. It's just a matter of habits and discipline, not trying hard.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#294

Post by Erwin »

blargey wrote: post #220
wiseowise wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have extremely lucky genes and have managed to stay just within the green BMI range despite eating all the carbs and fats you can imagine and at times consuming 200-300g of milk chocolate a day. You’d be surprised just how little you eat. I’m also like that, thinking that I eat shitton and don’t get fat at all while my friends can’t lose 5 kilo. When I’ve started counting, even with all the junk food, I’ve been b…

Counter-anecdote: I have a smallish build and have well-tuned satiety, but a consistent measured TDEE of 2400~2500 kCal, and would go hungry and waste away at 1.5k. I agree there’s no substitute for measuring your numbers. But meticulous calorie and weight tracking is probably a big ask for the average person, even though it’s imo absolutely necessary for controlling your weight one way or another.

Spending some months with a TDEE spreadsheet can be helpful but requires logging a lot of CI and weights -- if you go to any online TDEE calc you might overestimate your activity level.

I was surprised that running 6h/week and 15k/steps a day gave me an TDEE activity level at barely above "Light Exercise" and I need about 2460/day.

The "Moderate" activity level is if you actually work construction and haul bricks all day!

Re: Being fat is a trap

#295

Post by wiseowise »

swat535 wrote: post #279
silotis wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I have IBD and have to track calories to keep my intake _up_. It's shocking how much food you have to eat to get much more than 2k a day.

It's not at all difficult if you are eating junk food. For example a single Medium Pizza alone is enough to fill your entire day's worth of calories. I know because I've experimented with this when I started measuring my weight, heck sometimes having a single Wendy's Baconator will not only fill your entire calories but even make you gain weight. Your activity levels of course also matter but I'm assuming sedentary l…

I get sick of junk food quickly (and sometimes sick from junk food).

Re: Being fat is a trap

#296

Post by wiseowise »

chickenzzzzu wrote: post #263
wiseowise wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Have muscle problem, just take steroids? Unironically, yes. This, or grind for decades, or both.

With absolutey no side effects, right? Just take steroids right?

Of course not. That's why I've provided an alternative – grind.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#297

Post by rich_sasha »

nradov wrote: post #293
rich_sasha wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think sticking with is is still hard. You can commit to doing hard things and still fail - aka "trying hard".

The longer you stick with it, the easier it becomes. It's just a matter of habits and discipline, not trying hard.

I think that's a simplistic take, or at least not a universal thing. For many (most?) people it simply doesn't work like that.

Plenty of reasonable, disciplined people do all the reasonable things to develop new habits and fail.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#298

Post by AStonesThrow »

paulcole wrote: post #33
flkiwi wrote: post #18

Ok, but there's also an environmental (and one completely reasonable mental) factor: I live in a place where it is unpleasantly hot (upper 90s and humid) most of the year and there are few public outdoor spaces generally thanks to rampant overdevelopment, I hate gyms and toxic gym culture, I have a quaint bungalow that doesn't have space for equipment, I work an intense job that keeps me focused for hours at a time,…

Isn’t it just a more fun way to go through life to believe that you do have enough mental fortitude, discipline, self-honesty, commitment to change, and persistence to be healthy? I just don’t get the appeal of throwing my hands up and going, “Yep, somebody needs to care more about me than I care about me.”

No, because you'd be trapped in a cult of selfishness. A religion of self is a very bad place to be. I am not a self-contained sovereign god-being who just miraculously actualizes the positive reality I envision.

Yes, positivity is essential, and negative thinking is also a trap, but this "Believe In Yourself!" and "Follow Your Passion!" is rotten fruit from the $16 self-help bookshelf in the public library.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#299

Post by fpereiro »

Hi HN! OP here. Thank you everyone for reading and commenting. Thanks to your feedback I have done the following edits to the post:

- Added a comment on GLP-1 agonists. I wrote the article like it was 2023, not 2025. These drugs now exist and their benefits massively outweigh their drawbacks, particularly for people that really need help. Anything that helps out of the trap, particularly with this effectiveness, should be front and center. Thank you for pointing it out.

- Added a comment on my take on the usefulness of exercise for this process. I don't believe in exercise as a calory burner, but as something you need in order to be strong, fit, flexible and feel better mentally. It supports you in your journey. Exercise in order to burn calories to get lean is counterproductive. It is a thick wall of the mental fat trap.

- I realize that my struggles (and I don't say this lightly) have been a small fraction of what many of you had to go through, or are still going through. I also mentioned this in the article now. For some, it can be ten, a hundred, a thousand times harder than for others to break free from being overweight and be able to regulate their food in a way that is mentally healthy.

- I also added this: "Incidentally, I don't think this is about willpower (this is another parallel with Carr's insight). The decision to change comes from a deeper source. When I was most obsessed about asserting willpower over my eating, I was having the worst time and making bad choices. Getting out involves awareness, work, and a willingness to fail and keep on trying. The authors above say it much better than I can."

Hope again this was helpful for those with like struggles.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#300

Post by nh23423fefe »

philistine wrote: post #208
ccorcos wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t want to disagree with you but I have a hard time with preaching that people are not be personally responsible for themselves. I get your point that genes are important and some are blessed while others are not. But regardless what your genes are, you need to find a way to take care of yourself. You are not entitled to someone else taking responsibility for you and your problems.

> you need to find a way to take care of yourself Here's the crux of the issue; for most people who are fat, finding a way to take care of themselves is so onerous, complex, and difficult that they're not technically stuck, but they're effectively stuck. If you need to drive more than an hour to get access to food that won't be terrible for you, it's not surprising that so many people have a problem.

But no one needs to eat above BMR? Eat whatever you want but control the portion.

Who is shoving food down your throat for years on end?

Post reply on HN