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To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More

nytimes.com

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Re: To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More

#111

Post by glandium »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #87

I lost 40lb, and the only exercise I do is walking / running occasionally around my apartment complex. My trick? I slowly reduced the size of my portions and I limited myself to eating only when I felt hungry. I didn't do any sort of strict calorie counting, I just tried to have a rough idea of how much food I was eating. Seriously. That's it. If you eat fewer calories, you will lose weight. It's that simple. At no p…

Something related is that a lot of people are eating too quickly. I am guilty of this. And that doesn't leave time to the brain to get the satiety signals, leading to eat more than necessary. Eating more slowly can end up helping reduce portions. It's a difficult habit to overcome, though.

Re: To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More

#112

Post by peteretep »

glandium wrote: post #91

"Far too many people, though, can manage to find an hour or more in their day to drive to the gym, exercise and then clean up afterward — but complain that there’s just no time to cook or prepare a healthful, home-cooked meal. If they would spend just half the time they do exercising trying to make a difference in the kitchen, they’d most likely see much better results." This. From my anecdotal evidence, weight loss…

    > weight loss is largely a commitment issue
Yes, but it's a "commitment issue" in the same class as "stopping drinking", "stopping smoking", and "getting out of debt" for a lot of people; there's a very large mental/compulsive/dependency component.

Re: To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More

#113

Post by weavie »

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #40

This is true, but: when I exercise regularly, I find that I am less hungry and eat less. Anyone here made the same experience?

After a heavy weights session I am ravenous. It's not unknown for me to just give in and eat a whole tub of icecream before my proper post workout meal.

Re: To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More

#114

Post by [deleted] »

astrange wrote: post #100
rednukleus wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly his point. The approach of merely counting calories ignores the fact that some foods such as diet soda are low in calories but can have an effect on body composition. You shouldn't just "eat less" you should "eat better", and that means eating an appropriate amount of healthy good.

What effect on body composition is that? Artificial sweeteners don't cause insulin resistance, so they should be fine for you. The acid in Diet Coke is real bad for your teeth, but fruit juice is more acidic and has more sugar than diet soda and yet you probably think it's healthy, right?

[deleted]

Re: To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More

#115

Post by [deleted] »

learnstats2 wrote: post #53
mhd wrote: post #14

The problem here seems that discussions about this are sooo littered with personal biases. "Bro science" is just one aspect of this, far more common is expecting that one's personal achievement is universally reproducible. Yes, person A may eat all the burgers and twinkies, because he's going to the gym all the time and swimming laps like there's no tomorrow. But as a general rule to combat obesity, that's probably n…

> Yes, person A may eat all the burgers and twinkies, because he's going to the gym all the time One major problem with the standard BMI definitions is that any athlete in a sport that vaguely requires muscles will be classed as 'overweight' or 'obese'. Although there may be some justification for this categorisation, these are people we normally consider at the peak of fitness. One of the best things you can do for…

[deleted]

Re: To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More

#116

Post by peteretep »

agentPrefect wrote: post #109

I'm absolutely floored to see comments here still nit-picking at FOOD QUALITY vs FOOD QUANTITY vs WHAT DEFINES EXERCISE vs ETC. Whilst I fully enjoy reading some of the opinions on SOD, the myriad of needless front-end frameworks, etc. - this really is not subjective at all. Calories in, calories out. You eat 5000cal of the most nutritious, well balanced meal & run 10km - you will still put on weight (given you're no…

Different foods cause different levels of satiation.

Knowing that eating less will make you lose weight is not the same thing as overcoming feelings of hunger to actually eat less in practice.

Re: To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More

#117

Post by weavie »

gitaarik wrote: post #78
weavie wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would make for an interesting experiment. Eat 3000kcal per day of doughnuts and cakes for a few months. See how much you weigh. Then switch to 3000kcal of organic meat, veg and healthy fats per day. Would your weight change in the same way? I can't say what the answer is. Has anyone tried experimenting with this?

If you burn the same amount of calories in both situations, why would it be different?

Hormones?

Re: To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More

#118

Post by henrixd »

Metabolism gets used to aerobic exercise quickly so it is not good for loosing fat. High intensity training (HIT) burns more fat overall.

Timing on carbohydrates is important also. Eat them when you need them like around exercise, before work or in the morning. After your glucose storage is full extra energy will be stored as fat.

How well fat will burn depends mostly how good shape your metabolism is. If your metabolism is slow when you start dieting it will only get slower and you really have to starve yourself to lose weight.

Slowly increasing carbohydrates when not loosing weight and exercise is good way to speed up your metabolism so you are able to loose that fat after you gain some.

Cardio exercises are last resort at the end of the diet when your metabolism is really slow and you want to eat something.

So while eat less than you use is good starting point to loose weight. You can make it so much easier to your self with exercise and proper food.

Re: To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More

#119

Post by gd1 »

antirez wrote: post #93

Everybody in the fitness circles (see Reddit Fitness) knows this. It's just that normally doctors, TV & company misadvice you, telling something like "walk more, be more active" when the task at hand is to lose weight. Actually the exercise suggestion should be: do some strength training while seriously dieting in order to retain muscles. A 30 minutes run will burn ~400 calories. The same amount of calories can be ea…

You do your math. Exercise isn't just about how many calories you burn during it. Add a kilo of muscle and it will be burning energy 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Re: To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More

#120

Post by peteretep »

vilmosi wrote: post #103
snez wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eating 3000kcal of "quality food" every day will still make you gross fat and give you heart problems. And did you know that protein also affects insulin? Insulin is essential for muscle building. Still find it hilarious how so many people still don't understand that a caloric deficit or surplus is the #1 thing to do when trying to cut or bulk.

Counting calories is definitely NOT the way to a healthy body. That's all marketing fluff. 500 calories from Macdonalds is not the same as 500 calories of fresh vegetables. And why did you put "quality food" in quotes?! The type of food you eat make a huge difference!

    > 500 calories from Macdonalds is not the same as 500
    > calories of fresh vegetables
You will find yourself in the "No True Scotsman" fallacy very quickly there. It is a microsecond of thought experiment to find 500 McDonald's calories that are better for you than a specific 500 fresh vegetable calories.
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