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What I learned from reading over 100 weight loss studies

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Re: What I learned from reading over 100 weight loss studies

#121

Post by n4r9 »

sridca wrote: post #81
rdm_blackhole wrote: post #64

A couple of years ago I found myself weighing 250lbs. Basically morbidly obese. I decided to change that. I went through all the food I bought during the week and decided to do some culling. I removed anything with sugar and replaced it with Stevia. Removed the soft drinks, alcohol, and carbs. I follow this diet 6 days a week. One day a week, I indulge myself: a pizza or burrito or have a few beers. I also go to the…

Fasting is the ultimate weight loss tool. It also facilitates (muscle) growth and healing.

I've read that fasting can increase GH levels. Do you know of any studies that directly link fasting to muscle growth? Intuitively I would guess that increased GH in the absence of a calorie surplus might lead to good muscle maintenance but poor muscle growth, particularly in people who already have a decent amount of muscle.

Re: What I learned from reading over 100 weight loss studies

#122

Post by cm2187 »

sridca wrote: post #81
rdm_blackhole wrote: post #64

A couple of years ago I found myself weighing 250lbs. Basically morbidly obese. I decided to change that. I went through all the food I bought during the week and decided to do some culling. I removed anything with sugar and replaced it with Stevia. Removed the soft drinks, alcohol, and carbs. I follow this diet 6 days a week. One day a week, I indulge myself: a pizza or burrito or have a few beers. I also go to the…

Fasting is the ultimate weight loss tool. It also facilitates (muscle) growth and healing.

I agree. One normal meal a day for a long period. It quickly becomes a habit and you no longer feel hunger. No requirement on the meal as long as it is reasonable (life is too short to eat things that taste bad!). And some exercise (45min cardio daily, doesn’t need to be high intensity), though I suspect losing weight is 80% food intake, 20% exercise. Worth taking some vitamin complements though.

Re: What I learned from reading over 100 weight loss studies

#123

Post by benj111 »

They seem to have focussed on Diets but neglected diet.

As in rather than going on a Diet, adopting a different diet, a new habit if you will.

A Diet is a New Years resolution, a diet is for life.

The article says 75% of Americans are overweight. Therefore 25% aren't. What are they doing right? I doubt they're all having liposuction.

Re: What I learned from reading over 100 weight loss studies

#124

Post by taneq »

kranner wrote: post #116
taneq wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Decide that you want to not be fat more than you want to over-eat. Then choose to sustain that decision by re-affirming it daily.

This 'just try harder' approach doesn't work for everybody. For one, an affirmation might feel strong and decisive when you first make one, but it can simply lose its hold as the novelty wears off. You can say the words to yourself but they'll begin to seem more and more hollow. I don't see how this is a choice .

This isn't so much "just try harder" as a mental approach which worked for me when "eat less" didn't. You look at yourself in the mirror in the morning and instead of just saying "yuck I'm fat", you say "I can control this by choosing what I eat." You open the fridge mid-morning for a snack and you think to yourself, "do I want to eat this more than I want to lose weight?"

Affirmations only start to seem hollow if they're not backed up by action. The first time you say "I can control this" it does sound hollow. After the first day when you've eaten healthily and chosen not to snack, the next morning it'll sound a bit less hollow. After a week you'll actually feel in control. It gets better, not worse.

Of course, a crucial part of this is eating healthily so that you're not starving. Some protein, a bit of fat, and limited low-GI carbs, along with fresh fruit and vegetables. If you have a handful of potato chips for breakfast then of course you're not going to be able to stop yourself scoffing the rest of the packet by mid morning.

Re: What I learned from reading over 100 weight loss studies

#125

Post by azeirah »

batiudrami wrote: post #56
aabajian wrote: post #52

Amphetamines were popularly used to suppress appetite in the mid-20th century, but addiction and abuse proved disastrous. He glosses over amphetamines. They are highly effective at weight loss. So much so that ADHD patients have the stereotypical "Adderall skinniness" after 1-2 years of use. Addiction is a problem with stimulants, but psychiatrist routinely assess for addiction in the ADHD population. Why not prescri…

I have lost kilos post raves just from not being inclined to eat for days afterwards, but even just a dexie leaves me feeling scattered and non functional the day after. I assume you adjust to ongoing rather than occasional usage?

I've been on a low dose of Ritalin for about half a year now, I experience very few side effects, but appetite inhibition is definitely a thing.

Even after half a year, it has barely changed at all. I usually don't really feel hungry until I'm at the point where I get a bit lightheaded because I haven't eaten for too long.

The most annoying part isn't even the inhibited hunger impulse, it's that even if I take that into account, and plan my meals accordingly, I don't really feel like eating much, and I'll eat like you would if you were daydreaming about a potential lover.

The most effective solution I've seen so far is to not chain the doses like it's usually advised, ie, one pill every four hours, but to plan your meals and your pill timings such that you'll eat when the medication is wearing off. It's annoying, because of course this half-hour to hour period after medication wears off is very annoying, but it's the better alternative, especially if you take into account that Ritalin has a more stable and gentle impact if you take it on a full stomach.

Taking Ritalin on an empty stomach is like drinking two double-espressos on an empty stomach after a bad night's sleep, right after you wake up. :c

Re: What I learned from reading over 100 weight loss studies

#126

Post by sonnyblarney »

The problem with this meta analysis is that it doesn't really account for the motivational factor related to money and other things.

Moreover, that people with more weight to lose might likely opt for the more major programs.

When your doctor says "You now have diabetes, and you're going to die young unless you get your weight under control" ... well, that might motivated people.

As opposed to someone who just wants to lose 10 lbs and is otherwise fairly healthy.

Re: What I learned from reading over 100 weight loss studies

#127

Post by JennyYuen »

sridca wrote: post #81
rdm_blackhole wrote: post #64

A couple of years ago I found myself weighing 250lbs. Basically morbidly obese. I decided to change that. I went through all the food I bought during the week and decided to do some culling. I removed anything with sugar and replaced it with Stevia. Removed the soft drinks, alcohol, and carbs. I follow this diet 6 days a week. One day a week, I indulge myself: a pizza or burrito or have a few beers. I also go to the…

Fasting is the ultimate weight loss tool. It also facilitates (muscle) growth and healing.

I agree. Fasting is good and simple for weight loss. My first step was removing snacks. Now I am skipping breakfast. I see results. Take a look at this blog: https://simplelifeweightloss.blogspot.com/ Author has been on intermittent fasting for 12 years. It's quite inspiring.

Re: What I learned from reading over 100 weight loss studies

#128

Post by galvs »

kranner wrote: post #115
galvs wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pick any number of options!

There goes that simplicity then. How do you pick one? How do you stay on it? How do you decide whether to switch, when to switch and what to switch to? How do you motivate yourself to try again once you've failed? And on it goes.

How do you pick any activity that encourages you to burn more calories than usual?

I would expect that comes down to finding something you enjoy doing.

Exercise and eating well is a way of life. If your life dictates you do neither, you will get fat. I don't really understand how its complicated. You just do it for the benefits.

Personally I eat chicken and veg 5 days a week (with occasional carbs when I train), train for 3 days and climb once a week. I also mostly hit my 10k steps per day.

Re: What I learned from reading over 100 weight loss studies

#129

Post by quicklime »

borski wrote: post #92
Negitivefrags wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s great that your body is in a place where you are able to do that, but let me ask you something. Have you ever been more than 130kg? I have, and getting down to being no longer overweight requires a substantial mindset change. It’s extremely unhelpful to talk to people who have been as large as I have about how you can eat how you want and still feel full. Maybe you can lose the weight and still few full, but it’…

I’ve been 118kg, and I’m 5’9’’. I started a keto diet 3 months ago and have lost 33 lbs. here’s the interesting part: I definitely feel full when I eat now, because fat and protein are just that much more satiating. It takes less food to make me feel full. Provided it’s high in fat.

The article references a few studies that conclude that there is "no significant difference" between a low carb and a low fat diet. It also suggests that whether a keto (or any other) diet will work is an individual thing:

> In this regard, saying that “diet X is the best way to lose weight” is probably not a globally-correct statement given the evidence so far. Instead, it should be the much less interesting: “no diet performs meaningfully better on average, but there exists some diet that is the best way to lose weight for you.”

This matches up with my experience. I know a lot of people like yourself who swear by a low-carb/keto diet, whereas I find I have no problem maintaining a healthy weight (BMI=22) with a fairly high-carb diet with a lot of rice, noodles, pasta, oats and bread. I actually feel very unsatiated when I'm just eating meat/vegetables alone.

I love to eat, and once or twice a week I'll literally eat until my stomach physically hurts (and I do mean literally, kind of like how some people feel after a Thanksgiving dinner). I exercise, but not a lot - probably 3-4 hours a week. I'm not saying this to brag, or to make overweight people feel bad (I'm sorry if I do), but just to give some anaecdata to balance out what the keto people are saying.

One thing that I should mention is that I don't really eat much sugar, apart from fruit, and sports drinks and energy bars when I'm doing long bike rides. I just don't enjoy the taste of soft drinks (I almost exclusively drink water, and sometimes coffee or tea), or most heavily processed foods (most of my meals are home cooked, or at non-fast-food restaurants). I also find the sauces that most restaurants slather on food to be overpowering and over-sugared, so I don't eat a lot of that either (although this seems to be a US-only problem).

Re: What I learned from reading over 100 weight loss studies

#130

Post by glastra »

a-saleh wrote: post #105

While we are discussing diets, anybody has a good replacement for snacks? Few years ago I realized I am really prone to stress-eating. If I am not stressed, I can go about my day, eating 2 big meals a day (and a small breakfast), and even slowly loose wight. But if I am under pressure I can eat another large meal worth of snacks. And I really don't like it, because then I am gaining weight really fast :-/ Anybody in…

You could go with the route other users are suggesting and eat something that is filled with water and will probably leave your system undigested (e.g. fiber-filled vegetables). Or you could also try ingesting mud, for that matter.

I suggest you give almonds, macadamia nuts and pork rinds a go.

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