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Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

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Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

#121

Post by broscillator »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #76
jawns wrote: post #28

I am not a smoker, but I recently read through Allan Carr's "Easy Way to Quit Smoking Without Willpower" book. (There is a similar book out there called the Easy Peasy Way to Quit Porn, for those who are struggling with that.) The tl;dr is that it's much harder to quit an addiction with the mindset, "This thing is great, but I'm going to deprive myself of it." Instead, you need to realize that you've been deceived an…

> Instead, you need to realize that you've been deceived and maybe even brainwashed into thinking that this vice has any redeeming value. This has been 50% of my approach to trying to (almost entirely) give up drinking. I realized that (a) I rarely, if ever, get the happy buzz any more (b) it doesn't get me the sex that it once did (c) it doesn't actually assist with being emotionally open with my wife the way it onc…

I want to congratulate you for taking that decision.

Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

#122

Post by readthenotes1 »

endisneigh wrote: post #96
ceejayoz wrote: post #83

These threads always bring out a whole bunch of people who confuse confirmation bias with population-level statistics. If you kicked a heroin habit, good for you! Societally we still can’t use “suck it up you pansies” as a drug rehab strategy just on your say-so.

It is interesting that a forum filled with a disproportionate amount of techies still fall for such biases

You find it interesting that techies are people?

I find that interesting.

For the record, the only cognitive fallacy I admit to is denial.

Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

#123

Post by jebarker »

dylan604 wrote: post #114
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't Mark Twain say "I don't know what all the fuss is about quitting smoking. I must have done it a hundred times"

I've also heard "I quit smoking at the end of every cigarette"

Ah yes, that's the basis for my claim that I do intermittent fasting too

Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

#125

Post by jacquesm »

endisneigh wrote: post #96
ceejayoz wrote: post #83

These threads always bring out a whole bunch of people who confuse confirmation bias with population-level statistics. If you kicked a heroin habit, good for you! Societally we still can’t use “suck it up you pansies” as a drug rehab strategy just on your say-so.

It is interesting that a forum filled with a disproportionate amount of techies still fall for such biases

It would be far more surprising if it wasn't.

Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

#128

Post by lannisterstark »

Boogie_Man wrote: post #58
jnsie wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't bring us this far without some examples! Fess up, OP!

Cigs: Not telling him he couldn't smoke, but that he could only smoke outside bare-chested one winter Eating: Mirror at gut hight in the kitchen Drinking: Reading that Infinite Jest section [pick one] twice a week Weed: Picked a fist fight with the guy I bought it from (he won) (this section is just a joke I do not commit crimes) The only thing a human man can't give up is onanism (I don't believe those who say they…

>(this section is just a joke I do not commit crimes)

It's not a crime if you both consent.

Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

#129

Post by broscillator »

a_n wrote: post #112
pi-e-sigma wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. One day I decided to beat Magnus Carlsen at chess and I just did it. It's all about hard work, you don't need good genetics or supporting family, or a bit of luck with being at the right place at the right time. Just iron will, which BTW is also 100% a genetic trait but that simply doesn't matter!

Well that is exactly what I did, I just woke up and decided to become an IOI gold medallist and JEE topper (basically become the smartest high schooler ever) and now both of those are about to become a reality very soon just because of my will power and self belief, and I believe I will keep doing this my whole life, I wanted to learn stuff that probably less than 100 high schoolers knew, so I just sat at my table an…

You're a highschooler? This explains a lot.

Re: Studies suggest that relying on will power to break habits is hopeless (2019)

#130

Post by roelschroeven »

NoZebra120vClip wrote: post #57
keyle wrote: post #49

One of my friends who's a marathon runner told me once something rather powerful. We have all these ways of losing weight: you can poop it, sweat it, band it off, run it off, lift it off, swim it off, dance it off, on and on. And yet there is only one way to put it on (pointed to his mouth) with these things (showed his hands) Made me think for a while and he made an impact on me. We control our hands. We control wha…

According to the eminently reliable folks at SciShow, the chief way that anyone loses weight is by breathing it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8ialLlcdcw

Not just according to them.

Burning fat and sugars is essentially the same as what happens when you burn wood, or when you car burns its fuel. Where does the wood go as it burns? Gasses, mainly CO2 (though there is some residue left in the form of ashes; much much less than the initial amount of wood). Where does the fuel from your fuel tank go when you drive? Again, gasses out of the exhaust, except for a small amount of soot and other small particulate matter.

Weight loss is burning the fat reserves in the body, very similar to burning wood or fuel (but in a more controlled manner; there are no flames). The CO2 leaves your boy through mouth and nose by breathing. Burning sugars is good too: burning it before it gets converted to fat prevents it from contributing to the fat reserves.

Pooping makes no difference: poop is simply the non-digestible portion of your food that. It will make its way out of your body, but never contributes to fat and sugar reserves in the body.

Neither does sweating, by itself: you loose water, which needs to be replenished (it will result in short term lower weight, until the water is replenished; doesn't help against overweight, but is used in boxing and judo etc. to get in as low a weight class as possible). Again, doesn't affect fat and sugar. But when sweating is the result of physical activity, that physical activity does help loose weight.

When doing physical exercise, you'll notice you have to breath deeper and/or faster. That's to provide more O2 to your body, and to release the CO2 that is produced. Even during rest the body continually burns some fat and/or sugar, with the produced CO2 being expelled the same way. So yes, you lose weight by breathing it out. But that breathing out more CO2 has to be triggered by a higher metabolism, such as can be achieved through physical exercise.

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