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How I have lost over 100 pounds and don’t know how

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Re: How I have lost over 100 pounds and don’t know how

#31

Post by carbocation »

johnking wrote: post #26
johnchristopher wrote: post #22

I am more interested in his next post: "Five years later and I am going to tell you how I managed to keep the lost weight off" > I took some pills, specifically raspberry ketones, a multi-vitamin, and cod liver / fish oil. I went back and forth on these, and then decided to drop them. I may go back to the oils, but I think vitamins may be snake oil. It is hard to really tell though. Vitamins are snake oil. Ok. (And w…

Agreed up until calories in, calories out. I know what you mean, but that way of thinking is quite dated. It's clear these days that the macronutrient composition of the diet also needs to be taken seriously.

Doesn't matter from a chemical perspective, because the law of conservation of energy/mass is not violated. But it is true that hormonal response makes it easier or harder to stay with a diet.

Re: How I have lost over 100 pounds and don’t know how

#32

Post by jmduke »

There's a massive signal-to-noise issue in the fitness world, particularly because there's so much value to be made just by making some noise.

For anyone reading this post and inspired to lose weight, I recommend you keep the following basic tenets in mind when researching a plan/regimen:

1. You lose weight by eating less calories than your body uses. (As a corollary, you almost definitely consume more calories than you think you do. Get a calorie-counting app.)

2. Being active isn't necessarily crucial to losing weight, but it is crucial to being more healthy. In particular, lifting weights will help your overall physique even if you're eating at a caloric deficit -- but the most important activity is the one that you like enough to make a habit. (Mine is biking, and occasionally soccer.)

There are a lot of huge fads right now -- in particular, intermittent fasting (eat once per day), ketogenic diet (eat lots of fat, eat no carbs), and liquid diets (drink lots of things) seem to be the rage. The reason fads can be successful usually have less to do with the specific mechanics and minutiae of their gospel and more to do with the fact that you're conscientious about what you're putting into your body and diligent about treating it well.

Re: How I have lost over 100 pounds and don’t know how

#33

Post by billybob255 »

jstsch wrote: post #5

> Within two weeks I lost ~20 pounds. More than a pound a day, I can almost not believe this. In pure fat that would be about 5000kcal a day.

It's definitely not fat, when people with horrible diets eat less sodium they lose a surprising amount of water weight. I've seen estimates an extra 400mg of sodium being retained leading to an extra kilogram of water.

Re: How I have lost over 100 pounds and don’t know how

#34

Post by TelmoMenezes »

jmduke wrote: post #32

There's a massive signal-to-noise issue in the fitness world, particularly because there's so much value to be made just by making some noise. For anyone reading this post and inspired to lose weight, I recommend you keep the following basic tenets in mind when researching a plan/regimen: 1. You lose weight by eating less calories than your body uses. (As a corollary, you almost definitely consume more calories than…

The problem here is that mainstream nutrition "science" is also a fad. It is also a dramatic example on how the Internet + an incentive can produce better Science than the traditional grant (and lobby system). Many of the traditional dogmas of nutrition have recently come intro question: the idea that eating cholesterol is what increases cholesterol in your arteries, the idea that salt is bad for you, the idea that fiber is good for you and many others.

Regarding ketogenic diets, there are so many results and it seems to work so much better than what "they" have been telling us that the idea that this is a "fad" starts to sound a bit silly. Actually, some proponents of ketogenic diets are backing their claims with explanatory models, instead of simple epidemiological studies (which are, in my opinion, the lowest form of Science).

Check out this talk if you want to know more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6vpFV6Wkl4

edit: this talk provides some convincing arguments against your assumption #1.

Re: How I have lost over 100 pounds and don’t know how

#35

Post by eshvk »

jmduke wrote: post #32

There's a massive signal-to-noise issue in the fitness world, particularly because there's so much value to be made just by making some noise. For anyone reading this post and inspired to lose weight, I recommend you keep the following basic tenets in mind when researching a plan/regimen: 1. You lose weight by eating less calories than your body uses. (As a corollary, you almost definitely consume more calories than…

> 1. You lose weight by eating less calories than your body uses. (As a corollary, you almost definitely consume more calories than you think you do. Get a calorie-counting app.)

True. For those who find it a pain to use one, I recommend sticking with it for a few months at least initially. After a while, your mind gets attuned to the idea of how much food is enough for you to be satiated. So don't obsess about getting every calorie in, it is easy especially if you are reading online communities to see people freaking.

2. Being active isn't necessarily crucial to losing weight, but it is crucial to being more healthy. In particular, lifting weights will help your overall physique even if you're eating at a caloric deficit -- but the most important activity is the one that you like enough to make a habit. (Mine is biking, and occasionally soccer.)

I don't like the go weight lift or run recommendation for a person who has never run or hates the gym. Most are there because of systemic lifestyle issues. The best way to do that is to start at the core, hang out more with active people, doing entertaining things that also get out outdoors. After a while of doing that, I feel like you will naturally gravitate towards taking care of your body.

> There are a lot of huge fads right now -- in particular, intermittent fasting (eat once per day), ketogenic diet (eat lots of fat, eat no carbs), and liquid diets (drink lots of things) seem to be the rage. The reason fads can be successful usually have less to do with the specific mechanics and minutiae of their gospel and more to do with the fact that you're conscientious about what you're putting into your body and diligent about treating it well.

It's funny. I spent a while doing lean gains. A couple of months were rather painful in terms of having to spend most of my time eating cottage cheese and tuna, finding it difficult to have dinner with friends. I was hitting all the marks though, then I got bored of it. A few months ago, I did something simple by being more mindful when I ate. I didn't particularly try to avoid any food group but I focused more on savoring it than as something to keep my mouth occupied while I listened to a friend or something. That got me way down on the scale than anything.

Re: How I have lost over 100 pounds and don’t know how

#36

Post by unclebucknasty »

cliveowen wrote: post #7

That's an awful lot of words for saying that eating right leads to a healthier life. Way too many people tend to write a poem to express even the simplest idea. Concision is paramount in communicating.

As I read the article, I became pleasantly surprised at how it evolved into a story about a guy learning to live a more holistic life vs just one of losing weight.

I think that evolution was the author's journey, and it was what he was trying to communicate by recounting it for us.

Re: How I have lost over 100 pounds and don’t know how

#37

Post by voidlogic »

When it comes to exercise I'm always concerned by how many people, when making changes like this, omit strength training. Don't do that-

1. Without strength training (and adequate protein consumption) during negative calorie periods, you will loose muscle. Without strength training your body will happily shed muscle and fat, most of use really just want to loose the fat.

2. Muscle increases your base resting calorie use, and is a multiplier of any other exercise you do.

3. Muscle is important for maintaining bone health and general health as we age.

I have even had health professionals tell me that when it comes to daily routines, diet + 30-60 min walking + 30 min weight training is better for your body then regular intense cardio. Thats not to say you should shy away from a tennis match or soccer game, or fencing a couple times a week, but if we are talking about what we do every day-

Re: How I have lost over 100 pounds and don’t know how

#38

Post by eshvk »

justindhill wrote: post #13

Am I the only person who enjoyed reading this guy's story? I'm happy that he's found a lifestyle that works for him. The amount of skepticism and criticism in this thread is off the charts...

The HN demographic overlaps with a huge demographic who have spent quite a bit of time reading through and analyzing different health based lifestyle choices. It gets annoying to hear the same damn story repeated again, except under a pretty link bait title.

Re: How I have lost over 100 pounds and don’t know how

#39

Post by seiji »

jmduke wrote: post #32

There's a massive signal-to-noise issue in the fitness world, particularly because there's so much value to be made just by making some noise. For anyone reading this post and inspired to lose weight, I recommend you keep the following basic tenets in mind when researching a plan/regimen: 1. You lose weight by eating less calories than your body uses. (As a corollary, you almost definitely consume more calories than…

You lose weight by eating less calories than your body uses.

Not entirely. Try eating 2,000 calories of pasta versus 2,000 calories of chicken. It'll do immensely different things to your body.

IF and keto are valid. Liquid diet is nutty. keto isn't exactly "eat lots of fat" -- it's avoiding > 30-60g carbs per day (and honestly, mostly sugars. carbs with fiber delivery (e.g. vegetables and limited fruits) are okay) while seeking out, but not adding "lots," of complementary fat (like avoiding fat free things because fat free just means "we added more sugar to compensate for removing fat").

If you have a limited memory capacity, just remember: fat doesn't make you fat. Your body turns sugar and things that metabolize into sugar (carbs, breads, pastas, rice) into fat. Your body doesn't take what you eat and just glue it inside of you. Food is like the input of a program generating very specific outputs. You can't feed the function "Add two numbers" 1 and 1 and end up with anything but 2. You (probably[1]) can't feed yourself carbs and carbs and carbs and end up with anything but lardass.

[1]: Though, people are different. We have basic guidelines, but a lot is still genetics. I know people who basically live off pasta, chocolate, and smoothies and still weigh 130 pounds without workout out significantly.

Re: How I have lost over 100 pounds and don’t know how

#40

Post by crusso »

jmduke wrote: post #32

There's a massive signal-to-noise issue in the fitness world, particularly because there's so much value to be made just by making some noise. For anyone reading this post and inspired to lose weight, I recommend you keep the following basic tenets in mind when researching a plan/regimen: 1. You lose weight by eating less calories than your body uses. (As a corollary, you almost definitely consume more calories than…

You lose weight by eating less calories than your body uses

Yeah, and if you want to reduce your chance of auto accidents, limit the amount of gasoline you put in your car.

I'm a bit sorry to come across as rude, but this advice and then your later dismissal of ketogenic diets reflects the extraordinary ignorance that inflicted us with the food pyramid and war on fat 40 years ago.

Understanding and controlling the insulin cycle is key to understanding nutrition and its role in weight control. I tried "eating less" for years before I gave a low carb diet a try and permanently changed the way I ate and thought about food.

If you had actually read the article about which you added a comment, then you would have read a process of discovery paralleled by myself and an extraordinary number of others.

Atkins and even others before him explained the problems with carbohydrates, especially simple ones, decades ago. Calling low carb eating (you can't eliminate all carbs) a fad at this point is either ignorant or just mocking.

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