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You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

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Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#361

Post by csours »

daenz wrote: post #158
csours wrote: post #73

I weigh 350 pounds. I'm very obese. I know this. When I was a teenager, I looked at people who weighed 300+ pounds and though, how do you get that way. Don't you realize that you are gaining weight? Don't you know that you just have to eat less to lose weight? Anyway, now I realize that I am hungry. It never goes away unless I eat a significant amount of food. My body told me to eat, so I ate. It doesn't even take th…

Thanks for sharing. Here's my perspective as a lean person who has no problems literally starving themselves to do other things. It does indeed sound like your hunger is more intense than my hunger. I think I benefit from a ton of experience in transitioning past "I'm very hungry" to "I'm fine" when I choose not to eat. There's a clear point (for me) when the body just says "oh we're not going to eat now? ok, I'll st…

Another part of my experience is learning to differentiate feelings. I know what you are talking about, and I've felt that too.

It's hard to talk about this without getting circular.

Primary Loop: Hunger -> Eat -> Time -> Hunger -> Eat (loop)

Secondary Loop: Weight Gain -> Notice Weight -> Diet -> Gain (loop)

I don't have a conclusion to this, I'm still trying to figure it out.

In the primary loop hunger keeps you alive.

When you get hungry and eat and feel satisfied, that operates on multiple systems in the brain and body. There are lots of hormones that are flowing and telling body systems to do things and also telling your consciousness what your condition is.

I'm not prepared to talk about the psychology in depth, but I do know that it feels very un-natural to be in a calorie deficit. I know that having low blood sugar makes it very hard for me to think. At times it's felt like my body is telling me I'm going to die and it's been very hard to ignore that feeling.

Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#362

Post by MintsJohn »

jimmydoreornot wrote: post #302
xurukefi wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's genetics. I think it's called the set point theory. You're genetically programmed to keep a certain body fat percentage. Anything below (or above) that set point and you're body will regulate your appetite with hormones. You can manipulate this set point with things like diet or exercise, but there is only so much you can do. If you're genetically programmed to keep a body fat percentage of 25% for example you'r…

I suspect something like that is going on. It is pretty clear to me that there is a strong genetic component. We know the hunger system is very complicated. It's the reason we still don't have a weight loss pill. If you decrease hunger along one channel, the other channels ramp up to compensate. But there also may be other components that we can do something about. For example, perhaps the bacteria in my gut are caus…

I don't think it's just genetics, or genetics are rapidly changing in the last 100 years.

Personally I think it's some combination of gut biome, all than not messed up childhood eating habits (I've been taught to eat till stuffed, not so great in combination with my next point) , and way too calorie heavy (processed) food (it's not a challenge to find food where a quarter package is a healthy amount, way more challenging to find food where they food for a full package) not too mention it's made to keep you eating (so more is sold, sigh) . I'm always surprised people claiming not to have cravings whatever (even when the stuff is put in front of them), or be satiated by eating what for me is half a meal (even when I maintained a normal weight) .

Regardless eat less and try harder are hard to keep up, for me personally protein doesn't help to satiate me either. Part of it is that (for me) it's much easier to get into a habit to eat too much than to keep up the habit of eating just enough (I dare say 2+ years of keeping it low is a habit, but now for 3 wars annually 5kg was added: next try keto, hope it works as well as advertised)

Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#363

Post by thepasswordis »

Smaug123 wrote: post #306
thepasswordis wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the bad news? It sounds like they stopped eating healthy, and got fat as a result of it. Eating a healthy diet for two months doesn't mean you can go back to eating trash and expecting to stay healthy.

Your advice is not actionable. I know several people including myself who were simply unable to action it for longer than the two months that anyone can stick to any diet. If you are capable of sticking to a diet that literally brings you to tears on a daily basis, then sure, but do realise that you're probably in about the top percentile of willpower. (I imagine you were not in fact brought to tears by this diet, or…

Are you saying you were brought to tears because you weren’t eating carbs? I have known many people who have lost weight very successfully by switching a healthy, safe, and effective low carb/keto diet.

In fact I’ve never even heard of crying being a side effect. How are you suggesting these things are even linked?

Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#364

Post by elcritch »

ehsankia wrote: post #124
vlunkr wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or alternatively, they know they are eating too much, but simply don't have the will power to quit. I'm no food expert, but to me it looks like any other addiction. They rely on food emotionally, so when they are ashamed or depressed that they aren't losing weight, they turn to food, which continues the addiction cycle.

We have literally evolved to overeat. And one thing people don't consider is that genetics does play a real role. Just because it's easy for you to not overeat as much doesn't mean it's the same for others. I personally believe the solution will ultimately have to come from science/technology. We need a safe and efficient appetite reducer that people can take regularly.

Right, there already are some on the market like Wegovy (1). But they're expensive AFAICT and seem to have lots of side effects. Hopefully as we get better with synthetic proteins we can create more targeted treatments with less side effects. Also, many types of foods and additives also manipulate appetite. So while the article is true, there's still huge variability in the body's appetite response. Eating "less" can backfire in subconscious ways of re-adding extra calories in other hidden ways.

Long term (centuries), as a species I suspect we may end up doing some light genetic modifications to tune our appetite for norms in modern civilization. Presuming modern western style lifestyles become more sustainable.

We're less than ~100 years into this crazy modern era where routine famines aren't the norm. Even in Western Europe post-WWI and post-WWII there were lots of famines. If you compare Western Europe with the USA-minus-1.5 decades you get similar curves of obesity increase [2]. That makes sense if you consider that post-WWII it took Western Europe about a decade or two to repair basic infrastructure. The whole bit of overall Europe having healthier cuisine than the US isn't true, with regards to obesity at least. It's largely seems to be availability of calories. Eastern Europe for example reflects the fall of the USSR and economic stagnation during 1990's pretty well too [3].

1: https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-appr... 2: https://www.niussp.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Schermata-... 3: https://www.niussp.org/health-and-mortality/impact-of-obesit...

Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#365

Post by thepasswordis »

throwuxiytayq wrote: post #308
thepasswordis wrote: post #72

Keto diets are both safe and effective. I have yet to meet somebody following one who didn't lose weight. I feel like this topic is basically resolved. Stop eating carbs.

I like keto because it helps me maintain energy throughout the day, but I need to eat practically non-stop to avoid losing weight while on it. It's crazy.

Exact same experience. It honesty feels like unlocking a cheat code, and makes me really frustrated at the “diet industry” which is constantly pushing these absurd fad diets onto people.

Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#366

Post by csours »

OJFord wrote: post #317
csours wrote: post #73

I weigh 350 pounds. I'm very obese. I know this. When I was a teenager, I looked at people who weighed 300+ pounds and though, how do you get that way. Don't you realize that you are gaining weight? Don't you know that you just have to eat less to lose weight? Anyway, now I realize that I am hungry. It never goes away unless I eat a significant amount of food. My body told me to eat, so I ate. It doesn't even take th…

> It doesn't even take that much extra food to gain a lot of weight. One extra piece of cake a week [...] I honestly only say this in case it helps, and I'm firmly on the upper end of 'healthy' UK BMI so not in any health freak position of judgement by a long shot, but I last had a slice of cake months ago, so the casual 'just an extra slice of cake every week ' really stands out to me. (On a complete tangent I don't…

I was raised in a family that used food treats as a reward. It was normal to have ice cream and cookies a few times a week. To be clear, I wasn't obese until after I moved out on my own, but part of the pattern was set.

I was raised in America where we are told that we can 'have it all'. If you don't order the large portion, people wonder what is wrong with you.

I'm not blaming my situation on these factors, but I do think they are important contributors.

Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#367

Post by csours »

Scalene2 wrote: post #237
csours wrote: post #73

I weigh 350 pounds. I'm very obese. I know this. When I was a teenager, I looked at people who weighed 300+ pounds and though, how do you get that way. Don't you realize that you are gaining weight? Don't you know that you just have to eat less to lose weight? Anyway, now I realize that I am hungry. It never goes away unless I eat a significant amount of food. My body told me to eat, so I ate. It doesn't even take th…

I don't live in your body, know how you feel or know what you've tried. But I can share my experience as it seems similar and had an solution that was overlooked by multiple professionals. While my situation may be different, it may still provide an insight on what kind of things to look at. Turns out times I felt most hungry were times when my blood sugar was low. If I ever eat something with a high glycemic index w…

Yes, I've had problems with blood sugar spikes and slumps for a long time. Learning to control them has been a continuing effort.

Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#368

Post by amelius »

layer8 wrote: post #85
amelius wrote: post #37

Quoted post unavailable.

The only way to lose weight (other than amputation and the like) is to take in less calories than you burn. If what you say is correct it just means that in those cases the intermittent fasting causes higher energy expenditure.

This is incorrect. There are many examples of pairs of people who eat the same and exercise the same, yet one remains slim, the other becomes obese.

Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#369

Post by csours »

dataflow wrote: post #152
csours wrote: post #73

I weigh 350 pounds. I'm very obese. I know this. When I was a teenager, I looked at people who weighed 300+ pounds and though, how do you get that way. Don't you realize that you are gaining weight? Don't you know that you just have to eat less to lose weight? Anyway, now I realize that I am hungry. It never goes away unless I eat a significant amount of food. My body told me to eat, so I ate. It doesn't even take th…

> There is a very good chance that someone is writing a reply with some suggestion as to how I should eat so that I'm not hungry. Actually I was wanted to ask the opposite: what prevents you from letting yourself go hungry a fraction of the day? You might get a stomachache for a bit, I know, but have you tried and seen any consequences beyond that? Note I'm not suggesting "eat absolutely nothing the whole day", but l…

There are different levels and kinds of hunger. When I do what you suggest my brain and body don't work very well. After some time, blood sugar gets low and the glycogen stores in the liver are depleted. At this point my body tells me I'm dying. Obviously I've gone through this and lived.

My main point is that people will give mechanical advice for losing weight, but it's very hard to tell someone what feelings they will go through. It's very hard to tell someone else what 'normal' should feel like for them.

Re: You're Not Losing Fat Because You're Eating Too Damn Much (2016)

#370

Post by csours »

devwastaken wrote: post #222
csours wrote: post #73

I weigh 350 pounds. I'm very obese. I know this. When I was a teenager, I looked at people who weighed 300+ pounds and though, how do you get that way. Don't you realize that you are gaining weight? Don't you know that you just have to eat less to lose weight? Anyway, now I realize that I am hungry. It never goes away unless I eat a significant amount of food. My body told me to eat, so I ate. It doesn't even take th…

I have a pet theory that obesity is linear to tastey food. As we have sugar and tastey food readily available it's far easier to continue to consume. I catch myself eating a whole bag of cereal, even though it's not fulfilling, simply because it tastes good and I'm hungry. If instead my only options were healthy foods I'd eat a lot less.

I definitely think this is a huge factor for me. I have access to really amazing food and it's difficult to choose not to partake.
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