How I have lost over 100 pounds and don’t know how • Hacker News Board

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

#71

Post by ef4 » Sun, Jul 07, 2013, 5:07 PM UTC

eshvk wrote: post #35

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 getti…

> For those who find it a pain to use [a calorie-counting app], 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.

But satiation is a built-in feature of your body. A healthy human body counts calories automatically, and governs appetite and metabolism appropriately to keep body weight in a narrow target range.

A calorie counting app is basically a prosthetic replacement for the part of your brain that's supposed to be doing the job automatically. And it's much inferior to the real thing.

Many people can at least remember a time in their youth when their weight was extremely stable, despite widely varying inputs. That's how it feels when your metabolic control systems are all functioning correctly. Many people assume that this ability naturally disappears with age -- but it seems much more likely that the system simply breaks down due to years of exposure to a very unhealthy environment.

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

#72

Post by yummyfajitas » Sun, Jul 07, 2013, 5:07 PM UTC

TelmoMenezes wrote: post #42

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.) If this is true, why don't we become incredibly fat or skinny over time? It would require incredible precision to maintain weight. But a lot of people seem to be able to do it with no effort... The reason why this is not true is simple: our…

If this is true, why don't we become incredibly fat or skinny over time? It would require incredible precision to maintain weight. But a lot of people seem to be able to do it with no effort...

Because the amount you require for maintenance is proportional to your bodyweight. If you eat more than you need, you become fatter. As you become fatter, the amount of calories you need for maintenance goes up as well.

The calories in/calories out theory explains weight stability perfectly. Thermodynamics is sufficient, no complex theories required. I do the math here: http://www.chrisstucchio.com/blog/2011/weight_stability.html

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

#73

Post by anonymous » Sun, Jul 07, 2013, 5:15 PM UTC

crusso wrote: post #40

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 in…

For how long have you maintained your weight? Personally, I lost 40 pounds and since then have got about 35 of them back over 8 years. I'm not going to follow any diet advice from someone who hasn't maintained their weight for at least 10 years.

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

#74

Post by smackmybishop » Sun, Jul 07, 2013, 5:16 PM UTC

readme wrote: post #55

>I am annoyed at myself for letting me get to be ~300 pounds in the first place (the main point about that is that I let myself get that unhealthy, to a point where I increased my risk of death, which was irresponsible given the fact that I have family and friends) Though I would feel worse about it if you did not have friends, either way becoming unhealthy is irresponsible because it causes a public burden. If you d…

What the fuck?

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

#75

Post by pessimizer » Sun, Jul 07, 2013, 5:17 PM UTC

TelmoMenezes wrote: post #42

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.) If this is true, why don't we become incredibly fat or skinny over time? It would require incredible precision to maintain weight. But a lot of people seem to be able to do it with no effort... The reason why this is not true is simple: our…

We do become incredibly fat or incredibly skinny over time. Or our diets change at various points, changing the net trend at times, and our weights fluctuate around a mean.

The degree of "incredible precision" it takes to maintain weight is akin to the incredible precision it takes to ride a bike, a.k.a. not particularly incredible but challenging to some.

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

#76

Post by jes » Sun, Jul 07, 2013, 5:30 PM UTC

readme wrote: post #55

>I am annoyed at myself for letting me get to be ~300 pounds in the first place (the main point about that is that I let myself get that unhealthy, to a point where I increased my risk of death, which was irresponsible given the fact that I have family and friends) Though I would feel worse about it if you did not have friends, either way becoming unhealthy is irresponsible because it causes a public burden. If you d…

I consider becoming unhealthy as irrational, because it leads to a diminished quality of life for me and the people I care about.

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

#77

Post by adventured » Sun, Jul 07, 2013, 5:37 PM UTC

rjh29 wrote: post #58

codyb wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also a 1000 calories of sugar are going to do far different things to your body than a 1000 calories of protein. That's why focusing on calories always seemed to be the wrong metric to me.

There are a lot of skinny people out there with rubbish diets, packed with carbs and low in protein.... while carbs undeniably cause hunger compared to fats and protein, there is definitely an individual variation in appetite that diet cannot completely make up for.

I was one of those hyper skinny people. There are only two reasons for it: 1) a temporarily very high metabolism that will fade with age 2) how many calories being consumed in relation to how fast your body burns

I couldn't gain a pound of weight no matter how much crap I ate, right up to about the age of 25. So I ate anything at any time, all the time. I then proceeded to gradually gain 40 pounds over seven years, from 150 to 190 (at a 6'2" height), as my metabolism slowed.

I lived off of sugar, all the time. And pasta carbs.

You'll find that some of the formerly skinny types that keep up that rubbish diet, will end up remaining slightly thinner than most except for some out-of-place looking weight gain in the mid section. That's the lucky scenario. The unlucky scenario is you give yourself diabetes or your metabolism really lets out and you just explode to twice your size.

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

#78

Post by vmarsy » Sun, Jul 07, 2013, 5:43 PM UTC

Interesting post, the author can be proud. Not being from the united states, and now living there since one year , here is my 2 cent , I think these are the most important points of the post and my own advices:

- Drink water only, no soda, even diet coke and whatnot.

- Avoid sugars (I'd say especially high corn fructose syrup).

- Eat vegetables, cooked in good olive oil in a pan, it's really good. I don't know about other oils, the Mediterranean lifestyle with olive oil works great, and olive oil tastes better.

- Avoid too salty food (preprocessed food will be too salty.)

- Sleep well, stop watching at screens (TV/computer/ipad) an hour before sleeping. reading a book before going to sleep is great.

Attempting to reduce the problem to : >" it's basically a physics problem (calories_in I disagree with the " “listen to your body, and eat when it is hungry, not because it is a certain time” routine. " Stick to regular hours for eating, breakfast, meal and dinner. But the most important is not to eat in between the meals. If you eat good food you won't even feel hungry

Finally, stop trying to measure everything, relax.

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

#79

Post by Someone » Sun, Jul 07, 2013, 5:44 PM UTC

mahyarm wrote: post #61

- Don't eat 600 calorie bombs from carls jr that fit inside the palm of your hand and don't fill you up still. Eat more satiating food for the calories, which is fibrous vegetables and proteins. Avoid liquid calories and other such things that are easy to overeat. - Eat like my skinny indian friend. He takes a bite, chews it for quite a while, and then take another bite about a few minutes later. He doesn't do this o…

Alternatively, and easier for some: put low calory food in front of you. It may be possible to grow fat from eating raw celery and tomatoes, but it certainly is harder than growing fat from eating burgers and chocolate.

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

#80

Post by supercanuck » Sun, Jul 07, 2013, 5:44 PM UTC

dalmaer wrote: post #48

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...

I appreciate that. It is very interesting to see people jump on what I did or even more did not say in one post about a personal experience. I think people need to realize that: People are just trying their best! Holy negativity. And in that I appreciate your comment Justin :)

I just noticed you are the author, but I am a lurker and very much enjoyed some of your book recommendations and personal anecdotes. It has inspired me because I can tell your thought processes are similar to my own, so it resonates.

In the sea of HN pessimism, I thought you'd appreciate hearing from a stranger.