Being fat is a trap • Hacker News Board

Re: Being fat is a trap

#81

Post by nradov » Fri, Jun 06, 2025, 1:22 PM UTC

SonOfLilit wrote: post #35

I have extremely lucky genes and have managed to stay just within the green BMI range despite eating all the carbs and fats you can imagine and at times consuming 200-300g of milk chocolate a day. Some of my friends are obese despite exercising heavily every day. Finding ways you enjoy to keep an active lifestyle is a great idea, probably the highest impact thing you can do for your long term well being (for people i…

I doubt it. There is no real evidence for genetics playing a major role here. You are probably underestimating your friends' energy intake. Exercise is great for many reasons but you can't outrun a bad diet. They're probably eating a lot more than you think, especially when you're not around.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#82

Post by stronglikedan » Fri, Jun 06, 2025, 1:23 PM UTC

amarcheschi wrote: post #63

ThatMedicIsASpy wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cannabis made me lose 20kg in a short span (~2 months). But the main reason was extreme loss of appetite. I cooked normal and after 40% of a plate I was full. You do this for a few days and then you start changing your cooking habbits. This was a year ago and I've held the weight since and simply started eating less. My old eating habbits did not make me gain weight though as my old weight was constant for 10 years.…

Tea is a nice alternative to water, and I say this as someone who doesn't like most drinks other than water. There's a huge variety of tastes among green teas, white teas, oolong, black teas... Specific tea variety, different locations where the plants are grown, different manipulations, all concur to a lot of different tastes. However, a lot of people I've met just say it tastes like "earthy/dirty water"

Why would anyone drink tea when there's coffee!?!

Re: Being fat is a trap

#83

Post by lanfeust6 » Fri, Jun 06, 2025, 1:23 PM UTC

mytailorisrich wrote: post #29

lanfeust6 wrote: post #16

> Getting out of the physical fat trap, strictly speaking, is simple: Because it's CICO. Focusing on whole-foods can make you resistant to undesirable weight-gain, but losing substantial amounts of weight requires caloric restriction in some form or another. That isn't easy to adhere to, it needs to be done in whichever way is the most sustainable. Low-hanging fruit is to boost protein and fiber at higher-than-normal…

I found that removing carbs and calorie counting together works well. Psychologically (and perhaps physically), allowing for one weekly "cheat day" helps to keep to it a lot, IMHO.

It can of course. The calories have to come from somewhere. The point was that merely restricting one macro or another from one's plate won't guarantee a deficit (Over time. Yes when you're starting from 0 on what was an Americanized diet, you will lose weight in the beginning).

Re: Being fat is a trap

#84

Post by sorcerer-mar » Fri, Jun 06, 2025, 1:23 PM UTC

yetihehe wrote: post #21

adamgordonbell wrote: post #15

Losing weight is hard. Maintaining weight is easier, except that you have to do it forever. It was incredibly hard and took me a long time to lose 15 pounds as a always had been skinny person whose weight slowly crept up. I've never been obese and I'm sure it's super challenging to change, considering how hard loosing 15 lbs was for me. But if I were, I do think I'd try a GLP-1 agonist to get my weight down.

> Losing weight is hard. Maintaining weight is easier, except that you have to do it forever. That second part makes it harder. Losing weight was pretty simple for me, but maintaining that low weight was much harder. Someone said that it takes about half a year to form a habit. I maintained lower weight for about a year, then it came back.

IME the key is a very simple mindset shift. People generally try to ignore or overpower the sensation of hunger. That is super, super difficult over long periods of time. Instead what they should do is very directly and explicitly manage that felt sensation.

The key insight is that your sensation of hunger is primarily driven by the weight of your stomach (not the caloric contents or volumetric fullness of it).

So the question is how do you increase the weight of your stomach (decrease sensation of hunger) without increasing caloric consumption. You just eat a lot of low caloric density foods!

Divide calories by grams on the nutrition label. Lower is better. Replace as many items as you can in your diet with the nearest alternative that is of lower caloric density.

Nonfat greek yogurt and seitan are the two biggest hacks ever. Adopting this mindset will also probably astound you how many calories modern engineering can fit into a gram. Would be a pretty great achievement if we had to trek long distances, but here we are munching on this stuff while sitting all day.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#85

Post by davidguetta » Fri, Jun 06, 2025, 1:23 PM UTC

Just do insanity bro:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9EmDyARAMtlZ21FdmZZ...

2 3 and 5 in a loop (3 sessions per 4 days), the other are useless

Two important changes :

- remove the stretching after the warmup, it's considered harmful nowadays

- don't do the jumps and replace by squats (for knee problems)

It's only 35 min per day and I've lost 2.5 kg in basically a month.

Please note that watever your sport level is, you WONT be able to do the workout completely at least the first 10 times

Re: Being fat is a trap

#86

Post by sorcerer-mar » Fri, Jun 06, 2025, 1:24 PM UTC

cenamus wrote: post #58

maztaim wrote: post #12

For me, quitting tobacco was simple, don’t use. Quitting alcohol was simple. Don’t drink. I cannot simply abstain from eating. I can relate to the struggles and feelings from this article.

Eat only every other day? Fast one week on and off? All entirely possible.

Do you have friends or family? This is a ridiculous proposal for 99.9% of people.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#87

Post by nemomarx » Fri, Jun 06, 2025, 1:24 PM UTC

mytailorisrich wrote: post #29

lanfeust6 wrote: post #16

> Getting out of the physical fat trap, strictly speaking, is simple: Because it's CICO. Focusing on whole-foods can make you resistant to undesirable weight-gain, but losing substantial amounts of weight requires caloric restriction in some form or another. That isn't easy to adhere to, it needs to be done in whichever way is the most sustainable. Low-hanging fruit is to boost protein and fiber at higher-than-normal…

I found that removing carbs and calorie counting together works well. Psychologically (and perhaps physically), allowing for one weekly "cheat day" helps to keep to it a lot, IMHO.

It's interesting to me that if you're rigorous enough the other six days the cheat day still works. I would order in restaurant food and have some alcohol with it, get ice cream or whatever, and was still losing weight overall. I guess one day isn't enough to get your body used to the high calories or something? Diet science is weird

Re: Being fat is a trap

#88

Post by j1elo » Fri, Jun 06, 2025, 1:24 PM UTC

netdevphoenix wrote: post #24

flkiwi wrote: post #18

Ok, but there's also an environmental (and one completely reasonable mental) factor: I live in a place where it is unpleasantly hot (upper 90s and humid) most of the year and there are few public outdoor spaces generally thanks to rampant overdevelopment, I hate gyms and toxic gym culture, I have a quaint bungalow that doesn't have space for equipment, I work an intense job that keeps me focused for hours at a time,…

Calisthenics and bodyweight exercises require no equipment and can be done at home

And some exercises can be really intense, too! I have to repeat this over and over to people who complain about not being able or wanting to go to a gym: just start from (carefully) doing some squats or any other youtube-guided exercise in your living room! anything else is just an excuse they're forming in their head to cover for their lack of will to do it.

Try to do Saitama's training (from anime One Punch Man, just a tongue-in-cheek way to mean do lots of push-ups and squats) and afterwards tell me you don't feel like you've done some serious exercise!

Re: Being fat is a trap

#89

Post by mrgoldenbrown » Fri, Jun 06, 2025, 1:24 PM UTC

EduardoBautista wrote: post #38

I am going to be blunt here. Why is everyone using time as an excuse? In fact, it should be easier to lose weight if you are truly busy, because the only thing that will make you lose weight is eating less. This whole idea about exercising to lose weight is unhelpful when the truth is that no amount of exercise is going to compensate for eating more calories than you have to. And yes, you will go to bed slightly hung…

Eating healthy takes more time than eating junk. The busier I am the less time I have for food shopping and the more likely I am to be away from home and need food, which means eating out.

Re: Being fat is a trap

#90

Post by narnarpapadaddy » Fri, Jun 06, 2025, 1:24 PM UTC

netdevphoenix wrote: post #22

maztaim wrote: post #12

For me, quitting tobacco was simple, don’t use. Quitting alcohol was simple. Don’t drink. I cannot simply abstain from eating. I can relate to the struggles and feelings from this article.

You don't need to abstain. You can either eat less or simply eat more low caloric food (greens, potatoes, lentils, etc)

The point is that black and white, all or nothing is easier for many to stick to. It’s easier to not be tempted by a cigarette if you never see one or hang out with someone who smokes. With food, you can’t take approach.