7 Tips for Weight Loss: What works for me

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Minervx_2
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15 Oct 2021, 3:08 pm

1) Improve your mental health If you're overeating due to stress and anxiety, fix those things. Go to therapy or other try other treatments. Build a network of friends. Avoid toxic people. Reduce the amount of unnecessary obligations.

2) Fix eating routine before adding more exercise.. I used to gym everyday but was overeating, so I didn't lose weight. What worked for me was reducing my calorie intake first, and then introducing exercise. It's a crutch to rely on the gym to try to burn off calories you shouldn't have eaten. Unless maybe you're a pro athlete, it takes a lot of extra time to burn off extra calories, to the point where it's not economical.

3) Gradual changes. Like Jeff Cavalier said, if you're overweight, you're probably making good decisions only half of the time. But you don't need to go from 50% good food choices to 95% all at once. Doing that drastic of a shift results in people feeling overwhelmed and slipping back into their old habits. You can go from 50% to 60%, and then from 60% to 70% onward.

4) Avoid diets. Diets don't work long-term. The weirder or more restrictive the diet, the more likely you are to falloff. This includes programs like keto (which prohibit an entire macronutrient) and intermittent fasting which may work for some people, but the majority of people gain it back after a few years. All that matters is if you'll be able to stick to it. Do you plan on eating that way if you're not 90?

5) Find healthy foods you enjoy. A food that's 8/10 on the "healthy scale" that you enjoy is more sustainable long-term than a 10/10 in health but you hate. Be honest with yourself. If you don't like a food, it's okay. If you're eating healthy foods you don't actually enjoy and are trying to justify it with "ehh well I kindaaa enjoy it", you will feel deprived.

6) Avoiding added sugars (i.e. soda, candy, desserts, cereals, fruit juices, etc). Having sugar spikes will increase your appetite. And withdrawing from them makes you irritable, anxious and depressed, which makes it hard to stick to eating healthy.

7) Count calories like a hawk. People are dishonest with themselves, assuming they'll lose weight just because they're eating X type of foods. No matter what food it is, you have to count it. Any healthy foods like almonds can be fattening if you eat too many. Pizza can fine in moderation. This also means "cheat days" have to be under control. You need to count calories on "cheat days" too, and factor that into the weekly energy balance.



smartHulk
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01 Nov 2021, 7:51 am

I see a contradiction between points 4 and 7. Whatever you are eating is your diet. What makes a meal plan a "diet" in the eyes of general public is caloric restriction.

A good diet is something you can stick to for the rest of your life and doesn't require counting or restricting calories.



Minervx_2
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01 Nov 2021, 4:48 pm

smartHulk wrote:
I see a contradiction between points 4 and 7.


By point 4, I mean diets that are restrictive in terms of having to eat meals at specific times, or excluding an entire macronutrient, or having to eat very specific meal plans everyday (especially if they include foods you don't like).

Also, you don't always have to eat whole foods. You can have pizza and burgers on occasion. But of course, limited portion sizes and eating healthy for


Quote:
A good diet is something you can stick to for the rest of your life and doesn't require counting or restricting calories.


You need a caloric deficit to lose weight and a calorie balance to maintain. That's the truth. And that applies toward any diet or eating plan. Anyone selling a diet where you can ignore calories and eat as much as you want is lying.

That being said, changes don't have to be drastic. Weight could be lost slowly with a small caloric deficit. They could eat for the TDEE of their goal weight instead of dropping their calorie count well below that.

Also, there's a point where you get so used to counting calories that it's not really a chore anymore. By then, you know the calories and caloric density of each food, so it doesn't take much time or thought at all.

Also, once you're used to a specific calorie count for a while, you can "eyeball" it; and have a general sense of how much you need to eat within the day to meet the goals.



smartHulk
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02 Nov 2021, 5:09 am

Minervx_2 wrote:
You need a caloric deficit to lose weight and a calorie balance to maintain. That's the truth. And that applies toward any diet or eating plan. Anyone selling a diet where you can ignore calories and eat as much as you want is lying.

That being said, changes don't have to be drastic. Weight could be lost slowly with a small caloric deficit. They could eat for the TDEE of their goal weight instead of dropping their calorie count well below that.

Also, there's a point where you get so used to counting calories that it's not really a chore anymore. By then, you know the calories and caloric density of each food, so it doesn't take much time or thought at all.

Also, once you're used to a specific calorie count for a while, you can "eyeball" it; and have a general sense of how much you need to eat within the day to meet the goals.


The only way to figure out your actual TDEE is to spend 24 hours breathing into a tube in a laboratory. It would be affected by what you are eating and by your level of activity, this number would be very different on day to day basis.

There is no need to count calories whatsoever. No living organism eating it's normal diet needs to count calories. Humans are not an exception.

The idea that we have to be counting calories to stay healthy is part of marketing campaign by manufacturers of "healthy" food.



magz
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02 Nov 2021, 5:28 am

Know your body. Work for it, not against it.
Learn how genuine hunger feels. Eat enough healthy food not to be hungry.
Don't keep easy snacks or sugary drinks at your home. It's easier to have strong will at a store than at home.


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Let's not confuse being normal with being mentally healthy.

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Minervx_2
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07 Nov 2021, 8:34 am

smartHulk wrote:
Minervx_2 wrote:

The only way to figure out your actual TDEE is to spend 24 hours breathing into a tube in a laboratory.


This is true, but this can also be estimated by eating the same amount of calories and having roughly the same physical activity every day over a period (i.e. 2 weeks). Then adjust the calorie count based on if you gain weight or not. This isn't as precise as a lab, but it's more accurate than nothing.

Quote:
No living organism eating it's normal diet needs to count calories. Humans are not an exception.


Humans are an exception. No other species has an obesity epidemic like humans do.

And it has to do with the availability of food, especially calorically dense ones. Humans craving fats, carbs and sweets was an evolutionary advantage back when food was scarce. But after industralizing agriculture, it's now a disadvantage.

Other animals can eat whatever they want because they either eat foods in low caloric density (i.e. leaves) or they have to hunt for their food (so they're not eating frequently). But humans can eat an entire day's worth of calories in one sitting without expending any effort.



smartHulk
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07 Nov 2021, 10:25 am

Minervx_2 wrote:
Humans are an exception. No other species has an obesity epidemic like humans do.

And it has to do with the availability of food, especially calorically dense ones. Humans craving fats, carbs and sweets was an evolutionary advantage back when food was scarce. But after industralizing agriculture, it's now a disadvantage.

Other animals can eat whatever they want because they either eat foods in low caloric density (i.e. leaves) or they have to hunt for their food (so they're not eating frequently). But humans can eat an entire day's worth of calories in one sitting without expending any effort.

No, humans are not an exception. Just like any other organism human body "wants" to reach biological homeostasis, optimal size and shape.

Every time you are eating food with high insulin index, insulin spike suppresses utilization of body fat by basal metabolism processes. It doesn't matter how many calories you are eating as fat, these calories are "locked out" and can't be used to meet immediate energy demands. This situation results in energy deficit even when you are technically overeating. Deficit of energy results in hunger. If you just restrict calories without making sure your body can utilize fat and there is no energy deficit at any point, you will trigger metabolic adaptation or "starvation response", force your body to cut corners, cut "budget" on maintenance. This is even less healthy than being slightly overweight.

Caloric restriction, eating less by resisting hunger is oversimplified, harmful and outdated approach.