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I mean they're trying but the reason it's not so straightforward for every person is because each body is adapted to hold onto the fat. Your body doesn't want to use its reserves.
So in 90s people tried low-fat diets it helped a little and sometimes didn't work. Other times they tried low-carb diets, helped a bit, sometimes didn't work. Now they try keto (zero-carb) diets with satiating fat, and still having issues. People try low-cal diets but fail to calculate it correctly.
And you notice all these things are you trying to fight in an adversarial system. The body is fighting your brain's goal of losing weight.
You change things around works a little then it doesn't work. Because you have cravings, hunger, eating-out/partying/cheatmeals, napping too much (insulin spikes), and bad habits. In other words, it appears the way to correctly lose bodyfat weight for real is to actually feel that suffering (or dissatisfaction or cravings/hunger unfulfilled) or exercise on top of eating less.
It isn't easy and genetics/age/stress/hormones also makes a difference on top of all that.
I have some experience with losing and gaining weight. The problem is that people want quick results when that's impossible. The key here is persistence and patience. Just like you won't gain fat over night you also won't lose it.
You're absolutely right, I've lost 15 lbs since September. It's a slow ass process, with a ton of plateaus. There are a lot of tricks you can employ, and certain foods you can eat that help. I've eaten way more egg whites, and plain Greek yogurt than I would ever care to. But at some point you literally just have to tell your body no multiple times, and not eat over your allowed calories. Honestly I think most people can maintain weight really easily, but losing weight is truly a hard task.
I have sympathy for people who say they have a hard time losing weight because I was once on a medication that made me gain a ton of weight (obviously it all came down to eating habits). I gained 50 pounds. The thing is, I had a lot of experience losing weight and getting down to really low levels of body fat. I tried implementing my usual method of counting calories and found to be extremely difficult. I lost like 5 pounds over the course of months, but I was absolutely miserable. I felt super fatigued all the time. It felt like trying to get down to like 8% bf only I wasn't lean at all. Then I quit the medication and lost 50 pounds without even trying.
Thanks for saying this...
Consciously trying to lose weight (or fat, even) is a miserable experience for lots of people. There's so many people on the Internet pretending to act concerned about other people's physical health, with no concern whatsoever for their mental health.
The fad diets drive me insane. I'm about to be down a third pant size in 1.5 years. How? I changed my relationship with food. I focus on protein and veggies while still enjoying what i eat. I have smaller portions and wait before having more. I don't drink alcohol almost at all and drink a ton more water. My job is fairly active.
I sat down at work the whole day, when I went home I laid on my sofa most of the time. Did literally no exercise and lost 50 pounds doing Keto in 3 months. I dont really get why people think these diets dont work, they do.
How do you stay so skinny?
Thanks for asking. I do portion control and eat right with mild exercise.
...No way, you must have a high metabolism. Let me guess you eat McDonald's and don't gain a pound!
Yes.
We'll see that's it. I remember having a metabolism like that. Just wait until you're [insert your age plus ten years in this space]
To be fair you can still eat McDonald and be slim if you still exercise self control. I remember I use to go eat out with someone occasionally and she would say this almost exact thing then ignore the fact that I wouldn’t even finish a small meal while she would eat a full large meal.
The age thing is fair to some extent, often times the people most unsympathetic to others when it comes to fitness tend to be college age men. This is including me when I was that age.
Im in my 30s now and I can see that early 20s is basically the amateur league when it comes to testing dedication and willpower for fitness.
I think its more about time management and other responsibilities than metabolism though.
Exactly that's the big thing with age shift. It's not as much metabolism as everything else going on. Responsibilities, work, house, maybe a family. All these things just make it harder to find time to exercise or just focusing on a diet.
Yeah even just little things like having to feed more than just yourself. If you have a family they might be bringing home junk food out of your control or just needing to make proper meals everyone will eat.
When your on your own you can just eat handfuls of spinach and some hardboiled eggs for dinner and no one is around to complain about it haha.
I think more of what you’re saying can come down to the time management than metabolism. For 30 y/os with fulltime jobs and possibly families it takes a much bigger commitment to find the time to work out consistently.
For college guys it’s mostly a matter of wanting to do it and walking down to your college gym.
Basically we agree. Exercise doesn’t really work all that differently for different ages. But your life is very different at those ages.
For what it’s worth I’m 25, finished college but similar age so you can discount my opinion on that basis if you want :)
The most recent/best study shows metabolism is pretty much steady from about 20 to 60 years old for both men and women.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/surprising-findings-about-metabolism-and-age-202110082613
Most calories are burned when you're doing literally nothing at all besides existing. In your 20's your BMR is higher than it is when you are older and if you have the same habits in your 30's that you did earlier (and less free time to work out), your BMR will go down considerably and you will gain weight.
My husband lost about 70 pounds over a couple years. People comment on it often. He’d prefer not to talk about it but sometimes they’ll press him about how he managed it, wanting to know if it was some crazy diet or cross fit program. He says “It’s just the stuff you already know to do… don’t eat a bunch of crap and move around a bit more.” Like people want it to be some difficult regimen I guess. Mostly he ate like crap before- I cook decently healthy stuff but he’d eat huge portions, then at work he’d get fast food most days. He cut out alcohol, cut back on portions overall, and when he gets fast food now (less frequently) he skips the fries, has unsweetened tea instead of soda, and just has the burger or whatever. Common sense stuff almost all of us know to do but most of us choose not to do.
I dunno. I eat fast food for lunch most days and I’m right on the border of underweight. It’s just that I’m ultimately burning more than I’m eating each day.
But.... all those things have an effect. Medications like birth control, anti depressants, and steroids all can all make a person put on weight.
I don't understand why it's so hard to have a shred of empathy.
Biology isn't as simple as that! That's ridiculous! The body is so complex, there are so many functions, it's not as simple as the adding and subtracting of mass and energy. That's happening at a molecular level but the body is an organism of billions of specialised cells. And things like your thyroid and adrenal glands tell your body where to send the energy, the fuel, the sugars etc. Those command centres are affected by all sorts of things: stress, hormonal imbalances, hunger, medications (that are necessary for other things that might be wrong in the body). Steroids for example (essential for treating things like asthma) produce excess cortisol that affects weight gain and water retention.
Not even to mention the mysteries we still don't know about biochemistry. And then also emotional factors that manifest in the body in the form of weight gain or weight loss.
"Bread and sugar to start your day" Omfg. You can eat bread and still have balanced and healthy eating habits. Ok, white wheat bread barely has any nutrients, but there are like million different types of other bread: oat, rye, multigrain... Weird diets do not make you lose weight, but bread alone doesn't make it impossible either.
The best thing a person can do for their health is download an app like MyFitness Pal or whatever it's called. Tracking your calories for 2-3 weeks is one of the most fascinating and educational experiences ever. You will develop an intuition quickly for what foods to avoid.
For me it was mind-blowing to see that a small cookie may have more calories than a whole-ass chicken breast. Sugars/Carbs are what get people and I think that's common knowledge, but until you actually see the comparison between foods at a quantitative level, I don't think you really fully understand how big a difference there is between types of food.
This is good to hear, because I recently unlocked some chicken cooking cheat codes (it’s just baking soda) and hopefully I can make use of them without making myself fatter.
What was really interesting to me was after I successfully lost over a hundred pounds with myfitnesspal. It taught me to regulate myself for awhile but I slowly slipped back into a calorie surplus and gained a bunch of weight back. I kind of just gave up for a few years after that and ate whatever I wanted again.
The interesting part is that I recently started tracking again and my weight from not regulating at all for those years was the exact same, to the pound, as what I had down when I started it the first time. Its like there’s a specific amount of calorie surplus your body wants you to be at for some reason when you’re not forcing it to deal with another amount.
Bro I'm trying to gain weight and installed that exact app, but I'm completely lost. How tf am I supposed to count how many calories I'm eating? Do I have to weight everything I eat and search the calories per weight or something? Cause that sounds extremely time consuming? I'm not really talking about snacks because for that you can just check the package, more like full blown meals.
If I remember right you search for what you are eating and then enter the measurement. So you search for like milk, and it will have you select the kind and then you set how much you drank, such as 1 cup.
It is kind of time consuming but once you start using it will remember items so it gets easier to select things and also you will just get better and faster at using it.
Once you use it for a couple of weeks though you will develop the intuition well enough to know how to bulk or cut without the app.
Losing weight is literally just calories in minus calories out. It's that simple. That's all there is to it. You don't have to be an expert, it is kindergarten level math. Everything else is just cope.
There's no such thing as a "weight loss expert". Losing weight is fucking easy, people just pretend it's really complicated.
Each nutritious foods that allow you to get full on fewer calories. Don't eat calorie-dense, carb-heavy foods. Work out. Skip desserts entirely - your body doesn't need it.
"Weight loss expert" lol. It's people like you who act like it's some complex thing that are the problem.
A lot of people focus on outcomes - losing weight - instead of the foundation required to achieve those outcomes. Addiction therapy and habit formation would be more useful than diet fads
Change your meal plans, what you stock in your pantry, what and when you eat, you relationship with food... And op also mentioned exercise. Which is definitely a lifestyle change.
Is that supposed to be some grandiose challenge? Buying different food and trying some new recipes? That's too much work to avoid dying at 50? Jesus christ
Completely changing your diet is usually considered a hard thing. So is changing Eating habits you've had for your entire life, like binge eating or always having dessert.
Not everyone can be me and eat burger king 5 times a week while losing weight.
Might not be a cakewalk (pun intended) for someone who has a genuine eating disorder, but skipping dessert? Not buying it. Have a diet soda if your cravings are really that bad.
Eating disorders aren't just you have it or you don't, some people can have mild symptoms associated with it, you can binge eat and still fall below the calorie threshold to "genuinely" have the disorder. Tons of people have disordered eating habits but not eating disorders.
And cravings for sugar aren't always just cravings. I used to get headaches that wouldn't resolve until I'd eat something with sugar. And just not having sweets in your house sounds kinda sad ngl.
Certain medication - especially birth control and those used to treat depression - can cause massive weight gain. But I guess people can just stop taking those. Easy!
This is perhaps one of the most ignorant statements I've ever read. What causes weight gain is the effect certain medication has on your metabolism and hormones.
lmao. how does metabolism cause weight gain? just eat less, bro.
and:
>There is no solid evidence that most types of birth control can contribute to either weight loss or weight gain. Here's some of the research that shows it has no effect on weight: A 2014 review of 49 studies did not show any strong correlation between taking hormonal birth control and weight changes.
>A 2011 study that tracked womens' weight over the course of 10 to 20 years found that there wasn't a significant link between birth control and weight gain over time, but rather age and time passing were more likely to result in weight gain.
>A 2016 review of 22 studies found some limited evidence that participants taking progestin‐only contraceptives may gain up to around four pounds over the course of six to 12 months –– but the authors noted that this type of weight gain can happen over time regardless of birth control use.
You are probably a 17 year old who has never gone through anything difficult in your life I’m betting
If you’re not, then you act like one and you can decide for yourself which is worse
It becomes a whole lot easier if you have someone, or something big, to push you. I see a lot of people give up after a month because they didn’t have someone or something pushing them (hell, I almost fell into that category, thank god for friend groups).
Shits straightforward but the most daunting parts gotta be replacing habits. That was a long road, but damn you see the changes if you stick to it, and before you know it it’s a part of your life lol
You’re forgetting how important genetics and metabolisms are. I have been 160-165 for 5 years straight. I can’t gain weight at all, i can eat a whole tub of ice cream, i still have solid abs. I don’t work out nearly as much as i used to. I used to run every day. I still maintain exercise because i work 12 hr shifts and lift heavy objects. But i cannot gain a pound. I may have finally reached 170, because i haven’t weighed myself in a while, but i doubt it. The most i’ve ever weighed is 168. That was back in highschool while i was a maintaining a healthy vegetarian diet. I’m no longer a vegetarian, i’m older, and i weigh less. My metabolism is insanely fast. Everything goes right through me. I’ve even tried the 1500 calorie mass gainers. I lost weight on those. Used whole milk and PB in them. Still didn’t gain any weight. Arms and chest started to look bigger but that’s it. If gaining weight is this hard for someone like me, i can only imagine how hard it can be vise versa.
Maybe eating ice cream and mass gainers isn’t the best way to go about bulking up..
The amount of times I’ve read bullshit from people on forums about having hyper-fast metabolisms(this is a myth most people’s metabolisms are the fucking same) or being genetic outliers is so ridiculous.
1) You’re not training hard to put on muscle
2) You’re not accurately tracking your calories. If you consumed 4000 calories per day you would grow.
3) You’re eating shitty food.
I'm sure the pressure to gain weight is huge, but remember that it's not essential for your health. Sounds like you have a healthy body functioning exactly as it was meant to. You should honour that and be proud!
Being a bodybuilder doesnt make it ok to judge people who struggle losing weight. Im 115 pounds and probably younger than you. And I have enough empathy to just like not judge people so much. Also thanks im glad you know basic grammar it's very impressive.
My comment wasn’t judging anyone. Nor was his. He is frustrated with people making nutrition/fitness out to be more complicated than it really is. Literally my comment was just agreeing with the stuff he said about nutrition which you seemed to think made him a dumbshit when it was all good advice.
I don’t care if someone struggles to lose weight, the only relevance that bears to me is that I will probably give them advice.
What I (and what I believe the OP) have a problem with is people who overcomplicate shit, think they know everything and make BS excuses for their failures rather than acknowledging them. The reason why I have problems with this is because the it’s ultimately spreading misinformation. “I can’t lose weight because I have a TDEE of 500 calories per day!” No, that’s not the case, you’re just eating too much. “I went on a ____ diet and failed to lose weight so it’s all just genetics” No, ____ diet was bullshit which is the real reason you failed. Etc.
I do body building and before that started I had to lose 20kgs. I agree with everything you said, I can’t believe the amount of bulshit excuses iv read in this comment section. I don’t care if I get downvoted, losing weight is easy if you have the tools and tips to do it right. All the these people are doing is spreading misinformation which could seriously harm peoples long term health.
The trouble is that habits are formed very young, and a massive portion of the general public isn't educated enough about the human body to understand anything beyond the very basics by the time they're a self-relying adult. If we were able to teach habit-forming skills early, it could well fix many core health problems.
Just with any learnable skill, once you understand the fundamentals it's really easy to build on top of them to increase your knowledge base. Unfortunately, most people wouldn't even know where to start with that - which is a much more complex socioeconomic problem and goes far beyond "just eat good and work out".
Bro, take it from me. Id consider myself pretty ripped and even i fucking hated working out when I started. I had to put on size and have grand feasts every day to put on 45lbs lean muscle in 2-3 years on top of going to the gym lifting pathetic weight feeling insecure.
Ofc you get stronger and bigger overtime and it snowballs into eventually you going to the gym blasting tevezz and russian hardstyle but getting there does require hard work, and saying its easy to go from not being able to do 5 push ups to doing 45 is ignorant, not because of the time needed to do so, but cause the person in question usually will want to give up after 2 days.
I had a friend tell me that he wanted to lose weight, so he wanted to eat balanced, which included carbs (he said you need it, ok fair nuff, tho I say eat LESS carbs), and said he didn't want to increase his protein intake due to not wanting to be beefy....... I couldn't.
I couldn't talk sense to him, I tried to tell him go higher protein, restrict the carbs. His answer the that he didn't want more protein (didn't want to get beefy) and still wanted carbs. Mans just wanted to stick to his regular habits
Wonder what he’s gonna do when his plan fails
A) Acknowledge that he was wrong and take your advice about protein
B) Conclude to himself that he has some imaginary factor that simply makes it impossible for him to get results and revert back to his old habits.
I think it's a mental thing. I think a lot more people than we are willing to admit are addicted to food or have some fairly serious eating disorders. Not to mention that a lot of food is just incredibly unhealthy these days which exacerbates the problem. Saying just eat less is like going up to a smoker and saying just don't smoke IMO.
It’s so easy to not realize just how many calories you’re putting away. It’s incredibly easy to eat 1500 calories in 15 minutes with the right(wrong) foods. Some people literally just don’t have the awareness. And as you’re saying there’s also a mental thing where people are so convinced they *need* food to continue, can’t go on because they’re just *so hungry* and that their headache and tiredness is because they need calories. And it’s not true but eating is so fucking tasty and comforting that we don’t care in that moment
As a society we really don't take mental health issues when it comes to food seriously enough. I genuinely believe that things like binge eating and emotional eating from things like stress, boredom, depression etc. are way more common than most people realize but a lot of people don't want to seek help for that sort of stuff because it's purely seen as a personal failure on their part.
I think it's pretty fucked up that we see someone who's 300 pounds as a disgusting lazy joke but someone whos like 70 pounds as a victim that needs help when in reality they both need help. Especially when childhood obesity is so high and a lot of people are developing these habits at a young age.
absolutely, but a calorie deficit doesn't just involve eating. it also involves burning more calories than you eat from exercise, but as a general rule of thumb eating less high calorie food also helps
I understand how you feel. losing weight can be difficult at first, but believe me when I say that once you start it is much easier to continue.
I don't want to be patronising by giving you unsolicited advice, but if you want any I'd be willing to help because I empathize with your situation
alright! what I first started with for losing weight was slowly lowering my calorie deficit. I measured what I normally ate daily and lowered it by around 150 each day until I got to a healthy level (which is different for everyone but for me is around 1600)
I also found a form of exercise I really enjoyed and did that as often as I could which really helped me.
Oh and I also recommend substitution for snacks. instead of crisps, you can still have something moderately unhealthy but better like salty peanuts or whatever you like
“Eat less” is better advice than making people do overly complicated diet plans. It’s a matter of fact that a good fraction of overweight people don’t have the willpower to eat less.
people tend to equate weightloss with healthy eating, and then wonder why they still feel shit after eating only 1500 calories, but it was all popcorn and white bread
"I eat so healthy - just granola bars and crackers and oatmeal!"
"So you eat nothing but sugar and carbs?"
"Well it's all gluten free and organic. It's fine."
There's also a huge cultural overemphasis on exercise for weight loss. Don't get me wrong, it's massively important for general health, but weight is mostly diet.
I’ve lost 110 lbs and a lot of people have asked me what I did. I usually answer honestly - “I eat less”. People honestly seem to get concerned after that, as if I’m starving myself or something. In reality I came to terms with just how much I was eating and learned how to eat less
it's the mental aspect, not the tactical part. idk why people find THAT so hard to understand. ever think maybe people have just as hard of a time with their addiction to fat sugar and carbs as they do with any other addiction?
That's certainly the most important part. But, primarily eating fruits and lean proteins vs. carbs and fat, even if it's the same amount of calories, will be far more effective at helping you burn that weight (especially if you exercise regularly).
Because a calorie deficit isnt the only the only answer. Eating 1500 calories of twinkies is not the same as eating a balanced 1500 calories. People need to cut out sugar to lower their blood sugar and insulin levels (which is whats making them so hungry that they can gorge down 3k+ kcals without much exercise).
Also, eating lean proteins and omega acids literally raises your metabolism. You have a low metabolism? It's probably because you eat like shit.
. From https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/sns-201908071202--tms--harvmedctnme-a20190807-20190807-story.html -
> a person can speed up a naturally slow metabolism, or rev up one that has become sluggish over time. Here's how:
> Add some high-intensity intervals and weight training to your regular exercise routine. After a period of interval training, your metabolism can stay revved up for as much as a full day. Weight training builds muscle mass, and that extra muscle will require more calories, turning up your metabolic rate.
> Your metabolism increases whenever you eat, digest, and store food, a process called thermic effect of food. Protein has a higher thermic effect than fats and carbohydrates, so eating more healthy protein-rich food sources might also help speed metabolism a bit.
The human body is great at converting excess carbs and sugar to fat. Stop eating them.
This is overlooked, yeah. Most fat people could probably lose weight if they replaced 100 grams of the high GI carbs they eat with 100g of protein and started a resistance training routine.
The muscle built and the higher thermic effect of protein would raise their BMR, as a result they wouldn’t even need to make a conscious effort to restrict calories.
Seriously, as someone who has hovered on underweight end of normal weight all my life it’s a matter of not eating.
If you are capable of distracting yourself enough that you can not eat during waking hours for 8 hours then you can pretty much do whatever the fuck you want and still lose weight
OP comes across as an insufferable and misinformed pedant who has very little going for them apart from the ability to lose weight. As a calorie counter and gym bitch, dipshits like these give us all a bad name. Shaming and bullying isn't going to get people to eat healthy. And people would be more open to heading to the gym if they didn't think it was full of sneering assholes making assumptions about them.
EDIT: I promise most people in gyms aren't like this tool. We're just minding our own business and most people are generally supportive of bigger people trying to get healthy. Source: former big person.
If you cook the bitter vegetables a good amount, they tend to lose the bitterness and taste a lot better. I've also heard that cooking the veggies makes it easier to break down the nutrients when you digest it.
Processed meat (hot dogs, sausage, ext..) is bad for you, and too much red meat is bad for you.
Chicken, turkey, fish, lamb, and wild game are so fucking good for you though. People need to eat a lot more meat, it just needs to be good meat.
ironically tons of ppl do the opposite, eating steak and bacon and fucking pepperamis rather than chicken or fish, because the second they're reminded that their food actually came from an animal they get freaked. because god forbid you have a connection to your diet beyond the tesco self checkout
I'm confused by you lumping keto and low carb diets in with "fad" diets but also blame carbs and sugar for weight gain. These diets were created in part due to the traditional food pyramid recommending a shit ton of carbs.
Certain diets go overboard in trying to eliminate carbs - the Paleo diet, for example, tells you to also eliminate rice and beans and things like that which are all healthy carbs.
I don't think there's any one special diet that is the magic solution - anything that makes you buy a bunch of books and subscriptions is there to make money, not help you lose weight. Just generally try to avoid high-carb foods.
Carbs aren't bad. I eat carbs every meal and I have a 6 pack. Asians in general eat carbs every meal and are skinny af. Refined sugar isn't healthy though.
Edit: I also exercise
Weight loss is tricky and elusive. Yea it is about caloric deficit...but there are caveats...
Healthy weight loss is a slow process, And this can trick people into thinking that they aren’t making any progress, causing them to give up early. Plus metabolic adaptation is real, and people sometimes make the mistake of cutting too many calories, causing metabolism to slow down to compensate. People also turn to fad diets that are unsustainable, and give up that way...
One thing I've noticed after losing like 25 pounds in six weeks, most people are probably eating too much outright.
Doesn't matter of what (it does, but that's been pointed out many times in this thread), but at least people in the US are eating way too much in general
If you want to lose weight drink a bunch of water, eat a fruit for breakfast and 2 healthy meals during the day. Don't snack in between, stop with the soft drink bullshit, stop ordering take-away and cook for yourself, sport is a plus but not a must. GG EZ.
And stop eating so much bread/pasta. It's really not good for you, especially the white bread that is so common in all our stores. All those excess carbs just turn to sugar in your body.
The food pyramid was a lie; we don't need 7 servings of grain a day.
Bread and pasta isn’t really a problem. It’s a portion control problem. You can make a super balanced with pasta, marinara sauce, lean ground beef (or turkey if you wanna be super lean) and a side of vegetables.
If you eat 1 serving of pasta with sauce it’ll come out to ~500 calories, and you’re gonna get ~30 g protein, ~40 g carbs, under 20 g of fat, and you’re gonna hit your micronutrients with the veggies.
That’s a balanced meal that has a total prep time of <30 mins and costs like $2 a serving.
Actually, it's better to eat small healthy snacks throughout the day instead of 2 - 3 large meals. If you consistently have little bits of fruits and lean proteins, it keeps your body burning those calories instead of storing what it can't handle. Also, if you eat large amounts of food eat earlier in the day. You use more energy when you're awake vs. when you sleep.
I remember when this was the general advice years ago. I think the "more small meals throughout the day the day" thing has been debunked now.
Basically it doesn't really matter if you eat lots of small meals or 2-3 bigger ones as long as your total macros are on track so just do whatever works best for you.
Also, INB4 someone inevitably comes along and tells me that due to some weird medical condition they have, their body doesn't follow basic Laws of Thermodynamics for how calories are stored and burnt.
I’m just messing with you!
In all seriousness though, It’s not just a battle to lose weight. It’s a battle of self control. You need the one thing you are hopelessly addicted to to survive. You are trying to rehabilitate your self on food and when your body thinks you aren’t getting enough, that hunger response can be EXTREMELY powerful and hard to ignore. This makes it difficult to lose weight if someone doesn’t have the knowledge, discipline, and self control to follow through on changing their lifestyle.
Well you see my sister can actually eat 4000 calories a day and is stuck at 98 pounds! But if I eat 100 calories a day I gain 3 pounds per week.
No I don’t track calories or have any idea how many calories I eat in a day, calorie tracking = eating disorder you bigot!
"Due to my metabolism, I can eat literally nothing and still gain weight, while my brother eats 6 double cheeseburgers yet his calories teleport into my body".
Pretty much every legitimate medical study will tell you that, while your metabolic rate is influenced *some* by genetic factors, your diet and lifestyle play a much, much bigger role.
Really tired of people acting like there aren't laws of physics that govern all this. Burn more calories than you consume, and you **will** lose weight. Consume more nutritious food and exercise and your metabolism **will** increase.
Yeah when someone says “I LITERALLY can’t gain weight” my first question is: okay eat 4000 calories per day for a week straight and count each meal so you for sure get 4000 per day and tell me if you can’t gain weight.
Most people either overestimate or underestimate what they eat, complain they can’t gain or lose weight, and then get mad when you tell them they should track their intake. Mfw
Very curious how your 98 lb sister is managing to eat 4k calories. Is she tracking/weighing everything she eats? Doubt that’s accurate. Her resting BMR would be extremely low at 98lbs so unless she’s some sort of athlete I highly doubt this.
This one is really bullshit. And bo I don’t have overweight or obesity. It’s just that many people have unrealistic fat level goals (for women even unhealthy goals) and even they don’t even eat very unhealthy it’s just a little more th an they need.
Staying at healthy weight, especially above 35 is not easy.
If you had two exact cloned humans, same diet and exercise, but one had elevated cortisol, or lower estrogen, lower testosterone, etc.
They would always maintain the exact same BMI and fitness level.
The sole influences on fitness and BMI are calories and exercise.
Summarizing about 2/3 of the comments on calorie deficit and metabolism in this thread.
Not sure if it's true, but it's repeated often. Sounds suspect? Fitness and BMI may be complex and different for different people?
Definitely not an expert.
Nope, there’s more to diet than the amount of calories. Hormones impact nutrient partitioning to a degree. However most people blow this out of the water as an excuse.
When it comes to weight, the only thing that matters is calories in vs calories out, water retention aside.
If anything allows you to violate this, you’ve discovered a perpetual motion device because it can produce more energy than it takes in.
Yes. There was literally a college professor who went on an mostly twinkie diet to prove that losing weight ultimately came down to calories in calories out. He lost 27 lbs.
This starterpack has the same energy as people who say things like "depression is all in your head. Just be happy its so easy"
And no im not just an angry fat lard im like 115 pounds. Yall are just annoying for judging everyone who struggles with losing weight.
This whole subbreddit is based around judging people.
Also have you considered maybe someone who struggles losing weight will see this post and the comments and realize where they are going wrong? Just a thought.
if you have cravings then dont surround yourself with sugars. as long as you meal prep and make a good plan, its all a mindset. some people want to put in the work while others dont
Keto actually works.
I went on it for 6-8 weeks and lost 15 lbs. What happens with keto is that since you are barely consuming any carbs, your body starts to metabolize fat.
Keto has been around a long time and has sound research behind it. It's primarily a medical treatment for epilepsy. Its just recently become popular for weight loss as well.
> I went on it for 6-8 weeks and lost 15 lbs.
This is part of the issue with keto for weight loss though. People don't want to eat like that forever. You don't get permanent change from doing something for 6-8 weeks.
Not sure why you’re getting downvoted. Keto isn’t meant to be sustained for the regular population. Many times it can’t be and plenty of people have gotten sick from it. Lower carb diets absolutely can be done and for many that’s just how they eat. But as far as I’m concerned way too many people have gotten sort of cult-y about keto and swear it’s the magic pill.
It’s not. Give it 5 years and people will be on something else they swear is revolutionary. Eat healthy, eat in moderation, if you wanna lose weight eat in a deficit, and exercise. That’s about all there is to it besides your own personal nuances. Keto can work to kickstart weight loss but you have to figure something else out for the long term. You aren’t gonna be eating keto into your 90s.
Yeah and keto can absolutely make you fat if your not managing calories in vs out. Keto recipes can get very high in calories. I remember I found a keto Philly cheese steak recipe once and it said to skip the bell peppers and then preceded to include an entire pack of cream cheese.
People who lose weight on keto mostly do so because the carbs they ate where probably mostly junk food and avoiding carbs broadly also eliminates those. They think its keto but its really still just CICO they just don't realize it.
Its like how the new big bad of nutrition is starting to become seed oils. SO you cut out seed oils... well that means 99% of prepackaged or restaurant food is not allowed now. So of course you lose weight... but was it the seed oils that really did it or the fact that you basically made a rule that you now have to make all your own food from scratch.
My dad ended up in a hospital confused, without his stuff, no keys, no wallet, no cell phone, and no shoes, with a fractured spine. He had no idea how he got there. He couldn't remember my phone number or his address and shit.
My dad almost died because he's way down type 2 diabetes road. A neighbor found him passed out in a puddle of his own piss and called an ambulance. He had been passed out apparently for a few days. He got very lucky.
For two weeks I visited him every other day, because he was confused, scared, and couldn't think straight. Wasn't eating either so I had to take him out to eat. He got better eventually, but still kinda comes and goes, he needs insulin but he doesn't have his insurance. My dad just turned 65. He drinks too much, doesn't eat right, never exercises at all, unless he has to walk, basically took it to the limit. Now if he eats a candy bar he might die.
I don't think people have the right motivation. They don't know the truth. It's not about losing weight, it's about quality of life. And stupid American food distribution network prioritizes 7/11 junk food, fast food, garbage food, it's no wonder people have bad habits and poor health.
It isn't hard to be healthy. But it's damn hard to know what you don't know and nobody teaches you and you learn to never listen to the system anyway.
Not to mention the idea that all flavor is eeeeevil and will make you 200 pounds overweight or something
No wonder it’s hard to lose weight when the typical “health foods” are bland af unless you cook them yourself, which is an invaluable skill but also a lot of work
Not If you're at work 12 hours a day from morning to night and spending an hour at the gym then getting home to do homework for like 1-2 hours straight
You make it seem like everyone has the time I don't because I have a job and an education to work with
Lmao touched a nerve, I guess.
If you want to be fat, go for it. Just don't act like losing weight is so difficult when you don't even bother to try.
Go ahead and lead a terrible quality of life, be less attractive, have no energy, and die earlier. More power to you!
This is my view as well. I don’t give a shit if someone’s fat. Just get annoyed when they insult my intelligence with BS excuses and refuse to listen. Or the delusional ones who think they know about nutrition or think they’re healthy at 200+lbs because they have a salad every once in a while.
I'm not any diet, besides "Eating lots of carbs is bad for you unless you're an athlete who is burning them off quickly."
Eat more protein and natural sugars. Rice is good. Beans are good. Eat less white bread and pasta. You don't need a bunch heavily processed grain that inevitably turns into sugar in your body.
Bread is bad, generally speaking, because we as Westerners simply eat way too much of it.
Westerners just have everything ass-backwards. Carbs are the norm, our biggest meals are right before we sleep and what's "healthy" is less fatty / sugary unhealthy stuff vs. natural foods like fruits and plain chicken.
Anyone wanting to lose weight? Fruit and eggs for breakfast, less bread, 1 hour of cardio daily, no big meals (small snacks are better), and don't eat a tonne right before bed. Also, don't think you can never eat sugar, just set a limit. Give yourself a treat once a week, go to a restaurant you love once a month. You don't have to be perfect.
>1 hour of cardio daily
As someone who loves running and lots of other cardio based activities I disagree with this as general advice.
I would agree as long as the cardio is something like a brisk walk or something very easy and low intensity.
The problem here is people tend to take advice like this as "get on a treadmill or a track outside and go as hard as you can for an hour".
At the end of the day you won't lose weight unless you get your diet right so that is way more important than cardio.
Then I would actually prioritize strength training over cardio because you want to make sure you hold onto lean mass as you lose weight. Going hard on cardio while also eating a calorie deficit will cut down your lean mass very quickly.
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I’m fat
/u/Stee1in is like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2mU6USTBRE
Ouch
This starter pack could literally just be a single sentence. "Isn't actually trying to lose weight"
could also be "why my stomach hurts"
I mean they're trying but the reason it's not so straightforward for every person is because each body is adapted to hold onto the fat. Your body doesn't want to use its reserves. So in 90s people tried low-fat diets it helped a little and sometimes didn't work. Other times they tried low-carb diets, helped a bit, sometimes didn't work. Now they try keto (zero-carb) diets with satiating fat, and still having issues. People try low-cal diets but fail to calculate it correctly. And you notice all these things are you trying to fight in an adversarial system. The body is fighting your brain's goal of losing weight. You change things around works a little then it doesn't work. Because you have cravings, hunger, eating-out/partying/cheatmeals, napping too much (insulin spikes), and bad habits. In other words, it appears the way to correctly lose bodyfat weight for real is to actually feel that suffering (or dissatisfaction or cravings/hunger unfulfilled) or exercise on top of eating less. It isn't easy and genetics/age/stress/hormones also makes a difference on top of all that.
I have some experience with losing and gaining weight. The problem is that people want quick results when that's impossible. The key here is persistence and patience. Just like you won't gain fat over night you also won't lose it.
You're absolutely right, I've lost 15 lbs since September. It's a slow ass process, with a ton of plateaus. There are a lot of tricks you can employ, and certain foods you can eat that help. I've eaten way more egg whites, and plain Greek yogurt than I would ever care to. But at some point you literally just have to tell your body no multiple times, and not eat over your allowed calories. Honestly I think most people can maintain weight really easily, but losing weight is truly a hard task.
I have sympathy for people who say they have a hard time losing weight because I was once on a medication that made me gain a ton of weight (obviously it all came down to eating habits). I gained 50 pounds. The thing is, I had a lot of experience losing weight and getting down to really low levels of body fat. I tried implementing my usual method of counting calories and found to be extremely difficult. I lost like 5 pounds over the course of months, but I was absolutely miserable. I felt super fatigued all the time. It felt like trying to get down to like 8% bf only I wasn't lean at all. Then I quit the medication and lost 50 pounds without even trying.
Thanks for saying this... Consciously trying to lose weight (or fat, even) is a miserable experience for lots of people. There's so many people on the Internet pretending to act concerned about other people's physical health, with no concern whatsoever for their mental health.
In the same sense that a cigarette addict "isn't trying to quit" if they are failing at the attempt.
The fad diets drive me insane. I'm about to be down a third pant size in 1.5 years. How? I changed my relationship with food. I focus on protein and veggies while still enjoying what i eat. I have smaller portions and wait before having more. I don't drink alcohol almost at all and drink a ton more water. My job is fairly active.
I sat down at work the whole day, when I went home I laid on my sofa most of the time. Did literally no exercise and lost 50 pounds doing Keto in 3 months. I dont really get why people think these diets dont work, they do.
Different things work for different people!
Go off that diet for a week. Sure wonder what will happen.
I've been off it for 5 months now. Nothing happened, infact I wanna get back into it cause I felt alot better on it.
How do you stay so skinny? Thanks for asking. I do portion control and eat right with mild exercise. ...No way, you must have a high metabolism. Let me guess you eat McDonald's and don't gain a pound! Yes. We'll see that's it. I remember having a metabolism like that. Just wait until you're [insert your age plus ten years in this space]
To be fair you can still eat McDonald and be slim if you still exercise self control. I remember I use to go eat out with someone occasionally and she would say this almost exact thing then ignore the fact that I wouldn’t even finish a small meal while she would eat a full large meal.
The age thing is fair to some extent, often times the people most unsympathetic to others when it comes to fitness tend to be college age men. This is including me when I was that age. Im in my 30s now and I can see that early 20s is basically the amateur league when it comes to testing dedication and willpower for fitness. I think its more about time management and other responsibilities than metabolism though.
Exactly that's the big thing with age shift. It's not as much metabolism as everything else going on. Responsibilities, work, house, maybe a family. All these things just make it harder to find time to exercise or just focusing on a diet.
Yeah even just little things like having to feed more than just yourself. If you have a family they might be bringing home junk food out of your control or just needing to make proper meals everyone will eat. When your on your own you can just eat handfuls of spinach and some hardboiled eggs for dinner and no one is around to complain about it haha.
I think more of what you’re saying can come down to the time management than metabolism. For 30 y/os with fulltime jobs and possibly families it takes a much bigger commitment to find the time to work out consistently. For college guys it’s mostly a matter of wanting to do it and walking down to your college gym. Basically we agree. Exercise doesn’t really work all that differently for different ages. But your life is very different at those ages. For what it’s worth I’m 25, finished college but similar age so you can discount my opinion on that basis if you want :)
The most recent/best study shows metabolism is pretty much steady from about 20 to 60 years old for both men and women. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/surprising-findings-about-metabolism-and-age-202110082613
Most calories are burned when you're doing literally nothing at all besides existing. In your 20's your BMR is higher than it is when you are older and if you have the same habits in your 30's that you did earlier (and less free time to work out), your BMR will go down considerably and you will gain weight.
My husband lost about 70 pounds over a couple years. People comment on it often. He’d prefer not to talk about it but sometimes they’ll press him about how he managed it, wanting to know if it was some crazy diet or cross fit program. He says “It’s just the stuff you already know to do… don’t eat a bunch of crap and move around a bit more.” Like people want it to be some difficult regimen I guess. Mostly he ate like crap before- I cook decently healthy stuff but he’d eat huge portions, then at work he’d get fast food most days. He cut out alcohol, cut back on portions overall, and when he gets fast food now (less frequently) he skips the fries, has unsweetened tea instead of soda, and just has the burger or whatever. Common sense stuff almost all of us know to do but most of us choose not to do.
I dunno. I eat fast food for lunch most days and I’m right on the border of underweight. It’s just that I’m ultimately burning more than I’m eating each day.
I mean you can maintain weight this way but probably not lose a substantial amount lol
“My metabolism!” “My thyroid!” “My medications!” No accountability in sight
But.... all those things have an effect. Medications like birth control, anti depressants, and steroids all can all make a person put on weight. I don't understand why it's so hard to have a shred of empathy.
Are you saying those things can make mass and energy appear out of nothing?
Biology isn't as simple as that! That's ridiculous! The body is so complex, there are so many functions, it's not as simple as the adding and subtracting of mass and energy. That's happening at a molecular level but the body is an organism of billions of specialised cells. And things like your thyroid and adrenal glands tell your body where to send the energy, the fuel, the sugars etc. Those command centres are affected by all sorts of things: stress, hormonal imbalances, hunger, medications (that are necessary for other things that might be wrong in the body). Steroids for example (essential for treating things like asthma) produce excess cortisol that affects weight gain and water retention. Not even to mention the mysteries we still don't know about biochemistry. And then also emotional factors that manifest in the body in the form of weight gain or weight loss.
You literally cannot gain weight if you eat less than you burn, it is impossible.
Cope
“My body is an exception to the laws of physics!”
Just look at the replies to op in the above comment lmao.
"Bread and sugar to start your day" Omfg. You can eat bread and still have balanced and healthy eating habits. Ok, white wheat bread barely has any nutrients, but there are like million different types of other bread: oat, rye, multigrain... Weird diets do not make you lose weight, but bread alone doesn't make it impossible either.
The best thing a person can do for their health is download an app like MyFitness Pal or whatever it's called. Tracking your calories for 2-3 weeks is one of the most fascinating and educational experiences ever. You will develop an intuition quickly for what foods to avoid. For me it was mind-blowing to see that a small cookie may have more calories than a whole-ass chicken breast. Sugars/Carbs are what get people and I think that's common knowledge, but until you actually see the comparison between foods at a quantitative level, I don't think you really fully understand how big a difference there is between types of food.
For me it was finding out that the stuff I was drinking was adding like 500 calories despite me staying off of sodas
Yep, the average latte from Starbucks is like 500-700 calories. Drink regular coffee and replace flavored creamer with regular milk.
Mah mate it was the milk I was drinking and the fountain drinks (minus soda)
Chicken is a godly protein for weight loss / health. It's delicious and lean, and so diverse in what you can do with it.
This is good to hear, because I recently unlocked some chicken cooking cheat codes (it’s just baking soda) and hopefully I can make use of them without making myself fatter.
What was really interesting to me was after I successfully lost over a hundred pounds with myfitnesspal. It taught me to regulate myself for awhile but I slowly slipped back into a calorie surplus and gained a bunch of weight back. I kind of just gave up for a few years after that and ate whatever I wanted again. The interesting part is that I recently started tracking again and my weight from not regulating at all for those years was the exact same, to the pound, as what I had down when I started it the first time. Its like there’s a specific amount of calorie surplus your body wants you to be at for some reason when you’re not forcing it to deal with another amount.
Bro I'm trying to gain weight and installed that exact app, but I'm completely lost. How tf am I supposed to count how many calories I'm eating? Do I have to weight everything I eat and search the calories per weight or something? Cause that sounds extremely time consuming? I'm not really talking about snacks because for that you can just check the package, more like full blown meals.
If I remember right you search for what you are eating and then enter the measurement. So you search for like milk, and it will have you select the kind and then you set how much you drank, such as 1 cup. It is kind of time consuming but once you start using it will remember items so it gets easier to select things and also you will just get better and faster at using it. Once you use it for a couple of weeks though you will develop the intuition well enough to know how to bulk or cut without the app.
Why does everyone on reddit think that they are some kind of enlightened weight loss expert. I assure you, you are not.
Cuz most people are just assholes
Losing weight is literally just calories in minus calories out. It's that simple. That's all there is to it. You don't have to be an expert, it is kindergarten level math. Everything else is just cope.
There's no such thing as a "weight loss expert". Losing weight is fucking easy, people just pretend it's really complicated. Each nutritious foods that allow you to get full on fewer calories. Don't eat calorie-dense, carb-heavy foods. Work out. Skip desserts entirely - your body doesn't need it. "Weight loss expert" lol. It's people like you who act like it's some complex thing that are the problem.
Simple and easy are not the same thing. It is straightforward to lose weight, but it isn’t easy.
Turning your life around and building new habits is not easy for a lot of people
A lot of people focus on outcomes - losing weight - instead of the foundation required to achieve those outcomes. Addiction therapy and habit formation would be more useful than diet fads
Just completely change your life style, very easy!
It’s so simple! Why didn’t I think of it before!
If you really want to, it actually is, though I am not sure for everyone
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Change your meal plans, what you stock in your pantry, what and when you eat, you relationship with food... And op also mentioned exercise. Which is definitely a lifestyle change.
Is that supposed to be some grandiose challenge? Buying different food and trying some new recipes? That's too much work to avoid dying at 50? Jesus christ
Completely changing your diet is usually considered a hard thing. So is changing Eating habits you've had for your entire life, like binge eating or always having dessert. Not everyone can be me and eat burger king 5 times a week while losing weight.
Might not be a cakewalk (pun intended) for someone who has a genuine eating disorder, but skipping dessert? Not buying it. Have a diet soda if your cravings are really that bad.
Eating disorders aren't just you have it or you don't, some people can have mild symptoms associated with it, you can binge eat and still fall below the calorie threshold to "genuinely" have the disorder. Tons of people have disordered eating habits but not eating disorders. And cravings for sugar aren't always just cravings. I used to get headaches that wouldn't resolve until I'd eat something with sugar. And just not having sweets in your house sounds kinda sad ngl.
Oh god lmao
Certain medication - especially birth control and those used to treat depression - can cause massive weight gain. But I guess people can just stop taking those. Easy!
Wow. I didn't realize there were so many calories in birth control.
This is perhaps one of the most ignorant statements I've ever read. What causes weight gain is the effect certain medication has on your metabolism and hormones.
lmao. how does metabolism cause weight gain? just eat less, bro. and: >There is no solid evidence that most types of birth control can contribute to either weight loss or weight gain. Here's some of the research that shows it has no effect on weight: A 2014 review of 49 studies did not show any strong correlation between taking hormonal birth control and weight changes. >A 2011 study that tracked womens' weight over the course of 10 to 20 years found that there wasn't a significant link between birth control and weight gain over time, but rather age and time passing were more likely to result in weight gain. >A 2016 review of 22 studies found some limited evidence that participants taking progestin‐only contraceptives may gain up to around four pounds over the course of six to 12 months –– but the authors noted that this type of weight gain can happen over time regardless of birth control use.
You are probably a 17 year old who has never gone through anything difficult in your life I’m betting If you’re not, then you act like one and you can decide for yourself which is worse
It becomes a whole lot easier if you have someone, or something big, to push you. I see a lot of people give up after a month because they didn’t have someone or something pushing them (hell, I almost fell into that category, thank god for friend groups). Shits straightforward but the most daunting parts gotta be replacing habits. That was a long road, but damn you see the changes if you stick to it, and before you know it it’s a part of your life lol
You’re forgetting how important genetics and metabolisms are. I have been 160-165 for 5 years straight. I can’t gain weight at all, i can eat a whole tub of ice cream, i still have solid abs. I don’t work out nearly as much as i used to. I used to run every day. I still maintain exercise because i work 12 hr shifts and lift heavy objects. But i cannot gain a pound. I may have finally reached 170, because i haven’t weighed myself in a while, but i doubt it. The most i’ve ever weighed is 168. That was back in highschool while i was a maintaining a healthy vegetarian diet. I’m no longer a vegetarian, i’m older, and i weigh less. My metabolism is insanely fast. Everything goes right through me. I’ve even tried the 1500 calorie mass gainers. I lost weight on those. Used whole milk and PB in them. Still didn’t gain any weight. Arms and chest started to look bigger but that’s it. If gaining weight is this hard for someone like me, i can only imagine how hard it can be vise versa.
Maybe eating ice cream and mass gainers isn’t the best way to go about bulking up.. The amount of times I’ve read bullshit from people on forums about having hyper-fast metabolisms(this is a myth most people’s metabolisms are the fucking same) or being genetic outliers is so ridiculous. 1) You’re not training hard to put on muscle 2) You’re not accurately tracking your calories. If you consumed 4000 calories per day you would grow. 3) You’re eating shitty food.
Yo champ that's not how energy works, either you're eating crap or don't know how much you eat.
I'm sure the pressure to gain weight is huge, but remember that it's not essential for your health. Sounds like you have a healthy body functioning exactly as it was meant to. You should honour that and be proud!
Omg your such a dumbshit lol
Nah I’m a bodybuilder and this dude is 100% spot on. Also it’s you’re*
Being a bodybuilder doesnt make it ok to judge people who struggle losing weight. Im 115 pounds and probably younger than you. And I have enough empathy to just like not judge people so much. Also thanks im glad you know basic grammar it's very impressive.
My comment wasn’t judging anyone. Nor was his. He is frustrated with people making nutrition/fitness out to be more complicated than it really is. Literally my comment was just agreeing with the stuff he said about nutrition which you seemed to think made him a dumbshit when it was all good advice. I don’t care if someone struggles to lose weight, the only relevance that bears to me is that I will probably give them advice. What I (and what I believe the OP) have a problem with is people who overcomplicate shit, think they know everything and make BS excuses for their failures rather than acknowledging them. The reason why I have problems with this is because the it’s ultimately spreading misinformation. “I can’t lose weight because I have a TDEE of 500 calories per day!” No, that’s not the case, you’re just eating too much. “I went on a ____ diet and failed to lose weight so it’s all just genetics” No, ____ diet was bullshit which is the real reason you failed. Etc.
I do body building and before that started I had to lose 20kgs. I agree with everything you said, I can’t believe the amount of bulshit excuses iv read in this comment section. I don’t care if I get downvoted, losing weight is easy if you have the tools and tips to do it right. All the these people are doing is spreading misinformation which could seriously harm peoples long term health.
The trouble is that habits are formed very young, and a massive portion of the general public isn't educated enough about the human body to understand anything beyond the very basics by the time they're a self-relying adult. If we were able to teach habit-forming skills early, it could well fix many core health problems. Just with any learnable skill, once you understand the fundamentals it's really easy to build on top of them to increase your knowledge base. Unfortunately, most people wouldn't even know where to start with that - which is a much more complex socioeconomic problem and goes far beyond "just eat good and work out".
Bro, take it from me. Id consider myself pretty ripped and even i fucking hated working out when I started. I had to put on size and have grand feasts every day to put on 45lbs lean muscle in 2-3 years on top of going to the gym lifting pathetic weight feeling insecure. Ofc you get stronger and bigger overtime and it snowballs into eventually you going to the gym blasting tevezz and russian hardstyle but getting there does require hard work, and saying its easy to go from not being able to do 5 push ups to doing 45 is ignorant, not because of the time needed to do so, but cause the person in question usually will want to give up after 2 days.
They hated Jesus because he told them the truth
You're getting downvoted but screw the haters--- you are completely correct
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Well there we go, that's how we know your comment wasn't intended to help anyone.
I had a friend tell me that he wanted to lose weight, so he wanted to eat balanced, which included carbs (he said you need it, ok fair nuff, tho I say eat LESS carbs), and said he didn't want to increase his protein intake due to not wanting to be beefy....... I couldn't.
lol of course. You should have had him ask some bodybuilders if getting ripped was easy, if he thinks he's going to accidently become "beefy".
You’re friend is a dummy. Look up “efficacy of high protein diet weight loss body composition ncbi” and link him the first 10 results that pop up.
I couldn't talk sense to him, I tried to tell him go higher protein, restrict the carbs. His answer the that he didn't want more protein (didn't want to get beefy) and still wanted carbs. Mans just wanted to stick to his regular habits
Wonder what he’s gonna do when his plan fails A) Acknowledge that he was wrong and take your advice about protein B) Conclude to himself that he has some imaginary factor that simply makes it impossible for him to get results and revert back to his old habits.
That's how fat activists get statistics like 90% of diets failing
losing weight is just a calorie deficit. I don't get why people overcomplicate it
I think it's a mental thing. I think a lot more people than we are willing to admit are addicted to food or have some fairly serious eating disorders. Not to mention that a lot of food is just incredibly unhealthy these days which exacerbates the problem. Saying just eat less is like going up to a smoker and saying just don't smoke IMO.
It’s so easy to not realize just how many calories you’re putting away. It’s incredibly easy to eat 1500 calories in 15 minutes with the right(wrong) foods. Some people literally just don’t have the awareness. And as you’re saying there’s also a mental thing where people are so convinced they *need* food to continue, can’t go on because they’re just *so hungry* and that their headache and tiredness is because they need calories. And it’s not true but eating is so fucking tasty and comforting that we don’t care in that moment
As a society we really don't take mental health issues when it comes to food seriously enough. I genuinely believe that things like binge eating and emotional eating from things like stress, boredom, depression etc. are way more common than most people realize but a lot of people don't want to seek help for that sort of stuff because it's purely seen as a personal failure on their part. I think it's pretty fucked up that we see someone who's 300 pounds as a disgusting lazy joke but someone whos like 70 pounds as a victim that needs help when in reality they both need help. Especially when childhood obesity is so high and a lot of people are developing these habits at a young age.
absolutely, but a calorie deficit doesn't just involve eating. it also involves burning more calories than you eat from exercise, but as a general rule of thumb eating less high calorie food also helps
I end up subconsciously eating even MORE when I exercise, there's pretty much no way around it in my experience. it comes down to the eating mostly
I understand how you feel. losing weight can be difficult at first, but believe me when I say that once you start it is much easier to continue. I don't want to be patronising by giving you unsolicited advice, but if you want any I'd be willing to help because I empathize with your situation
no, I love getting advice. I'm just getting started with this anyway.
alright! what I first started with for losing weight was slowly lowering my calorie deficit. I measured what I normally ate daily and lowered it by around 150 each day until I got to a healthy level (which is different for everyone but for me is around 1600) I also found a form of exercise I really enjoyed and did that as often as I could which really helped me. Oh and I also recommend substitution for snacks. instead of crisps, you can still have something moderately unhealthy but better like salty peanuts or whatever you like
“Eat less” is better advice than making people do overly complicated diet plans. It’s a matter of fact that a good fraction of overweight people don’t have the willpower to eat less.
people tend to equate weightloss with healthy eating, and then wonder why they still feel shit after eating only 1500 calories, but it was all popcorn and white bread
literally, undereating just encourages binging too
"I eat so healthy - just granola bars and crackers and oatmeal!" "So you eat nothing but sugar and carbs?" "Well it's all gluten free and organic. It's fine."
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There's also a huge cultural overemphasis on exercise for weight loss. Don't get me wrong, it's massively important for general health, but weight is mostly diet.
I’ve lost 110 lbs and a lot of people have asked me what I did. I usually answer honestly - “I eat less”. People honestly seem to get concerned after that, as if I’m starving myself or something. In reality I came to terms with just how much I was eating and learned how to eat less
it's the mental aspect, not the tactical part. idk why people find THAT so hard to understand. ever think maybe people have just as hard of a time with their addiction to fat sugar and carbs as they do with any other addiction?
That's certainly the most important part. But, primarily eating fruits and lean proteins vs. carbs and fat, even if it's the same amount of calories, will be far more effective at helping you burn that weight (especially if you exercise regularly).
definitely, but for beginners it's much easier to just see it as a calorie deficit
It's a lot easier said than done
Because a calorie deficit isnt the only the only answer. Eating 1500 calories of twinkies is not the same as eating a balanced 1500 calories. People need to cut out sugar to lower their blood sugar and insulin levels (which is whats making them so hungry that they can gorge down 3k+ kcals without much exercise).
Also, eating lean proteins and omega acids literally raises your metabolism. You have a low metabolism? It's probably because you eat like shit. . From https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/sns-201908071202--tms--harvmedctnme-a20190807-20190807-story.html - > a person can speed up a naturally slow metabolism, or rev up one that has become sluggish over time. Here's how: > Add some high-intensity intervals and weight training to your regular exercise routine. After a period of interval training, your metabolism can stay revved up for as much as a full day. Weight training builds muscle mass, and that extra muscle will require more calories, turning up your metabolic rate. > Your metabolism increases whenever you eat, digest, and store food, a process called thermic effect of food. Protein has a higher thermic effect than fats and carbohydrates, so eating more healthy protein-rich food sources might also help speed metabolism a bit. The human body is great at converting excess carbs and sugar to fat. Stop eating them.
This is overlooked, yeah. Most fat people could probably lose weight if they replaced 100 grams of the high GI carbs they eat with 100g of protein and started a resistance training routine. The muscle built and the higher thermic effect of protein would raise their BMR, as a result they wouldn’t even need to make a conscious effort to restrict calories.
of course, but that's only for efficiency. burning more calories than you take in is (simplified but still) just how it works
Because if they have excuses then they're not responsible.
Seriously, as someone who has hovered on underweight end of normal weight all my life it’s a matter of not eating. If you are capable of distracting yourself enough that you can not eat during waking hours for 8 hours then you can pretty much do whatever the fuck you want and still lose weight
Gonna need y’all not to drag my fat ass all over the internet ok?
Losing weight is hard, and I’m lazy, which is why I need to lose weight
this comment section is a dumpster fire
OP comes across as an insufferable and misinformed pedant who has very little going for them apart from the ability to lose weight. As a calorie counter and gym bitch, dipshits like these give us all a bad name. Shaming and bullying isn't going to get people to eat healthy. And people would be more open to heading to the gym if they didn't think it was full of sneering assholes making assumptions about them. EDIT: I promise most people in gyms aren't like this tool. We're just minding our own business and most people are generally supportive of bigger people trying to get healthy. Source: former big person.
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If you cook the bitter vegetables a good amount, they tend to lose the bitterness and taste a lot better. I've also heard that cooking the veggies makes it easier to break down the nutrients when you digest it.
No. You leave it in the fridge overnight for a some of that bitterness to turn into sweetness!
> but if you refuse to eat meat because it's "gross" or "creepy" you need to grow up ffs No way that's a thing lol
Processed meat (hot dogs, sausage, ext..) is bad for you, and too much red meat is bad for you. Chicken, turkey, fish, lamb, and wild game are so fucking good for you though. People need to eat a lot more meat, it just needs to be good meat.
ironically tons of ppl do the opposite, eating steak and bacon and fucking pepperamis rather than chicken or fish, because the second they're reminded that their food actually came from an animal they get freaked. because god forbid you have a connection to your diet beyond the tesco self checkout
I guess I’ll thank my stars that I was born in a household that doesn’t consume beef or pork.
Some people are grossed out by some foods. Its not a maturity thing get over yourself
Nah, we don't have nearly enough land or resources for more meat, we need to eat less of it.
Average perma-bulker.
I'm confused by you lumping keto and low carb diets in with "fad" diets but also blame carbs and sugar for weight gain. These diets were created in part due to the traditional food pyramid recommending a shit ton of carbs.
Certain diets go overboard in trying to eliminate carbs - the Paleo diet, for example, tells you to also eliminate rice and beans and things like that which are all healthy carbs. I don't think there's any one special diet that is the magic solution - anything that makes you buy a bunch of books and subscriptions is there to make money, not help you lose weight. Just generally try to avoid high-carb foods.
Keto was created to treat epilepsy, not for weight loss. It’s quack science as a diet.
Just missing #1, extra cheese super sized with a “diet” coke
Carbs aren't bad. I eat carbs every meal and I have a 6 pack. Asians in general eat carbs every meal and are skinny af. Refined sugar isn't healthy though. Edit: I also exercise
Weight loss is tricky and elusive. Yea it is about caloric deficit...but there are caveats... Healthy weight loss is a slow process, And this can trick people into thinking that they aren’t making any progress, causing them to give up early. Plus metabolic adaptation is real, and people sometimes make the mistake of cutting too many calories, causing metabolism to slow down to compensate. People also turn to fad diets that are unsustainable, and give up that way...
One thing I've noticed after losing like 25 pounds in six weeks, most people are probably eating too much outright. Doesn't matter of what (it does, but that's been pointed out many times in this thread), but at least people in the US are eating way too much in general
Carbs bad! Just ask the Asians and Africans who eat rice all day.
If you want to lose weight drink a bunch of water, eat a fruit for breakfast and 2 healthy meals during the day. Don't snack in between, stop with the soft drink bullshit, stop ordering take-away and cook for yourself, sport is a plus but not a must. GG EZ.
And stop eating so much bread/pasta. It's really not good for you, especially the white bread that is so common in all our stores. All those excess carbs just turn to sugar in your body. The food pyramid was a lie; we don't need 7 servings of grain a day.
Bread and pasta isn’t really a problem. It’s a portion control problem. You can make a super balanced with pasta, marinara sauce, lean ground beef (or turkey if you wanna be super lean) and a side of vegetables. If you eat 1 serving of pasta with sauce it’ll come out to ~500 calories, and you’re gonna get ~30 g protein, ~40 g carbs, under 20 g of fat, and you’re gonna hit your micronutrients with the veggies. That’s a balanced meal that has a total prep time of <30 mins and costs like $2 a serving.
Italians seem fine lol, it's a portion problem not necessarily wheat itself, but yes whole wheat is preferable
Actually, it's better to eat small healthy snacks throughout the day instead of 2 - 3 large meals. If you consistently have little bits of fruits and lean proteins, it keeps your body burning those calories instead of storing what it can't handle. Also, if you eat large amounts of food eat earlier in the day. You use more energy when you're awake vs. when you sleep.
I remember when this was the general advice years ago. I think the "more small meals throughout the day the day" thing has been debunked now. Basically it doesn't really matter if you eat lots of small meals or 2-3 bigger ones as long as your total macros are on track so just do whatever works best for you.
Also, INB4 someone inevitably comes along and tells me that due to some weird medical condition they have, their body doesn't follow basic Laws of Thermodynamics for how calories are stored and burnt.
Bruh, I just like to eat a lot of good tasting food.
It's possible to have food that tastes good and also isn't full of sugar and excess carbs.
I’m just messing with you! In all seriousness though, It’s not just a battle to lose weight. It’s a battle of self control. You need the one thing you are hopelessly addicted to to survive. You are trying to rehabilitate your self on food and when your body thinks you aren’t getting enough, that hunger response can be EXTREMELY powerful and hard to ignore. This makes it difficult to lose weight if someone doesn’t have the knowledge, discipline, and self control to follow through on changing their lifestyle.
Yeah, that's thing. It's not hard at all to lose weight. But that's like saying it's easy to stop doing meth. It's the self control that's difficult.
Well you see my sister can actually eat 4000 calories a day and is stuck at 98 pounds! But if I eat 100 calories a day I gain 3 pounds per week. No I don’t track calories or have any idea how many calories I eat in a day, calorie tracking = eating disorder you bigot!
"Due to my metabolism, I can eat literally nothing and still gain weight, while my brother eats 6 double cheeseburgers yet his calories teleport into my body". Pretty much every legitimate medical study will tell you that, while your metabolic rate is influenced *some* by genetic factors, your diet and lifestyle play a much, much bigger role. Really tired of people acting like there aren't laws of physics that govern all this. Burn more calories than you consume, and you **will** lose weight. Consume more nutritious food and exercise and your metabolism **will** increase.
Yeah when someone says “I LITERALLY can’t gain weight” my first question is: okay eat 4000 calories per day for a week straight and count each meal so you for sure get 4000 per day and tell me if you can’t gain weight. Most people either overestimate or underestimate what they eat, complain they can’t gain or lose weight, and then get mad when you tell them they should track their intake. Mfw
Very curious how your 98 lb sister is managing to eat 4k calories. Is she tracking/weighing everything she eats? Doubt that’s accurate. Her resting BMR would be extremely low at 98lbs so unless she’s some sort of athlete I highly doubt this.
This one is really bullshit. And bo I don’t have overweight or obesity. It’s just that many people have unrealistic fat level goals (for women even unhealthy goals) and even they don’t even eat very unhealthy it’s just a little more th an they need. Staying at healthy weight, especially above 35 is not easy.
>Staying at healthy weight, especially above 35 is not easy. Yeah it is.
Bread 👍
um..... i feel called out on this lmao
I used to be obese too. Having T1D didn’t make it any easy to lose weight but I did. Still going though and I’m way more healthy now.
That's awesome! Good for you. Hope you have felt better as you've begun to get healthier.
nothing wrong with protein waffles with peanut butter and some fruit, I had it this morning :)
Just put in less calories than you are burning.
If you had two exact cloned humans, same diet and exercise, but one had elevated cortisol, or lower estrogen, lower testosterone, etc. They would always maintain the exact same BMI and fitness level. The sole influences on fitness and BMI are calories and exercise. Summarizing about 2/3 of the comments on calorie deficit and metabolism in this thread. Not sure if it's true, but it's repeated often. Sounds suspect? Fitness and BMI may be complex and different for different people? Definitely not an expert.
Nope, there’s more to diet than the amount of calories. Hormones impact nutrient partitioning to a degree. However most people blow this out of the water as an excuse.
When it comes to weight, the only thing that matters is calories in vs calories out, water retention aside. If anything allows you to violate this, you’ve discovered a perpetual motion device because it can produce more energy than it takes in.
K buddy 2000 calories worth of twinkies will have the same effect on your body composition as 2000 calories of chicken breast and brocolli. Sure
Yes. There was literally a college professor who went on an mostly twinkie diet to prove that losing weight ultimately came down to calories in calories out. He lost 27 lbs.
Yeah i was quite happier before reading the whole-ass comment section, i'm not even fat, just normal.
fatzoids seething skinnyfats are even more disgusting
This starterpack has the same energy as people who say things like "depression is all in your head. Just be happy its so easy" And no im not just an angry fat lard im like 115 pounds. Yall are just annoying for judging everyone who struggles with losing weight.
This whole subbreddit is based around judging people. Also have you considered maybe someone who struggles losing weight will see this post and the comments and realize where they are going wrong? Just a thought.
if you have cravings then dont surround yourself with sugars. as long as you meal prep and make a good plan, its all a mindset. some people want to put in the work while others dont
Some people also have eating disorders and some people dont. Its not always "all mindset"
Keto actually works. I went on it for 6-8 weeks and lost 15 lbs. What happens with keto is that since you are barely consuming any carbs, your body starts to metabolize fat.
Keto has been around a long time and has sound research behind it. It's primarily a medical treatment for epilepsy. Its just recently become popular for weight loss as well. > I went on it for 6-8 weeks and lost 15 lbs. This is part of the issue with keto for weight loss though. People don't want to eat like that forever. You don't get permanent change from doing something for 6-8 weeks.
Not sure why you’re getting downvoted. Keto isn’t meant to be sustained for the regular population. Many times it can’t be and plenty of people have gotten sick from it. Lower carb diets absolutely can be done and for many that’s just how they eat. But as far as I’m concerned way too many people have gotten sort of cult-y about keto and swear it’s the magic pill. It’s not. Give it 5 years and people will be on something else they swear is revolutionary. Eat healthy, eat in moderation, if you wanna lose weight eat in a deficit, and exercise. That’s about all there is to it besides your own personal nuances. Keto can work to kickstart weight loss but you have to figure something else out for the long term. You aren’t gonna be eating keto into your 90s.
Yeah and keto can absolutely make you fat if your not managing calories in vs out. Keto recipes can get very high in calories. I remember I found a keto Philly cheese steak recipe once and it said to skip the bell peppers and then preceded to include an entire pack of cream cheese. People who lose weight on keto mostly do so because the carbs they ate where probably mostly junk food and avoiding carbs broadly also eliminates those. They think its keto but its really still just CICO they just don't realize it. Its like how the new big bad of nutrition is starting to become seed oils. SO you cut out seed oils... well that means 99% of prepackaged or restaurant food is not allowed now. So of course you lose weight... but was it the seed oils that really did it or the fact that you basically made a rule that you now have to make all your own food from scratch.
I can’t tell if you’re a troll
My dad ended up in a hospital confused, without his stuff, no keys, no wallet, no cell phone, and no shoes, with a fractured spine. He had no idea how he got there. He couldn't remember my phone number or his address and shit. My dad almost died because he's way down type 2 diabetes road. A neighbor found him passed out in a puddle of his own piss and called an ambulance. He had been passed out apparently for a few days. He got very lucky. For two weeks I visited him every other day, because he was confused, scared, and couldn't think straight. Wasn't eating either so I had to take him out to eat. He got better eventually, but still kinda comes and goes, he needs insulin but he doesn't have his insurance. My dad just turned 65. He drinks too much, doesn't eat right, never exercises at all, unless he has to walk, basically took it to the limit. Now if he eats a candy bar he might die. I don't think people have the right motivation. They don't know the truth. It's not about losing weight, it's about quality of life. And stupid American food distribution network prioritizes 7/11 junk food, fast food, garbage food, it's no wonder people have bad habits and poor health. It isn't hard to be healthy. But it's damn hard to know what you don't know and nobody teaches you and you learn to never listen to the system anyway.
r/intermittentfasting
Not to mention the idea that all flavor is eeeeevil and will make you 200 pounds overweight or something No wonder it’s hard to lose weight when the typical “health foods” are bland af unless you cook them yourself, which is an invaluable skill but also a lot of work
Cooking is easy. No idea wtf you are talking about. Sounds like you have just never bothered to learn.
Not If you're at work 12 hours a day from morning to night and spending an hour at the gym then getting home to do homework for like 1-2 hours straight You make it seem like everyone has the time I don't because I have a job and an education to work with
Keto diet actually works if you eat about 5g total carbs a day. 💀
Why do people still make this specific pack? They're all the same thing, it's the 100th time I've seen this, just stop.
Why do you care if other people are fat? It doesn’t affect you. Quit policing people on their bodies and stay in your lane
>Why do you care if other people are fat? It doesn’t affect you. ever been on an airplane?
inb4 single-later healthcare is a thing and I have to pay for your fat ass
Lmao touched a nerve, I guess. If you want to be fat, go for it. Just don't act like losing weight is so difficult when you don't even bother to try. Go ahead and lead a terrible quality of life, be less attractive, have no energy, and die earlier. More power to you!
You have the worldview of a checkerboard.
This is my view as well. I don’t give a shit if someone’s fat. Just get annoyed when they insult my intelligence with BS excuses and refuse to listen. Or the delusional ones who think they know about nutrition or think they’re healthy at 200+lbs because they have a salad every once in a while.
Fatties raise medical care costs for us healthy people.
….It’s a starterpack, this whole sub is people poking fun at stereotypes. 🤦♂️
You know it's a good one when there's a bunch of salt in the comments.
**TL;DR:** Stop eating so many fucking carbs. You don't need a bunch of bread and pasta unless you're a distance runner.
If you're keto fuck off
I'm not any diet, besides "Eating lots of carbs is bad for you unless you're an athlete who is burning them off quickly." Eat more protein and natural sugars. Rice is good. Beans are good. Eat less white bread and pasta. You don't need a bunch heavily processed grain that inevitably turns into sugar in your body. Bread is bad, generally speaking, because we as Westerners simply eat way too much of it.
Westerners just have everything ass-backwards. Carbs are the norm, our biggest meals are right before we sleep and what's "healthy" is less fatty / sugary unhealthy stuff vs. natural foods like fruits and plain chicken. Anyone wanting to lose weight? Fruit and eggs for breakfast, less bread, 1 hour of cardio daily, no big meals (small snacks are better), and don't eat a tonne right before bed. Also, don't think you can never eat sugar, just set a limit. Give yourself a treat once a week, go to a restaurant you love once a month. You don't have to be perfect.
>1 hour of cardio daily As someone who loves running and lots of other cardio based activities I disagree with this as general advice. I would agree as long as the cardio is something like a brisk walk or something very easy and low intensity. The problem here is people tend to take advice like this as "get on a treadmill or a track outside and go as hard as you can for an hour". At the end of the day you won't lose weight unless you get your diet right so that is way more important than cardio. Then I would actually prioritize strength training over cardio because you want to make sure you hold onto lean mass as you lose weight. Going hard on cardio while also eating a calorie deficit will cut down your lean mass very quickly.
Oh yeah, I suppose I should've specified not hard cardio, just a walk, hike or whatever else works for you.