The weight loss is not really what matters.
anybody can lose weight.
with a little education you can do it.
the problem is doing it in a sustainable way and to actually keep it off.<p>the hardest part about weight loss is keeping it off.
you have limited will power and unless you are willing to change the way you live your efforts are in vain. Sure it may make you feel good about yourself and your journey but it's doomed to fail.<p>i'm going to repeat this: if you are not willing to adjust your lifestyle and consistently make the better choices when it comes to diet you will fail.<p>also, weight loss in 90% kitchen, 10% gym. Do go to the gym, but if you are eating unhealthy it's not going to matter.<p>LE: while we're on this subject. If there is one thing you can do today that will have a positive impact on you for the rest of your life is to stop eating sugar and refined carbs. If you only do one change to how you eat and you do this, in the long run, you'll be most successful than 95% of "dieters". Also keep in mind that this is a marathon, not a sprint.
A couple of years ago I found myself weighing 250lbs. Basically morbidly obese.<p>I decided to change that. I went through all the food I bought during the week and decided to do some culling.<p>I removed anything with sugar and replaced it with Stevia.
Removed the soft drinks, alcohol, and carbs.<p>I follow this diet 6 days a week. One day a week, I indulge myself: a pizza or burrito or have a few beers.<p>I also go to the gym 5 times a week. Run 5k in 25 minutes plus one hour of weight lifting. Nothing to intense mind you.<p>I have lost nearly 80lbs with the last 24 months.
The trick is to do it slow and steady.<p>I always cringe when I read about the latest fad diet: Lose 5 lbs in one week or some crap like that!<p>In the end, it takes time and will to achieve results but once you get into a routine, if very easy to keep going.<p>During my holidays, I usually drink, smoke and eat whatever I want but as soon as I get back home, I go back to my routine.<p>Some people think that this is boring but honestly, unless you are an athlete competing at a high level, you don't need to eat carbs every day.<p>This is just my experience. Results may vary.
<i>Amphetamines were popularly used to suppress appetite in the mid-20th century, but addiction and abuse proved disastrous.</i><p>He glosses over amphetamines. They are <i>highly</i> effective at weight loss. So much so that ADHD patients have the stereotypical "Adderall skinniness" after 1-2 years of use. Addiction is a problem with stimulants, but psychiatrist routinely assess for addiction in the ADHD population. Why not prescribe Adderall for weight loss and similarly monitor those patients?<p>Which is better? A BMI of 40+ or a BMI of 25 and taking a daily stimulant?<p>The FDA agrees with the latter in at least one case. In 2015, the FDA approved the amphetamine lisdexamfetamine (brand name Vyvanse) for the treatment of binge-eating disorder.
I had read somewhere that after about 45 minutes of cardio your body will start using it's fat stores, and continue burning fat for 6 to 8 hours afterwards. So when I found myself overweight I started doing long trail runs or bike rides, about 2 hours long, 3 times a week. Insomuch as I looked forward to doing the exercise, losing 3-5 pounds a week was nearly effortless. My appetite actually goes down during these periods because I'm burning my fat stores and my body isn't demanding that I replace those calories, and it's doing it for hours after I've stopped.<p>I've had people tell me that getting exercise is not a good way to lose weight, but my experience tells me that if you're doing the right kind of exercise, then, yes it a good way. Maybe there's just no reasonable expectation that most people will do enough cardio at a high enough level to activate fat burning.
To me, it would seem that there's a couple things that aren't considered in most of these studies. A lot of them have a lot of controls in place for the starting size/weight range of the individuals. Given this, and the change in hormone (particularly insulin) response it's not always the same advice depending on how overweight you are, how much you are showing insulin resistance or elevated/deflated insulin response.<p>I think that resting insulin levels should be part of annual exams for everyone. It's much easier to explain, hey you're heading towards diabetes clinically when people still feel relatively well and healthy.<p>My own advice to younger people, and to those who aren't very overweight is to limit meals to 2-3 a day, don't snack between meals, and don't drink anything sweetened or containing calories during the day outside of meal time. Limit sugars to around 20-30g/day, and if having more, limit it to a single treat/dessert every other week.<p>If you're more overweight, or "pre-diabetic", then I suggest reducing total carbs to 100g/day, and limiting to 1-2 meals a day.<p>If you're obese/diabetic, omad (one meal a day) and ketogenic macros.<p>If you're on higher doses of insulin, add a 3-7 day fast once a month. And a 48hr fast at least once a week.<p>The worse off you are starting the harder it is... fortunately, you can work your way up the scale/advice above as you reach closer to an ideal weight.<p>After you get used to not snacking and reducing sugar/sweetened things between meals, it gets easier. The first week or two can be grueling and if you're a social eater, it can be very hard too.
There has been quite a lot of new, exciting and actually useful science in recent years about how to have a healthy body, but I think most people only look at calories. Some may look at fat/carbs. And some may also look into excercise as well. But in order to have a healthy body long term it seams you need to look into all of that, and sleep quality, and mindfullness/stress control.<p>That may sound like a lot, but each piece helps you out a little to keep the other pieces in check. Having a full night of sleep keeps your impulses in check. Excercise helps you sleep, keep muscle mass and fat at desirable levels. Eating healthy makes sleep easier etc. And they reinforce each other.<p>So keeping yourself in this healthy steady state is actually quite easy, as long as you take a holistic apriach and not over specialize in each area.<p>This is a hunch of mine though I havent really found any studies that take all of those things into account, just the specific interactions between those things.
Interesting review (that first graph in particular is definitely non-obvious to me), but under the diet section I think it understates the current body of research regarding low-carb/keto diets - some studies have begun to show energy expenditure[1] and insulin[2] benefits that uniquely exist with low-carb. I think we'll find out soon enough that a lower-carb approach, given the current American diet, does definitively perform better than other dieting approaches on average.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k4583" rel="nofollow">https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k4583</a><p>[2] <a href="http://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/718265/effect-low-carbohydrate-diet-appetite-blood-glucose-levels-insulin-resistance" rel="nofollow">http://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/718265/effect-low-car...</a>
I feel like the studies of specialty diets bring misleading conclusions, because they always count calories for both sides.<p>If you’re on a calorie controlled diet, then calories in calories out holds. But most speciality diets (I’m on something pretty similar to slow carb) are targeting adherence, a factor that’s removed if you’re only measuring calories in and calories out.<p>Without white carbs I find it much much easier to reduce my calorific intake. To compare my diet with any other — if you’re enforcing the same number of calories — is kind of pointless, as I specifically don’t want to count calories, nor do I want to feel hungry.
I have a friend who I watched try a bunch of diet systems. Pills from amazon that she researched. Trying to not eat as much. Calorie counting. More expensive pills. Doing one of those "we send you all your meals" programs. Nothing worked or was even close. Maybe she'd lose 5 pounds and then immediately gain it back.<p>Finally she went to a clinic. The Dr. gave her a prescription to phentermine and she had to show up every week for evaluation. It worked great, the pounds melted off her, and she has kept it off. She lost something like 35 lbs in a few months (from 160). It basically made her not want to eat, her daily calorie count was stupid low, but it never really affected her energy levels - she didn't have any health issues.<p>The doctor said her body would get used to the drug in about 3 months and it would be less effective, and that was true. So you can't really stay on it continuously, I guess..
From personal experience * with weight loss, diet is good for short terms but will not work in long terms.<p>I have tried limiting calories, intermittent fasting, and keto. The only thing worked long term was loving exercise and setting challenges (cycling 20 miles a day, running 10k .. etc). Exercise will allow me to eat the food I like (within limits) and not caring if I will gain some weight as I will lose it potentially with exercise.<p>* I lost 20% of my body weight in 8 months doing strictly 1500 calories a day for 8 months with moderate exercise then gained 10% of it back and since then I will lose/gain 5% every now and then.
Is there any major weight loss system that looks at genetics?<p>According to this article there are a few genes which will alter your success with either <i>any</i> excercise cersus <i>only high intensity</i> exercise, and low carb versus low fat being a better weight loss diet.<p><a href="https://rockstarresearch.com/these-5-genes-predict-what-kind-of-diet-and-exercise-is-best-for-your-body-2/" rel="nofollow">https://rockstarresearch.com/these-5-genes-predict-what-kind...</a>
My anecdote: I lose weight very easily by CICO. Over the course of of a few months in college I ate a very strict diet of x calories. At the time it was something like 1100/day as a ~200lb 21 year old. Supposedly dangerous, but a lot of things are. Anyway, by keeping an excel sheet of the exact calories I ate every day, minus my calculated metabolic rate, I knew exactly what %/lb I lost per day/week. I kept such good track that by measuring my weight every day I was able to reverse calculate my metabolic rate by the daily weight loss (it was very close to online calculators so I wouldn't bother going out of your way to try it).<p>The most important thing for me is seeing it as a game. Being able to see daily results even if they are fractions of pounds a day or week. Knowing exactly what I'm aiming for at the end of the week and how I'm getting there.<p>The most difficult party is meticulously counting calories and ratios when making things. A kitchen scale is essential.<p>Anyway I was 50 lbs lighter when I quit. It has come back over the course of 6 or 7 years but I'm a pig and I will just lose it again when the time comes.
I feel like this article neglects the most important thing, which is sustainability.<p>I've recently come across the idea of fasting for weight loss. Turns out most people can safely fast (eat nothing, only drink water that is) for many days, sometimes as long as 40 days if they are overweight. Switching to a diet of eating minimally processed food afterwards - which is what we're used to from an evolutionary standpoint - can apparently be quite sustainable.<p>I'm young and thankfully don't have weight problems, but if I had I think I'd give it a shot.
While we are discussing diets, anybody has a good replacement for snacks? Few years ago I realized I am really prone to stress-eating.<p>If I am not stressed, I can go about my day, eating 2 big meals a day (and a small breakfast), and even slowly loose wight.<p>But if I am under pressure I can eat another large meal worth of snacks. And I really don't like it, because then I am gaining weight really fast :-/ Anybody in similar situation? What helped you there?
Over a decade ago I DIY'd going from 225 to ~165 and have kept it off.<p>The main success factor in my opinion was becoming single and staying single, as well as restructuring my life in general, especially how/who I socialize with.<p>It's pretty easy to do what's right for you when you go solo.<p>The process isn't really different than a drug addict trying to go clean and avoid relapse. It's all about the friends and environment, you have to change it all.
What I'd like to know is if there are any studies into whether the frequency with which a person weighs themself can have an effect on weight loss? The theory being the quicker feedback would lead to quicker results by motivating more change and making it easier for the person to stay motivated and correlate changes in lifestyle with weight loss.
They seem to have focussed on Diets but neglected <i>diet</i>.<p>As in rather than going on a Diet, adopting a different diet, a new habit if you will.<p>A Diet is a New Years resolution, a diet is for life.<p>The article says 75% of Americans are overweight. Therefore 25% aren't. What are they doing right? I doubt they're all having liposuction.
Everyone has their own thing that works. Personally I calorie counted and lost 90lbs (250 to 160). I think the hardest part is keeping it off, especially if something is causing you to eat more than you should be in the first place or if you use it as a coping mechanism.
As somebody who went from 240 to 180 lbs (I'm about 6 5" tall btw) and stayed there for long, the hard thing to cope with is homecooking. Once i had kids I had no more time for cooking, and hurried pasta/pizza dishes just drive me fat.
Under Medications he writes “Unfortunately, none of the drugs have generics yet, so they cost between $200-300 per month.”
...and they are not too effective.
...and amphetamine is illegal and addicting<p>So: read more studies and discover DNP. A molecule that once was. Safer than many meds (of course unless you are an idiot and overdose). More effective than anything on Earth.
But one that will never come back because guess what, it can’t be patented.
So happy research if interested. Just keep in mind there is plenty of misinformation (even on Wikipedia) that doesn’t have any ground in scientific trials.
It is very simple. There are 8000 calories in 1kg of fat. If you want to lose 10 kg you'll need to burn 80,000 calories through deficit, either through diet or exercise.<p>Personally I find it easy to live on a strict diet and limiting alcohol intake to once every few weeks
The problem with this meta analysis is that it doesn't really account for the motivational factor related to money and other things.<p>Moreover, that people with more weight to lose might likely opt for the more major programs.<p>When your doctor says "You now have diabetes, and you're going to die young unless you get your weight under control" ... well, that might motivated people.<p>As opposed to someone who just wants to lose 10 lbs and is otherwise fairly healthy.
You ever read about other people's experiences and it seems utterly alien to you? SSC had a post sort of on this theme[0]. I just don't understand how people can fail to lose 5% bf. Over 12 months, even! Just eat a bit less. 100kcal per day is enough to lose 5 kilos in 12 months, how hard can it be to eat 100kcal less than normally? It's literally one slice of cheese.<p>I have regular cut periods where I lose more than 5% in a matter of weeks and it's the most trivial thing in the world. What are these people doing?!?<p>[0] <a href="https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/03/17/what-universal-human-experiences-are-you-missing-without-realizing-it/" rel="nofollow">https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/03/17/what-universal-human-e...</a>
ALL DIETS WORK IN THE SHORT TERM... The problem is keeping it off.<p>Please, please, please read the Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Obesity-Code-Unlocking-Secrets-Weight-ebook/dp/B01C6D0LCK" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Obesity-Code-Unlocking-Secrets-Weight...</a><p>He provides all the science behind the current obesity epidemic, backed up with studies done on humans.<p>Obesity is a hormonal problem... Insulin makes us fat.<p>Current fads suggest eating ALL THE TIME.<p>This puts people in a state of high insulin all day, everyday. This is bad.<p>Intermittent fasting based around a common sense diet (limit sugars and starchy food to special occasions) will lower insulin levels, and cause the body to burn fat instead of insulin.<p>The keys is not what to eat, but when to eat and how often... and drink Apple Cider Vinegar. :P