Numbers without which it's impossible to talk about weight loss

It's cool seeing the numbers but on a practical level I think they're a distraction. To track weight loss, you only need to measure your weight at the same time every day (e.g morning before breakfast) and use a rolling 7-day average for good measure. The number on the scale is less real than the rolling average.

I made a simple rule, but i&#x27;m not sure it will work for everyone, but I lost 77 lbs in 2022 due to a health issue and it seems to work.<p>Basically I have to be hungry from 6 pm to 9 am (and not eat), for at least a week, preferably 2 weeks. If I feel hungry for a period, i lose weight or at worst stay at current weight. Usually i lose a few pounds. Then I can have periods where I can eat more and gain a few, then I just go back to not eating as much and it goes down again. The key thing is to just feel that hunger feeling relatively often and it&#x27;s usually a good sign.<p>I get used to the hunger feeling after awhile, so it&#x27;s not that big of an issue after that.

I&#x27;ve been telling people for years how my weight can easily fluctuate 2kg over a single day. I knew it was water (we&#x27;re mostly water anyway), but didn&#x27;t know it was glycogen. I think a lot of salt increases water retention too.<p>Some people say you shouldn&#x27;t weigh yourself every day because fluctuations are disheartening. I wholeheartedly disagree. You <i>must</i> weigh yourself every day. Then you&#x27;ll be able to see the trend. If the line isn&#x27;t going where you want it to, eat less (or more).<p>Having less water makes you look learner too. This is well known by bodybuilders, models, actors, fitness influencers etc. Every actor you see with their shirt off is dehydrated. Talk about unrealistic beauty standards...

When I was 40 I went from ~16% body fat to ~9% while also gaining about 5% of my body weight in muscle. It took me 2 years during which I experimented a lot with nutrition. I also consumed every article, video, study, advice, etc that I could find. Looking back I was pretty surprised to understand that all that information did almost nothing in helping me get results.<p>Getting &quot;shredded&quot; was mostly limited by finding out what works for me. What food I can easily buy and cook. What food I tolerated eating, because after 2 years I could not stand chicken breast any more. What fit into my schedule as I could not eat a big lunch because it made me sleepy at work. A big dinner meant I would sleep poorly. A big breakfast prevented me to train in the morning. I started by drinking almost a liter of milk a day but somewhere along those 2 years I became lactose intolerant. I ended up eating a lot of fat in the form of nuts, butter, cheese and that made my cholesterol go down somehow which puzzled my doctor. And so many other things I discovered about my body.<p>I am not even talking about bullshit science in the fitness industry (which is a lot). Articles and information like the present ones, which I can find nothing wrong with, do absolutely nothing in helping lose weight. This rant was provoked by the title &quot;Numbers without which it&#x27;s impossible to talk about weight loss&quot;. I call bullshit even as I recently started another weight loss journey as I&#x27;m close to 20% BF now. And very little of what I discovered before applies as I&#x27;m older, switched lifestyles, live in a different country with completely different food, etc. But one thing I am sure of: I will not waste another moment reading stuff like this.

There is no mention of<p>- brown fat which dissipates calories.<p>- state of other mater transition trough the body (food, water etc.)<p>- procentage of fat vs muscle cells<p>You don&#x27;t need those numbers to lose fat, only a belt and knowing your carbs and micronutrients.

I think about reduction in volume rather than reduction in weight as a goal. Burning fat will reduce your volume but adding muscle will increase your weight (potentially).

Can you lose fat if you still have calories available in glycogen storage? Or do you need to first burn through the glycogen? Will only carbs work to replenish glycogen storage, or will also fat and protein?

Doing rolling 72-hour fasts I found I can lose an average of 0.25 lbs of body fat per day. If you look at the daily numbers it looks like I&#x27;m gaining and losing weight really fast, but the trend line over a month is a perfect line with 0.25 slope.<p>Instantaneous measurements of weight are worthless for understanding weight loss. A lot of people freak out when they see the scale go up on a carb heavy day thinking &quot;Oh my god I ruined everything!&quot; Keeping daily measurements in a log and reviewing it once a week makes more sense. Just write it down and forget about it. Keep to the routine and then adjust as necessary during the weekly review.<p>Edit Note: I wonder if there would be a market for a &quot;Encrypted Scale&quot; that doesn&#x27;t actually show a reading and just saves the weight to a server and gives you a report every once in a while.

I&#x27;m not fat in most (if not all) measurements, but I can see my belly fat when I sit down. I&#x27;ve read quite a few articles&#x2F;papers discussing weight loss, but it ended up helped me very little. The number provided in the articles (including this one) while important, is still too abstract to directly act upon.<p>Guess what I wanted is a list of specific food&#x2F;stuffs that I need to consume everyday in order to stay healthy and strong. Maybe some experts in the field can create an app&#x2F;webpage which allow you &quot;shop&quot; consumables with your daily calories as budget.<p>Also, as far as I understand it, calories is just one part of the game, the end goal is being healthy, not just weight loss.

Don&#x27;t give me numbers, I&#x27;ve already enough of them.<p>Give me hunger suppressing pills and I&#x27;ll give you gold in return!