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This while article sounds like a justification for the author not losing weight. There's so much information available about losing weight, I doubt all of the

This while article sounds like a justification for the author not losing weight. There's so much information available about losing weight, I doubt all of the articles are true. That being said, eating 1500 calories a day and running for 30 minutes twice or three times a week have helped me lose 40 pounds in 3 months, and after that, I re-raised the calorie limit to 2000-2500 a day. There's not much science involved, eat the right stuff and work out.

sxg 10y ago
It's more about eating less stuff like you said about calorie cutting than it is about eating the right stuff (although that's important too).
- Davidp00 10y ago
  If we're strictly talking about weight loss then eating the right stuff is not important at all. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/ http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.profes...
  - JoeAltmaier 10y ago
    ...less important if the rate of consuming calories can be otherwise adjusted up above the input rate.
  - sxg 10y ago
    Yeah, I'd agree if we're just talking about weight loss. However, it's important to make sure that you get all the vitamins and micronutrients you need in your diet as well to be healthy. Fortunately, it's not easy to become deficient in most of these micronutrients.
  - parenthephobia 10y ago
    Eating the right stuff is at least a little important. Protein and unrefined carbohydrates are more effective at making us feel full than fat and refined carbohydrates. Put simply, a 300 calorie cookie is less filling than a 300 calorie lean steak, so you're more likely to want to eat more after the cookie than after the steak. http://www.eufic.org/article/en/artid/what-makes-us-feel-full/ http://www.eufic.org/article/en/artid/what-makes-us-feel-ful... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16002791 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16002791
kristianc 10y ago
A lot of the article seems to be drawn from her personal testimony - even goes as far to admit that scientific evidence for what she's saying is quite thin on the ground. That testimony is quite shaky. At one point in the article she talks about how he was eating 800 calories a day, and mysteriously put the weight back on. Five paragraphs later she talks a separate incidence when he again managed to lose weight, but put the weight on again after binge eating at 3am, describing this as a 'natural response.' Also, much much harder for women to lose weight than men.
kybernetyk 10y ago
The same for me. Plain simple calorie restriction (calorie counting) did the trick for me. Of course the caveat is that once you reached your weight you want to keep you can't start eating like you did before your diet. You still have to keep counting your calories. On the practical side I just banned all sugars from my diet and heavily restricted my carb intake. (No Keto though). Not eating bread alone saved me 600 kcal a day.
- dsego 10y ago
  I have reached the same conclusion. It's easy to overeat if you don't keep count of your daily calorie intake. When I keep track, I easily lose 2-3 kg each month. It's the snacks that usually fool me, you don't feel full, but the calories add up.
lolo_ 10y ago
Ah yes! The sanctimonious blame game. So very common with this problem. I do have to ask though, did you read the article at all? 'For example, men with severe obesity have only one chance in 1,290 of reaching the normal weight range within a year; severely obese women have one chance in 677. A vast majority of those who beat the odds are likely to end up gaining the weight back over the next five years. In private, even the diet industry agrees that weight loss is rarely sustained. A report for members of the industry stated: “In 2002, 231 million Europeans attempted some form of diet. Of these only 1 percent will achieve permanent weight loss.”' I'm pretty certain studies generally conclude that people who lose weight are _overwhelmingly_ likely to regain it. Of course you can play the blame/shame game with them and say they're all just lazy, but you're really starting to walk away from the facts and towards the all-too-common ideology that surrounds weight. Also: 'After several months of eating fewer than 800 calories a day and spending an hour at the gym every morning, I hadn’t lost another ounce.' So the 'not much science involved' calorie balance really REALLY should have resulted in a loss at this rate, yet it didn't - how do you explain that? I mean that literally entirely contradicts your claim. I'm overweight. I take full responsibility for my situation and make no excuses. But losing weight is surprisingly, intensely difficult and your body fights you every damn inch of the way and this kind of blaming, sanctimonious 'it's simple' shite you hear so often does NOT fit reality. Congratulations on your loss, but don't assume you'll sustain it. I lost about the same amount of weight as you with the same calorie limit as you, and despite all this will likely try again and have good results at least initially. But I think longer term you have to think more carefully about how the hell you'll sustain it, it really _isn't_ simple.
- parfe 10y ago
  >'After several months of eating fewer than 800 calories a day and spending an hour at the gym every morning, I hadn’t lost another ounce.' >So the 'not much science involved' calorie balance really REALLY should have resulted in a loss at this rate, yet it didn't - how do you explain that? I mean that literally entirely contradicts your claim. Explanation is simple: The author either lied to herself or she lied to us. Her diet and workout plan did not violate the laws of physics, so she's wrong.

sxg 10y ago

It's more about eating less stuff like you said about calorie cutting than it is about eating the right stuff (although that's important too).

Davidp00 10y ago
If we're strictly talking about weight loss then eating the right stuff is not important at all. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/ http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.profes...
- JoeAltmaier 10y ago
  ...less important if the rate of consuming calories can be otherwise adjusted up above the input rate.
- sxg 10y ago
  Yeah, I'd agree if we're just talking about weight loss. However, it's important to make sure that you get all the vitamins and micronutrients you need in your diet as well to be healthy. Fortunately, it's not easy to become deficient in most of these micronutrients.
- parenthephobia 10y ago
  Eating the right stuff is at least a little important. Protein and unrefined carbohydrates are more effective at making us feel full than fat and refined carbohydrates. Put simply, a 300 calorie cookie is less filling than a 300 calorie lean steak, so you're more likely to want to eat more after the cookie than after the steak. http://www.eufic.org/article/en/artid/what-makes-us-feel-full/ http://www.eufic.org/article/en/artid/what-makes-us-feel-ful... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16002791 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16002791

kristianc 10y ago

A lot of the article seems to be drawn from her personal testimony - even goes as far to admit that scientific evidence for what she's saying is quite thin on the ground. That testimony is quite shaky. At one point in the article she talks about how he was eating 800 calories a day, and mysteriously put the weight back on. Five paragraphs later she talks a separate incidence when he again managed to lose weight, but put the weight on again after binge eating at 3am, describing this as a 'natural response.' Also, much much harder for women to lose weight than men.

kybernetyk 10y ago

The same for me. Plain simple calorie restriction (calorie counting) did the trick for me. Of course the caveat is that once you reached your weight you want to keep you can't start eating like you did before your diet. You still have to keep counting your calories. On the practical side I just banned all sugars from my diet and heavily restricted my carb intake. (No Keto though). Not eating bread alone saved me 600 kcal a day.

dsego 10y ago
I have reached the same conclusion. It's easy to overeat if you don't keep count of your daily calorie intake. When I keep track, I easily lose 2-3 kg each month. It's the snacks that usually fool me, you don't feel full, but the calories add up.

lolo_ 10y ago

Ah yes! The sanctimonious blame game. So very common with this problem. I do have to ask though, did you read the article at all? 'For example, men with severe obesity have only one chance in 1,290 of reaching the normal weight range within a year; severely obese women have one chance in 677. A vast majority of those who beat the odds are likely to end up gaining the weight back over the next five years. In private, even the diet industry agrees that weight loss is rarely sustained. A report for members of the industry stated: “In 2002, 231 million Europeans attempted some form of diet. Of these only 1 percent will achieve permanent weight loss.”' I'm pretty certain studies generally conclude that people who lose weight are _overwhelmingly_ likely to regain it. Of course you can play the blame/shame game with them and say they're all just lazy, but you're really starting to walk away from the facts and towards the all-too-common ideology that surrounds weight. Also: 'After several months of eating fewer than 800 calories a day and spending an hour at the gym every morning, I hadn’t lost another ounce.' So the 'not much science involved' calorie balance really REALLY should have resulted in a loss at this rate, yet it didn't - how do you explain that? I mean that literally entirely contradicts your claim. I'm overweight. I take full responsibility for my situation and make no excuses. But losing weight is surprisingly, intensely difficult and your body fights you every damn inch of the way and this kind of blaming, sanctimonious 'it's simple' shite you hear so often does NOT fit reality. Congratulations on your loss, but don't assume you'll sustain it. I lost about the same amount of weight as you with the same calorie limit as you, and despite all this will likely try again and have good results at least initially. But I think longer term you have to think more carefully about how the hell you'll sustain it, it really _isn't_ simple.

parfe 10y ago
>'After several months of eating fewer than 800 calories a day and spending an hour at the gym every morning, I hadn’t lost another ounce.' >So the 'not much science involved' calorie balance really REALLY should have resulted in a loss at this rate, yet it didn't - how do you explain that? I mean that literally entirely contradicts your claim. Explanation is simple: The author either lied to herself or she lied to us. Her diet and workout plan did not violate the laws of physics, so she's wrong.