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I actually completely disagree with this main idea. Everybody eventually gives up, no one has 100% steel willpower, we're all human. I would be very interested

by zavulon 16y ago

I actually completely disagree with this main idea. Everybody eventually gives up, no one has 100% steel willpower, we're all human. I would be very interested to see and update in a year or so, to see if the author has managed to keep the weight off. A much better idea is to change your diet completely, so your taste buds change and you stop craving unhealthy things. A wrote a similar article 3 years ago, and took a completely different method. I lost 40 lbs in 4 months, and has kept it off since (ok, I may have gained 5-10 lbs since the peak). Not adding a "shameless plug" since I've stopped updating this site a long time ago, but I think it's still useful: http://www.alexanderkharlamov.com/2007/07/22/how-to-lose-weight-on-losing-40-lbs-in-4-months/ http://www.alexanderkharlamov.com/2007/07/22/how-to-lose-wei...

swombat 16y ago
The first graph is from 2.5 years ago. I have regained weight only when I stopped weighing/charting. Weighing yourself once a day is not an onerous expenditure of time and energy, and I believe it achieves the goal of faking "100% steel willpower" by generating a little willpower for you every day.
- zavulon 16y ago
  For me, weighing myself has little to do with helping willpower - I still get days where I just feel like gorging on whatever's available in the fridge, willpower be damned. And I think the trick is to get yourself to a point where you don't need willpower at all - just a habit to eat healthy. But - if it works for you, that's awesome. I definitely don't want to discourage you from what you're doing if it works. It looks like you have a lot of willpower, much more than I or most people I know do, so just keep doing it.
- bena 16y ago
  Right. What looks like iron clad will over the course of a year is nothing more than the will to go one more day, every day. I've lost close to 90 pounds over the last year. Honestly, I didn't expect to be this successful. I thought that after a few months, I'd lose the motivation. But every day I tell myself, "Forget yesterday. Forget tomorrow. Get through today, that's your goal." Now some days, I didn't get through. But the next day, I'd begin all over as if it never happened. If you don't worry about willpower lapses, you will find it easier to get back to it. 100% willpower is an illusion created by having over 50% willpower along a great enough timeline.
radu_floricica 16y ago
But you're agreeing with it! By far one of the most elegant ways of solving a problem is avoiding it in the first place, which is what you are doing by attempting to change your taste in food. But it is still very much about willpower - you're not ignoring it, you're taking great pain to go around it.

by zavulon 16y ago

swombat 16y ago

The first graph is from 2.5 years ago. I have regained weight only when I stopped weighing/charting. Weighing yourself once a day is not an onerous expenditure of time and energy, and I believe it achieves the goal of faking "100% steel willpower" by generating a little willpower for you every day.

zavulon 16y ago
For me, weighing myself has little to do with helping willpower - I still get days where I just feel like gorging on whatever's available in the fridge, willpower be damned. And I think the trick is to get yourself to a point where you don't need willpower at all - just a habit to eat healthy. But - if it works for you, that's awesome. I definitely don't want to discourage you from what you're doing if it works. It looks like you have a lot of willpower, much more than I or most people I know do, so just keep doing it.
bena 16y ago
Right. What looks like iron clad will over the course of a year is nothing more than the will to go one more day, every day. I've lost close to 90 pounds over the last year. Honestly, I didn't expect to be this successful. I thought that after a few months, I'd lose the motivation. But every day I tell myself, "Forget yesterday. Forget tomorrow. Get through today, that's your goal." Now some days, I didn't get through. But the next day, I'd begin all over as if it never happened. If you don't worry about willpower lapses, you will find it easier to get back to it. 100% willpower is an illusion created by having over 50% willpower along a great enough timeline.

radu_floricica 16y ago

But you're agreeing with it! By far one of the most elegant ways of solving a problem is avoiding it in the first place, which is what you are doing by attempting to change your taste in food. But it is still very much about willpower - you're not ignoring it, you're taking great pain to go around it.