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I've been on keto (carb restriction) diet (lifestyle?). Just some thoughts learned from the experience: it is incredibly easy to lose weight on carb restriction

I've been on keto (carb restriction) diet (lifestyle?). Just some thoughts learned from the experience: it is incredibly easy to lose weight on carb restriction since hunger goes away and relationship with food changes. I still like to eat but it's become more a number game. I eat once a day and structure my meal to hit my macros. Just figure out how many calories and protein / fat ratio and I can usually hit close to it with 1 meal and top up calories with butter coffee. Also, I can instantly do a 1-day fast. It doesn't bother me at all. Every few days I stretch my intermittent fast to proper "just coffee and water today" fast. It's very refreshing. Calorie restriction on carbohydrate heavy diet sounds like hell. Food cravings. Starvation. Fasting on the other hand is a different story. Zen.

wutbrodo 9y ago
Yea, the shift in your eating habits is really kind of astounding. I'm not even that close to keto levels of carb intake[1], but I've been progressively minimizing any processed carbs since college (and I'm lucky enough to have been raised eating fairly healthy, so my baseline was decent). At this point, there are certain foods that all my friends feel are impossible not to crave and give into occasionally, that I simply just don't enjoy. One of the biggest examples is fat+grain in its various forms: pizza, grilled cheese, many pastas, funnel cakes, etc etc etc. Don't get me wrong: I'm not completely incapable of enjoying these categories of food. It just needs to actually be well-made and have some flavor: by contrast, most of the people I know enjoy the wireheading effect of this combo per se. To me, this seems like the difference between eating a nice dessert and eating a bowl of straight white sugar. This is something I think about a lot: there's so many unhealthy food items that I find pretty gross at this point that most of my well-educated, high-income social circles have resigned themselves to being a completely unavoidable flaw in the human brain[2]. It's kind of eerie to think about; My diet isn't even amazingly healthy, and I've already found myself brushing up against the "eccentric abstemiousness" that pg mentions in his essay on addiction. [1] every time I lift weights, I crave carbs too much to drop them entirely: most of my carbohydrates come from beans, pulses, and certain green veggies. [2] IMHO, this is the source of the popular-on-HN sentiment that each and every one of us are hopelessly devoid of agency when it comes to resisting the power of corporations to exploit the way our brains' taste centers work. The theory isn't implausible to me, but my experience indicates that you really don't need superhuman self-control to change your diet: it just takes time and patience.
deleted 9y ago
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wutbrodo 9y ago

Yea, the shift in your eating habits is really kind of astounding. I'm not even that close to keto levels of carb intake[1], but I've been progressively minimizing any processed carbs since college (and I'm lucky enough to have been raised eating fairly healthy, so my baseline was decent). At this point, there are certain foods that all my friends feel are impossible not to crave and give into occasionally, that I simply just don't enjoy. One of the biggest examples is fat+grain in its various forms: pizza, grilled cheese, many pastas, funnel cakes, etc etc etc. Don't get me wrong: I'm not completely incapable of enjoying these categories of food. It just needs to actually be well-made and have some flavor: by contrast, most of the people I know enjoy the wireheading effect of this combo per se. To me, this seems like the difference between eating a nice dessert and eating a bowl of straight white sugar. This is something I think about a lot: there's so many unhealthy food items that I find pretty gross at this point that most of my well-educated, high-income social circles have resigned themselves to being a completely unavoidable flaw in the human brain[2]. It's kind of eerie to think about; My diet isn't even amazingly healthy, and I've already found myself brushing up against the "eccentric abstemiousness" that pg mentions in his essay on addiction. [1] every time I lift weights, I crave carbs too much to drop them entirely: most of my carbohydrates come from beans, pulses, and certain green veggies. [2] IMHO, this is the source of the popular-on-HN sentiment that each and every one of us are hopelessly devoid of agency when it comes to resisting the power of corporations to exploit the way our brains' taste centers work. The theory isn't implausible to me, but my experience indicates that you really don't need superhuman self-control to change your diet: it just takes time and patience.

deleted 9y ago

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