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Really great data! Thank you for sharing. The hard part for me is mindset and willpower. Unfortunately, knowing the physics* behind weight loss doesn't make it

Really great data! Thank you for sharing. The hard part for me is mindset and willpower. Unfortunately, knowing the physics* behind weight loss doesn't make it any easier, and perhaps might make it more stressful. Why can't I do this simple thing that logically is as complex as 2+2. Our minds have their own prerogatives. I wonder then what did you tell yourself? How many times did you have a bad day? What was your mood like throughout? I'd love to know so much more about the psychology. Great article though and thanks again for sharing! * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuIlsN32WaE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuIlsN32WaE

quakenul 8y ago
I think daily tracking in combination with a long term goal is key here, because it allows you some wiggle room when it comes to progress while having a strong rubber band effect (that gets stronger the more you sway) to get you back on track.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
Having lost and kept off half my body weight, yeah, the math is really, really, really stupidly easy part of weight loss. I envy people who don't know what it is like to feel compelled to gorge themselves. It's an unstoppable force sometimes. You'd be amazed at what your mind will do to make you ingest more calories. And then you get on the internet and, in addition to all the "it's really simple, just eat fewer calories" idiots, there's a thousand know-it-all fucks trying to tell you that if you just follow their fad diet you'll never feel hungry again and your dick will grow three sizes and you'll win the lottery.
- bena 8y ago
  The thing I've heard is that "weight loss is simple, not easy".
  - bonesss 8y ago
    Kinda like "avoiding technical debt" :) Easy to prescribe, tricky to implement judging from the state of the world.
- lifeisstillgood 8y ago
  This There is a part of my brain that, usually around 1030 at night, says, right eat everything in the immediate vicinity because it might vanish / get eaten by sabre-tooth tigers, just be taken away from you. It's so deeply wired in me i actually resent (no deeply hate) the food industries that take advantage of my biology. I think the only hope for health care costs to be brought back to earth is to treat most foods like we treat alcohol or tobacco - chocolate bars that cost the same as a bottle of whiskey, sugar eating areas away from other parts of restaurants, cities that revolve around walking not driving, It's wholesale chnage - and no please don't throw the nanny state argument at me - look at the Libertarian party (Their presidential candidate suggested it would be a good idea to have a driving license ... got crucified) We live in a nanny state and most people don't think it's sane to leave
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
    That's generally how I am. I can't be around food because as soon as I know it is there a part of my mind spends all its time thinking about it. I'll eventually cave and eat it. All of it. People sometimes say things like "no one can eat all that X" and I can tell you from personal experience they are almost always wrong. Even keeping just enough food in my house for a week's worth of meals (I only eat one, lunch) only works in combination with an appetite suppressant, otherwise I'll find excuses to bake bread or elaborate confections or something. And attending any social function where food might be present is extremely dangerous and to be avoided if at all possible.
    - bscphil 8y ago
      > I'll eventually cave and eat it. All of it. People sometimes say things like "no one can eat all that X" and I can tell you from personal experience they are almost always wrong. 100% true for me as well. If it's there I can and will eat it, sometimes past the point of feeling sick. "You ate that whole pint of ice cream in one sitting??" No, you don't know about the other pint of ice cream that I ate a few hours ago and didn't say anything about because of guilt.
    - bonesss 8y ago
jsty 8y ago
In my experience, one of the easiest ways is to make the process enjoyable. Try and find some sort of exercise you enjoy, or let yourself listen to your favourite podcasts / music whilst you're exercising. At the end of the day, if you're hating every minute of it, there's very little likelihood you'll keep with your programme. So do whatever you need to do in order that you enjoy yourself whilst doing it, and results will follow :)
- pottspotts 8y ago
  I like this idea. I have also been bad about picking podcasts that I like, though. I think laziness and procrastination might be a huge factor for me. :-?
  - masklinn 8y ago
    Note that TFA did not exercise (much), instead they used numbers tracking as motivators, think RPG min/maxing. It also works great with laziness and procrastination because all it requires is tracking and optimising a counter or two.
  - jsty 8y ago
    If you're struggling to start, there's a couple of things that might help. 1 - Arrange a regular workout with friends / a personal trainer. Once you're in the habit of exercising regularly, it gets much easier. And putting it off becomes harder thanks to someone else expecting you to turn up. 2 - Take something you really like (food, movies, etc.) and commit to yourself that you'll only do that thing after you've exercised to make it more appealing.
  - time0ut 8y ago
    My approach is that I can only watch an episode of a show if I spend the first 30 minutes of it on my stationary bike. (I am currently following Westworld Season 2 and The Expanse Season 3.) Tying my motivation to do cardio to my motivation to see what happens next has worked well for me. Getting motivated to lift 2x a week is another issue...
dahart 8y ago
> The hard part for me is mindset and willpower. Our minds have their own prerogatives. Exactly right. Losing weight by counting calories is an almost entirely mental activity, not physical. We have a physiology that wants food and abhors not eating enough. > I wonder then what did you tell yourself? Like the author, I discovered counting calories a couple of years ago, after trying and failing to lose weight through exercise for 20 years. I do have some mental tricks that worked for me. Number one: the reason I got overweight is because I’m mis-calibrated. When I feel full, it’s because I already ate too much. What I need to do is re-calibrate to understand what “enough” is. By assigning a negative judgement to feeling full, and seeking the feeling of enough, it helps remove the idea that I just need willpower to overcome any hunger. A little bit of hunger (but not a lot) is a good thing, so I want to stay there. Number two: I set my calorie budget to my future weight, not my current weight with minus a thousand. This is a “set it and forget it” plan. I want to calibrate my normal eating for the rest of my life, not diet for a month or two and then regress. I also don’t want to make adjustments when I’m done, I want to act like I’m already done. If I want to be 180lbs, and I should be eating 2k calories when I’m 180lbs, then I just start doing that and my weight will trend toward 180lbs. This takes longer than having a larger deficit, but mentally I don’t need to care how long it takes. I spent decades overweight despite trying, a couple extra months losing weight more slowly is nothing, it’s way ahead of where I was before. Third, I also save some budget in my day for a treat at the end of the day. It leaves me just a tiny bit hungrier, but then when I get my treat it feels like I’m splurging. Fourth, I still exercise. To lose weight fast I don’t count my exercise as calories burned. In maintenance mode, I use my exercise as a way to earn more calories. Now I’m actually going to the gym not to lose weight, but so I can eat more! I had days where I went over, but I didn’t really have “bad” days or bad moods, it was never severe. It was more like go to a party when I’m not counting, and whoops, I’m 400 calories over my budget. The hardest part about counting calories is the first few days. That’s when hunger is worst. After the first week, my body adjusts and my appetite goes down.
toyg 8y ago
Yep, it’s all in the mind. I had my “come to Jesus” moment about 3 months ago, at the green age of 39. I’ve since lost 10kg (1.5st or 22lb) and counting. I am never hungry, I removed all starches and cheese from my diet and the stomach is now silent 100% of the time. I still have the occasional “fuck it, the world hates me, I want a pizza so bad”, but I learnt to manage it: when I feel angry or bored (my triggers), I get my mind busy with something else, anything really (from sudoku to programming, going for a walk with a podcast, or painting miniatures). After a few minutes the impulse is gone. I cheat once or twice a day, in small quantities and in a controlled fashion: knowing the worst time is right after a cheat, I make sure to be very busy and plan follow-up snacks with nuts, to slowly ease off the starch-induced crave. Another trick is to metabolise the concept that the corporate world tries really really hard to sell you food; when you really start to see that it’s all a way to screw you out of your money, it gets easier to say “no thanks”.
- toyg 8y ago
  *cheat once or twice a week, derp.
proussea 8y ago
I speak about what worked for myself about the psychological part (I lost 20kg in 2 years). First it was to not enter in a willpower fight. I did accept that I will fail, and I did fail many times (sorry did not count, often in the beginning and I was still failing from time to time until the end). But every time i failed, instead of giving up i was telling to myself "ok you failed, but it worked for X days, you trained your body to eat less, let's start again, it will be more easy this time." And it was true. With time your body require less food to fill "full" even when you fail. Also a lot of ppl here are talking about fasting. I'm not sure about it at all. Your brain may try to prevent the next "fasting time" and may try to trick you to eat more. I would advise to eat at very regular times so your brain "knows" when you will eat (for me: 6:00/12:00/19:00 +/-30mins). Take time to eat, move in another place, etc ... so you appreciate it more. I liked the cheat days principle because it gives you short term goals, and it helps to keep some pleasure eating food. It also helps to not bring your diet with you when you go to lunch with friends/family. I also noticed that with time I was cheating less during these days. Preparing food for myself also saved money, sometimes it helped for motivation.
- bonesss 8y ago
  > I'm not sure [fasting] at all. Your brain may try to prevent the next "fasting time" There are a lot of varieties of 'fasting'. Intermittent Feeding or 'Time Restricted Eating' involve upping dietary fat to control hunger feelings and ensuring daily caloric needs are met within a shorter timespan. This leaves the body enjoying 'fasting' benefits for longer while enjoying a normal diet.

quakenul 8y ago

I think daily tracking in combination with a long term goal is key here, because it allows you some wiggle room when it comes to progress while having a strong rubber band effect (that gets stronger the more you sway) to get you back on track.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago

Having lost and kept off half my body weight, yeah, the math is really, really, really stupidly easy part of weight loss. I envy people who don't know what it is like to feel compelled to gorge themselves. It's an unstoppable force sometimes. You'd be amazed at what your mind will do to make you ingest more calories. And then you get on the internet and, in addition to all the "it's really simple, just eat fewer calories" idiots, there's a thousand know-it-all fucks trying to tell you that if you just follow their fad diet you'll never feel hungry again and your dick will grow three sizes and you'll win the lottery.

bena 8y ago
The thing I've heard is that "weight loss is simple, not easy".
- bonesss 8y ago
  Kinda like "avoiding technical debt" :) Easy to prescribe, tricky to implement judging from the state of the world.
lifeisstillgood 8y ago
This There is a part of my brain that, usually around 1030 at night, says, right eat everything in the immediate vicinity because it might vanish / get eaten by sabre-tooth tigers, just be taken away from you. It's so deeply wired in me i actually resent (no deeply hate) the food industries that take advantage of my biology. I think the only hope for health care costs to be brought back to earth is to treat most foods like we treat alcohol or tobacco - chocolate bars that cost the same as a bottle of whiskey, sugar eating areas away from other parts of restaurants, cities that revolve around walking not driving, It's wholesale chnage - and no please don't throw the nanny state argument at me - look at the Libertarian party (Their presidential candidate suggested it would be a good idea to have a driving license ... got crucified) We live in a nanny state and most people don't think it's sane to leave
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
  That's generally how I am. I can't be around food because as soon as I know it is there a part of my mind spends all its time thinking about it. I'll eventually cave and eat it. All of it. People sometimes say things like "no one can eat all that X" and I can tell you from personal experience they are almost always wrong. Even keeping just enough food in my house for a week's worth of meals (I only eat one, lunch) only works in combination with an appetite suppressant, otherwise I'll find excuses to bake bread or elaborate confections or something. And attending any social function where food might be present is extremely dangerous and to be avoided if at all possible.
  - bscphil 8y ago
    > I'll eventually cave and eat it. All of it. People sometimes say things like "no one can eat all that X" and I can tell you from personal experience they are almost always wrong. 100% true for me as well. If it's there I can and will eat it, sometimes past the point of feeling sick. "You ate that whole pint of ice cream in one sitting??" No, you don't know about the other pint of ice cream that I ate a few hours ago and didn't say anything about because of guilt.
  - bonesss 8y ago

jsty 8y ago

In my experience, one of the easiest ways is to make the process enjoyable. Try and find some sort of exercise you enjoy, or let yourself listen to your favourite podcasts / music whilst you're exercising. At the end of the day, if you're hating every minute of it, there's very little likelihood you'll keep with your programme. So do whatever you need to do in order that you enjoy yourself whilst doing it, and results will follow :)

pottspotts 8y ago
I like this idea. I have also been bad about picking podcasts that I like, though. I think laziness and procrastination might be a huge factor for me. :-?
- masklinn 8y ago
  Note that TFA did not exercise (much), instead they used numbers tracking as motivators, think RPG min/maxing. It also works great with laziness and procrastination because all it requires is tracking and optimising a counter or two.
- jsty 8y ago
  If you're struggling to start, there's a couple of things that might help. 1 - Arrange a regular workout with friends / a personal trainer. Once you're in the habit of exercising regularly, it gets much easier. And putting it off becomes harder thanks to someone else expecting you to turn up. 2 - Take something you really like (food, movies, etc.) and commit to yourself that you'll only do that thing after you've exercised to make it more appealing.
- time0ut 8y ago
  My approach is that I can only watch an episode of a show if I spend the first 30 minutes of it on my stationary bike. (I am currently following Westworld Season 2 and The Expanse Season 3.) Tying my motivation to do cardio to my motivation to see what happens next has worked well for me. Getting motivated to lift 2x a week is another issue...

dahart 8y ago

> The hard part for me is mindset and willpower. Our minds have their own prerogatives. Exactly right. Losing weight by counting calories is an almost entirely mental activity, not physical. We have a physiology that wants food and abhors not eating enough. > I wonder then what did you tell yourself? Like the author, I discovered counting calories a couple of years ago, after trying and failing to lose weight through exercise for 20 years. I do have some mental tricks that worked for me. Number one: the reason I got overweight is because I’m mis-calibrated. When I feel full, it’s because I already ate too much. What I need to do is re-calibrate to understand what “enough” is. By assigning a negative judgement to feeling full, and seeking the feeling of enough, it helps remove the idea that I just need willpower to overcome any hunger. A little bit of hunger (but not a lot) is a good thing, so I want to stay there. Number two: I set my calorie budget to my future weight, not my current weight with minus a thousand. This is a “set it and forget it” plan. I want to calibrate my normal eating for the rest of my life, not diet for a month or two and then regress. I also don’t want to make adjustments when I’m done, I want to act like I’m already done. If I want to be 180lbs, and I should be eating 2k calories when I’m 180lbs, then I just start doing that and my weight will trend toward 180lbs. This takes longer than having a larger deficit, but mentally I don’t need to care how long it takes. I spent decades overweight despite trying, a couple extra months losing weight more slowly is nothing, it’s way ahead of where I was before. Third, I also save some budget in my day for a treat at the end of the day. It leaves me just a tiny bit hungrier, but then when I get my treat it feels like I’m splurging. Fourth, I still exercise. To lose weight fast I don’t count my exercise as calories burned. In maintenance mode, I use my exercise as a way to earn more calories. Now I’m actually going to the gym not to lose weight, but so I can eat more! I had days where I went over, but I didn’t really have “bad” days or bad moods, it was never severe. It was more like go to a party when I’m not counting, and whoops, I’m 400 calories over my budget. The hardest part about counting calories is the first few days. That’s when hunger is worst. After the first week, my body adjusts and my appetite goes down.

toyg 8y ago

Yep, it’s all in the mind. I had my “come to Jesus” moment about 3 months ago, at the green age of 39. I’ve since lost 10kg (1.5st or 22lb) and counting. I am never hungry, I removed all starches and cheese from my diet and the stomach is now silent 100% of the time. I still have the occasional “fuck it, the world hates me, I want a pizza so bad”, but I learnt to manage it: when I feel angry or bored (my triggers), I get my mind busy with something else, anything really (from sudoku to programming, going for a walk with a podcast, or painting miniatures). After a few minutes the impulse is gone. I cheat once or twice a day, in small quantities and in a controlled fashion: knowing the worst time is right after a cheat, I make sure to be very busy and plan follow-up snacks with nuts, to slowly ease off the starch-induced crave. Another trick is to metabolise the concept that the corporate world tries really really hard to sell you food; when you really start to see that it’s all a way to screw you out of your money, it gets easier to say “no thanks”.

toyg 8y ago
*cheat once or twice a week, derp.

proussea 8y ago

I speak about what worked for myself about the psychological part (I lost 20kg in 2 years). First it was to not enter in a willpower fight. I did accept that I will fail, and I did fail many times (sorry did not count, often in the beginning and I was still failing from time to time until the end). But every time i failed, instead of giving up i was telling to myself "ok you failed, but it worked for X days, you trained your body to eat less, let's start again, it will be more easy this time." And it was true. With time your body require less food to fill "full" even when you fail. Also a lot of ppl here are talking about fasting. I'm not sure about it at all. Your brain may try to prevent the next "fasting time" and may try to trick you to eat more. I would advise to eat at very regular times so your brain "knows" when you will eat (for me: 6:00/12:00/19:00 +/-30mins). Take time to eat, move in another place, etc ... so you appreciate it more. I liked the cheat days principle because it gives you short term goals, and it helps to keep some pleasure eating food. It also helps to not bring your diet with you when you go to lunch with friends/family. I also noticed that with time I was cheating less during these days. Preparing food for myself also saved money, sometimes it helped for motivation.

bonesss 8y ago
> I'm not sure [fasting] at all. Your brain may try to prevent the next "fasting time" There are a lot of varieties of 'fasting'. Intermittent Feeding or 'Time Restricted Eating' involve upping dietary fat to control hunger feelings and ensuring daily caloric needs are met within a shorter timespan. This leaves the body enjoying 'fasting' benefits for longer while enjoying a normal diet.