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People want to desperately believe there is some magic bullet food that makes them thinner, no one wants to change their behavior. The "commute by car" correlat

People want to desperately believe there is some magic bullet food that makes them thinner, no one wants to change their behavior. The "commute by car" correlation with obesity, to name just one, is a lot better than the "food X" one.

SirensOfTitan 8y ago
The magic bullet is to find a diet that works for you in perpetuity where you can eat at or below caloric maintenance for your level of activity. That diet can’t be an on again or off again type of thing, it needs to be something you can stick with.
- Terr_ 8y ago
  By definition any diet "below your caloric maintenance" isn't going to be something you can "stick with" with no interruptions... unless the deficit is so slight that you die from other causes first :p
  - allover 8y ago
    Well a more kind interpretation is that aiming for 'below your caloric maintenance' allows for the odd wobble/treat :)
  - SirensOfTitan 8y ago
    If you want to lose weight, you have to go below before you can stay at maintenance. :) Otherwise you won't stick with it.
fbonetti 8y ago
This isn’t a magic bullet. When you eat carbs, your body produces the hormone insulin in order to convert blood glucose into usable energy. Excessive insulin production triggers the body to store energy as fat. If you drastically reduce your carb intake, your body will enter a state of ketosis where fat will be burned as energy. Barring some rare medical or genetic issue, this WILL cause you to lose weight. It’s a scientific fact. Just take a look at type 1 diabetics prior to diagnosis. They’re skinny and frail due to being unable to produce insulin.
- allover 8y ago
  > Excessive insulin production triggers the body to store energy as fat. The 'insulin hypothesis'? Completely unproven. > If you drastically reduce your carb intake, your body will enter a state of ketosis where fat will be burned as energy. Barring some rare medical or genetic issue, this WILL cause you to lose weight. It’s a scientific fact. If you reduce your overall calories you'll lose weight, you can do that on any diet. That's the only thing that is a scientific fact.
  - civilian 8y ago
    You might read this. It doesn't defend the insulin hypothesis, but it explains how freaking _weird_ nutrition is. http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/04/25/book-review-the-hungry-brain/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/04/25/book-review-the-hungry-... Specifically it shows that, for some people, they have to eat 4x of what they would normally eat in order to gain any weight. That's super weird. The body has a lot of ways to either preserve or burn energy if it thinks it's in a fasting/feasting mode, which will work again people who are using a simple "cals-in cals-out" model.
    - allover 8y ago
      I'm basically not interested in reading things like this unless they can put solid facts up-front that are actually relevant to what most people care about (weight-loss/gain) and they actually normalize for calorie intake. Fact is for the vast majority of people that don't have some rare disease, CICO works.
  - toasterlovin 8y ago
    > If you reduce your overall calories you'll lose weight, you can do that on any diet. That's the only thing that is a scientific fact. Hate to break it to you, but this is not a scientific fact. The energy equation is calories consumed minus calories expended. Your brain can down regulate your energy level in response to consuming less calories as a way to keep your body in homeostasis.
    - 8y ago
kzrdude 8y ago
I've tried medicines that increase ones appetite, and have a new respect for those that overeat. If one had the appetite, it's soo much harder to resist, and I often could not and increased weight by tens of kg. Tldr: it's hard to resist with too high apetite

SirensOfTitan 8y ago

The magic bullet is to find a diet that works for you in perpetuity where you can eat at or below caloric maintenance for your level of activity. That diet can’t be an on again or off again type of thing, it needs to be something you can stick with.

Terr_ 8y ago
By definition any diet "below your caloric maintenance" isn't going to be something you can "stick with" with no interruptions... unless the deficit is so slight that you die from other causes first :p
- allover 8y ago
  Well a more kind interpretation is that aiming for 'below your caloric maintenance' allows for the odd wobble/treat :)
- SirensOfTitan 8y ago
  If you want to lose weight, you have to go below before you can stay at maintenance. :) Otherwise you won't stick with it.

fbonetti 8y ago

This isn’t a magic bullet. When you eat carbs, your body produces the hormone insulin in order to convert blood glucose into usable energy. Excessive insulin production triggers the body to store energy as fat. If you drastically reduce your carb intake, your body will enter a state of ketosis where fat will be burned as energy. Barring some rare medical or genetic issue, this WILL cause you to lose weight. It’s a scientific fact. Just take a look at type 1 diabetics prior to diagnosis. They’re skinny and frail due to being unable to produce insulin.

allover 8y ago
> Excessive insulin production triggers the body to store energy as fat. The 'insulin hypothesis'? Completely unproven. > If you drastically reduce your carb intake, your body will enter a state of ketosis where fat will be burned as energy. Barring some rare medical or genetic issue, this WILL cause you to lose weight. It’s a scientific fact. If you reduce your overall calories you'll lose weight, you can do that on any diet. That's the only thing that is a scientific fact.
- civilian 8y ago
  You might read this. It doesn't defend the insulin hypothesis, but it explains how freaking _weird_ nutrition is. http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/04/25/book-review-the-hungry-brain/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/04/25/book-review-the-hungry-... Specifically it shows that, for some people, they have to eat 4x of what they would normally eat in order to gain any weight. That's super weird. The body has a lot of ways to either preserve or burn energy if it thinks it's in a fasting/feasting mode, which will work again people who are using a simple "cals-in cals-out" model.
  - allover 8y ago
    I'm basically not interested in reading things like this unless they can put solid facts up-front that are actually relevant to what most people care about (weight-loss/gain) and they actually normalize for calorie intake. Fact is for the vast majority of people that don't have some rare disease, CICO works.
- toasterlovin 8y ago
  > If you reduce your overall calories you'll lose weight, you can do that on any diet. That's the only thing that is a scientific fact. Hate to break it to you, but this is not a scientific fact. The energy equation is calories consumed minus calories expended. Your brain can down regulate your energy level in response to consuming less calories as a way to keep your body in homeostasis.
  - 8y ago

kzrdude 8y ago

I've tried medicines that increase ones appetite, and have a new respect for those that overeat. If one had the appetite, it's soo much harder to resist, and I often could not and increased weight by tens of kg. Tldr: it's hard to resist with too high apetite