3 ms·

This reminds me of a study we ran at Lift/Coach.me a few years ago where we randomly assigned 12,000 people into popular diets. I was hoping we'd be able to pic

This reminds me of a study we ran at Lift/Coach.me a few years ago where we randomly assigned 12,000 people into popular diets. I was hoping we'd be able to pick a winner, but all of the diets led to weight loss and all had a result within the same margin of error (and yes, there was a control group). So basically, all the diets worked equally. The only strong signal we got was that people who were giving up soda were the most likely to lose the most weight. The cynic in me feels like we're writing giant book-length stories that are just cover to get people to reduce their sugar intake. As I read more of the research, I'm coming to the opinion that our framework for thinking about weight loss is wrong. We mostly talk about rules, and I think we should be talking about levers. You want to pull the levers that cause your body to burn fat while avoiding the levers that cause your body to store fat. That's subtlely but importantly different than calories in < calories out. Your levers include fasting, going Keto, even extreme exercise (most studies against exercise stop at 60 or 90 minutes, but try doing a backpacking trip or other 5hour+ routine).

ars 8y ago
> The cynic in me feels like we're writing giant book-length stories that are just cover to get people to reduce their sugar intake. I feel that's factual, not cynical. That's exactly what all the different weird diets that people love to make fun of do: Convince people in all sorts of ways to eat less. All the rules and whatever of the diet have just the one goal. We should stop evaluating diet plans based on weight loss (since they are all basically the same), and instead evaluate them based on compliance.
- tonystubblebine 8y ago
  > instead evaluate them based on compliance. Or rather, evaluate people for which diet they're most likely to comply with. One of the flaws in the personal development ecosystem is that because everyone is selling their own "one weird trick" there's no incentive to build good assessment programs. It's not diet, but probably the only top author with a solid assessment is Gretchen Rubin and her habit tendencies. All the tendencies lead back to her advice, but at least they acknowledge that not all people are the same.
- pfranz 8y ago
  I've always suggested people find one that works for them. My father in law loves competition and numbers, so Weight Watchers lets him accumulate points. My wife hates cheat days and they don't really have the intended effect on her. She's also fine eating the same thing almost every day. A lot of the fad diets are fairly similar in that they're low-carb and reduce sugar; Atkins, South Beach, Keto, Whole30.
zackmorris 8y ago
I think you're right: sugar is the main cause of gaining fat and probably leads to inflammation and disease. I've been learning about resistant starch, which is digested by gut bacteria into fat, rather than digesting into sugar directly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistant_starch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistant_starch I can't eat legumes at the moment because I'm experiencing leaky gut symptoms and repairing my gut with L-glutamine. But I've generally experienced an association between eating foods like oatmeal/bananas/rice and weight loss. Here is one of the more contemporary videos I've found about these things (from SelfHacked): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luna9RQsL1E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luna9RQsL1E Also my personal belief is that excess nutrition causes disease. So you can consume much more protein/fat/cholesterol etc than the USRDA, as long as you are physically active. Being sedentary kills. My own experience is that weight training is several times more effective than cardio because it burns calories as you recover. Also this is all hormonal. So actively lowering your cortisol by avoiding stressors and increasing your testosterone and growth hormone with nutritious food and moderate exercise is a big part of why people drop 10 pounds when traveling outside the US. Disclaimer: I have no evidence of any of this, these are only additional data points for your own research. Edit: based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistant_starch#Nutritional_information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistant_starch#Nutritional_i... I'm going to try overnight oats. Basically steel cut or rolled oats (NOT instant oatmeal - it's already cooked) soaked overnight to preserve its resistant starch content.
- zackmorris 8y ago
  I forgot to mention estrogen alongside testosterone!
bliblah 8y ago
>The only strong signal we got was that people who were giving up soda were the most likely to lose the most weight. The cynic in me feels like we're writing giant book-length stories that are just cover to get people to reduce their sugar intake. I stopped drinking soda regularly at least 5 years ago since graduating college and was able to lose 20+ pounds thanks to diet and exercise. The thing is after having stopped excercising I have been able to keep the weight off compared to people my age who also don't excercise and the only difference is that they drink way more soda than me. I try to limit my sugar intake to less than 10 grams a day. It's crazy just how much sugar modern drinks have, the only exceptions seem to be Beer and Milk and those were developed thousands of years ago.

ars 8y ago

> The cynic in me feels like we're writing giant book-length stories that are just cover to get people to reduce their sugar intake. I feel that's factual, not cynical. That's exactly what all the different weird diets that people love to make fun of do: Convince people in all sorts of ways to eat less. All the rules and whatever of the diet have just the one goal. We should stop evaluating diet plans based on weight loss (since they are all basically the same), and instead evaluate them based on compliance.

tonystubblebine 8y ago
> instead evaluate them based on compliance. Or rather, evaluate people for which diet they're most likely to comply with. One of the flaws in the personal development ecosystem is that because everyone is selling their own "one weird trick" there's no incentive to build good assessment programs. It's not diet, but probably the only top author with a solid assessment is Gretchen Rubin and her habit tendencies. All the tendencies lead back to her advice, but at least they acknowledge that not all people are the same.
pfranz 8y ago
I've always suggested people find one that works for them. My father in law loves competition and numbers, so Weight Watchers lets him accumulate points. My wife hates cheat days and they don't really have the intended effect on her. She's also fine eating the same thing almost every day. A lot of the fad diets are fairly similar in that they're low-carb and reduce sugar; Atkins, South Beach, Keto, Whole30.

zackmorris 8y ago

I think you're right: sugar is the main cause of gaining fat and probably leads to inflammation and disease. I've been learning about resistant starch, which is digested by gut bacteria into fat, rather than digesting into sugar directly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistant_starch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistant_starch I can't eat legumes at the moment because I'm experiencing leaky gut symptoms and repairing my gut with L-glutamine. But I've generally experienced an association between eating foods like oatmeal/bananas/rice and weight loss. Here is one of the more contemporary videos I've found about these things (from SelfHacked): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luna9RQsL1E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luna9RQsL1E Also my personal belief is that excess nutrition causes disease. So you can consume much more protein/fat/cholesterol etc than the USRDA, as long as you are physically active. Being sedentary kills. My own experience is that weight training is several times more effective than cardio because it burns calories as you recover. Also this is all hormonal. So actively lowering your cortisol by avoiding stressors and increasing your testosterone and growth hormone with nutritious food and moderate exercise is a big part of why people drop 10 pounds when traveling outside the US. Disclaimer: I have no evidence of any of this, these are only additional data points for your own research. Edit: based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistant_starch#Nutritional_information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistant_starch#Nutritional_i... I'm going to try overnight oats. Basically steel cut or rolled oats (NOT instant oatmeal - it's already cooked) soaked overnight to preserve its resistant starch content.

zackmorris 8y ago
I forgot to mention estrogen alongside testosterone!

bliblah 8y ago

>The only strong signal we got was that people who were giving up soda were the most likely to lose the most weight. The cynic in me feels like we're writing giant book-length stories that are just cover to get people to reduce their sugar intake. I stopped drinking soda regularly at least 5 years ago since graduating college and was able to lose 20+ pounds thanks to diet and exercise. The thing is after having stopped excercising I have been able to keep the weight off compared to people my age who also don't excercise and the only difference is that they drink way more soda than me. I try to limit my sugar intake to less than 10 grams a day. It's crazy just how much sugar modern drinks have, the only exceptions seem to be Beer and Milk and those were developed thousands of years ago.