4 ms·
so, obviously, calories in and calories out are what controls your weight. But that doesn't conflict with the idea that your success at managing your weight in
by lsc 8y ago
so, obviously, calories in and calories out are what controls your weight. But that doesn't conflict with the idea that your success at managing your weight in a world where calories in are increasingly cheap and calories out are increasingly expensive is largely genetic.
I think I can speak to this a little bit; I've taken four points off my BMI in the last year or year and a half or so, all through counting calories in and calories out... and I'd rate the experience as slightly easier than trying to breathe a little less.
The most annoying part was that everyone... fat people and skinny people would give me a hard time for actually tracking everything I ate. "Just eat less," they'd say, along with some advice about how they have a friend who lost weight on some fad diet that restricts not how much you can eat but what you can eat. I had a doctor who told me to take the sides I'd normally eat and cut them in half, you know, like I planned my meals or something.
For me? writing down what I ate was key; Obviously, (and this is likely the genetic part) some people have something that causes them to be not hungry anymore after they've eaten enough food. Whatever that is, it's obviously not working properly in me, or else I never would have gotten fat in the first place, so I need some external tracker to figure out if I've eaten enough.
(The other thing that seemed to be different about my experience than about most people's was that if I went a lot below my maintenance caloric intake, say, significantly more than 40% below for several days in a row, my work performance would collapse. If I tracked my caloric intake and kept it around 25% below what I burned, i was okay, though it was still difficult.)
- benj111 8y agoI think the hunger thing is habit? If I'm in a job where I get a regular lunch break at the same time every day. If for some reason I'm late my stomach starts rumbling really loudly, conversely if I eat early I have problems eating because I'm not hungry. Now this can be as little as 30 minutes difference either way. I don't have the same issue at weekends though.
- lsc 8y agoIf you eat 25% fewer calories than you burn every day, and you do this for a week, unless our physiology is dramatically different, you will feel hunger that is not related to habit. Interestingly, for me? If I cut down to the point where my performance falls (closer to 40% for a few days) my hunger kind of goes away. Of course, I can't really work in that state (I'm aware some others can) so it's not really useful to me. If I want to lose weight while still working, it seems I need to experience that hunger. One of the annoying things for me is that because this hunger is such a big part of my experience, I want to talk about it, and this... annoys almost everyone. Aside from people on the internet who want to insult you for not following their favorite fad diet, it's worse in person, because almost everyone I've talked to about it in person seems to think I'm telling them that they need to lose weight.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- bkor 8y agoI mentioned this somewhere else, but the eating can be pretty much an addiction. > For me? writing down what I ate was key I totally agree with this. Calories are quite easy to eat. You don't always know how much calories are in a certain product. Meaning: something small can easily have enough calories for an entire day. Once you fully know which products have a huge amount of calories you'll be able to do without. Suggest to also try intermittent fasting. I used to unconsciously somewhat do this on a Sunday. I'd only have dinner (sleeping until late and not doing much helps a lot with this). I also lost weight in the past btw. Keeping the same weight is difficult. Further, if you know anyone who is really skinny and 25+ years of age you'll usually be able to tell that it's a daily effort for them.