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Intermittent fasting also helps. Many people do 16:8 (16 hours of fasting) and only eat from 12-8 or 10-6. With IF, I lost about ~5 lbs doing nothing besides b

Intermittent fasting also helps. Many people do 16:8 (16 hours of fasting) and only eat from 12-8 or 10-6. With IF, I lost about ~5 lbs doing nothing besides being more mindful. Once I added in daily runs / walks of ~4-5 miles, I lost another ~10 lbs easily. I think the biggest challenge for people looking to lose weight is mindless eating / snacking. Initially I kept a diet journal and wrote down everything I ate or drank, and realized I would get more snacks throughout the day than I thought. I also drank a lot less water than I thought. The other thing is portions. When I was at my largest, the portions I would set for myself were larger, and I would more often get a second round. All without really thinking about it, of course. Now I deliberately think about how big of a portion is appropriate and I never go for seconds except on some cheat days.

nwienert 6y ago
IF only achieves point 1 of the four points above, I’ve done it for years but if I only do IF I’ll still carry usually a small belly. Also if you don’t do minimal exercise it does feel harder - your calorie budget goes down super low when you’re really sedentary. No room for snacks or any indulgence. Whereas if you workout daily even in a minimal form, suddenly you have a much easier budget.
karpathy 6y ago
Agree, I didn't mention this in the post but I've become a big fan of intermittent fasting, which is a fancy way of saying "skip breakfast". I only eat from 12-8pm and most days from 12-6pm. I also found that even if I wake up a bit hungry my morning coffee suppresses my appetite and I rarely struggle to get to lunch. A hard threshold on 8pm also avoids most of the unhealthy snacking that tends to happen in late hours. I find that as the body winds down for the day and is a bit more tired my defenses and motivation are down a bit and I feel tempted by snacks. With IF it's easy to blanket reject such ideas from my brain because I'm outside of my window. There is also a slight element to which the body "gets used to" the feeding schedule, and doesn't bother you as much outside of it with snacking ideas.
- joshvm 6y ago
  I'm with you on the appetite suppression. I got into making decent coffee recently, probably from being stuck at home, and it's interesting how strong the effect is. Especially when coupled with a walk round the local park (e.g. 5k) I often don't feel hungry until mid afternoon. There is also the other reliable effect that I won't mention here! One other thing I realised post-lockdown is just how much I relied on exercise to keep my back/posture in check. I used to climb regularly, though I slacked off on the cardio. Since quarantining, I've done a lot less resistance exercise and it really shows. One day of poor posture - e.g. hunching over a workbench, or working from a non-optimal place like bed or the couch - is enough to cause quite a lot of backache and it only really goes away after doing some exercise (far more effective in my experience than icing/heating/NSAIDs). My plan is to get back into bodyweight/calisthenics ASAP. (Very interesting article by the way, the subway map would make a great poster)
- agumonkey 6y ago
  I need some polls about the relationship between 'hunger' and boredom. I felt skipping meals was difficult for a few minutes but then I turned the eating-stress into action and it made me slightly manically motivated into doing some task (electronics, cleaning, jogging) and few minutes later the hunger disappeared.
  - jdhzzz 6y ago
    Also a coronavirus convert to "skip breakfast". That has let some weight to "effortlessly" slide off. Down about 7 pounds (3-ish kg) from 195 (88.5). I have many more days behind me that before me, so I refuse to give up on eating things I've spent a lifetime consuming (red meat, super processed snack foods: high density carbohydrates, fat, salt and probably more sugar/HFCS than I care to consider. Mmmmm). It has been all about quantity for me. I have been consistent about getting exercise, but that has minimal impact on weight as has been pointed out.
    - agumonkey 6y ago
      Well weight is one thing but in my case sport is such a cornerstone of my well being. Even if one is heavy, I think being very active leads to tons of benefits internally.
smichel17 6y ago
> I also drank a lot less water than I thought. For me, the key to staying hydrated is large containers. When there is a glass of water on my desk in front of me, I sip it as I get thirsty. When it runs dry, I don't interrupt my current task to refill it, so it might sit empty for hours, and I won't drink enough later to make up for it. So, the fewer times I have to refill, the more water I drink. In college, when I moved between many locations, I used a 1-quart canning jar in a knitted sleeve (classier and a little fall protection -- just remember you still have to wash it). These days, it's a 1-liter jug (err, may technically be a vase) that sits on my desk. I refill it in the morning (or night before) and once in the middle of the day, after it runs out.
shoes_for_thee 6y ago
The idea of intermittent fasting from 12-8pm is kind of amusing to me because that's just when I tend to eat anyway. I guess I've been intermittent fasting my whole life!
Accacin 6y ago
Huh, so I tried intermittent fasting for probably six months and honestly it didn't make much difference for me personally. I'm 185cm and ~66-68kg so I was more trying to keep a consistent weight rather than lose weight though. For me, snacking was fixed by not buying snacks that I would consider too unhealthy. Generally the only snack foods I have in my house now are biscuits to dip in my tea in the evening (British..). Also I've never really liked fizzy drinks and pretty much drink water and black coffee (soya milk once a day for the B12 and protein). I do agree with the biggest thing for me being portion size, I'm one of those people that if there's food on the table I will finish it, and I'll finish my wife's food as well if she doesn't want it. My wife also doesn't help as if I mention I'm hungry to her, she'll assume that I want more than usual and have to try and remind her that the usual amount will be more than enough :)

nwienert 6y ago

IF only achieves point 1 of the four points above, I’ve done it for years but if I only do IF I’ll still carry usually a small belly. Also if you don’t do minimal exercise it does feel harder - your calorie budget goes down super low when you’re really sedentary. No room for snacks or any indulgence. Whereas if you workout daily even in a minimal form, suddenly you have a much easier budget.

karpathy 6y ago

Agree, I didn't mention this in the post but I've become a big fan of intermittent fasting, which is a fancy way of saying "skip breakfast". I only eat from 12-8pm and most days from 12-6pm. I also found that even if I wake up a bit hungry my morning coffee suppresses my appetite and I rarely struggle to get to lunch. A hard threshold on 8pm also avoids most of the unhealthy snacking that tends to happen in late hours. I find that as the body winds down for the day and is a bit more tired my defenses and motivation are down a bit and I feel tempted by snacks. With IF it's easy to blanket reject such ideas from my brain because I'm outside of my window. There is also a slight element to which the body "gets used to" the feeding schedule, and doesn't bother you as much outside of it with snacking ideas.

joshvm 6y ago
I'm with you on the appetite suppression. I got into making decent coffee recently, probably from being stuck at home, and it's interesting how strong the effect is. Especially when coupled with a walk round the local park (e.g. 5k) I often don't feel hungry until mid afternoon. There is also the other reliable effect that I won't mention here! One other thing I realised post-lockdown is just how much I relied on exercise to keep my back/posture in check. I used to climb regularly, though I slacked off on the cardio. Since quarantining, I've done a lot less resistance exercise and it really shows. One day of poor posture - e.g. hunching over a workbench, or working from a non-optimal place like bed or the couch - is enough to cause quite a lot of backache and it only really goes away after doing some exercise (far more effective in my experience than icing/heating/NSAIDs). My plan is to get back into bodyweight/calisthenics ASAP. (Very interesting article by the way, the subway map would make a great poster)
agumonkey 6y ago
I need some polls about the relationship between 'hunger' and boredom. I felt skipping meals was difficult for a few minutes but then I turned the eating-stress into action and it made me slightly manically motivated into doing some task (electronics, cleaning, jogging) and few minutes later the hunger disappeared.
- jdhzzz 6y ago
  Also a coronavirus convert to "skip breakfast". That has let some weight to "effortlessly" slide off. Down about 7 pounds (3-ish kg) from 195 (88.5). I have many more days behind me that before me, so I refuse to give up on eating things I've spent a lifetime consuming (red meat, super processed snack foods: high density carbohydrates, fat, salt and probably more sugar/HFCS than I care to consider. Mmmmm). It has been all about quantity for me. I have been consistent about getting exercise, but that has minimal impact on weight as has been pointed out.
  - agumonkey 6y ago
    Well weight is one thing but in my case sport is such a cornerstone of my well being. Even if one is heavy, I think being very active leads to tons of benefits internally.

smichel17 6y ago

> I also drank a lot less water than I thought. For me, the key to staying hydrated is large containers. When there is a glass of water on my desk in front of me, I sip it as I get thirsty. When it runs dry, I don't interrupt my current task to refill it, so it might sit empty for hours, and I won't drink enough later to make up for it. So, the fewer times I have to refill, the more water I drink. In college, when I moved between many locations, I used a 1-quart canning jar in a knitted sleeve (classier and a little fall protection -- just remember you still have to wash it). These days, it's a 1-liter jug (err, may technically be a vase) that sits on my desk. I refill it in the morning (or night before) and once in the middle of the day, after it runs out.

shoes_for_thee 6y ago

The idea of intermittent fasting from 12-8pm is kind of amusing to me because that's just when I tend to eat anyway. I guess I've been intermittent fasting my whole life!

Accacin 6y ago

Huh, so I tried intermittent fasting for probably six months and honestly it didn't make much difference for me personally. I'm 185cm and ~66-68kg so I was more trying to keep a consistent weight rather than lose weight though. For me, snacking was fixed by not buying snacks that I would consider too unhealthy. Generally the only snack foods I have in my house now are biscuits to dip in my tea in the evening (British..). Also I've never really liked fizzy drinks and pretty much drink water and black coffee (soya milk once a day for the B12 and protein). I do agree with the biggest thing for me being portion size, I'm one of those people that if there's food on the table I will finish it, and I'll finish my wife's food as well if she doesn't want it. My wife also doesn't help as if I mention I'm hungry to her, she'll assume that I want more than usual and have to try and remind her that the usual amount will be more than enough :)