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I mentioned this before on HN but it still blows my mind how much weight I lost by simply not eating processed food. Thanks to COVID, I cook most of my meals no

I mentioned this before on HN but it still blows my mind how much weight I lost by simply not eating processed food. Thanks to COVID, I cook most of my meals now and I lost a considerable amount of weight even though I didn't cut my portions. I think the biggest problem is that processed food makes me crave food even though I'm not hungry and the stuff used is just so packed in calories (fructose syrup).

AlexTWithBeard 6y ago
And the best way to stop consuming highly processed foods is to write down your calories consumption. No limits, no shame, no pressure - just write it down. To me it was a revelation.
- mike00632 6y ago
  A friend of mine had a personal trainer that would make him send a photo of everything he ate. I thought that was a good idea.
  - sumtechguy 6y ago
    Accountability goes a long way for some people. My way is to eat less items with extra sugar in it. Oh boy do they hide that stuff in about a dozen different ways. Especially HFCS and 'apple/pear juice'. Then I track what I eat and try to hit my numbers. Someone I know is hitting nearly 40 pounds in a year with that method. Plus the accountability helped them stick to it.
    - bonoboTP 6y ago
      Don't foods have nutrition facts printed on them? In Europe every package has a standardized label indicating the grams of macros per 100 g and grams of all sugars per 100 g. (also salt etc)
      - sumtechguy 6y ago
        Most products do. You have to scour them. They usually break the carbs down by sugar and other. It is also by g. Also under a particular amount per serving they are allowed to say '0'. For example a box of tic-tacs is almost nothing but sugar. But it says 0. So serving size maters. It is also another way they will play games is by fiddling the 'serving' size. When everyone really knows the serving size is 1 container. It may say 2 or 3 per container. Or they may measure it by '1 cup' which for something like chips is a small amount of chips. But they are high in carbs. So you have to know the games played there too. That varies by manufacture. You could say better if those games are played there. The thing is until you look you do not realize how much sugar is in everything and how many different 'types' there are. A good rule of thumb when shopping in an american store is stick to the edges. The middle is full of processed stuff that usually has sugar. Not all processed is bad. For example a nice salsa is processed but not terrible for you and a decent time saver and usually tastes nicer than anything I have come up with. Like you point out you have to watch the labels.
  - hogFeast 6y ago
    That doesn't work. Doing that basically encourages people to lie to you, and poisons the relationship. Everyone trying to lose weight will cheat, and it is often the response to that cheating that determines your ability to continue. By making cheating shameful, you are basically guaranteeing failure (this is a corollary of the idea that places that don't have obesity shame fat people...naturally appealing to places with a history of Puritarinism, but largely ineffective). You can only lose weight once you have the motivation and knowledge that you can apply to do it yourself (the stuff about processed food, for example, is utter psuedo-science nonsense that significantly confuses the issue into "good" and "bad" foods...again, Puritarinism).
    - mike00632 6y ago
      I imagine the "you" in this case to be the person losing weight. If I want to lose weight then I'm going make such a commitment and it doesn't really matter who I send the photos to. It's rather just an exercise in documenting what I eat. I'd send the photos to you if you agreed to be my accountabili-buddy.
      - hogFeast 6y ago
        Again, that works if you assume that you won't fail at any point and/or react poorly to failure. But you will fail at some point, and very few people are determined enough to continue. Investing yourself creates risk. It is far more effective to take a less judgemental approach, track the things that matter, and do it for yourself...not because you don't want to be shamed (most fat people get a rough ride, shame isn't a long term strategy).
        bonoboTP 6y ago
        Ultimately you can't make people want something and shouldn't get too caught up trying to please their resisting minds. Lay out the information, people who want it will take it. Judgment and shame shouldn't enter the picture. Your body is a biological machine. Cheating is a misplaced word. You put the materials in there, they get digested and used for storage or energy. It's not some kind of magic or divine thing. Thinking in terms of failure / guilt / success etc. is bad altogether. The mental model becomes [ritual I do] -> [the fatness/fitness gods are pleased or judgy] -> [I get fat or fit]. Instead, you need to think in terms of [put this piece of food from hands to stomach] -> [it gets digested and enters the blood stream, etc] -> [I grow my fat cells] -> [I am fat].
goda90 6y ago
I'm curious, what's your cut off point for processed food? Just things that are ready to eat besides fruits and veggies? What about white flour and rice as opposed to whole grains?
- xnx 6y ago
  I'm not sure what approach syntaxing used, and "processed" is a fuzzy term, but bread and pasta have a lot more in common with twinkies and oreos than fruits and vegetables.
  - dilap 6y ago
    Bread, pasta, fruits, and vegetables: all things we've been eating for at least a couple thousand years; no fat or mostly saturated fats. Twinkies and Oreos: signicant quantities of novel ingredients that have only existed in the last 150 or so years; high quantities of omega-6 polyunsaturated fats.
    - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
      True, but there's also a distinction to be made among kinds of carbohydrates. I think of it in two categories, coal and jet fuel. Coal is stuff like potatoes - it's fuel, but it lasts a long time. Twinkies, white bread, and even white rice are jet fuel - they burn really fast, and then they're gone. Eat carbs that are coal, not jet fuel.
      - dilap 6y ago
        Definitely differences, but I'm not convinced it matters so much, at least in healthy people. E.g., lots of people eat a whole lot of white rice and seem to do quite well on it. The Hadza, a tribe in africa, at certain times of the year, get about half their calories from honey, and they are very healthy. And fruit would certainly also have to be in the rocket-fuel category, no? (If you're already unhealthy (e.g. type II diabetic), there seems to be a lot of benefit in going very-low or no-carb.)
poma88 6y ago
Same. I stopped going to supermarket and ordered only uncooked healthy ingredients. Lost 12 kg!
- syntaxing 6y ago
  That's awesome! Losing weight makes you feel better too IMO. It's weird but grocery delivery has made it easier to cook healthier. I can see my options better and maybe I'm less tempted because of the way groceries store stock their shelves?
AnimalMuppet 6y ago
> ... processed food makes me crave food even though I'm not hungry... That is, processed food doesn't satisfy. We keep thinking it's going to, but it doesn't. (Or rather, it does, but only for a very short time. Then we want more. I've started to sometimes question whether I should take the first hit, because I know what's going to happen.) A cynic might suspect that the primary point of the processing is to make the food sell more of itself.
jumai8 6y ago
I have a fructose intolerance - it is wild how hard it is to avoid fructose, and similarly how easy it is to be "healthy" and maintain my weight with literally zero energy other than avoiding fructose.
car 6y ago
Great, this is exactly what has been found in studies. There is a way to eat as much as you want, no calorie-counting, no portion control, just eat. It is well explained by Dr. Greger [1]. It boils down to foods having different energy density since our stomach signals satiety by how full it is. Highly recommend his videos for actionable nutrition info. [1]https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-best-diet-for-weight-loss-and-disease-prevention https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-best-diet-for-weight-lo...

AlexTWithBeard 6y ago

And the best way to stop consuming highly processed foods is to write down your calories consumption. No limits, no shame, no pressure - just write it down. To me it was a revelation.

mike00632 6y ago
A friend of mine had a personal trainer that would make him send a photo of everything he ate. I thought that was a good idea.
- sumtechguy 6y ago
  Accountability goes a long way for some people. My way is to eat less items with extra sugar in it. Oh boy do they hide that stuff in about a dozen different ways. Especially HFCS and 'apple/pear juice'. Then I track what I eat and try to hit my numbers. Someone I know is hitting nearly 40 pounds in a year with that method. Plus the accountability helped them stick to it.
  - bonoboTP 6y ago
    Don't foods have nutrition facts printed on them? In Europe every package has a standardized label indicating the grams of macros per 100 g and grams of all sugars per 100 g. (also salt etc)
    - sumtechguy 6y ago
      Most products do. You have to scour them. They usually break the carbs down by sugar and other. It is also by g. Also under a particular amount per serving they are allowed to say '0'. For example a box of tic-tacs is almost nothing but sugar. But it says 0. So serving size maters. It is also another way they will play games is by fiddling the 'serving' size. When everyone really knows the serving size is 1 container. It may say 2 or 3 per container. Or they may measure it by '1 cup' which for something like chips is a small amount of chips. But they are high in carbs. So you have to know the games played there too. That varies by manufacture. You could say better if those games are played there. The thing is until you look you do not realize how much sugar is in everything and how many different 'types' there are. A good rule of thumb when shopping in an american store is stick to the edges. The middle is full of processed stuff that usually has sugar. Not all processed is bad. For example a nice salsa is processed but not terrible for you and a decent time saver and usually tastes nicer than anything I have come up with. Like you point out you have to watch the labels.
- hogFeast 6y ago
  That doesn't work. Doing that basically encourages people to lie to you, and poisons the relationship. Everyone trying to lose weight will cheat, and it is often the response to that cheating that determines your ability to continue. By making cheating shameful, you are basically guaranteeing failure (this is a corollary of the idea that places that don't have obesity shame fat people...naturally appealing to places with a history of Puritarinism, but largely ineffective). You can only lose weight once you have the motivation and knowledge that you can apply to do it yourself (the stuff about processed food, for example, is utter psuedo-science nonsense that significantly confuses the issue into "good" and "bad" foods...again, Puritarinism).
  - mike00632 6y ago
    I imagine the "you" in this case to be the person losing weight. If I want to lose weight then I'm going make such a commitment and it doesn't really matter who I send the photos to. It's rather just an exercise in documenting what I eat. I'd send the photos to you if you agreed to be my accountabili-buddy.
    - hogFeast 6y ago
      Again, that works if you assume that you won't fail at any point and/or react poorly to failure. But you will fail at some point, and very few people are determined enough to continue. Investing yourself creates risk. It is far more effective to take a less judgemental approach, track the things that matter, and do it for yourself...not because you don't want to be shamed (most fat people get a rough ride, shame isn't a long term strategy).
      - bonoboTP 6y ago
        Ultimately you can't make people want something and shouldn't get too caught up trying to please their resisting minds. Lay out the information, people who want it will take it. Judgment and shame shouldn't enter the picture. Your body is a biological machine. Cheating is a misplaced word. You put the materials in there, they get digested and used for storage or energy. It's not some kind of magic or divine thing. Thinking in terms of failure / guilt / success etc. is bad altogether. The mental model becomes [ritual I do] -> [the fatness/fitness gods are pleased or judgy] -> [I get fat or fit]. Instead, you need to think in terms of [put this piece of food from hands to stomach] -> [it gets digested and enters the blood stream, etc] -> [I grow my fat cells] -> [I am fat].

goda90 6y ago

I'm curious, what's your cut off point for processed food? Just things that are ready to eat besides fruits and veggies? What about white flour and rice as opposed to whole grains?

xnx 6y ago
I'm not sure what approach syntaxing used, and "processed" is a fuzzy term, but bread and pasta have a lot more in common with twinkies and oreos than fruits and vegetables.
- dilap 6y ago
  Bread, pasta, fruits, and vegetables: all things we've been eating for at least a couple thousand years; no fat or mostly saturated fats. Twinkies and Oreos: signicant quantities of novel ingredients that have only existed in the last 150 or so years; high quantities of omega-6 polyunsaturated fats.
  - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
    True, but there's also a distinction to be made among kinds of carbohydrates. I think of it in two categories, coal and jet fuel. Coal is stuff like potatoes - it's fuel, but it lasts a long time. Twinkies, white bread, and even white rice are jet fuel - they burn really fast, and then they're gone. Eat carbs that are coal, not jet fuel.
    - dilap 6y ago
      Definitely differences, but I'm not convinced it matters so much, at least in healthy people. E.g., lots of people eat a whole lot of white rice and seem to do quite well on it. The Hadza, a tribe in africa, at certain times of the year, get about half their calories from honey, and they are very healthy. And fruit would certainly also have to be in the rocket-fuel category, no? (If you're already unhealthy (e.g. type II diabetic), there seems to be a lot of benefit in going very-low or no-carb.)

poma88 6y ago

Same. I stopped going to supermarket and ordered only uncooked healthy ingredients. Lost 12 kg!

syntaxing 6y ago
That's awesome! Losing weight makes you feel better too IMO. It's weird but grocery delivery has made it easier to cook healthier. I can see my options better and maybe I'm less tempted because of the way groceries store stock their shelves?

AnimalMuppet 6y ago

> ... processed food makes me crave food even though I'm not hungry... That is, processed food doesn't satisfy. We keep thinking it's going to, but it doesn't. (Or rather, it does, but only for a very short time. Then we want more. I've started to sometimes question whether I should take the first hit, because I know what's going to happen.) A cynic might suspect that the primary point of the processing is to make the food sell more of itself.

jumai8 6y ago

I have a fructose intolerance - it is wild how hard it is to avoid fructose, and similarly how easy it is to be "healthy" and maintain my weight with literally zero energy other than avoiding fructose.

car 6y ago

Great, this is exactly what has been found in studies. There is a way to eat as much as you want, no calorie-counting, no portion control, just eat. It is well explained by Dr. Greger [1]. It boils down to foods having different energy density since our stomach signals satiety by how full it is. Highly recommend his videos for actionable nutrition info. [1]https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-best-diet-for-weight-loss-and-disease-prevention https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-best-diet-for-weight-lo...