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It's more like they DO NOT want to believe how small portion sizes are required to consistently lose weight. Even if there was a device that could scan all foo

It's more like they DO NOT want to believe how small portion sizes are required to consistently lose weight. Even if there was a device that could scan all food before eating it, they would still exempt some meals with the "do not count" argument. Rule of thumb, that if a meal is easy and fast to prepare, then it is probably not suited for a diet. To lose weight you have to do a lot more exercise than you think consistently. And you have to eat a lot less than you think. Most people just don't have that kind of willpower.

treeman79 4y ago
Wife switched to calories counting a few years ago. It was shocking how small the portions were. She lost 90 pounds doing that in under a year.
trevorishere 4y ago
Went from 230 to ~155 without exercise by calorie restriction alone (600-1200cal/day). It IS possible, though likely unhealthy to accomplish without exercise (I never, ask they say, consulted a doctor prior to the self-imposed restriction). Exercise was uncomfortable until I had lost weight, now I can do 15+ mile hikes with a 60l backpack. I don't want to discourage anyone from doing exercise at any time in their goal for weight loss, but it is possible to lose weight by calorie restriction alone.
- mikevm 4y ago
  > Exercise was uncomfortable until I had lost weight, now I can do 15+ mile hikes with a 60l backpack. A simple walk on an incline (5km/hr @ 5% incline) can help you burn 400+kcals/hour. You can probably eat at 1500 kcals and start your day with a walk like that on the treadmill while watching some TV show :). > .. but it is possible to lose weight by calorie restriction alone. Indeed it is! :) If you're obese or severely overweight, it's best to just do a PSMF to lose weight as quickly as possible. Btw, at 230lbs you can easily do strength training which will help you with body recomp (stimulating muscle growth while burning fat). A good rule of thumb for a PSMF is 9.7x[protein intake]. For example: given 1.6g/kg*104kg = 166g of protein per day we get: 166g * 9.7 kcal/g = 1610 kcal. So your daily calories are at 1610 kcal max, and you need to eat at least 166g of protein (the rest of the calories can be filled with carbs/fat). I suggest min 50g of fat per day for men.
  - bena 4y ago
    PSMF - Protein-Sparing Modified Fasting
  - friedman23 4y ago
    Walking is the most under rated weight loss activity. People don't understand how many calories walking on an incline on a treadmill will shred if you are obese. When I was 220 pounds, walking at 10% incline at 2.6mph was 770 calories an hour. It is actually hard to eat at a calorie surplus when you are burning that many calories a day. If you want to lose weight you need to do one of the following Be hungry, Be in pain from exercise (running), or sacrifice all your free time to low intensity exercise I chose option 3 along with weight lifting and I don't regret it. Walking also has this really cool effect of not increasing ghrelin unlike high intensity cardio
- gitfan86 4y ago
  Where did you get the information that it is unhealthy for a 230 pound person to eat 1200 calories a day? I understand that sodium,potasium,etc.. are necessary, I'm just asking about why you think that the calories are a problem when 230 pounds?
bavell 4y ago
> To lose weight you have to do a lot more exercise than you think consistently. And you have to eat a lot less than you think. Exercise doesn't help very much, it's really all about diet. Plus if you are exercising a lot, you'll feel hungier and it'll be harder mentally to not eat more to compensate.
- rnd420_69 4y ago
  I lost 60lbs in about a year almost exclusively based around a large amount of exercise. My diet was bad and I was eating far above 2000kcal on many days. I just exercised a lot. 1h of fairly intense cardio at least 6 days a week, though I would always round up to the next 10 min mark and do more like 70 or 80 min per day. Some days I would order pizza or something and some dessert in the evening when I knew this would push me into the 3000kcal range and in return did 2h or 3h exercise routines fairly regularly, often times while eating the pizza.
  - jonhohle 4y ago
    Depending on your weight, an hour of cardio is only 500 or so calories. Last night I showed my wife a hand with 5 Brazil nuts. That’s equivalent to a one mile run at my weight. Obviously different things work for different people, but no amount of cardio is going to offset a terrible diet for most people. Caloric deficit and intermittent fasting combined with exercise is the easiest and fastest way (imho) to get your body to start metabolizing fat stores.
    - stef25 4y ago
      My app and Google tell me running 6 miles in an hour burns 800+ calories.
      - jonhohle 4y ago
        Mass will affect the amount of calories burned.
    - Blackthorn 4y ago
javert 4y ago
> To lose weight you have to do a lot more exercise than you think consistently. And you have to eat a lot less than you think. I think this is a misleading cliche. I seem to have a lost a significant amount of weight just from eating less, without exercise. Which makes sense. It's amazing how many miles you'd have to run to burn the calories you get from a Big Mac. Basically, our food is super dense in calories, and our bodies are extremely efficient machines (meaning, they don't burn as many calories as you'd think when exercising). So, it should be much easier to lose weight by eating less than by exercising more. > Most people just don't have that kind of willpower. Most people aren't motivated enough. But "willpower" is a misleading and thus destructive way to describe motivation. You increase motivation by thinking about whether the positive thing you want is "worth" whatever you're doing to get it. In other words, staying focused on the value. You don't increase motivation by "exerting willpower." That whole concept for motivation is a recipe for failure.
- ntlk 4y ago
  A Big Mac is 563 calories. Hardly unreasonable for a meal.
  - alistairSH 4y ago
    On its own maybe. But add large fries and a soda and it’s ~1300 calories. Way more than half most peoples daily requirement.
  - tenebrisalietum 4y ago
    I see many get huge sodas with the Big Macs which is what pushes it to crazy amounts.
unicornporn 4y ago
Also: once a fat cell, always a fat cell. Not really, but... https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/your-fat-cells-never-disappear-making-future-weight-gain-more-likely https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/your-fat-cells-never... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18454136/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18454136/
magicalhippo 4y ago
> It's more like they DO NOT want to believe how small portion sizes are required to consistently lose weight. I found the same when I started counting calories. An extra slice of wholegrain bread is how much?! Even just a thin spread of butter or margarine on the bread would blow my daily budget by a lot, so I had to find alternatives for that (like mustard). Given my own preferences for having a "proper meal", I ended up only eating twice a day. I focused on making it high-protein and high-fiber to make me feel full longer, cutting down on regular carbs as needed.
dspillett 4y ago
> It's more like they DO NOT want to believe how small portion sizes are required to consistently lose weight. In the immortal words of Jasper Carrott: "This hole", points to mouth. "Is bigger than that hole", points to bottom. > they DO NOT want to believe how small portion sizes are required to consistently lose weight My problem isn't meals and their potions, it is absent-minded snacking between. I'm finding it a lot harder to drop the few Kg I put on over 2019/2022/2021 (largely in 2020, when I like many had a bit of a mentally unstable few months and comfort eat a lot) than I found it to drop a few tens of Kg in 2015/2016.

treeman79 4y ago

Wife switched to calories counting a few years ago. It was shocking how small the portions were. She lost 90 pounds doing that in under a year.

trevorishere 4y ago

Went from 230 to ~155 without exercise by calorie restriction alone (600-1200cal/day). It IS possible, though likely unhealthy to accomplish without exercise (I never, ask they say, consulted a doctor prior to the self-imposed restriction). Exercise was uncomfortable until I had lost weight, now I can do 15+ mile hikes with a 60l backpack. I don't want to discourage anyone from doing exercise at any time in their goal for weight loss, but it is possible to lose weight by calorie restriction alone.

mikevm 4y ago
> Exercise was uncomfortable until I had lost weight, now I can do 15+ mile hikes with a 60l backpack. A simple walk on an incline (5km/hr @ 5% incline) can help you burn 400+kcals/hour. You can probably eat at 1500 kcals and start your day with a walk like that on the treadmill while watching some TV show :). > .. but it is possible to lose weight by calorie restriction alone. Indeed it is! :) If you're obese or severely overweight, it's best to just do a PSMF to lose weight as quickly as possible. Btw, at 230lbs you can easily do strength training which will help you with body recomp (stimulating muscle growth while burning fat). A good rule of thumb for a PSMF is 9.7x[protein intake]. For example: given 1.6g/kg*104kg = 166g of protein per day we get: 166g * 9.7 kcal/g = 1610 kcal. So your daily calories are at 1610 kcal max, and you need to eat at least 166g of protein (the rest of the calories can be filled with carbs/fat). I suggest min 50g of fat per day for men.
- bena 4y ago
  PSMF - Protein-Sparing Modified Fasting
- friedman23 4y ago
  Walking is the most under rated weight loss activity. People don't understand how many calories walking on an incline on a treadmill will shred if you are obese. When I was 220 pounds, walking at 10% incline at 2.6mph was 770 calories an hour. It is actually hard to eat at a calorie surplus when you are burning that many calories a day. If you want to lose weight you need to do one of the following Be hungry, Be in pain from exercise (running), or sacrifice all your free time to low intensity exercise I chose option 3 along with weight lifting and I don't regret it. Walking also has this really cool effect of not increasing ghrelin unlike high intensity cardio
gitfan86 4y ago
Where did you get the information that it is unhealthy for a 230 pound person to eat 1200 calories a day? I understand that sodium,potasium,etc.. are necessary, I'm just asking about why you think that the calories are a problem when 230 pounds?

bavell 4y ago

> To lose weight you have to do a lot more exercise than you think consistently. And you have to eat a lot less than you think. Exercise doesn't help very much, it's really all about diet. Plus if you are exercising a lot, you'll feel hungier and it'll be harder mentally to not eat more to compensate.

rnd420_69 4y ago
I lost 60lbs in about a year almost exclusively based around a large amount of exercise. My diet was bad and I was eating far above 2000kcal on many days. I just exercised a lot. 1h of fairly intense cardio at least 6 days a week, though I would always round up to the next 10 min mark and do more like 70 or 80 min per day. Some days I would order pizza or something and some dessert in the evening when I knew this would push me into the 3000kcal range and in return did 2h or 3h exercise routines fairly regularly, often times while eating the pizza.
- jonhohle 4y ago
  Depending on your weight, an hour of cardio is only 500 or so calories. Last night I showed my wife a hand with 5 Brazil nuts. That’s equivalent to a one mile run at my weight. Obviously different things work for different people, but no amount of cardio is going to offset a terrible diet for most people. Caloric deficit and intermittent fasting combined with exercise is the easiest and fastest way (imho) to get your body to start metabolizing fat stores.
  - stef25 4y ago
    My app and Google tell me running 6 miles in an hour burns 800+ calories.
    - jonhohle 4y ago
      Mass will affect the amount of calories burned.
  - Blackthorn 4y ago

javert 4y ago

> To lose weight you have to do a lot more exercise than you think consistently. And you have to eat a lot less than you think. I think this is a misleading cliche. I seem to have a lost a significant amount of weight just from eating less, without exercise. Which makes sense. It's amazing how many miles you'd have to run to burn the calories you get from a Big Mac. Basically, our food is super dense in calories, and our bodies are extremely efficient machines (meaning, they don't burn as many calories as you'd think when exercising). So, it should be much easier to lose weight by eating less than by exercising more. > Most people just don't have that kind of willpower. Most people aren't motivated enough. But "willpower" is a misleading and thus destructive way to describe motivation. You increase motivation by thinking about whether the positive thing you want is "worth" whatever you're doing to get it. In other words, staying focused on the value. You don't increase motivation by "exerting willpower." That whole concept for motivation is a recipe for failure.

ntlk 4y ago
A Big Mac is 563 calories. Hardly unreasonable for a meal.
- alistairSH 4y ago
  On its own maybe. But add large fries and a soda and it’s ~1300 calories. Way more than half most peoples daily requirement.
- tenebrisalietum 4y ago
  I see many get huge sodas with the Big Macs which is what pushes it to crazy amounts.

unicornporn 4y ago

Also: once a fat cell, always a fat cell. Not really, but... https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/your-fat-cells-never-disappear-making-future-weight-gain-more-likely https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/your-fat-cells-never... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18454136/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18454136/

magicalhippo 4y ago

> It's more like they DO NOT want to believe how small portion sizes are required to consistently lose weight. I found the same when I started counting calories. An extra slice of wholegrain bread is how much?! Even just a thin spread of butter or margarine on the bread would blow my daily budget by a lot, so I had to find alternatives for that (like mustard). Given my own preferences for having a "proper meal", I ended up only eating twice a day. I focused on making it high-protein and high-fiber to make me feel full longer, cutting down on regular carbs as needed.

dspillett 4y ago

> It's more like they DO NOT want to believe how small portion sizes are required to consistently lose weight. In the immortal words of Jasper Carrott: "This hole", points to mouth. "Is bigger than that hole", points to bottom. > they DO NOT want to believe how small portion sizes are required to consistently lose weight My problem isn't meals and their potions, it is absent-minded snacking between. I'm finding it a lot harder to drop the few Kg I put on over 2019/2022/2021 (largely in 2020, when I like many had a bit of a mentally unstable few months and comfort eat a lot) than I found it to drop a few tens of Kg in 2015/2016.