4 ms·

OP commented on a weight-loss scheme of eating every other day. Given the social attitudes around eating (which I suspect to be the #1 most common social activi

OP commented on a weight-loss scheme of eating every other day. Given the social attitudes around eating (which I suspect to be the #1 most common social activity), this alone has the obvious potential to eliminate ~%50 of the most likely socializing opportunities.

tyleo 4y ago
I agree that eating every other day would be socially isolating but OP stated he ate every other day 7 years after his original bout of weight loss which he said he did, “the old fashioned way.”
HDThoreaun 4y ago
They said every other day was easier than "normal" dieting.
nsxwolf 4y ago
You can plan your fasting days around it. If you have some crazy social schedule, maybe this doesn't work. But I don't go out every night.
- cactusplant7374 4y ago
  I find fasting depressing. It makes me incredibly anxious.
- pfisch 4y ago
  Sounds convenient...
grogenaut 4y ago
If you're not eating every other day you can still go to the eating place and sit with folks. Also you can just talk more since they have to eat and you don't. Sounds like MORE socializing.
- ClumsyPilot 4y ago
  This is funny, so the more you talk, the more you are socialising, and if you are listening, you are not socialising? Also since taunting yourself with food is not a concern, you assume your willpower and concentration is perfect, you never need safety precautions! You can go work on high voltage cables 80 meters in the air without rubber gloves or safety harness - since you are more agile without gloves, and you save time by not needing to move around the carabiner, you will be more productive! Don't wear a seatbelt, a helmet, remove airbags, sell your protective gear! Don't buy insurance! Remove safety from your gun! Store your bleach, poisons and fruit juice in identical containers! Leave sharp object lying around on the floor! Don't make spare copies of house keys!
- astura 4y ago
  People feel really uncomfortable sitting down to have a meal with someone who isn't eating.
  - nerdbert 4y ago
    Being the only person eating can feel weird, but if I'm one person among a group I don't feel strange not eating and I've never picked up that it was strange for anyone else. Sometimes I don't feel like eating, and I don't force myself.
- refurb 4y ago
  Why not just order something with no calories. If I go out for a meal and I'm not hungry, I'll get a salad. It's like 50 kcal. I eat, get a bunch of vitamins, and socialize.
- komali2 4y ago
  > If you're not eating every other day you can still go to the eating place and sit with folks. It sounds like you can't really sympathize because you haven't experienced this, but I can help you empathize if you're interested. Context, I've moved from between 16% and 30% bodyfat several times in the last 15 years, I've struggled with weight my whole life. For some overweight people, like me, there's a high willpower cost to avoiding food that's present. A strategy for weightloss that's worked for me is to simply remove all snacks from the house, and when I order food, order an appetizer only, or, if I'm with someone, slide half my food onto their plate. If I have to, I'll try to eat half, and then right away ask the waiter to box up the rest or whatever. Seems silly, right? Why not just take a look at my plate, make a rational evaluation of the calories there, and only eat until I hit within my calorie budget? I'm perfectly capable of making that calculation, I've been counting calories for a decade, I'm pretty darn accurate at this point. So why don't I just do that? Why don't I just work out every day? Why don't I just study my mandarin flashcards every day like I know I need to? Why don't I always put my clothes away as soon as I take them out of my dryer? I don't have a catchall answer, all I know is that for whatever reason, some or all humans have gaps between their ideal self and their true self, and sometimes you gotta do silly tricks to jump those gaps. A silly trick that works for me is keeping food I shouldn't eat, out of site. So TLDR when I'm hardcore dieting, going to an eating place with the intention of not eating is an extremely exhausting exercise. There's many opportunities for me to fail there, from when I sit down everyone's looking at the menu (maybe if I just get something small, maybe if I just eat half it's ok) through to when food and drinks come (well I can snack on some of the shared appetizer, that's no big deal). I will quite literally catch my eyes darting from whoever I'm conversing with to a plate of fries again and again. Every single time it happens I have to tell myself "no," with the full list of rational reasons why that "no" is more important than my impulsive desire borne from both hunger and just like, mouth boredom or whatever, to eat the fry. So knowing that about myself, when I'm hardcore dieting, I just try to avoid setting myself up to fail like that, and thus, it's a socially isolating time. Especially when I lived in the USA and outside of like, rock climbing and motorcycling, there was basically no time people got together that didn't involve food, cause you had to drive or whatever and your hangout time would probably overlap with a meal or two.

tyleo 4y ago

I agree that eating every other day would be socially isolating but OP stated he ate every other day 7 years after his original bout of weight loss which he said he did, “the old fashioned way.”

HDThoreaun 4y ago

They said every other day was easier than "normal" dieting.

nsxwolf 4y ago

You can plan your fasting days around it. If you have some crazy social schedule, maybe this doesn't work. But I don't go out every night.

cactusplant7374 4y ago
I find fasting depressing. It makes me incredibly anxious.
pfisch 4y ago
Sounds convenient...

grogenaut 4y ago

If you're not eating every other day you can still go to the eating place and sit with folks. Also you can just talk more since they have to eat and you don't. Sounds like MORE socializing.

ClumsyPilot 4y ago
This is funny, so the more you talk, the more you are socialising, and if you are listening, you are not socialising? Also since taunting yourself with food is not a concern, you assume your willpower and concentration is perfect, you never need safety precautions! You can go work on high voltage cables 80 meters in the air without rubber gloves or safety harness - since you are more agile without gloves, and you save time by not needing to move around the carabiner, you will be more productive! Don't wear a seatbelt, a helmet, remove airbags, sell your protective gear! Don't buy insurance! Remove safety from your gun! Store your bleach, poisons and fruit juice in identical containers! Leave sharp object lying around on the floor! Don't make spare copies of house keys!
astura 4y ago
People feel really uncomfortable sitting down to have a meal with someone who isn't eating.
- nerdbert 4y ago
  Being the only person eating can feel weird, but if I'm one person among a group I don't feel strange not eating and I've never picked up that it was strange for anyone else. Sometimes I don't feel like eating, and I don't force myself.
refurb 4y ago
Why not just order something with no calories. If I go out for a meal and I'm not hungry, I'll get a salad. It's like 50 kcal. I eat, get a bunch of vitamins, and socialize.
komali2 4y ago
> If you're not eating every other day you can still go to the eating place and sit with folks. It sounds like you can't really sympathize because you haven't experienced this, but I can help you empathize if you're interested. Context, I've moved from between 16% and 30% bodyfat several times in the last 15 years, I've struggled with weight my whole life. For some overweight people, like me, there's a high willpower cost to avoiding food that's present. A strategy for weightloss that's worked for me is to simply remove all snacks from the house, and when I order food, order an appetizer only, or, if I'm with someone, slide half my food onto their plate. If I have to, I'll try to eat half, and then right away ask the waiter to box up the rest or whatever. Seems silly, right? Why not just take a look at my plate, make a rational evaluation of the calories there, and only eat until I hit within my calorie budget? I'm perfectly capable of making that calculation, I've been counting calories for a decade, I'm pretty darn accurate at this point. So why don't I just do that? Why don't I just work out every day? Why don't I just study my mandarin flashcards every day like I know I need to? Why don't I always put my clothes away as soon as I take them out of my dryer? I don't have a catchall answer, all I know is that for whatever reason, some or all humans have gaps between their ideal self and their true self, and sometimes you gotta do silly tricks to jump those gaps. A silly trick that works for me is keeping food I shouldn't eat, out of site. So TLDR when I'm hardcore dieting, going to an eating place with the intention of not eating is an extremely exhausting exercise. There's many opportunities for me to fail there, from when I sit down everyone's looking at the menu (maybe if I just get something small, maybe if I just eat half it's ok) through to when food and drinks come (well I can snack on some of the shared appetizer, that's no big deal). I will quite literally catch my eyes darting from whoever I'm conversing with to a plate of fries again and again. Every single time it happens I have to tell myself "no," with the full list of rational reasons why that "no" is more important than my impulsive desire borne from both hunger and just like, mouth boredom or whatever, to eat the fry. So knowing that about myself, when I'm hardcore dieting, I just try to avoid setting myself up to fail like that, and thus, it's a socially isolating time. Especially when I lived in the USA and outside of like, rock climbing and motorcycling, there was basically no time people got together that didn't involve food, cause you had to drive or whatever and your hangout time would probably overlap with a meal or two.