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His Hacker’s Diet really helped me out 15 years ago or so. Cheers John https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker%27s_Diet https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_

by peblos 3y ago

His Hacker’s Diet really helped me out 15 years ago or so. Cheers John https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker%27s_Diet https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker%27s_Diet

btilly 3y ago
Likewise, but more like 20 years ago for me. Kept it off for many years as well. I should do that again actually. Gained some weight during COVID.
masto 3y ago
Me too, though it was more like 25 years. If someone asked me "who is your hero", I would answer John Walker. To be honest, I didn't know all that much about him beyond The Hacker's Diet, his own autobiography/Autodesk File, and the stuff on his web site circa 15-20 years ago. But the things I did know seemed admirable: * He was an engineer's engineer, and when his company became successful, the impression I got was that he stayed one. * The Hacker's Diet is a good example - approaching weight loss as a problem to be solved the same as any other: by learning what's known about it and using empiricism and data. * As far as I can tell, at some point he decided he had achieved all the money he needed so he went off to Switzerland and became a sort of mad scientist, pursuing whatever interested him for the rest of his life. Including things like the hotbits random number generator, where he installed a radiation source in his basement and used it to serve random bits up via a public web API. None of us are perfect, and it's best not to know too much about one's heroes, so I didn't. I looked up to the John Walker in my mind as the person I want to be when I grow up, and this sad news hits hard.
- paulpauper 3y ago
  It's basic CICO, from having skimmed it. The problem is this type of diet has the greatest likelihood of failing. CICO is hard to maintain. Eventually willpower fails and gradual overeating begins, leading to surprisingly large and abrupt weight regain. Being persistently hungry all the time just sucks. Some of the stuff is possibly wrong, like this There's a lot of nonsense floating around regarding exercise and weight control. The only way to lose weight is to eat less than your body burns. Period. Exercising causes your body to burn more, but few people have the time or inclination to exercise enough to make a big difference. An hour of jogging is worth about one Cheese Whopper. Now, are you going to really spend an hour on the road every day just to burn off that extra burger? There is scant to zero literature to suggest exercising raises metabolism. Recent research by Herman Pontzer shows the opposite, that calories burned with exercise are negated later through lowered BMR and NEAT. So if you do a 400-calorie run and then eat a 400 calorie cookie, you will still get a net 400 gain, or close to it.
  - masto 3y ago
    There’s a time and a place, man. Well actuallying on an obituary isn’t it.
  - peblos 3y ago
    Didn't want to delve into it in the original comment but what you mention is correct and is one of the reasons I mentioned how far back this was. I haven't read Herman Pontzer's recent research, I'd equate to becoming a more efficient runner; as efficiency increases energy demands are reduced. Some of today's research just didn't exist when this was written. Of course, some of the advice was already debatable by the time I got to read it in the mid-late 00's, but that can be said for a lot of health and fitness advice even today. I didn't follow it proscriptively. What it did do was give me a different approach to tackling it as a problem and was the first resource I had read that helped in that regard. Everything else was very much eat less of this and more of that Like thread's asking which book/resource to use when learning to code, there are many good examples out there. Not all are perfect, and some are occasionally wrong but like that example, this was the one that stuck with me.
    - zikzak 3y ago
      Something most people miss, as it is only briefly mentioned, is he was eating on big meal each day after work. That's basically like 20/2 intermittent fasting. It definitely would have had an effect on his metabolism and insulin resistance. It's not a dictum, he just gives an anecdote and mentions it. I was reviewing HD a few years ago to see if it still held up against current, prevailing wisdom and noticed this. Kind of blew my mind.
  - kiba 3y ago
    There is scant to zero literature to suggest exercising raises metabolism. Recent research by Herman Pontzer shows the opposite, that calories burned with exercise are negated later through lowered BMR and NEAT. So if you do a 400-calorie run and then eat a 400 calorie cookie, you will still get a net 400 gain, or close to it. You could achieve a constant NEAT by having a daily step goal or some prescribed amount of activities outside your exercise routine. I am supposed to do 2 hours of exercise per day plus give or take 10K steps. This can easily make me extremely active by American standard. Now, surely your BMR will compensate, but probably only to a certain point. In the end, it's probably easier to just eat healthy and eat less rather than trying to increase your caloric expenditure, but that's also rather hard to do for a variety of reasons.
hobabaObama 3y ago
For anyone wanting to read this book https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/introduction.html https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/introduction.html
- fermentation 3y ago
  Anyone else feel a little weird reading the section about exercise? > You exercise because you'll live longer and you'll feel better. It's a little depressing that despite a good diet and exercise, he had a slightly shorter than average lifespan. When I put in the effort to eat well and exercise, I know I certainly have the mindset that it will extend my life. I hope that at the least he felt strong and healthy.
  - jdougan 3y ago
    He died from an accident. Stairs can be hazardous.
    - dredmorbius 3y ago
      Source?
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - jdougan 3y ago
        Private forum post at Scanalyst. I accidentally posted a ref on HN to it earlier not noticing it was not public.
        dredmorbius 3y ago
        Thanks.
      - s0lar 3y ago
        [dead]
paulpauper 3y ago
it even has a wiki devoted to it? Seems a tad overdone but I guess it meets the criteria of notability.
38 3y ago
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker's_Diet https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker's_Diet
snthpy 3y ago
Same here. Thank you John!
AdeptusAquinas 3y ago
I was put on it by nuwen.net, went from 110 to 80 some 15 years ago, changed my life. RIP

by peblos 3y ago

His Hacker’s Diet really helped me out 15 years ago or so. Cheers John https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker%27s_Diet https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker%27s_Diet

btilly 3y ago

Likewise, but more like 20 years ago for me. Kept it off for many years as well. I should do that again actually. Gained some weight during COVID.

masto 3y ago

Me too, though it was more like 25 years. If someone asked me "who is your hero", I would answer John Walker. To be honest, I didn't know all that much about him beyond The Hacker's Diet, his own autobiography/Autodesk File, and the stuff on his web site circa 15-20 years ago. But the things I did know seemed admirable: * He was an engineer's engineer, and when his company became successful, the impression I got was that he stayed one. * The Hacker's Diet is a good example - approaching weight loss as a problem to be solved the same as any other: by learning what's known about it and using empiricism and data. * As far as I can tell, at some point he decided he had achieved all the money he needed so he went off to Switzerland and became a sort of mad scientist, pursuing whatever interested him for the rest of his life. Including things like the hotbits random number generator, where he installed a radiation source in his basement and used it to serve random bits up via a public web API. None of us are perfect, and it's best not to know too much about one's heroes, so I didn't. I looked up to the John Walker in my mind as the person I want to be when I grow up, and this sad news hits hard.

paulpauper 3y ago
It's basic CICO, from having skimmed it. The problem is this type of diet has the greatest likelihood of failing. CICO is hard to maintain. Eventually willpower fails and gradual overeating begins, leading to surprisingly large and abrupt weight regain. Being persistently hungry all the time just sucks. Some of the stuff is possibly wrong, like this There's a lot of nonsense floating around regarding exercise and weight control. The only way to lose weight is to eat less than your body burns. Period. Exercising causes your body to burn more, but few people have the time or inclination to exercise enough to make a big difference. An hour of jogging is worth about one Cheese Whopper. Now, are you going to really spend an hour on the road every day just to burn off that extra burger? There is scant to zero literature to suggest exercising raises metabolism. Recent research by Herman Pontzer shows the opposite, that calories burned with exercise are negated later through lowered BMR and NEAT. So if you do a 400-calorie run and then eat a 400 calorie cookie, you will still get a net 400 gain, or close to it.
- masto 3y ago
  There’s a time and a place, man. Well actuallying on an obituary isn’t it.
- peblos 3y ago
  Didn't want to delve into it in the original comment but what you mention is correct and is one of the reasons I mentioned how far back this was. I haven't read Herman Pontzer's recent research, I'd equate to becoming a more efficient runner; as efficiency increases energy demands are reduced. Some of today's research just didn't exist when this was written. Of course, some of the advice was already debatable by the time I got to read it in the mid-late 00's, but that can be said for a lot of health and fitness advice even today. I didn't follow it proscriptively. What it did do was give me a different approach to tackling it as a problem and was the first resource I had read that helped in that regard. Everything else was very much eat less of this and more of that Like thread's asking which book/resource to use when learning to code, there are many good examples out there. Not all are perfect, and some are occasionally wrong but like that example, this was the one that stuck with me.
  - zikzak 3y ago
    Something most people miss, as it is only briefly mentioned, is he was eating on big meal each day after work. That's basically like 20/2 intermittent fasting. It definitely would have had an effect on his metabolism and insulin resistance. It's not a dictum, he just gives an anecdote and mentions it. I was reviewing HD a few years ago to see if it still held up against current, prevailing wisdom and noticed this. Kind of blew my mind.
- kiba 3y ago
  There is scant to zero literature to suggest exercising raises metabolism. Recent research by Herman Pontzer shows the opposite, that calories burned with exercise are negated later through lowered BMR and NEAT. So if you do a 400-calorie run and then eat a 400 calorie cookie, you will still get a net 400 gain, or close to it. You could achieve a constant NEAT by having a daily step goal or some prescribed amount of activities outside your exercise routine. I am supposed to do 2 hours of exercise per day plus give or take 10K steps. This can easily make me extremely active by American standard. Now, surely your BMR will compensate, but probably only to a certain point. In the end, it's probably easier to just eat healthy and eat less rather than trying to increase your caloric expenditure, but that's also rather hard to do for a variety of reasons.

hobabaObama 3y ago

For anyone wanting to read this book https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/introduction.html https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/introduction.html

fermentation 3y ago
Anyone else feel a little weird reading the section about exercise? > You exercise because you'll live longer and you'll feel better. It's a little depressing that despite a good diet and exercise, he had a slightly shorter than average lifespan. When I put in the effort to eat well and exercise, I know I certainly have the mindset that it will extend my life. I hope that at the least he felt strong and healthy.
- jdougan 3y ago
  He died from an accident. Stairs can be hazardous.
  - dredmorbius 3y ago
    Source?
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - jdougan 3y ago
      Private forum post at Scanalyst. I accidentally posted a ref on HN to it earlier not noticing it was not public.
      - dredmorbius 3y ago
        Thanks.
    - s0lar 3y ago
      [dead]

paulpauper 3y ago

it even has a wiki devoted to it? Seems a tad overdone but I guess it meets the criteria of notability.

38 3y ago

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker's_Diet https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker's_Diet

snthpy 3y ago

Same here. Thank you John!

AdeptusAquinas 3y ago

I was put on it by nuwen.net, went from 110 to 80 some 15 years ago, changed my life. RIP