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The body can compensate at the margins. Eat 5 fewer calories per day and you will see zero change. Eat 500 fewer calories per day, consistently every day, and y

The body can compensate at the margins. Eat 5 fewer calories per day and you will see zero change. Eat 500 fewer calories per day, consistently every day, and you will absolutely see changes. (I'm not actually suggesting that it would be _healthy_ or advisable to drop your diet by 500 calories -- just pointing out that the body cannot compensate indefinitely.)

bluGill 2y ago
The compensation is often lower energy levels. Your body compensates by keeping you from doing as much.
- nemomarx 2y ago
  yeah, you want to force yourself to do some activities that keep your metabolism up along with the restrictions you can't exercise out of a bad diet but exercise is a helpful supplement to a good diet too. it's just that making yourself do it when you're tired and hungry is draining.
  - colechristensen 2y ago
    >you can't exercise out of a bad diet You can, but it's not easy. People who exercise _a lot_ often have trouble eating enough calories. 5,000 to 10,000 calories a day is hard to eat and not out of reach. I knew a guy who was drinking a gallon of whole milk a day for a while to try to maintain weight.
    - nemomarx 2y ago
      I really can't imagine having the energy to burn 10k a day - what kinda workload were they doing?
      - bluGill 2y ago
        If you have a real chance to win the gold in the Olympics in most events you have to be working out that much. Even if you end up coming in last of the serious competitors just the workload to be a serious competitor will be 10k+ per day. At that level training is your full time job though.
  - makeitdouble 2y ago
    One of the traps is mental health. People focus on their body when dieting, but there are far more aspects to manage, and forcing themselves to do things they utterly hate will have wider impacts. At the end of the day they'll blame will power or motivation or whatever else on why the diet failed, but still won't account for these same factors when trying the next diet involving basically the same mechanics.

bluGill 2y ago

The compensation is often lower energy levels. Your body compensates by keeping you from doing as much.

nemomarx 2y ago
yeah, you want to force yourself to do some activities that keep your metabolism up along with the restrictions you can't exercise out of a bad diet but exercise is a helpful supplement to a good diet too. it's just that making yourself do it when you're tired and hungry is draining.
- colechristensen 2y ago
  >you can't exercise out of a bad diet You can, but it's not easy. People who exercise _a lot_ often have trouble eating enough calories. 5,000 to 10,000 calories a day is hard to eat and not out of reach. I knew a guy who was drinking a gallon of whole milk a day for a while to try to maintain weight.
  - nemomarx 2y ago
    I really can't imagine having the energy to burn 10k a day - what kinda workload were they doing?
    - bluGill 2y ago
      If you have a real chance to win the gold in the Olympics in most events you have to be working out that much. Even if you end up coming in last of the serious competitors just the workload to be a serious competitor will be 10k+ per day. At that level training is your full time job though.
- makeitdouble 2y ago
  One of the traps is mental health. People focus on their body when dieting, but there are far more aspects to manage, and forcing themselves to do things they utterly hate will have wider impacts. At the end of the day they'll blame will power or motivation or whatever else on why the diet failed, but still won't account for these same factors when trying the next diet involving basically the same mechanics.