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It seems like calorie counting would be a good first-line treatment for difficulty controlling one's appetite. This requires a fair amount of discipline, but it

It seems like calorie counting would be a good first-line treatment for difficulty controlling one's appetite. This requires a fair amount of discipline, but it's also free of side effects and tools already exist to help you. Do you think at least knowing A) what your basal metabolic rate is, and B) knowing how many calories you're eating (and consuming via exercise) is effective in combating this misfire in a body's signals? I think a lot of the resistance to this is people are worried that the first-line treatment will be things like drugs, which can be expensive (to society, since costs are largely socialized even in the U.S. through the mechanism of health insurance) and have side effects. Look at, say, jrs235's comment ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5912203 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5912203 ) elsewhere on this page. That's a valid concern. But obesity also comes with a lot of costs itself. If calorie counting is an effective approach, I think that it could address the problem in a cost-effective way. (And in a software way, too.)

uberalex 13y ago
I calorie count, that's how I get through the day. However, it's worth noting that calorie counting is a depressing thing to do. I've experienced very much the feelings that I read about for diabetics (type 1) and people who are severely impoverished. Every cost has to be counted, every extravagance planned for, every unexpected event has to be compensated for. I overate at the start of the week, so I need to cut back at the end. It's difficult to count calories when I don't have the figures, which means I can no longer be the spontaneous social eater I want to be. I miss that badly. I like to say it's like going from never having to think about how much money you spent to having to count every.single.penny. It's not 'I should skip that holiday in the maldives this year', it's 'Can I afford that trivial expenditure (a single piece of fruit) today? will I be too hungry to sleep if I cut that out of tonight's dinner?'
uberalex 13y ago
Another thing is how hard it actually is to know your BMR, and expenditure. Most foods have vast variation in nutritional content, and post-obese people have a great ability to put on weight (up to 30% lower calorie requirement, which is a hell of a lot when you are already cut down).

uberalex 13y ago

I calorie count, that's how I get through the day. However, it's worth noting that calorie counting is a depressing thing to do. I've experienced very much the feelings that I read about for diabetics (type 1) and people who are severely impoverished. Every cost has to be counted, every extravagance planned for, every unexpected event has to be compensated for. I overate at the start of the week, so I need to cut back at the end. It's difficult to count calories when I don't have the figures, which means I can no longer be the spontaneous social eater I want to be. I miss that badly. I like to say it's like going from never having to think about how much money you spent to having to count every.single.penny. It's not 'I should skip that holiday in the maldives this year', it's 'Can I afford that trivial expenditure (a single piece of fruit) today? will I be too hungry to sleep if I cut that out of tonight's dinner?'

uberalex 13y ago

Another thing is how hard it actually is to know your BMR, and expenditure. Most foods have vast variation in nutritional content, and post-obese people have a great ability to put on weight (up to 30% lower calorie requirement, which is a hell of a lot when you are already cut down).