
You eat too much - jlees
http://www.kernelmag.com/features/report/6051/you-eat-too-much/#
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transfire
I am starting to think that eating less and exercising more isn't enough
either. I've done that and it doesn't seem to help. I've come to believe that
one has to eat an all organic diet to actually loose weight. I believe the
problem is that any amount of high fructose corn syrup, anti-biotic ridden
meat and other such ingredients simply make it impossible to loose weight.

~~~
adventured
That's not accurate. I just lost 20 pounds in two months, after hitting 197
(most I've ever weighed), without eating a single "organic" item (I had been
skinny my entire life, never had to worry about what I ate, then my metabolism
slowed down).

Three things made a huge difference: 1) never drink sugar or calories; 2)
eliminate all pastas and pizzas, and shift all bread on a limited intake basis
to very thin "flats" style bread (90 calories for the top + bottom), strictly
non-white bread; 3) consume more protein, lift weights (literally any effort
at all toward this, 30 mins a week), build muscle to improve idle calorie
burning. I do allow myself a cheat day if I want it.

Organic has nothing to do with the amount of sugar, protein, carbs, and
calories in something. That is what dictates weight gain or loss, what your
diet actually consists of and what you're burning.

The #1 thing you can do, if you're frustrated, is religiously count your
calories, and gradually reduce them on a weekly basis, until you find the
sweet spot of weight loss for your body + activity level. I bought a book of
large note cards, and for the first six to eight weeks I wrote down every
thing I ate and its calorie value, tallying each day. I was over-consuming
calories, due primarily to my love of pasta and pizza.

You should boost your metabolism and idle calorie burning by adding muscle,
it'll do a lot of work for you. High protein foods tend to be a lot more
filling. Cook up two chicken breasts and some brown rice, 500 calories and 90
grams of protein, and you won't want to eat for a month. Consume tons of
broccoli, it takes a lot of work for your body to digest, and it'll boost your
calorie burning while adding almost no calories.

I'm specifically not suggesting you do this, but it's a simple example: eat 6
chicken breasts per day, and nothing else but broccoli. You'll drop a ton of
fat weight, and you'll feel full. All on just 1,300 or so calories per day.
Whether they're organic or not will not matter, your body will dump weight
rapidly.

Your body has no choice but to lose weight if you reduce your calorie intake
below your calorie burn rate. Organic has absolutely nothing to do with it. If
you like to eat all organic, that's a bonus.

The only problem America has with obesity, is the lack of willingness to
restrain calorie and sugar intake.

~~~
okey
You say you wrote down everything you ate and its calorie value... what did
you base calorie count on in situations where you ate out? E.g. lunch with the
boss, &c. What degree of accuracy do you think is necessary?

~~~
adventured
There are two approaches to the eating out problem, and you can use both at
various times depending. First, don't eat out frequently unless you can be
certain what you're eating is very healthy and or calorie controlled. Second,
treat eating out as an exception, do it once a week, and eat almost whatever
you want. And have fun with it that way. It's not terribly hard to ballpark
that eating out meal on calories within a few hundred, and so long as you're
not talking about consuming 1,500+ calories in a meal, the deficit you run the
rest of the week can easily more than make up for it.

It takes a net deficit of about 3500 calories to lose one pound of fat (it's
not exact, but it's a close proximity). All calories aren't created equal, so
I'm assuming we're not talking about living on Dairy Queen blizzards here.

So once you find your equilibrium line on how many calories you can consume
for your lifestyle and general metabolism, just removing 500 junk calories per
day, will probably see you shed dozens of pounds in a year (if you're, say 50
or 60 pounds overweight). This wouldn't even require exercise, the calorie
deficit would drop the weight; any exercise would just make it easier, and
boost your ability to burn while resting.

If you often eat at a cafeteria at work, as another example, or anywhere on a
routine, you can likely find out specific calorie numbers for the things they
make there. And when all else fails, lots of foods are predictable on their
ballpark calorie numbers (eg a salad, chicken sandwich, slice of pizza, slice
of cheesecake, etc).

I really hated the calorie counting. It felt like a chore to me, but I was a
bit surprised by my weight gain, and didn't think I was eating that much. I
was 155 pounds at 25 years old circa 2005 (naturally skinny), and gradually
added 40 pounds of fat over the next 8 years as my metabolism slowed with age.
I simply couldn't burn off calories as quickly at rest.

My biggest advice on diet, regarding accuracy, is to use calorie counting
solely to identify how great your over-consumption is or is not, and what the
prime culprits are. Once you do that, throw them out of your diet, at least
until you gain control over your calorie intake without having to think about
it. The odds are, it's just two or three repeating things causing the problem
(eg drinking 3 sodas a day, or eating two pizzas a week). For me, instead of
particularly calorie dense take-out or frozen pizza, every two or three weeks
I'll make a thin crust whole wheat pizza at home; satisfies my craving for
pizza, and I can control exactly what it consists of.

Accuracy is very important when you're first taking an accounting of your
intake. You need to know what the exact problems are, and how many calories
you may be over-consuming. Eat your regular diet, and measure it before you
make changes. Once you acquire confident control over your diet and calorie
intake - it becomes pretty automated with practice - get rid of the calorie
counting, it's a torturous chore and is unnecessary after you change your
lifestyle / diet.

With a few specific changes, you'll find it's actually very hard to put on
weight. It's my opinion that the health / diet / fitness industries scare a
lot of people away by making things overly complex. It's really simple:

1) Identify and measure the calorie intake and discover what your biggest
couple problem children are (whether it's eating out, soda, candy, ice cream,
pasta, pizza etc)

2) Throw those things out, they're probably 3/4 of the problem. Replace them
with low calorie, higher protein foods that will be filling. Do not throw out
all of your diet, that's not necessary, will make changing much harder, and
you can make subtle adjustments as you go along.

3) Keep counting calories until you have a new lifestyle in place and can put
it all on automation, anywhere from a few weeks to a few months should do it

4) Swap in low or zero calorie, zero sugar items where you can. Even if you
just use this as a stop-gap, it helps a ton. And gradually reduce snacks and
candy intake, if that's a problem. Get sweets back to being a rare treat,
rather than a constant thing. Zero sugar, low calorie candies; diet soda; zero
sugar jello; zero sugar ice cream; high cocoa dark chocolate; you get the
idea.

I found there are an amazing number of options for replacement foods these
days. eg:

[http://www.amazon.com/Explore-Asian-Organic-
Spaghetti-7-05-O...](http://www.amazon.com/Explore-Asian-Organic-
Spaghetti-7-05-Ounce/dp/B004NSG8F6)

Black bean spaghetti in place of traditional pasta. It's not bad, and it's
very high in protein.

I occasionally snack on ostrich jerky, called Ostrim (protos-inc.com). 80
calories, it's a significant piece of jerky, and it has 14g of protein. I
snack on skim milk string cheese, 50 calories, 7g of protein. I swapped out
really shitty breakfast foods for greek yogurt, and I hate most greek yogurt
but I found one I really like the taste of that has a reasonable 7g of sugar
(yoplait vanilla, 100 calories, 13g of protein); some greek yogurts are like
candy bars these days with sugar. I eat almonds every day as a snack, and
replaced peanut butter with almond butter (still high'ish in calories so I use
less of it, but it's much healthier).

5) Boost protein intake reasonably. It can be as simple as eating some extra
tuna or salmon, black beans, or egg beaters. I don't like protein shakes for
example, so I find my protein intake in food. Lift some weights to add muscle,
even on a very limited basis. This will not only meaningfully reduce your risk
of diabetes, but the muscle you add will do a lot of work for you. Cardio is
fine of course too if that's your thing. The muscle you add will act as a
shield against your ability to gain weight again.

