

Advice for Successful Dieting - dmd149
http://dalethoughts.com/2012/02/advice-for-successful-dieting/

======
steve8918
There really is no secret to losing weight. It's very simple: eat less,
exercise more.

The food being served in developed countries are highly processed, and make us
very prone to gaining weight. Highly processed carbs turn into blood sugar
very easily, and if you live a sedentary lifestyle, like most of us, then that
blood sugar gets turned into body fat. It's very basic biochemistry. The
reason why we are eating highly-processed carbs is because food manufacturers
get a high profit margin from feeding us from pre-processed food rather than
original ingredients.

If you want to lose weight, the key is to either burn the blood sugar by
exercising, or by denying your body the blood sugar in the first place,
through a low-highly-processed carb diet.

But what that entails is rejecting the current 21st century lifestyle of
eating quick, convenient meals, and working so much that you spend your entire
life in front of a computer. You really need to change your lifestyle in order
to lose weight and have a healthier body.

I spent several years working and doing nothing after college and gaining
massive weight (over 50 lbs). About 8 years ago, I decided to lose weight, and
just by exercising and eating marginally less, I went down down about 20 lbs.
But the vast amount of my weight loss came when I did the South Beach diet,
and lost another 30 lbs. That's when I realized how terrible highly processed
carbs are.

I kept that weight off for about 3 years, until I started focusing on side
projects and working about 16 hrs a day in total. I stopped exercising
completely for the last 3 years and since then, I've gained back about 20 lbs.

My goal this year is to lose those 20 lbs (actually in the next 4 months,
fingers crossed), and to work less. I've already started cooking the majority
of our meals, and having complete control of the ingredients helps a lot.

~~~
dmd149
Congratulations on your weight loss. I agree, the basic formula is simple.
However, there are definitely some behaviors and environments that are more
conducive to eating less.

Same thing with exercise. There are some environments that lead to more
exercise. When I studied abroad in France, I lost a lot of weight because I
walked everywhere and ate less overall.

Good luck with your last 20 pounds!

------
omegant
+1 on everything on the post. I lost 17 kg on the paleo diet( net loss, as I
have gained a fair amount of muscle following gymnastic bodies WODs), but it's
sometimes difficult to follow when you are traveling a lot, as I do. You don't
realize how the vast majority of food you find on bars, cafeteria and
restaurants is based on wheat or sugar till you try to avoid them!

Since january i am following a semipaleo Lean gains diet( semi paleo in the
sense that I mostly avoid grains and sugar, but drink some milk or have some
pasta or a cookie every now and then). I had regained some 4 kgs before
chrismas due to really poor diet( only 3 months that I didn't take care of the
diet and ...bam!). Now I've managed to lose 2 kgs and improved strenght(only
cardio is 15 min once or twice a week as active recovery). Definetely
experiencing a nice body recomposition... Lets see if I can get to 10% body
fat this way...( now I am more on the 20% :/

------
Urgo
Some good tips here, thanks. Shameless plug to follow..

For me I've just started back up on the diet thing but I use a gadget called a
fitbit to help me. I did this a couple years back and it worked really well.
Basically the fitbit (an internet connected pedometer basically) logs all my
steps and calories burned during the day and I log the food I eat and as long
as I keep burning more then I eat weight loss! Have already lost about 2 1/2
lbs since I started back up on this a week ago.

Ok now the shameless plug.. I'm running a contest on youtube right now
sponsored by fitbit if anyone wants to win one:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cWEn0RF3-Q>

~~~
pors
Yeah fitbit is great. If you follow a calorie counting diet it helps you by
adjusting the allowed amount of calories based on how much you move. It is
also an amazing motivator to get off your butt.

------
Almaviva
I would add that you need to be realistic about what is possible. Realize you
can easily fluctuate your weight plus or minus ten pounds. A pound of water
isn't very much, and your body's glycogen stores plus water can amount to 5-10
pounds. So low carb dieting will lead to weight loss of that much very quickly
as you use this up.

Don't succumb, like this article does, by treating this as meaningful or
sustainable. Realistically, a pound of fat loss in a week is extremely good,
and amounts to a 3500 Calorie deficit. Most people can't do much better than
this without quite extreme measures, so you can not get demotivated when a
5-10 pound loss in the first week doesn't continue.

~~~
dmd149
Yea the water weight with low carb diets is significant. With cheat days on
slow carb diet I'd usually gain back anywhere between 3-5 pounds.

I find that I generally feel better overall when I eat less carbs. My advice,
however, is applicable to whatever diet you choose.

------
ccanassa
> 3\. Your environment is stronger than your willpower.

False.

I lost 30kg last year and this article goes against mant things I learned
during this process.

Losing weight is all about willpower. People are solving the wrong problem.
Instead of trying to find the perfect diet you should be trying to increase
your willpower.

Felling hungry is inevitable, sure you can eat veggies until you are bloated
(like the article suggest) but you will still fell hungry when you see someone
eating a pizza.

~~~
dmd149
That's great you lost 30 kg.

>Felling hungry is inevitable, sure you can eat veggies until you are bloated
(like the article suggest) but you will still fell hungry when you see someone
eating a pizza.

The idea is that when you get a pizza craving from someone eating pizza,
you're in an environment where you don't have pizza available to you.

What kind of things did you learn when you lost all your weight?

------
sayemm
Best book on fat loss and getting ripped is Tom Venuto's "Burn the Fat, Feed
the Muscle" - <http://www.burnthefat.com>

It's around 500 pages, but once you read it, you'll never have to read another
book diet/nutrition. This book, and the title, explains it all.

~~~
pors
Yuk, this page hit me with a "don't leave this page" alert when I closed the
window. A good book will sell itself.

------
amac
I posted this a while back:

Eat Like A Caveman To Lose Weight

<http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/237563.php>

It's obvious, but missing from the title is the fact you also need to add
exercise.

------
mitchie_luna
What an interesting article! I want to try this one. I really want to lose
some pounds. Im on calorie counting recently but sometimes I am not in the
mood to list all the food I ate for a day. I hope this will help me. I want to
lose 20 to 40 pounds before the year ends.

~~~
dmd149
Yea calorie counting is a pain. Which diet were you thinking about trying?
Slow carb or intermittent fasting?

~~~
mitchie_luna
I think I would try the slow carb, it looks interesting to me. I hope this
will be effective to me.

~~~
dmd149
Awesome. I look forward to hearing how you like it.

