
What I learned from reading over 100 weight loss studies - willsun
https://www.intentapp.com/blog/weight-loss-cost/
======
mirceal
The weight loss is not really what matters. anybody can lose weight. with a
little education you can do it. the problem is doing it in a sustainable way
and to actually keep it off.

the hardest part about weight loss is keeping it off. you have limited will
power and unless you are willing to change the way you live your efforts are
in vain. Sure it may make you feel good about yourself and your journey but
it's doomed to fail.

i'm going to repeat this: if you are not willing to adjust your lifestyle and
consistently make the better choices when it comes to diet you will fail.

also, weight loss in 90% kitchen, 10% gym. Do go to the gym, but if you are
eating unhealthy it's not going to matter.

LE: while we're on this subject. If there is one thing you can do today that
will have a positive impact on you for the rest of your life is to stop eating
sugar and refined carbs. If you only do one change to how you eat and you do
this, in the long run, you'll be most successful than 95% of "dieters". Also
keep in mind that this is a marathon, not a sprint.

~~~
Negitivefrags
The hardest part of dieting is realising that in order to keep it off, you
will have to continue like that forever.

In the back of your mind, you want to think that the diet is temporary. Once
you have lost the weight, you can go back to eating all the great tasting
foods that you ate before.

True success is the acceptance that, no, your life will be worse in very real
ways. You will no longer be able to just eat whenever you feel like it. You
will no longer be able to eat until you are full, ever again. And you have to
accept that this trade-off is worth it.

~~~
chongli
_True success is the acceptance that, no, your life will be worse in very real
ways. You will no longer be able to just eat whenever you feel like it. You
will no longer be able to eat until you are full, ever again._

None of these things are true. With a good diet and exercise, you will feel
better and be happier, with way more energy. That makes your life better, not
worse.

As another commenter mentioned, abstaining from sweets increases your
sensitivity to sweetness. If you go long enough, you'll find most candy
cloying rather than addictive. So throw away those cheap, mass market candy
bars. By some expensive dark chocolate candy from a reputable chocolatier. Eat
one piece instead of a whole bunch and just take your time to enjoy the
flavours. It is sooooo much better!

The way I see people (including myself at times) eat candy bars and potato
chips bears more resemblance to a starving dog than a human who really enjoys
good food. Stop being a dog! Take your time and enjoy something really good
instead of swallowing a whole bunch of junk in front of Netflix.

~~~
Negitivefrags
> None of these things are true. With a good diet and exercise, you will feel
> better and be happier, with way more energy. That makes your life better,
> not worse.

I never said your life won’t be better overall. I said it will be worse in
real ways.

Eating pizza, Soda and so on are awesome. There is a reason these foods are
popular. No amount of pretending is going to make that not true, and a life
where you could eat them with no downsides would be better.

~~~
holri
> Eating pizza, Soda and so on are awesome

It depends what you are used to eat. A few years ago I would have agreed that
pizza and Soda is great. But today after changing my live style I cook for
myself fresh vegetables from CSA and small bio farms I do not like pizza and
all the crap any more. That goes so far that I can not go to restaurants
anymore, because 95% of them serve crap for my todays taste.

~~~
pluma
> That goes so far that I can not go to restaurants anymore

I would call that a direct impact to quality of life (if only because you're
missing out on the social experience), which is the exact point the GP made.

~~~
holri
There are some restaurants with high quality food. And I enjoy them. After all
my quality of live is way better than before. My social experience improved
because I met interesting people with the same interest / taste at my local
Foodcoop for example.

------
rdm_blackhole
A couple of years ago I found myself weighing 250lbs. Basically morbidly
obese.

I decided to change that. I went through all the food I bought during the week
and decided to do some culling.

I removed anything with sugar and replaced it with Stevia. Removed the soft
drinks, alcohol, and carbs.

I follow this diet 6 days a week. One day a week, I indulge myself: a pizza or
burrito or have a few beers.

I also go to the gym 5 times a week. Run 5k in 25 minutes plus one hour of
weight lifting. Nothing to intense mind you.

I have lost nearly 80lbs with the last 24 months. The trick is to do it slow
and steady.

I always cringe when I read about the latest fad diet: Lose 5 lbs in one week
or some crap like that!

In the end, it takes time and will to achieve results but once you get into a
routine, if very easy to keep going.

During my holidays, I usually drink, smoke and eat whatever I want but as soon
as I get back home, I go back to my routine.

Some people think that this is boring but honestly, unless you are an athlete
competing at a high level, you don't need to eat carbs every day.

This is just my experience. Results may vary.

~~~
sridca
Fasting is the ultimate weight loss tool. It also facilitates (muscle) growth
and healing.

~~~
Jaruzel
It also can put a strain on your organs if you are not too healthy. Consult a
Doctor before trying it.

~~~
sridca
Any references for that claim (assuming 5 days water fast or less)?

~~~
bildung
"[I]ntermittent fasting diets may actually damage the pancreas and affect
insulin function in normal healthy individuals, which could lead to diabetes
and serious health issues."
([https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/may/20/fasting-
diet...](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/may/20/fasting-diets-raise-
risk-of-diabetes))

The National Council Against Health Fraud "strongly advises against the use of
prolonged fasting for health purposes, and believes that requiring children to
fast is a form of child abuse."
[https://www.ncahf.org/articles/e-i/fasting.html](https://www.ncahf.org/articles/e-i/fasting.html)

~~~
beagle3
Your first link talks specifically of fasting every other day, and is about
rats. That is completely irrelevant to 5 day fasting in humans, whereas [0]
is.

Your second link is from 1995; A lot has happened since. Yes, children should
probably not fast. Other than that, more recent data (as well as old, but
ignored, data) show that water fasting is good for you. And Valter Lango's
research (see [0], and google for more) shows that it's actually extremely
beneficial in many cases, especially during chemotherapy.

[0] [https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/five-day-fasting-
die...](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/five-day-fasting-diet-could-
fight-disease-slow-aging)

------
Fricken
I had read somewhere that after about 45 minutes of cardio your body will
start using it's fat stores, and continue burning fat for 6 to 8 hours
afterwards. So when I found myself overweight I started doing long trail runs
or bike rides, about 2 hours long, 3 times a week. Insomuch as I looked
forward to doing the exercise, losing 3-5 pounds a week was nearly effortless.
My appetite actually goes down during these periods because I'm burning my fat
stores and my body isn't demanding that I replace those calories, and it's
doing it for hours after I've stopped.

I've had people tell me that getting exercise is not a good way to lose
weight, but my experience tells me that if you're doing the right kind of
exercise, then, yes it a good way. Maybe there's just no reasonable
expectation that most people will do enough cardio at a high enough level to
activate fat burning.

~~~
skocznymroczny
What was your starting weight? Losing 3-5 pounds a week sounds like a lot,
unless you were starting from a high weight to begin with. Also, most people
trying to lose weight aren't fit enough to run/ride for 10 minutes long, let
alone 2 hours.

~~~
Fricken
The first time I had 20 pounds to lose, from 195 down to 175. Last fall I lost
15 pounds using the same method. I've been active enough through most of my
adult life that I can snap myself back into good fitness pretty fast presuming
I haven't been on my ass for more than a few months, and it wasn't until my
mid-30s or so that I would start to gain weight during sedentary phases if I
wasn't being careful. Throughout my 20s my weight didn't change much at all.
So my weight issues have been minor, and I dealt with them handily before they
had a chance to become not-minor.

------
aabajian
_Amphetamines were popularly used to suppress appetite in the mid-20th
century, but addiction and abuse proved disastrous._

He glosses over amphetamines. They are _highly_ effective at weight loss. So
much so that ADHD patients have the stereotypical "Adderall skinniness" after
1-2 years of use. Addiction is a problem with stimulants, but psychiatrist
routinely assess for addiction in the ADHD population. Why not prescribe
Adderall for weight loss and similarly monitor those patients?

Which is better? A BMI of 40+ or a BMI of 25 and taking a daily stimulant?

The FDA agrees with the latter in at least one case. In 2015, the FDA approved
the amphetamine lisdexamfetamine (brand name Vyvanse) for the treatment of
binge-eating disorder.

~~~
batiudrami
I have lost kilos post raves just from not being inclined to eat for days
afterwards, but even just a dexie leaves me feeling scattered and non
functional the day after. I assume you adjust to ongoing rather than
occasional usage?

~~~
azeirah
I've been on a low dose of Ritalin for about half a year now, I experience
very few side effects, but appetite inhibition is definitely a thing.

Even after half a year, it has barely changed at all. I usually don't really
feel hungry until I'm at the point where I get a bit lightheaded because I
haven't eaten for too long.

The most annoying part isn't even the inhibited hunger impulse, it's that even
_if_ I take that into account, and plan my meals accordingly, I don't really
feel like eating much, and I'll eat like you would if you were daydreaming
about a potential lover.

The most effective solution I've seen so far is to not chain the doses like
it's usually advised, ie, one pill every four hours, but to plan your meals
and your pill timings such that you'll eat when the medication is wearing off.
It's annoying, because of course this half-hour to hour period after
medication wears off is very annoying, but it's the better alternative,
especially if you take into account that Ritalin has a more stable and gentle
impact if you take it on a full stomach.

Taking Ritalin on an empty stomach is like drinking two double-espressos on an
empty stomach after a bad night's sleep, right after you wake up. :c

------
tracker1
To me, it would seem that there's a couple things that aren't considered in
most of these studies. A lot of them have a lot of controls in place for the
starting size/weight range of the individuals. Given this, and the change in
hormone (particularly insulin) response it's not always the same advice
depending on how overweight you are, how much you are showing insulin
resistance or elevated/deflated insulin response.

I think that resting insulin levels should be part of annual exams for
everyone. It's much easier to explain, hey you're heading towards diabetes
clinically when people still feel relatively well and healthy.

My own advice to younger people, and to those who aren't very overweight is to
limit meals to 2-3 a day, don't snack between meals, and don't drink anything
sweetened or containing calories during the day outside of meal time. Limit
sugars to around 20-30g/day, and if having more, limit it to a single
treat/dessert every other week.

If you're more overweight, or "pre-diabetic", then I suggest reducing total
carbs to 100g/day, and limiting to 1-2 meals a day.

If you're obese/diabetic, omad (one meal a day) and ketogenic macros.

If you're on higher doses of insulin, add a 3-7 day fast once a month. And a
48hr fast at least once a week.

The worse off you are starting the harder it is... fortunately, you can work
your way up the scale/advice above as you reach closer to an ideal weight.

After you get used to not snacking and reducing sugar/sweetened things between
meals, it gets easier. The first week or two can be grueling and if you're a
social eater, it can be very hard too.

~~~
_xerxes_
Every annual physical and every work-related health exam I have had here in
the US has included some kind of fasting glucose test.

~~~
tracker1
An A1C test will only show problems _after_ you've gone through a cycle of
your body resisting insulin and your pancreas being overworked (resting
insulin 4-7x normal) and then your pancreas wears out (damaged beta cell
production) and then your resting glucose rises. This process can take many
years. A resting insulin test will show resting insulin rising years before an
A1C test shows a problem.

~~~
JonGarfield
A1C is not the fasting glucose test.

~~~
tracker1
It's not, the same stands... you'll go through years of elevated insulin
before you see fasting glucose or A1C rise. A glucose tolerance test could be
useful too, but a bit of a pain compared to simply testing insulin levels and
comparing to the prior year.

------
seer
There has been quite a lot of new, exciting and actually useful science in
recent years about how to have a healthy body, but I think most people only
look at calories. Some may look at fat/carbs. And some may also look into
excercise as well. But in order to have a healthy body long term it seams you
need to look into all of that, and sleep quality, and mindfullness/stress
control.

That may sound like a lot, but each piece helps you out a little to keep the
other pieces in check. Having a full night of sleep keeps your impulses in
check. Excercise helps you sleep, keep muscle mass and fat at desirable
levels. Eating healthy makes sleep easier etc. And they reinforce each other.

So keeping yourself in this healthy steady state is actually quite easy, as
long as you take a holistic apriach and not over specialize in each area.

This is a hunch of mine though I havent really found any studies that take all
of those things into account, just the specific interactions between those
things.

------
octamer
Interesting review (that first graph in particular is definitely non-obvious
to me), but under the diet section I think it understates the current body of
research regarding low-carb/keto diets - some studies have begun to show
energy expenditure[1] and insulin[2] benefits that uniquely exist with low-
carb. I think we'll find out soon enough that a lower-carb approach, given the
current American diet, does definitively perform better than other dieting
approaches on average.

[1]
[https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k4583](https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k4583)

[2] [http://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/718265/effect-low-
car...](http://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/718265/effect-low-carbohydrate-
diet-appetite-blood-glucose-levels-insulin-resistance)

~~~
Retric
Those are both _very_ short term studies. The only critical factor in weight
loss is how much people weigh in the long term as in 5+ years.

“20% of overweight individuals are successful at long-term weight loss when
defined as losing at least 10% of initial body weight and maintaining the loss
for at least 1 y.” Things get much worse in terms of 5+ year weight loss.

~~~
nightski
I'll just say that American culture in general makes it extremely difficult to
stick to a healthy and disciplined lifestyle, no matter the specific diet. In
keto communities I see people who have met lots of success but find it rough
being bombarded by family, friends, and dining out options in general all
going against their way of eating.

It's getting better, with restaurants especially. But it's still a large
hurdle to any diet and/or healthy lifestyle. I'm sure it's better in some
areas of the country than others.

~~~
tracker1
I find that I do okay (with keto) at most restaurants, usually have to modify
a meal, but can usually find something.

The vegetarian centered places tend to be much harder for me. I'm allergic to
legumes, cranberries and blueberries, and just don't do well with grains
anymore.

Last week, I had a cheat day with out of town friends and I'm still recovering
from it. It's actually worse than the keto flu when starting out on keto in
the first place, followed by increased hunger after eating carb heavy one day.

------
peteretep
I feel like the studies of specialty diets bring misleading conclusions,
because they always count calories for both sides.

If you’re on a calorie controlled diet, then calories in calories out holds.
But most speciality diets (I’m on something pretty similar to slow carb) are
targeting adherence, a factor that’s removed if you’re only measuring calories
in and calories out.

Without white carbs I find it much much easier to reduce my calorific intake.
To compare my diet with any other — if you’re enforcing the same number of
calories — is kind of pointless, as I specifically don’t want to count
calories, nor do I want to feel hungry.

~~~
sokoloff
_Sometimes_ feeling hungry is ok and likely healthy. _Always_ feeling hungry
is brutal.

For me, low carb works like magic and with limited aggravation once past the
first week. The problem is, if I never learn to be (sometimes) hungry, it all
comes apart when I go off the diet and back to living in the land of infinite
crap carbs.

~~~
taneq
You should spend some of each day feeling at least a bit hungry. If you're not
hungry when you sit down for a meal, you've eaten too much already.

There's a huge difference between "a bit hungry" and actually properly hungry.
Most people with weight problems probably never let themselves feel more than
peckish, and so their perception of hunger adjusts to amplify that feeling.
When I'm below my target weight (sitting at a fairly low body fat percentage)
and I try to maintain a calorie deficit, the hunger I start feeling is
insanely more intense than when I'm a bit chubby and losing weight.

------
legohead
I have a friend who I watched try a bunch of diet systems. Pills from amazon
that she researched. Trying to not eat as much. Calorie counting. More
expensive pills. Doing one of those "we send you all your meals" programs.
Nothing worked or was even close. Maybe she'd lose 5 pounds and then
immediately gain it back.

Finally she went to a clinic. The Dr. gave her a prescription to phentermine
and she had to show up every week for evaluation. It worked great, the pounds
melted off her, and she has kept it off. She lost something like 35 lbs in a
few months (from 160). It basically made her not want to eat, her daily
calorie count was stupid low, but it never really affected her energy levels -
she didn't have any health issues.

The doctor said her body would get used to the drug in about 3 months and it
would be less effective, and that was true. So you can't really stay on it
continuously, I guess..

~~~
hvidgaard
That isn't addressing the underlying problem of eating too much. There was
quite a study at Odense University Hospital where they enrolled women that had
tried everything to lose weight. They was asked to meticulously write down
everything single thing they ate. They they was admitted to the hospital and
they was fed exactly what they had written for the past month.

Every single woman lost a significant amount of weight.

So if your friend have counted calorie counting without losing weight she
didn't count correctly or truthfully.

~~~
bluecalm
Maybe it does. People eat too much because they have cravings, low pleasure
response to food (so they need to more to feel the same as healthy people) and
maybe low dopamine levels (that's my hypothesis based on my problems and some
experiments).

I think eating too much is a symptom of an underlying problem and drugs may
help with it. This is also why I think regular exercise is very important for
weightloss. Not because calories burnt but because neurotransmitters levels
and their impact on mood and impulse control.

>>So if your friend have counted calorie counting without losing weight she
didn't count correctly or truthfully.

She very likely knew she is eating too much. It's not rocket science and
calorie counting won't help unless you are in very deep denial. The problem is
controlling yourself and constant cravings you have to fight. It's just way
more difficult for some people than others the same way some get easily
addicted to drugs and some use them recreationally for years without problems
or sign of addiction.

~~~
hvidgaard
> The problem is controlling yourself and constant cravings you have to fight.
> It's just way more difficult for some people than others

And that is the problem people should be focusing on. It's easier to take a
pill from the doctor, but that's a last resort when your health dictates that
you must lose weight right now. You will have to somehow control your eating
one way or another at some point if you want to control your weight.

There is no easy solution.

------
Oras
From personal experience * with weight loss, diet is good for short terms but
will not work in long terms.

I have tried limiting calories, intermittent fasting, and keto. The only thing
worked long term was loving exercise and setting challenges (cycling 20 miles
a day, running 10k .. etc). Exercise will allow me to eat the food I like
(within limits) and not caring if I will gain some weight as I will lose it
potentially with exercise.

* I lost 20% of my body weight in 8 months doing strictly 1500 calories a day for 8 months with moderate exercise then gained 10% of it back and since then I will lose/gain 5% every now and then.

------
manicdee
Is there any major weight loss system that looks at genetics?

According to this article there are a few genes which will alter your success
with either _any_ excercise cersus _only high intensity_ exercise, and low
carb versus low fat being a better weight loss diet.

[https://rockstarresearch.com/these-5-genes-predict-what-
kind...](https://rockstarresearch.com/these-5-genes-predict-what-kind-of-diet-
and-exercise-is-best-for-your-body-2/)

------
sonnyblarney
The problem with this meta analysis is that it doesn't really account for the
motivational factor related to money and other things.

Moreover, that people with more weight to lose might likely opt for the more
major programs.

When your doctor says "You now have diabetes, and you're going to die young
unless you get your weight under control" ... well, that might motivated
people.

As opposed to someone who just wants to lose 10 lbs and is otherwise fairly
healthy.

~~~
willsun
I think this is a fair point, and the final section of the post attempts to
address this. For what it's worth, most studies do not selectively draw from a
highly-motivated cohort - participants are rarely the most severely obese, and
they also usually aren't people who are actively looking for clinical trials
or free weight loss programs. Money is also controlled for, since the
interventions are almost always offered for free, and any time or work
involved with the study will be compensated as well. From my perspective, if
anything, the motivational factor may actually be _too_ well-controlled in
many of these studies, so the observed result does not translate properly to
real-world settings.

------
sl1ck731
My anecdote: I lose weight very easily by CICO. Over the course of of a few
months in college I ate a very strict diet of x calories. At the time it was
something like 1100/day as a ~200lb 21 year old. Supposedly dangerous, but a
lot of things are. Anyway, by keeping an excel sheet of the exact calories I
ate every day, minus my calculated metabolic rate, I knew exactly what %/lb I
lost per day/week. I kept such good track that by measuring my weight every
day I was able to reverse calculate my metabolic rate by the daily weight loss
(it was very close to online calculators so I wouldn't bother going out of
your way to try it).

The most important thing for me is seeing it as a game. Being able to see
daily results even if they are fractions of pounds a day or week. Knowing
exactly what I'm aiming for at the end of the week and how I'm getting there.

The most difficult party is meticulously counting calories and ratios when
making things. A kitchen scale is essential.

Anyway I was 50 lbs lighter when I quit. It has come back over the course of 6
or 7 years but I'm a pig and I will just lose it again when the time comes.

~~~
claudiawerner
I'm about 145lb 22 y/o, and also doing 1100 calories/day but usually in the
form of one meal for dinner. How did you calculate the amount you should lose
per day/week? I'm interested in filling such a spreadsheet myself.

~~~
sl1ck731
When I started I used a metabolic rate calculator.

[https://www.active.com/fitness/calculators/calories](https://www.active.com/fitness/calculators/calories)
for example.

The amount of calories lost per day = the metabolic rate from the calculator -
the amount of calories you eat that day.

The amount of pounds lost per day is: burned calories (above) / 3500 (number
of calories in a pound of fat).

After a couple months of measuring my weight daily and knowing exactly what my
caloric intake was, I calculated my real average metabolic rate by doing the
reverse.

total calories lost in a period = lbs lost * 3500

calorie burn (metabolic rate) = total calories burned + total calories eaten

The above is per period so I calculated the average values for the days in a
month and used them.

I didn't exercise much so the basal metabolic rate was fairly close to my real
burn.

~~~
dragonwriter
If you aren't exercising much,the assumption that all loss is fat is
optimistic, and lean body mass has only 600 kcal/pound instead of 3,500 for
fat.

~~~
sl1ck731
Yes that is also true. I accounted for about 20% of lean mass loss included
and then had to hit the gym after the few month diet :)

Though it wasn't my biggest concern since I overshot my loss by about as much.

------
thepete2
I feel like this article neglects the most important thing, which is
sustainability.

I've recently come across the idea of fasting for weight loss. Turns out most
people can safely fast (eat nothing, only drink water that is) for many days,
sometimes as long as 40 days if they are overweight. Switching to a diet of
eating minimally processed food afterwards - which is what we're used to from
an evolutionary standpoint - can apparently be quite sustainable.

I'm young and thankfully don't have weight problems, but if I had I think I'd
give it a shot.

~~~
toastermoster
I remember seeing an article about a long term study of former participants of
the show "The Biggest Loser." If I recall, almost all of them had gained the
weight back and due to the extreme caloric restrictions they had placed on
themselves during their time on the show the reduced their base metabolic rate
significantly.

------
a-saleh
While we are discussing diets, anybody has a good replacement for snacks? Few
years ago I realized I am really prone to stress-eating.

If I am not stressed, I can go about my day, eating 2 big meals a day (and a
small breakfast), and even slowly loose wight.

But if I am under pressure I can eat another large meal worth of snacks. And I
really don't like it, because then I am gaining weight really fast :-/ Anybody
in similar situation? What helped you there?

~~~
hvidgaard
Snack on something like carrots, cucumber, and other vegetables that aren't
sweet or fatty. You'll significantly cut down on the calories and gain some
healthy food too. Just don't create dipping sauce or the like. Raw vegetables
only.

------
newnewpdro
Over a decade ago I DIY'd going from 225 to ~165 and have kept it off.

The main success factor in my opinion was becoming single and staying single,
as well as restructuring my life in general, especially how/who I socialize
with.

It's pretty easy to do what's right for you when you go solo.

The process isn't really different than a drug addict trying to go clean and
avoid relapse. It's all about the friends and environment, you have to change
it all.

~~~
james_s_tayler
Not gonna lie when I got married and had a kid and started a new job all at
the same time my weight went up like almost 30kg.

~~~
newnewpdro
To be fair, it's entirely possible to enter a family, social, and employment
situation that reinforces healthy choices.

My point was more along the lines of the existing environment being largely
responsible for the emergent property of being overweight/unhealthy.

Unless you change the environment, it makes it very difficult to sustainably
alter the emergent outputs, which is what we are.

I found it easiest to simply replace and/or eliminate the major environmental
problems rather than try modify them in-place. Nobody likes to be forced to
live differently, and in my experience, the relationship's happiness was
largely derived from the shared unhealthy activities.

After enough time living the healthier life as an individual, access to the
healthier environments improves. Healthy members of the opposite sex that have
also figured it out become attracted to you, employers who secretly
discriminate against unhealthy employees start making offers, same for friend
circles. But it's a privileged lifestyle, so it's not the easy/likely default
option open to all.

------
viburnum
I quit sugar five years ago, didn't diet, and was surprised when I lost of ton
of weight. It never came back. I can't be the only one.

------
Flenser
What I'd like to know is if there are any studies into whether the frequency
with which a person weighs themself can have an effect on weight loss? The
theory being the quicker feedback would lead to quicker results by motivating
more change and making it easier for the person to stay motivated and
correlate changes in lifestyle with weight loss.

~~~
willsun
Yup - there are several studies [1][2] that have looked into this, and regular
weighing (e.g. daily) looks like it has a small but significant effect that
helps with weight loss.

[1]
[https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa061883](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa061883)

[2]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3788086/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3788086/)

~~~
Flenser
Thank you!

(It also looks like it helps with keeping the weight off once it's lost.)

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benj111
They seem to have focussed on Diets but neglected _diet_.

As in rather than going on a Diet, adopting a different diet, a new habit if
you will.

A Diet is a New Years resolution, a diet is for life.

The article says 75% of Americans are overweight. Therefore 25% aren't. What
are they doing right? I doubt they're all having liposuction.

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nemasu
Everyone has their own thing that works. Personally I calorie counted and lost
90lbs (250 to 160). I think the hardest part is keeping it off, especially if
something is causing you to eat more than you should be in the first place or
if you use it as a coping mechanism.

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alanfranzoni
As somebody who went from 240 to 180 lbs (I'm about 6 5" tall btw) and stayed
there for long, the hard thing to cope with is homecooking. Once i had kids I
had no more time for cooking, and hurried pasta/pizza dishes just drive me
fat.

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perfmode
Thorough and thoughtful.

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whyShortLogins
Under Medications he writes “Unfortunately, none of the drugs have generics
yet, so they cost between $200-300 per month.” ...and they are not too
effective. ...and amphetamine is illegal and addicting

So: read more studies and discover DNP. A molecule that once was. Safer than
many meds (of course unless you are an idiot and overdose). More effective
than anything on Earth. But one that will never come back because guess what,
it can’t be patented. So happy research if interested. Just keep in mind there
is plenty of misinformation (even on Wikipedia) that doesn’t have any ground
in scientific trials.

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galvs
It is very simple. There are 8000 calories in 1kg of fat. If you want to lose
10 kg you'll need to burn 80,000 calories through deficit, either through diet
or exercise.

Personally I find it easy to live on a strict diet and limiting alcohol intake
to once every few weeks

~~~
kranner
Everybody who's trying to lose weight knows it is about sustaining a calorie
deficit. The problem is how.

~~~
galvs
Pick any number of options!

~~~
kranner
There goes that simplicity then. How do you pick one? How do you stay on it?
How do you decide whether to switch, when to switch and what to switch to? How
do you motivate yourself to try again once you've failed? And on it goes.

~~~
galvs
How do you pick any activity that encourages you to burn more calories than
usual?

I would expect that comes down to finding something you enjoy doing.

Exercise and eating well is a way of life. If your life dictates you do
neither, you will get fat. I don't really understand how its complicated. You
just do it for the benefits.

Personally I eat chicken and veg 5 days a week (with occasional carbs when I
train), train for 3 days and climb once a week. I also mostly hit my 10k steps
per day.

~~~
kranner
I mean this respectfully. Think about it this way:

If there's an obvious solution that so many people are having trouble
implementing, what is more likely?

1\. That all those people are stupid or have no willpower, or 2\. that the
obvious solution doesn't work for everyone?

~~~
galvs
They have no willpower. You are the only person who controls what you eat
everyday. If you are in stuck in an office you need to block out time for
exercise.

How can there be any other excuse?

I know people who look great and eat entire cakes each day but they do 4 hours
of high intensity exercise everyday. I can't do that as I am fundamentally
lazy and only exercise/diet for vanity.

~~~
kranner
IMO you have an oversimplified view of this based on limited experience. You
have abstracted away the diverse and complex reasons this doesn't work for
everyone behind the excuse that people make excuses. It's not so simple.
People are different; their circumstances are different; we can't just write
them off by blaming them for being obese or addicted.

~~~
galvs
A legitimate reason I can think of is that eating healthy food is expensive
and people in poverty can't afford the luxury or spare the time.

I have meals prepped and delivered twice a day and a trainer 3 times a week
which obviously helps somewhat

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randomacct3847
Fasting works best for me

~~~
qnsi
Do you mean intermitten fasting or longer than 24h? Did you consult your
doktor before longer fast?

------
bobcostas55
You ever read about other people's experiences and it seems utterly alien to
you? SSC had a post sort of on this theme[0]. I just don't understand how
people can fail to lose 5% bf. Over 12 months, even! Just eat a bit less.
100kcal per day is enough to lose 5 kilos in 12 months, how hard can it be to
eat 100kcal less than normally? It's literally one slice of cheese.

I have regular cut periods where I lose more than 5% in a matter of weeks and
it's the most trivial thing in the world. What are these people doing?!?

[0] [https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/03/17/what-universal-
human-e...](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/03/17/what-universal-human-
experiences-are-you-missing-without-realizing-it/)

~~~
apsec112
As someone who has never smoked, never had more than a few drinks, and never
done heroin, I find that it takes zero effort to not buy cigarettes, not buy
drugs, and not drink to excess. What could be easier than not doing something,
after all? I just have to sit here and play on my computer. And yet,
obviously, many people find doing these things (or not doing them, rather) to
be incredibly difficult. I can't just shrug that off, even if I lack any
personal experience with it.

------
masonic
If that stat that _almost 25% lost 5+% of BW using a placebo_ is true, then
the most cost-effective treatment is to give everyone placebos.

~~~
willsun
This is a good point - I'll caveat this in the post. Most medication/placebo
studies tend to involve a bit of coaching in addition to the medication,
usually 1 session per month or less with instruction on diet and exercise. So
the 25% result is essentially "coaching-lite + sugar pill", which may be
considerably more expensive than a simple placebo. This result could be much
weaker if it's just the placebo alone.

~~~
tracker1
Not only that, but tracking alone raises a lot of awareness and a tendency to
be more "healthy" or compliant.

------
dr_ick
ALL DIETS WORK IN THE SHORT TERM... The problem is keeping it off.

Please, please, please read the Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung:
[https://www.amazon.com/Obesity-Code-Unlocking-Secrets-
Weight...](https://www.amazon.com/Obesity-Code-Unlocking-Secrets-Weight-
ebook/dp/B01C6D0LCK)

He provides all the science behind the current obesity epidemic, backed up
with studies done on humans.

Obesity is a hormonal problem... Insulin makes us fat.

Current fads suggest eating ALL THE TIME.

This puts people in a state of high insulin all day, everyday. This is bad.

Intermittent fasting based around a common sense diet (limit sugars and
starchy food to special occasions) will lower insulin levels, and cause the
body to burn fat instead of insulin.

The keys is not what to eat, but when to eat and how often... and drink Apple
Cider Vinegar. :P

~~~
bluecalm
You are probably downvoted because there isn't enough convincing evidence for
insulin hypothesis. I like Jason Fung and I love the idea of fasting for
health and weight-loss. I think though that advocates of both fasting and low-
carb make a mistake getting too attached to insulin. They may die on this hill
while being right all along but for different reasons.

My understanding is that we don't know if it's insulin or something else that
makes many people wanting to eat less once they are accustomed to regular
fasting or low-carb diet. It would be better to focus on a proven fact that it
does work for many people and trying to understand the mechanism instead of
picking just one possible one (insulin) and staking everything on that being
full explanation.

