

Tell HN: How I lost 25 pounds on the simplest diet ever. - jknupp

Since graduating college 6 years ago, I've put on about 50 lbs. I've tried various workouts/diets with marginal success, but this is by far the most effective and it's so easy it's almost silly.<p>The diet: Stop eating. Losing weight for most people is simple math; calories burned must be greater than calories taken in. I work in software development and get no exercise; I'm basically sedentary. My body doesn't need a lot of calories.<p>The specifics: <i>Do not eat breakfast or lunch</i>. Only drink non-caloric drinks during the day. Initially you may get very hungry during your normal mealtimes. That's where the drinks come in. Diet soda, water, diet iced tea, etc can be used to trick your body for a while since you're getting something in your stomach. Eventually, your body adapts and stops sending the "hunger" signal during the day and you rarely every really feel "hungry". Combat any residual hunger with fluids, but you should notice your hunger decreasing. The first two weeks or so is the only part that may take some will-power.<p>Now the fun part: For dinner, eat whatever you want. I live in NYC and literally order out for dinner every night. I eat a good ammount of food for dinner and rarely watch what I eat (but don't go overboard, it's shockingly easy to eat an entire day's worth of calories in one sitting without realizing it, especially with fast food). Make sure that vegetables are at least a part of your meal, or eat them separately after dinner.<p>The results are amazing. I really do nothing, it requires almost no willpower becuase I never get hungry anymore, and I can eat whatever I want for dinner (or go out for drinks and food after work/on the weekend). The weight is literally melting off. 25 pounds in 8 weeks is a healthy pace. And I did it by basically doing nothing. Also, eating only dinner has helped me with difficulty getting to sleep. Go figure. Scott Adam's recent blog post about being hungry has proved true for me. I find I play chess much better when I haven't eaten yet.<p>One thing to keep in mind: if you take a multi-vitamin (and you should), make sure you take it AFTER EATING as otherwise you'll just urinate most of it out (Thanks to my nutritionist mom for pointing this out).<p>The usual caveats apply: I am not a doctor, this is not to be construed as medical advice. Speak with your doctor before starting any diet.
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devmonk
I worry because of the "breakfast is the most important meal of the day", so I
just skip lunch. I've not lost much weight. I've heard just eating less each
meal is also good, but I've not been able to do that effectively. Fitting in
exercise combined with eating less was probably what helped me lose a few
pounds (surprise, surprise). Just dropping one meal a day hasn't helped. When
I skip breakfast and lunch, by the afternoon I'm a lot more drained.

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jknupp
Believe me, eventually skipping breakfast and lunch will make you feel
energized, you just have to give it time. My mind is much sharper in the
morning/afternoon now.

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devmonk
That happened to me for a while and it made me think of the hard workers in
third world countries on meager diets. But eventually it catches up with you.
I still skip, but I notice it is harder to concentrate in the afternoon.

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iuguy
What you're doing has a high chance of leading to mild malnutrition, but
shouldn't be sustained. You're also losing weight too fast. You should be
aiming for no more than a kilo (roughly 2 pounds) a week.

You should (as a general rule) eat when you're hungry, but eat slowly and eat
less. After 15 minutes your body's satiation response kicks in and you won't
be hungry.

Generally for a male in his 20s - 30s less than 1200 calories a day borders on
starvation, for inactive people you can get away with 1000. Active people need
at least 1500 while dieting, possibly more.

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jknupp
I'm definitely eating more than 1200 calories a day, that's the point. I just
do it all at once. I'm basically sedentary so I get plenty of calories for
what my body requires. Also, speaking to a nutritionist, males can safely lose
up to 3 lbs a week depending how high their starting weight is (I was right on
the borderline of medically obese).

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pmiller2
Though it seems like you've got vitamins covered through supplementation, you
still need to make sure you're taking in enough protein and fiber. Fiber is
probably the more important thing to think about, since it's fairly hard to
eat a protein-deficient diet without actually trying to do so.

