
How I lost 100lbs in 6 months - JustinAngel
https://medium.com/@justinangel/how-i-lost-100lbs-in-6-months-5da2dac582b5#.1w9vxs37u
======
cm2012
PSA: Every legitimate long term study of major non surgical weight loss shows
that it doesn't happen for the vast, vast majority of people. It's basically
freakish when succesful in the long term.

1) ["In controlled settings, participants who remain in weight loss programs
usually lose approximately 10% of their weight. However, one third to two
thirds of the weight is regained within 1 year, and almost all is regained
within 5 years.
"]([http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1580453](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1580453))

2) Giant meta study of long term weight loss: ["Five years after completing
structured weight-loss programs, the average individual maintained a weight
loss of >3% of initial body
weight."]([http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/74/5/579.full](http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/74/5/579.full))

3) Less Scientific: [Weight Watcher's Failure - "about two out of a thousand
Weight Watchers participants who reached goal weight stayed there for more
than five years."]([https://fatfu.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/weight-
watchers/](https://fatfu.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/weight-watchers/))

4) [The reason why it's impossible seems to be that although calories in <
calories out works, the body of a fat person makes it extremely difficult
psychologically to eat
less.]([http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-
pope-...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-
trap.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all)) This is borne out by the above data.

5) [The only thing that does seem to work in the long term is gastric
surgery.]([http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1421028/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1421028/))

Moreover, you won't find any reputable study on the web where the average
person lost 10%+ of their body weight and kept it off for five years. Not even
one.

~~~
mahyarm
I lost a bunch of weight with calorie counting and then gained it back after 2
years. But I'm fine with that. I started losing it again recently and I've
already lost about 8lbs. After you do it a few times it gets easier as your
skill in it gets better and your body & mind become more resilient to being in
weight loss mode.

The way I'm doing it now is so easy (subway, chipotle, trader joes & calorie
counting) that I feel fine in being in a yo-yo of a slow gain of 10lbs over a
year and then losing 10lbs over a month or two.

It's not a useful attitude to be fatalistic about weight loss.

I track my weight regularly to make sure weight gain doesn't creep up on me.

~~~
bmh_ca
> It's not a useful attitude to be fatalistic about weight loss.

Nor is it useful to promise people trips to the top of Everest on a hand
glider, but that's empirically what most weight loss advice entails.

~~~
mahyarm
Thats a fatalistic attitude to weight loss advice too. Weight loss advice can
be complicated, but calorie counting and eating at subway everyday really does
work.

~~~
falcolas
Counting calories is _hard_.

[https://youtu.be/HGunZpKLb5o](https://youtu.be/HGunZpKLb5o)

TL;DW: Calculating the actual energy in a day's worth of well labeled foods
resulted in a 500 calorie overage.

This doesn't even account for how your body absorbs calories different from
every other body, and probably even differently every day.

~~~
mahyarm
Being perfectionistic about calorie counting is not necessary. It still works.
The approximate measure is quite enough. And if you don't have the time to do
it, just eating from chains that already do it for you works quite well.

------
eastbayjake
This is a new classic in the Hacker News "How I Lost X Pounds in Y Months"
genre. Other favorites:

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8449301](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8449301)

[2]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12279415](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12279415)

------
xpac
I've been overweight for almost all of my adult life, and the level has been
either steady or rising over the years (31 now).

The only thing making me loose weight was 5 month studying abroad in Ghana
(I'm from Germany).

The ridiculous thing about it was: I didn't intend on loosing weight there. I
ate as much as I liked whenever I liked it. Still, I lost about 15 kg in 5
months, and I didn't even notice it until the end of the trip when another
student told me that I looked like it.

What I noticed as a big difference in my habits: * no Drive-In, no McDonald's,
no Burger King, no other franchise. So, no junk eating while driving (e.g.
from work) * no fridge at the hostel (at least none you would want to use).
So, no "I'm bored and will just get something from the fridge" * I'm not a
cooking person, so almost all food required walking the 5 minutes to the small
market. Not a long way, but it keeps somebody like me from boredom eating *
the fucking heat =D no movement and a lot of sweating ;-)

------
tomcam
This is one of the best ledes I have ever read:

> I decided to lose weight after my ex-wife cheated on me stating that she
> found me unattractive, that she never loved me and that she was leaving and
> taking the dog with her.

~~~
sauronlord
Nothing like a man being faced with a lifetime of no romantic love to get his
will power in the right gear.

------
bmh_ca
IMHO, The measure of successful weight loss ought to be at 7 years from the
start.

There are three cycles to control: 1. the hunger cycle (short, daily), 2. the
hypothalamus equilibrium (aka "set-point", 6-months+ cycle, controls
inhibitions [1]), 3. the hydrocarbon cycle (i.e. 1+ year hormone release by
non-flush fat cells [2]).

We also know that decisions made in the hypothalamus are responsible for
energy regulation,[3] and we also know that those decisions happen _before_ we
are consciously aware of them.

In other words, the feeling of hunger and short-term control appears to be a
surprisingly small portion (pardon the pun) of the dominant forces that
control long-term weight - namely hormone cycles and decision making.

So while the 100lbs loss is an achievement, I'd be more interested in hearing
how someone kept it off for several years – since that's presumably the
ultimate goal and it requires overcoming what appear to be exponentially more
difficult challenges.

(The links below touch on supporting the above, but I think I should be able
to find the papers/references for all the above.)

[1]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3084499/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3084499/)
[2]
[https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2010/...](https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2010/acs-
presspac-october-13-2010/new-evidence-that-fat-cells-are-not-just-dormant-
storage-depots-for-calories.html) [3] [http://www.cell.com/current-
biology/abstract/S0960-9822(14)0...](http://www.cell.com/current-
biology/abstract/S0960-9822\(14\)01299-8?_returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982214012998%3Fshowall%3Dtrue&cc=y=)

~~~
noir_lord
I went from 250 to 185 (currently 183) in 7mths about 20mths ago, it's stayed
off.

All I do is count my calories everyday and add 10%, if it's less than 2630 (my
BMR based on age, weight and activity) I'm good.

If I go 200-300 over one day I go 200-300 under the next.

Weight has been completely stable.

It's the running total in my head that works for me as an incentive to not
over eat.

~~~
noir_lord
In fact I should point out I have the opposite problem, If I'm not careful I
gradually start losing weight again, I dipped down to 180lbs over a few months
and had to adjust my intake to climb back to 185.

It's really hard to over-eat when you calorie track and eat healthy.

------
spodek
> _Low Calories Snacks: 0–150 calories snacks_

Besides the pre-packaged engineered foods he listed, there's also fresh fruits
and vegetables.

~~~
JustinAngel
Yep. I called out my favourite one (warermelon) on that list and also called
out the Weight Watchers list of "Power Foods" that's mostly comprised of fresh
fruits and vegetables.

My issues with a blanket recommendation of fresh fruits and vegetables are
around (1) perception as calorie-neutral, (2) prep time and (3) overall
caloric variance.

1\. Regarding perception, for me it's very easy imagining apples are "free" (=
0 calories) so I can just eat as many as I'd like. That's not true because an
apple is approximately 70 calories. So in a universe where I think apples are
calorie neutral (e.g. Weight Watchers has 0 PointsPlus apples) I might be
overindulging in apples.

2\. Prep time. Most vegetables require either a certain presentation or
preparation. That time investment is a "barrier-to-eating" and could cause me
to consume higher calorie foods and that's why I prefer very low prep time
snacks. Nature's packaging requires some assembly in most cases.

3\. The caloric variance amongst is meaningful. e.g. Celery being at 16
calories/100g and potatoes being at 77 calories/100g. That caloric variance
there cautions me from saying carte-blanche "fresh fruits and vegetables work
for my kind of diet".

~~~
throwanem
> Most vegetables require either a certain presentation or preparation.

Eh. Cucumbers, bell peppers, mushrooms, and almost all fruits including
tomatoes can be enjoyed raw. Broccoli and cauliflower, too, if your teeth are
good - delicious with a dash of vinegar and salt - and while we're visiting
the Brassicaceae, let's not overlook kale, which can be brined or salted, then
dried in a low-temperature oven, to produce amazing kale chips; granted, this
does take us a bit higher on the prep time scale, but it's the sort of prep
you do once, on a weekend day, and pay little attention, and once it's done,
you just grab a bag and you're off and running.

------
anandkulkarni
Nice work! You argued that you were never hungry on your diet. Was that due to
the emotional stress you were under, or were the snacks really enough?

~~~
JustinAngel
Thanks for asking!

> "It was fairly easy due to a combination of low-grade depression that
> reduced my appetite and having fairly immense energy stores in the form of
> fat."

For me, it's all about focusing on the sensation of being full. I'd like to
avoid the mental sensation of hunger as it'll be counterproductive to long
term weight loss. Whenever I'm hungry I eat something substantial, for
example: a quarter of a watermelon (~1 lb, 200 calories) or two bags of
Miracle Noodles (~1 lb, 0 calories) with yakiniku/pasta sauce (100-200
calories) or a double bowl of miso soup (100 calories).

------
richardboegli
AWESOME effort Justin Angel !!! :D

It is great to see someone achieve their weight loss goals.

Yes it is that “SIMPLE” and I know it can be done, as I too did it myself.

I too had a massive weight loss goal (90 lbs / 40kg) and achieved it with the
same basic principals, but in a slightly longer time frame (9 months / 40
weeks).

I wrote a book about it (My Weight Loss Story: 40kg in 40 Weeks Without
Exercise (90lbs in 9 months), instead of a medium post. ;)

I personally (Richard Boegli) lost 40 kg in 40 weeks (90lb in 9 months)
WITHOUT exercise. [90lb in 9 months (no exercise)].

I’m not trying to hijack your story! I would just like to provide another data
point, that the basic principals do work. As I have found their can be a lot
of scepticism, even though the math works!

Justin Angel: How I lost 100lbs in 6 months [100lb / 6 months (with exercise)]

I could do a line for line comparison, but these are the points that
immediately came to mind as I read the article: Richard Boegli: [90lb in 9
months (no exercise)]: “Just Eat Less”, its in the preface of the book :)

Justin Angel [100lb / 6 months (with exercise)]: "Calories In — Calories Out =
Weight Change"

Richard Boegli [90lb in 9 months (no exercise)]:: “I reduced my food intake”

Justin Angel [100lb / 6 months (with exercise)]: “I reduced my daily caloric
intake”

Richard Boegli [90lb in 9 months (no exercise)]: “I lost on average 1kg
(2.2lbs) a week, every week for 40 weeks WITHOUT exercise

Justin Angel [100lb / 6 months (with exercise)]: “I would experience a 3lbs a
week weight lose.”

I chose to do it WITHOUT exercise, as my theory was that I would keep it off
longer, if it wasn’t dependent on exercise. Every other time I lost weight in
my life, it was a combination of diet and exercise. When the exercised stop,
the weight would creep back up, as I was still eating too much.

[http://40in40book.com](http://40in40book.com)

EDIT: Cleaned it up a bit.

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brad0
Hey Justin, just wanted to say good on you.

While the physical change is great, it's a byproduct of the changes in your
mind. Keep it up.

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thecity2
I'm so pissed at your ex. What an a-hole.

------
NerdfaceKillah
Congrats. Anyone ever tell you you look like Drake?

------
richardboegli
Why did this article get flagged?

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jnordwick
This is the Seattle Seahawks. Can you come consult for us?

