Why do people struggle to lose weight?

[Louisa Bannon]

Onions though are important part of diet as onions, garlic, leeks, and green onions are all important to any diet even for vegans and vegetarians. You just don't over do it but have enough of the garlic family in your diet to avoid and fight cancers. Plus, the added fiber is a bonus.

Well said, when I stated "avoid" all I meant was limit it, not a strict prohibition. Variety is important, both to stave off boredom and increase nutrition.

Charcuterie often has nitrates and I try to avoid them, and while I look for the good stuff I'm still going to have some of whatever I can find.

Such is life.

=)

[Goldenboy1]

People do not know how to lose weight because they do not know what food is. And you might be saying "what do you mean!! Of course they know what food is!" no, they do not. Even people "counting calories" fail all the time. Food is broken into macro molecules and each gram of one provides X calories. I can be "dieting" and eat only 1,500 calories but not lose weight. I could eat several doughnuts for breakfast lunch and dinner, well im at 1,500 calories why am I not losing weight?

The simple answer, everything you are taking in is fat and carbs. These molecules are more dense than protein in terms of calories. Think of it this way, it is more dense. What takes longer to burn, logs or kindling? Of course it is logs! You need to understand this food is lets say 200 calories because it has this many grams of fat/carbs/sugars. If I eat a primarily protein food such as Mahi Mahi, and other lean foods, which has low fat and no carbs I can lose weight and look good. My muscle is staying there but my fat "logs" are being burned up and are smaller and smaller. You need to count macros not calories. Its quite frankly a mathematical process to lose weight. Lets say I am 5'10" and 200 pounds. Im trying to cut to 160, the trick is to work out and eat in a healthy manner. Throwing bricks of fats and carbs into my stomach will not help me.

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>Its not as simple as feeling hungry. Your body is actually quite scientific. If you're feeling hungry you may lose weight at first, but quickly your body will go into survival mode and do its best to hold onto its fat stores for energy. This is because back in the day when we were hunter-gatherers you didn't necessarily know when your next meal would be. Of course you could continue to starve yourself, but then you have to deal with malnutrition, it really isn't as simple as you think. In our society where we have three large meals it is difficult to lose weight. We really should be eating around 5 small meals a day, it would help keep our metabolism going and prevent our bodies from going into emergency mode, but most work places give you a lunch hour, not three 20 minute mini meal breaks.


this kind of idiocy would get you laughed out and permabanned out of any fitness forum/community.

Starvation mode lol, tell that to all the african children mining diamonds/harvesting coacoa and auschwitz victims.

Its 100% legit. I hope you will become more educated in the future. As your body needs calories and it is not readily avaliable the body will naturally try to hold onto everything it has. Of course it doesnt mean you can survive years with no food, please, please, please become educated on a topic before being so rude.

[Deleted]

Well said, when I stated "avoid" all I meant was limit it, not a strict prohibition. Variety is important, both to stave off boredom and increase nutrition.

Charcuterie often has nitrates and I try to avoid them, and while I look for the good stuff I'm still going to have some of whatever I can find.

Such is life.

=)

Same here, if they dont have the sausage with only meat and spices and i really wana have a sausage egg and bacon breakfast then i just buy the second best they have unless its a bad one with alot of 1% overlord filler junk.
I also spoil my self sometime with stuff like lactose free ice cream gluten free cake like carrot cake or what ever they have in store that day.

[Egor2765]

This made me lol. How does someone being overweight hurt YOU? Why is it hard for people smoking crack? Drugs are bad, just save your money. I think the issue is that poeple have ideal sizes and weights int heir head. but there's also other factors like skeletal structures etc. If you saw a guy who was 6 foot 5 and weighed 155 pounds, you'd think he looked extremely mal-nourished. IDGAF about body acceptance, fat shaming, whatever. Just let people do what they want. If I gototo McDonalds(Never do) and see the person in front of me order 15 big macs, amd I gonna tell them to not eat them? Nope, because I mind my business.

This is not true. I am 190 cm (6'3'') and I weigh about ~70-71 kg (about 154-156 pounds I guess). Here in Denmark this is the norm to be in the "healthy" range of the bmi scale, , and in no way form or shape is that "mal-nourished". In fact, the only two fat people I can think of atm is my aunt and some guy I saw 10 years ago. And those were both 120 kg or more.

Then I went on vacation in New York in USA. There is so many fat people all over! When I type out fat, what I really mean is obese. Even with all those insane portion sizes, taxi drivers sipping cups with 2 liters of soda in them (wtf?) I still cannot believe you can get that big. Even Donald Trump their president is so big, but compared to some of those guys I saw in USA he is small!

Now, I'm not saying fat loss is easy. It is much harder dropping all that weight off on the ground, than it is to put it on I imagine. But, if you're really happy when you see all your blob in the mirror when you're wearing underwear then I don't know what to think of it. My aunt never thought she was at any disadvantage whatsoever, but then she started loosing weight and she has never been happier - and this is still an ongoing battle for her.


On topic:
If you want to lose weight, and not gain it back ditch the diets and go for a lifestyle change. If you surround yourself with obese people, it may mean obese is the norm, but it does not equal to it being healthy.
This is a 900 pound man:
http://i.imgur.com/g2tS1O5.jpg
There is NO "fat person" hiding inside of you.
Found on reddit
Edit: this might not have been a good forum to link to, as it seems quite condescending towards fat people.

[breadisfunny]

i have the opposite problem.

[Louisa Bannon]

* Eat when hungry. Do not eat if you have no appetite.

* If you are hungry and eating three squares, somehow you are eating wrong and your body is telling you that. The desire to snack is another sign. Something is off, best guess is that you are eating way too many carbs and sugars.

* You lose weight in the kitchen, you get fit at the gym. How you eat is critical to weight control. You will rarely if ever be able to burn off excess calories by exercising.

* Intermittent fasting is pretty good for you. There's all kinds of research that points to fasting as a great way to heal, reset imbalances, etc.

* Counting calories is a fool's errand and prone to enormous errors, but you should do it anyway just to keep the broad strokes of things in check.

I live a ketogenic lifestyle. It's really not very hard. I eat all kinds of good things. I'm an excellent cook. Not only am I rarely hungry, but I often can't make myself eat all of the food I intend to eat. I know a lot of you will read that and wonder if I am being truthful. When you eat correctly, you will eat less and some people find they can eat correctly on even one substantial meal a day, esp the older you get. I often find myself having a very excellent bullet espresso most mornings and then maybe two meals a day. Sometimes I skip a meal because I have no appetite. I eat so many vegetables it might gag and bore many of you - approx. 10 cups a day. But then I also eat heartily of fats and proteins.

Eating out is easy peasy. I prefer places where I can order whole foods. On Saturday afternoon I ate out at Texas Roadhouse, which is a chain steakhouse in the U.S. I ordered a 6 oz sirloin, mixed veg with extra extra butter, the mixed salad with blue cheese dressing. I declined the buns. I asked the salad be prepared without croutons. I drank water and lemon juice. My end with tip was $15. You can't even have a decent burger, fries and soda for much less than that - and I left a 20% plus tip besides. Sure, at home I could have made all of that for around a third or half that price, but sometimes its a pleasure to go out.

And you know, those Texas Roadhouse buns are pretty damn good with that cinnamon butter they whip up. I could have had some. But when you eat well, you start turning the idea of eating junk like carbs around in your head. You think to yourself: "Hey, Mr. Bun, you're just a little blob of poison aren't you?" And then you just sort of don't want it.

[Hashtronaut]

It's really not that bad. Are people just afraid of feeling a little hungry? I actually feel energized when I'm slightly hungry. 155 pound club.

Willpower, determination and self-discipline. Sometimes a complete lack of know-how but that can be solved with a little determination.

People sometimes say they care/are trying, but actually just want things to be easy.

[breadisfunny]

It really is cheaper (or at least equitable in price) to eat healthfully. I can get one bunch of kale, a box of quinoa and a 2-lb bag of frozen chicken breasts and have enough for six dinners, at a cost of around $10. A fast food dinner will cost around $5 per.

none of the stores around here sell kale or quinoa.

[The One Percent]

Weak willpower and discipline coupled with easy access to food.

[Tack980]

I agree to most of the above - except "Eating healthy is not cheap" - but maybe that depends on the country you live in.

In the US McDonnalds is cheaper than a bottle of water for a lot of their things.

[Vash The Stampede]

#1 Stress and being tired will cause people to over eat.

#2 Sugar is everywhere, and makes you hungrier.

#3 Eating a proper salad takes time and more money than eating a Big Mac.

That being said, any diet will do but you have to stick with it 100%. The problem is, people see Burgers and Pizza and have one too many cheat days, which results in them actually stepping off the diet. Willpower is something many people lack.

[Deleted]

People do not know how to lose weight because they do not know what food is. And you might be saying "what do you mean!! Of course they know what food is!" no, they do not. Even people "counting calories" fail all the time. Food is broken into macro molecules and each gram of one provides X calories. I can be "dieting" and eat only 1,500 calories but not lose weight. I could eat several doughnuts for breakfast lunch and dinner, well im at 1,500 calories why am I not losing weight?

The simple answer, everything you are taking in is fat and carbs. These molecules are more dense than protein in terms of calories. Think of it this way, it is more dense. What takes longer to burn, logs or kindling? Of course it is logs! You need to understand this food is lets say 200 calories because it has this many grams of fat/carbs/sugars. If I eat a primarily protein food such as Mahi Mahi, and other lean foods, which has low fat and no carbs I can lose weight and look good. My muscle is staying there but my fat "logs" are being burned up and are smaller and smaller. You need to count macros not calories. Its quite frankly a mathematical process to lose weight. Lets say I am 5'10" and 200 pounds. Im trying to cut to 160, the trick is to work out and eat in a healthy manner. Throwing bricks of fats and carbs into my stomach will not help me.

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Its 100% legit. I hope you will become more educated in the future. As your body needs calories and it is not readily avaliable the body will naturally try to hold onto everything it has. Of course it doesnt mean you can survive years with no food, please, please, please become educated on a topic before being so rude.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHHz...JNbFwK9Fix-gFC

Fact : you lose maybe 10% of your TDEE after starving yourself at 1000 calories a day and dropping to 9% bodyfat (ie, 99% of the west will not attain this, they dont have the work ethic and discipline).

Fatass logic : IF I EAT 500 LESS CALORIES A DAY, THE BODY WILL BURN 500 LESS CALORIES TOTAL AFTER 2-3 DAYS AND THIS IS PERMANENT AND EVENTUALLY I CAN EAT 1 CALORIE A DAY AND MY BODY WILL ADAPT SO WELL I WILL NOT LOSE FAT AT THAT LEVEL, I WILL NEVER GET LEAN EVER AND EVER AND THIS IS WHY IF YOU GAIN WEIGHT ITS 100% IMPOSSIBLE TO LOSE IT SO IMMA EAT MY BURGERS AND PIZZA NOW WHATS THE POINT WAAAAAA

[Louisa Bannon]

In the US McDonnalds is cheaper than a bottle of water for a lot of their things.

Well, bottled water is a bad idea. Try the tap unless there's some known issue with it. You can also buy a filter.

Fast food is expensive most of the time. I'm thinking that the average meal is around $7-8 at McDonald's. A lot of what they sell is more in the way of food-like than actual food. I am pretty sure those shakes are not really ice cream nor milk, except in some very tenuous way, and probably full of additives and thickeners, etc.

I won't deny that grass fed and line caught can get far pricier, but you can start at a lower level. And with the simplest implements you can cook for yourself. Get yourself some cheap plates and flatware. A chef knife and plastic cutting board. Buy a 12" iron skillet and learn to care for it. The skillet actually provides dietary iron.

But there's lots of cheap, solid food around. I bought some 1 1/2" thick pork loin chops the other day at $2 a pound. I bought a beef roast for $4 a pound on Sunday. I can sear the pork in the broiler, poke it with a temp probe, set a timer also and walk away while it bakes. The beef I intend as a crock pot meal, will take hours to cook but I won't really do anything except set it up and set the timer. At Sam's you can buy a cooked chicken rotisserie style for $5. I think the weight is 3 pounds. It's an actual bird, how much harm can they do to it? Less the bones, its pure protein and delicious fatty skin. You can chop that up and make some nice salads.

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#3 Eating a proper salad takes time and more money than eating a Big Mac.

I don't eat there myself, but Google tells me a Big Mac costs around $4.80.

I can assure you that you can make a salad with meat that costs less. To get that burger you need to get your car, or walk or something, There's travel time, standing in line, waiting for the meal prep, being served finally, traveling back to work or home, etc. There are further costs for gas in transit or idling in line, etc.

I buy salad fixings in large amounts. At any time I can make a salad in under 10 minutes that includes: romaine, kale, treviso, spinach, radish, artichoke hearts, red bell pepper, cucumber, tomato, grated Tillamook cheese, homemade dressing (usually vinaigrette or blue), and some meat like bacon, chicken, pork, sliced beef steak or hard boiled eggs. I also like to make large containers of beef chili which can quickly make a taco salad with some salsa. Chicken can go Mexican style too with some salsa and hot sauce.

If you are super lazy, you can buy salad fixings pre-chopped which amounts to you placing chopped veg in a bowl, plopping some meat, cheese and dressing on it and eating it in under 5 minutes.

[Demona3]

Exercise alone won't help you lose weight if your high carb/sugar diet doesn't change. I know lots of people with hard physical jobs who are fat.

This is very true. So very very true.

I'm still a fan of cutting out sugary drinks though, especially soda, that shit is nasty.

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Would be 500 grams for me. I don't consider it worth it, as I can just walk abit each week and lose 4 times that anyway.

Of course if someone drinks liters of soda per day, then that could easily be true.

Drinking water overall is worth it. If you cut out the sugary drinks - especially soda - you are cutting out one of the biggest contributors of high fructose corn syrup.

So many ways you can lose weight, even with walking the bare minimal per day. Portion control is a huge part of dieting. If you watch what you eat and how much you eat, you can lose quite a bit of weight. I helped my brother a while back, he was very obese. He's dropped over 100lbs now.

[Donald Hellscream]

Because I am fucking lazy and love all the wrong types of food.

[Kujako]

As with most things in life, Mad TV has the answers.

[Azadina]

Drinking water overall is worth it. If you cut out the sugary drinks - especially soda - you are cutting out one of the biggest contributors of high fructose corn syrup.

So many ways you can lose weight, even with walking the bare minimal per day. Portion control is a huge part of dieting. If you watch what you eat and how much you eat, you can lose quite a bit of weight. I helped my brother a while back, he was very obese. He's dropped over 100lbs now.

I'm keeping my drinks! Right now after meal, drink, exercise and the sandwich I'm eating now, I'm at 800 calories. Which for me is currently deficit of about 1000-1200. I still need to come up with some more calories to eat despite having had one drink today.

In short, the drinks I have are least of my worries, and I'm not sure they are at all.

[zenkai]

I'm keeping my drinks! Right now after meal, drink, exercise and the sandwich I'm eating now, I'm at 800 calories. Which for me is currently deficit of about 1000-1200. I still need to come up with some more calories to eat despite having had one drink today.

In short, the drinks I have are least of my worries, and I'm not sure they are at all.

For me, it isn't how much calories sugar adds, it's what it does to your body raising your insulin level. All the blood sugar that is not burned as energy or stored as glycogen is turned into fat.

[Kujako]

For me, it isn't how much calories sugar adds, it's what it does to your body raising your insulin level. All the blood sugar that is not burned as energy or stored as glycogen is turned into fat.

And keep in mind that many non sugar sweeteners still trigger the insulin production. But they DO make your urine sweet! If you're into that... not my cup of tea so speak, but everyone has their kink.

[zenkai]

And keep in mind that many non sugar sweeteners still trigger the insulin production. But they DO make your urine sweet! If you're into that... not my cup of tea so speak, but everyone has their kink.

Yeah some do, I been using stevia, natural stevia that is.