How to lose weight?

[Shadowferal]

I don't tend to look at calories so much as I look at carbs.

[Paperfox]

As much as you can, just buy whole foods and then cook them yourself. If instead of buying a burger & fries, you cook something similar, there is a good chance what you'll be eating will be healthier. Sometimes less expensive in terms of money as well. If you prepare and cook a larger amount so that you can get several meals out of it, you may offset the time needed to cook.

[willtron]

.....you just deteriorate in heath I guess....if that is all that you look for.

Also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcMBm-UVdII - I mean...there are things like hormones and people gaining weight through the accumulation of water etc because they are taking medications.

I guess what I want to say that...maybe a calorie is a calorie for a heathy person...in reality it is not

It is not when your 2000 calorie intake comes from a bag of crisps and 2 litres of Coca Cola per day vs tons of vegetables, legumes or fruit.. Not in the long run

But yeah...if you truly want to boil this down to a "calorie in vs calorie out" debate? You are totally right. Nobody came out of a concentration camp chubbier than they went in.

Disgustingly tasteless....but IMHO needed to put the whole "just eat less" shit into perspective.

There are always going to be exceptions, but the majority of fat people are lazy and are self afflicting. Saying "oh it's meds" is a lazy argument imo.

the whole cola thing is down to nutrition, not calories. Thats a different point.

Calories v nutritional content is why having a balanced diet matters. having the same calories in junk food vs healthy food won't make a much difference to losing weight other than hunger and portion size. To your general nutrition and state of health, it'll have a massive difference.

[Strawberry]

I recently went from 74kg (163lbs) to 63-64kg (139-141lbs).
That's not a lot if you look at the kgs, but that was some 15% of my weight, especially since I was skinny before I lost the weight (I'm 174cm tall, 5'7").

This might not work for everyone, but I think it's effective.
Before I used to eat anything, but mostly stuff like small pizzas and a ton of meat and potatoes.
I replaced pizzas with 3 boiled eggs, some full corn bread, caviar and tomatoes/cucumber/paprika. When it comes to meat and potatoes, I halved that and started baking the potatoes in the oven.
And did some small workout at home, once or twice per week, plus tennis with dad also twice or so per week.

When it comes to food, two major changes I did:
1) changed the junk food to a more healthy one.
2) stopped eating myself fully. I decided how much to eat and if it didn't feel enough, I'd take some natural nuts. Those fill you up very quickly.
And a small change is that I started drinking protein powder once per day. I was skinny before and I wanted to lose fat, but not (too much) muscle.
At work, 2 boiled eggs and rice cookies for breakfast and for lunch - 4 days I drink Huel, 1 day kebab or pizza. This leaves everyone hungry including me so I either eat those rice cookies as snacks or buy chocolate.

And it worked. I lost 10kgs but actually built chest and biceps muscles. Most of the weight lost was in my face, legs, and belly, thanks to workouts on my arms and upper body.
And I still eat chocolate, cake and shit lol, I'm not giving that up.

[Centeah]

Personally, I've lost extra weight just by changing my diet which now consists mostly from vegetables, fruits, fish, cereals and other healthy products

[Vorkreist]

its really not. what you put into your body absolutely matters, but so does how much of it. both too little and too much is not a good idea. now if you say counting calories for someone with Orthorexia is all wrong - yeah, it kind might be triggering for them. which is where portion control enters the picture.... which is still counting calories, but in a less obvious way.

- - - Updated - - -



I personaly am not, because I do not need to lose weight (not because of any body positivity, but becasue i'm already at a normal healthy weight and losing weight is literally going to be unhealthy for me. being underweight is in some ways worse then being overweight. but that's neither here nor there)

however. even for a person who does need to lose weight - losing it too quickly is BAD for their health. as bad as staying overweight. the whole point of weight loss for health is to do it in a HEALTHY way. and THAT.. varies from person to person. (yes yes the end goal is calorie deficit, HOW you achieve that calorie deficit is what varies)

Most people have issues with losing weight. Its the most generalized problem. Stop talking like "losing weight is dangerous" bs. There is no danger in following a fucking diet or exercising. We are not pro fighters that try to lose 30 pounds in a week by dehydration.

[Nayami]

You lose it by believing in yourself and remembering that it will be sooooo worth it in the end when you are feeling that it is getting too hard!

[Witchblade77]

Most people have issues with losing weight. Its the most generalized problem. Stop talking like "losing weight is dangerous" bs. There is no danger in following a fucking diet or exercising. We are not pro fighters that try to lose 30 pounds in a week by dehydration.

losing weight TOO FAST. is dangerous. losing weight when you are already at a normal weight - is dangerous.

please. read what I said, actualy read it, instead of seeing one or two words and filling in the rest.

most people have issues with losing weight for several reasons. 1. they are not accounting for all the calories they are consuming. 2. they are pushing too hard, too fast, cannot sustain it -and relapse even worse than where they started and/or from the start consider a diet something you do temporarily and then go back to a lifestyle that got them into a condition requiring weight loss... and gain it all back. 3. have underlying conditions that stall their weight loss - could be psychological, could be physiological and could be both.

but... regardless of the issue - losing weight TOO FAST is dangerous. going on a starvation diet is dangerous. going on an exercise program that your body cannot manage and getting injured as a result? IS DANGEROUS.

I am NOT saying that one shouldn't lose weight, ever. I'm saying that its a case to case basis as to how and doing the wrong thing can do more harm then good.

[loras]

Find a sport that you like, you'll feel even better as your condition improves.
The point is to make weight loss functional, not just about mildly esoteric bullshit like beauty, feelings and even health.

A bit like in WoW: "Doing this makes me able to do more by flying/doing more damage/getting invited easier/etc., so i will do it a lot!"; the precondition for sports is the same as in WoW: find something you enjoy doing, then find a reason to do it a lot and get healthy for it.

[BicycleMafioso]

There are always going to be exceptions, but the majority of fat people are lazy and are self afflicting. Saying "oh it's meds" is a lazy argument imo.

No offense meant, but I've got to strongly disagree with you there, mate. First of all, it depends on the medication. Some of them really saturates the liver. Second of all, I've lived it and am currently living it.

I've always been 63-65ish kg, at 180cm. An active lifestyle, social sports. At 28, I got medication. Queue 4 years later and without changing my lifestyle but eating less(!) I was at 125 kg. That is definitely down to medication.

On days where I didn't have to bike to uni (I bike or walk everywhere. It doesn't make sense owning a car here), or do sports with friends, I walked. And ate reasonably well.

Since that March, I've been contact with a dietist. She advised me to change my diet to 1600 kcal per day. A month later, we realised I'd gained more weight, because the 1500 kcal I could manage to eat was way too much. We finally found the amount I needed to eat to maintain weight. Which was a 1000 kcal diet.
My medication has destroyed my metabolic rate.

Queue 20 months later and I've lost 28kg (as I gained 3kg on my dietist's first suggested diet), I am down to 100.5kg (180cm still!). From going to the gym up until pandemic hit and being on a 700 kcal diet per day.
It is hell. It is a very tight margin to walk to survive and still have a deficit. A single apple cuts my deficiency down so much.

I hope you don't have to live through it. But trust me, it's a different ball game, and I am by no means saying it is impossible, clearly, I am just saying that where you draw the line for lazy is way off.

All the best.

[notJoyful]

-snip-

That is a very fringe and outlier scenario though. Very very rarely does medication effect your metabolic rate to such an extreme amount that you need to eat that low of an amount of kcal.

[BicycleMafioso]

That is a very fringe and outlier scenario though. Very very rarely does medication effect your metabolic rate to such an extreme amount that you need to eat that low of an amount of kcal.

Perhaps. Or perhaps making uninformed statements that people are hiding behind medications are exactly that, uninformed. Sure, some people probably use it as an excuse, but some people on medications can’t lose weight despite their best efforts. I feel lucky that I can.

But. My best efforts honestly already feels like not enough, and I feel extremely bad about not being able to do more. Which is definitely because of my medications. I am not lazy, I just can’t do more than I already do. I can’t for any justifiable reason eat fewer than 700 kcal.

[Shadowspire]

I don’t want to lift, because I don’t want muscle mass. And I think training endurance still builds muscle? Also, cardio is too much work for just losing half a meal’s worth of calories.

I used to weigh 95 lbs. Now I’m almost double that. I used to drink tea when I had cravings, but now there’s popcorn, chips and ice cream around. Should I just not eat as much? Is that really all?

First...95 lbs for anyone pass 16 is pretty low.
Second while working out is hard to get into walking and doing some weights will help curb the fat and depending on how much you lift you gain horrible muscle look.

If you don't want to walk try to bike ride, but just know any form of exercise is going to create muscle but it'll just come in different.

[notJoyful]

Perhaps. Or perhaps making uninformed statements that people blaming medications are exactly that, uninformed. Sure, some people probably use it as an excuse, but some people on medications can’t lose weight despite their best efforts. I feel lucky that I can.

But. My best efforts honestly already feels like not enough, and I feel extremely bad about not being able to do more. Which is definitely because of my medications. I am not lazy, I just can’t do more than I already do. I can’t for any justifiable reason eat fewer than 700 kcal.

Understandable, but if the norm, the majority of people, will get by in terms of weight loss by simply lowering their kcals. Preferably also increasing their movement (excercise). Then that is a pretty good broad stroke brush to use, even though there obviously will be outliers, but that can't be the standard you keep an online-gaming-thread too when it comes to the very overall easy question to answer: how to lose weight.

[BicycleMafioso]

Understandable, but if the norm, the majority of people, will get by in terms of weight loss by simply lowering their kcals. Preferably also increasing their movement (excercise). Then that is a pretty good broad stroke brush to use, even though there obviously will be outliers, but that can't be the standard you keep an online-gaming-thread too when it comes to the very overall easy question to answer: how to lose weight.

Very fair. Overall it is a sound general rule. And one I do not object to. My issue was with them calling "medications a lazy excuse", which I interpreted (perhaps incorrectly) as them saying it is an excuse without merit.

I am fat, still on the obese side if you trust bmi (albeit I do not look it, people would guess I am 25kg less). I am not excusing that. I do object to people trying to infer medications is nothing more than an excuse. Perhaps I did jump the gun.

[notJoyful]

Very fair. Overall it is a sound general rule. And one I do not object to. My issue was with them calling "medications a lazy excuse", which I interpreted (perhaps incorrectly) as them saying it is an excuse without merit.

I am fat, still on the obese side if you trust bmi (albeit I do not look it, people would guess I am 25kg less). I am not excusing that. I do object to people trying to infer medications is nothing more than an excuse. Perhaps I did jump the gun.

Obviously medical exceptions do apply!

Surprisingly positive exchange of comments over the internet

[willtron]

No offense meant, but I've got to strongly disagree with you there, mate. First of all, it depends on the medication. Some of them really saturates the liver. Second of all, I've lived it and am currently living it.

I've always been 63-65ish kg, at 180cm. An active lifestyle, social sports. At 28, I got medication. Queue 4 years later and without changing my lifestyle but eating less(!) I was at 125 kg. That is definitely down to medication.

On days where I didn't have to bike to uni (I bike or walk everywhere. It doesn't make sense owning a car here), or do sports with friends, I walked. And ate reasonably well.

Since that March, I've been contact with a dietist. She advised me to change my diet to 1600 kcal per day. A month later, we realised I'd gained more weight, because the 1500 kcal I could manage to eat was way too much. We finally found the amount I needed to eat to maintain weight. Which was a 1000 kcal diet.
My medication has destroyed my metabolic rate.

Queue 20 months later and I've lost 28kg (as I gained 3kg on my dietist's first suggested diet), I am down to 100.5kg (180cm still!). From going to the gym up until pandemic hit and being on a 700 kcal diet per day.
It is hell. It is a very tight margin to walk to survive and still have a deficit. A single apple cuts my deficiency down so much.

I hope you don't have to live through it. But trust me, it's a different ball game, and I am by no means saying it is impossible, clearly, I am just saying that where you draw the line for lazy is way off.

All the best.

I'm not saying meds don't affect peoples ability to metabolise. I'm just saying a lot of fat people saying "it's meds" aren't actually on anything and are just fat and lazy, and don't want to admit they're fat and lazy. Yours is a very niche and unfortunate scenario, a lot of people are just that lazy they let themselves get fat, however. That's who I'm targetting.

Sorry though dude, that sounds like it sucks.

[Todd K Lai]

only sports and proper nutrition will help you lose weight

[saixilein]

Eating less, do sports, if your job dont have any movement and dont lose focus.

[fwc577]

I don’t want to lift, because I don’t want muscle mass. And I think training endurance still builds muscle? Also, cardio is too much work for just losing half a meal’s worth of calories.

I used to weigh 95 lbs. Now I’m almost double that. I used to drink tea when I had cravings, but now there’s popcorn, chips and ice cream around. Should I just not eat as much? Is that really all?

Eat less. CICO is how you lose weight. Calories in, Calories Out. If you don't want to do any working out, then you need to limit your intake of calories in.