Why YSK: many countries have issues with weight, such as mine with 74% of US adults being overweight or obese. The global weight loss industry is over $200 billion yearly, with many influencers, pills, and surgeries promising quick results with little effort. These often come with side effects, or don’t work long term.
Studies suggest filling yourself with foods low in caloric density and high in fiber, like fruits and vegetables, can help reach and maintain a healthy weight. It’s good to have these foods available in our living spaces to make the choice easy. Your taste buds will likely adapt to love them if you’re not there yet.
I don’t want a pickle.
I just want to ride on my motorcycle
Unless your brain is fucking broken like mine, lol.
I used to be uninterested in foods like broccoli, apples, oranges, and blueberries, but after a transition period I love them and have them every day. I’d like to hear anyone’s story who’s also been able to integrate more of these foods.
Personally I’m luckyish in having the opposite problem from most, I’ve been entirely unable to gain weight, and before I started working out to put on muscle weight I weighed about 120 lbs
One of the fun parts about rapidly building muscle is your body will start asking for healthier foods. I’ve had a couple of times where I’ll make a big steaming plate of veggies and be all about it until the moment I put some in my mouth and went “oh yeah, I still don’t like steamed broccoli stems”
I also yesterday tried to challenge myself on a new personal record distance in biking, and was biking in the morning rather than the evening like I usually do. I quickly learned that I need a very different fuel in my body first thing in the morning if I’m going to be engaging in physical activity shortly later.
I’ve been eating fruits and vegetables but it’s really difficult to get hard full with them.
With that said, oatmeal helps. I’ve lost around 30 pounds and I hit a wall, I’m finding it hard to lose more, I’m increasing my exercise but I’m not sure if I’m eating too little now for my metabolism to kick in and help me lose more weight. It’s all about calories in calories out, up to a certain point.
You are fighting millions of years of evolution. If you are in caloric deficit for too long, your body thinks you don’t have food near you anymore and try to conserve whatever energy you have.
Take a diet break and up your calories slightly daily until you see yourself gaining a little bit of weight. Then cut back the last increase.
Keep that calorie intake for a few weeks and then start a new cut after that. Rinse and repeat until you are at your goal weight.
Ab easy rule of thumb is to do a weight cut for 6-12 weeks, and then do a maintenance weight for the same length of time you did your cut.
you cant loose weight while your insulin is high. ever. your oatmeal gets turned into fat instead of energy. so you cant loose weight. switch to meat salt and vegtables. try it one week, see what happens. the reason you lost weight is that you were eating even more sugar and carbs before.
I think the reason why I lost so much weight is because I was eating like 3000-4000+ calories a day and didn’t care about my diet at all, and now I’m eating 2000 or less calories per day.
There are tons of sites/articles/etc that say oatmeal is great for weight loss, it lowers your blood sugar, it’s very filling and full of vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc. though there’s always going to be conflicting information, which makes part of this more difficult.
Yes! The biggest factor with body weight is calories in vs calories out. Foods with volume and mass but fewer calories displace calorie dense foods. Even as simple as substituting popcorn vs potato chips is huge on calorie savings. Protein and fats (ideally plant based) can also help you feel full longer than say simple carbs like potato chips/white pasta.
I highly recommend Harvard’s Nutrition Source for science-based nutrition info and recipes, the language is very accessible too!
Correcting link https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/
Thanks!
Holy fuck we hit 74%? Goddamn
Go for 100%…I know you can do it.
Would you be satisfied with 100% minus 1 person?
Minus 2 people. I’m back at a healthy weight and steady for a year now. Amazing what cutting out all the crap does.
Fruits and veggies are great for gut biome and the fiber helps keep you moving, but there is such a thing as too much bowel movement.
TBH, the best weightloss options are actually a liquid supplement diet, the kind that come in bins of powder with a plastic scoop inside and PROTEIN written across the front. Most of them are meal replacers, and some of them are also low calorie.
If you stick to a vegan diet expecting to lose weight you’ll usually fall into the trap of a high carb diet instead.
I’m vegan and struggling with my weight for a while, bought a Huel subscription and it is really helping. I’ll get my measured out meal, then fill up on water and tea, but the shakes by themselves are surprisingly filling.
Portion control had been my biggest struggle. It’s easier to say no to another meal shake than getting seconds of something else, and the shakes do taste good. Well, the chocolate does, the Vanilla is… not amazing.
I’m also keeping up on it more cause I don’t want the hassle of modifying the order.
The other big thing that keeps me at it is weighing myself every day and logging it in a health app.
This next statement is off topic a bit, but I bought a Muscle Milk Strawberry powder once and it was just bland vanilla with little tiny bits of occasional strawberry. 0/10
I’ll sometimes try protein shakes when I see vegan ones I don’t recognize at the store. I’ve had a few very bad ones. Most fall into that “well, it tastes decent for a protein shake I suppose.”
Sometimes I add some cinnamon amd a tiny bit of ground cloves and ginger, turns just about any bland protein drink into a spice cake flavor.
I feel like protein mixes are trying to be flavored like dairy products when instead they should try to be flavored like eccentric tea and coffee house beverages.
Certain fruits can be very high in sugars, also not a great idea. Focus more on veggies
Not to say avoid fruits. It’s okay, and even encouraged, to eat whole servings of fruit each day.
A family member was eating nothing but fruit and really messed himself up. I forget exactly what happened but he lost muscle control on one side of his body.
Never go full Jobs
I am always teetering on the edge of doing this, not because I think it’s a good idea, but just because I really, truly love fruit…
So sitting on my ass eating candy isn’t the way to lose weight?
Technically it still depends on the amount of candy.
Humans don’t need grains.
Pretty simple.
That little clicker in the brain that goes off when you’ve had enough doesn’t really work for me. I have to feel physically full or I still feel hungry. Even worse, my dopamine levels are garbage and eating makes me feel good.
Not saying this doesn’t work. Only that I’m far from the only one where it is this simple.
If you would accept a suggestion: Just fast for a few days. Your stomach will shrink and you can go back to eating normal portions after. Plus it’s good for the soul, there’s a reason so many religions recommend it.
A few days? Depending on the person’s condition, it might turn out badly.
First, start with one day. Second, and most importantly, consult with a medical professional to make sure you don’t have any counter-indications.
Feeling full is about volume of food. With high calorie dense foods like fast food, that’s going to be a ton of calories. With low calorie dense foods you can eat the same amount of food, and eat substantially less calories.
The only thing that matters in weight loss is calories in, calories out.
I get that it’s harder for some people, but finding less calorie dense foods that you enjoy will go a long way towards helping lose weight. Also, don’t drink pop unless it’s diet.
or maybe stop eating for feeling full, and start eating for satiety.
I’m like you, and no it’s not simple. As others said, calories in, calories out. Nothing else matters, you need to find your own way to keep it. And no, exercise does not help much with weight, only if paired with a good diet. You would need to work out for hours continuously just to lose the calories from a random extra dessert.
But, you can do it. Two things I wish I had known:
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For example, my body was able to keep my weight instead of losing it if I kept calories intake where it should be and had a “cheat day” once a week at most. No cheat days for me, my body is too smart for that.
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Sometimes you feel you are on track, and then you get stuck at a certain weight. Even if you keep your diet, you might get stuck at a certain weight despite losing it well beforehand. Keep at it. You will break through at one point, closer than you think. But you have to keep at it.
It is not as simple as just calories in vs calories out. Your body has a setting point for what weight it thinks it should be. Once you are overweight, your setting point will be higher and your body wants to get back to that higher weight. It will start working actively against you. This might mean your appetite will increase and your metabolism will slow down. I think that is what you are describing here.
Trying to push yourself to lose more weight despite your body working against you can cause rebound weight gain if you are not able to keep the diet (which might become increasingly difficult due to increasing appetite). The most important thing is to keep a healthy diet that does not reduce your quality of life too much and is doable on the long term, I think. If you are struggling everyday, then it might be better to eat a little bit more and stay on a higher weight a bit longer to ensure that you will maintain the weight loss.
Maybe this is already what you meant. But the phrase “calories in vs calories out” and stating that nothing else matters made me want to respond. I think it is a popular oversimplification that causes a lot of unnecessary suffering for people trying to lose weight.
Despite what others are saying, I think you are right in a lot of ways.
There definitely is a set point where your body feels comfortable. You can get above and below a few kilos, and your body will return to that set point if you return to what you eat normally. That’s why it’s hard, to move the set point, you have to get around 5 under and keep at it. So when you are 5 under and your weight loss suddenly stops, that’s when you really started to push the kilos down, that’s why it suddenly gets harder. And you should go that 5 kilos past your set point because you will gain it back when you stop eating less.
With me, with a resting consumption of around 1800 kcal, how it went is that I did 6 months of trying to keep it below 1500 kcal, targeting 1400 if I can - but no less, and more or less kept it. My results have been going from 124 kg to 110 then rebounding to 114, then another round of doing the same got me from 114 to 100 then rebound to 104. After the ~4 kg rebound, it stabilized. Just now, a month after finishing, I just ate nothing but shitty McDonalds for 3 days (have been on the road a lot) and my weight went from 104.2 to 103.9.
I guess what I’m saying is that your only real way of affecting the system is cals in vs cals out, but as you say, the inside of the system is not simple. Also, don’t crash diet, and even if you feel like eating less on one day for some reason, keep your diet from the other side as well. Every time I ate less than 1400, the next day I fucked it up and went to 1800-ish, every single time. It makes it much harder.
Thanks! I think you are describing what a lot of people experience. Weight loss is highly complex and by oversimplifying it, lots of people do not get the help they need and are made to feel bad about themselves.
There is actually quite some scientific work supporting what I am saying. For example, this is an article in Journal of Obesity. It discusses the role of willpower and provides an overview of some of the research on other factors that affect whether people lose weight, such as metabolic compensation.
This is another interesting paper in the Irish Journal of Medical Science on patient’s view on obesity as a disease. I think the conclusion of this study aligns well with some of my claims:
The presence of beliefs and perceptions to support the narrative that obesity is a choice, that choosing to eat less and move more effectively treats the disease and willpower is a principle determinant of weight loss maintenance may negatively impact long-term treatment. A belief that obesity is a choice will see prevention and treatment strategies continually focus on education regarding eating less and moving more, which may be suboptimal. Therefore, the narrative must change and align with the science regarding the biology of obesity as a disease.
[This] (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0953620521000029) paper on weight regain also claims that it is not just about compliance with a diet, but that, amongst others, metabolic adaptation and changed appetite play an important role as well.
I am personally quite interested in work on obesity due to eating disorders. The reason for this is that I suffered from an eating disorder causing obesity for most of my life (fortunately, I do not have the disorder anymore). The constant pressure to just eat less and getting blamed if you fail, severely increased my eating disorder and I saw the same thing happen to others with similar issues. I know that this is anecdotal and not everyone that is obese has an eating disorder and not everyone with an eating disorder is the same. However, there is some limited evidence that weight neutral treatment of binge eating disorder has better outcomes. This and treatment for my CPTSD is exactly what worked for me.
This is propaganda from companies that want you to keep gorging on their slop instead of natural portions of food.
It is not. I am not saying people should not eat healthy or should not try to lose weight. I am just saying that pushing the oversimplification that for everyone it is just calories in vs calories out and that it is only about willpower is not correct. People should get the right help with losing weight and the factors that cause the weight gain or makes people not losing the weight should be addressed.
There is lots of scientific work on this. I copied some links from another comment I made.
For example, this is an article in Journal of Obesity. It discusses the role of willpower and provides an overview of some of the research on other factors that affect whether people lose weight, such as metabolic compensation.
This is another interesting paper in the Irish Journal of Medical Science on patient’s view on obesity as a disease. I think the conclusion of this study aligns well with some of my claims:
The presence of beliefs and perceptions to support the narrative that obesity is a choice, that choosing to eat less and move more effectively treats the disease and willpower is a principle determinant of weight loss maintenance may negatively impact long-term treatment. A belief that obesity is a choice will see prevention and treatment strategies continually focus on education regarding eating less and moving more, which may be suboptimal. Therefore, the narrative must change and align with the science regarding the biology of obesity as a disease.
[This] (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0953620521000029) paper on weight regain also claims that it is not just about compliance with a diet, but that, amongst others, metabolic adaptation and changed appetite play an important role as well.
If you disagree, please provide some substantiation. I would be interested in reading it.
This is not true.
It’s just not true.
Very solid argumentation…
You said words that weren’t factually accurate.
I’m not going to argue with you about it but straight up the notion that your body has some “set point” and the idea of needing to keep your metabolism in the right area so calories work is … it’s bullshit.
It’s wrong.
The real problem with CICO is people don’t measure properly and our bodies have a varying requirement day to day based on a myriad of factors but that doesn’t invalidate the simple truth that is CICO.
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It doesn’t work for me when it comes to any sort of fried potato variation (fries, tots, crispy crows, etc). No matter how full I am, I can keep eating those.
I fucked my “clicker” up with too large portions, which expanded my stomach over the years. i was NEVER satiated, because i had no way of filling my stomach up. I was always hungry. In the end and after many years of fighting my massive overweight i went for an stomach bypass. If someone tells you that this is the easy way out: they are full of shit. You have to relearn eating, and 1) that really sucks and 2) that was exactly what i needed, No more feeling hungry is a blessing.
Same here. I use popcorn to get there. We probably go through three air poppers a year.
74%? That’s actually lower than I thought
Just drinking more water helps a lot to feel full.
Staying active also, is not just good for increasing your caloric needs, it’s also a great way to be busy, and substitute eating out of boredom.
Have you ever… Considered the disadvantages of drinking too much water all the time?
Drinking too much water is pretty difficult. You must be talking about the consequence of drinking a healthy amount of water, which is peeing every hour or so. On the one hand, yes, it’s really annoying to be in the middle of something and have to go take a piss. On the other hand,
My boss makes a dollar, I make a dime
That’s why I piss on company time
Peeing?
Fruits are high in sugar, how are they considered low calorie foods?
Fruits have plenty of fiber, which helps increase satiety, which is what’s important here. Also check the difference between a candy bar and a piece of friut, and then think about which fills you up better with fewer calories. Density matters too, it’s much easier to snarf down a bunch of candy than to eat the same caloric value in fruit.
One apple (223 g) is supposed to be 116 calories.
Most fruits are low calorie with a lot of them having less than 100 kcal per 100g. There are some exceptions such as Avocado (due to fat content actually) and dates as well dried fruit (prunes at 300/100g vs plums at 45/100g).
Strawberries, cherries, apples, figs, bananas all are below 100kcal/100g. Obviously some are better at filing you up than others.
Like the other commenter said, it’s about the calorie density, not the calories.
An apple makes you satisfied longer than an equivalent number of calories of Oreos, so if you get to snack as much as you want on either, you’ll eat fewer calories of apple than of Oreo over a given timeframe.
You can over eat either of them, it’s just easier with one than the other.Similarly, something like a steak can fill you up a lot, for a very long time, but has enough calories in it that it’s still better to not eat for every meal.
It doesn’t say low calories but low caloric density and high in fibre. It’s a combo that matters. Though one can definitely overdo on fruit.
Modern fruits have too much fructose for good health these days. They’ve been bred to be way too sweet.
Still better than an industrial snack, don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. If you already have illuminated all these snacks and other sweetened products from your diet, I think you’re doing pretty great. Before that, it seems a bit silly to worry about fruits being too sweet.
I have a lot of friends who have a fruit smoothie every morning and wonder why they aren’t losing weight. Bananas, apples, and grapes in particular are to be avoided. Most berries are okay.
Are they also adding full fat yogurt, milk and peanut butter? Skipping protein powder?
A smoothie could easily hit 700+ calories if made mindlessly.
The main problem with smoothies is that they make it easy to really overconsume fruit sugars. People generally put way more fruit into a smoothie than they would normally consume in a single sitting. Having some grapes with a salad or a banana with eggs and toast is fine. Dumping a banana, 1 cup berries, 1/2 cup yogurt, 1/4 orange juice, and a teaspoon of honey in a blender then chugging it in the span of a couple minutes is problematic.
