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Comment by oculusthrift | Hacker News Reader

the only thing that matters for weight (barring some serious disorders) is the balance of energy. eat excessive calories and your body stores it as fat. eat too little and your body burns fat for energy. regarding carbs: they make about 50 pct of the average persons caloric intake and they really aren't filling (atleast simple carbs). so cutting them out usually means getting rid of s major source of calories and usually replacing it with something more filling.

lowering fats would work as well since itd lower overall calories.

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Weirdly, I find increasing fat intake makes me lose weight faster. This is probably because it's hard to eat lots of fat, but easy to consume the equivalent calories through carbs (I'm looking at you Oreo milkshakes...)

I still don't understand this idea that is hard to eat a lot of fat.

Lean protein sure, there is a limit to the number of chicken breasts I can eat, but fat? Bacon, Cheese, Fatty meats. I can easily eat 1000-1500kcal in a single meal without feeling really full.

I eat 4-5 eggs with bacon with a bit of butter, being around 750kcals for breakfast and then by lunch time, want to eat a bunch again. I easily eat a pound of meat/baby ribs that go over 1000kcals easily (black iberian pig baby back ribs are more fat than anything else) and after a few hours I will be hungry.

I'm a small guy so 2000kcal is about the food I need to keep my weight and I work out a lot.

"fat bombs" are something I never understood in low carb communities. It's not hard at all to eat fat without supplementing. I eat bacon, eggs, red meat, salad dressing, dairy, etc and get plenty of fat.

I don't get it either.

My favourite food is called "Secretos Porco Preto" (black iberian pig secrets) [1]

This is the most fatty meat I ever eaten. I eat up and iron skillet, I put the piece there, it renders so much fat that it then fries itself (not grilled/sauted, the fat renders, heats up and fries the meat). After I take the meat out I get about 1/2 cup of fat for about 1.5 pounds of meat. I honestly don't understand how people think this won't get me as fat as the Michellin man if I just ate what I wanted...

1: http://www.miguelemiguel.pt/images/spsimpleportfolio/secreto...

Obviously the "quality" of fat source can make a difference just like for carbs, getting them from broccoli or brown rice can be more filling than getting them from fries per calorie. Avocado's and nuts are obviously more filling than animal fats. For the most part, I think your body "craves" fats and eating them solves that craving. But this isn't the same as being "filling". I've also heard that the beginning of going on a high fat (ketogenic) diet is difficult, but your body adapts and fat tends to start filling you.

finally, peoples bodies vary and some are full with fewer fats or carbs than others.

Hence my original comment about genetics playing a part of what we can and can't eat and wildly differing views on what it takes to lose weight.

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