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Comment by revscat | Hacker News Reader

My anecdotal experience is that I have lost ~15 pounds since I started keto a month ago, with no change to exercise habits.

He may have a strong opinion, but I am not sure how based in science it is.

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What's dismaying about weight loss isn't that people can't manage to lose weight but that the success rates in keeping it off over the longer term (5 or 10 years) are extremely bad for just about every method except stomach stapling.

That's thanks (IMO) to the existence of a huge industry dedicated to convincing people that "a diet" is a temporary change in what you eat, after which you can once again throw restraint to the wind.

Not only that. Many diets are not sustainable - you can't keep them long term and perform well enough on work. They work by keeping you with low energy which affects your performance. Plus you are miserable practicaly constantly while keeping them.

The other reason is that they alter how your body works - meaning it is much easier to gain weight after dieting then before. You body adjusts to hunger by making fat reserves asap.

I don't think so. Your body works hard to maintain stasis.

It really doesn't. Humans (like all animals) tend to do everything based on rates rather than absolute measurements, so setpoints drift all over the place with time.

The thing is that you'll need to forever eat a rather low-calorie diet (more so than someone who was never overweight) and often this leads to frustrating, pervasive cravings for food that aren't that different from what people who have undergone starvation experiences report. Not for some finite period of time, but forever.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_exa...

> For instance, much of the research assumes that when fat people lose weight, they become “healthy” in the same ways as a thinner person is healthy. The evidence says otherwise. “Even if someone loses weight, they will always need fewer calories and need to exercise more,” says [UNC pediatrician Asheley] Skinner. “So we’re putting people through something we know will probably not be successful anyway. Who knows what we’re doing to their metabolisms.”

> Debra Sapp-Yarwood, a fiftysomething from Kansas City, Missouri, who’s studying to be a hospital chaplain, is one of the three percenters, the select few who have lost a chunk of weight and kept it off. She dropped 55 pounds 11 years ago, and maintains her new weight with a diet and exercise routine most people would find unsustainable: She eats 1,800 calories a day—no more than 200 in carbs—and has learned to put up with what she describes as “intrusive thoughts and food preoccupations.” She used to run for an hour a day, but after foot surgery she switched to her current routine: a 50-minute exercise video performed at twice the speed of the instructor, while wearing ankle weights and a weighted vest that add between 25 or 30 pounds to her small frame.

> “Maintaining weight loss is not a lifestyle,” she says. “It’s a job.” It’s a job that requires not just time, self-discipline, and energy—it also takes up a lot of mental real estate. People who maintain weight loss over the long term typically make it their top priority in life

That link says the chance of keeping lost weight off for 3 years is 3% but of doing so for 5 years is 5%? Seems odd.

Anyway, I'd like to see a credible source on the claim that "Even if someone loses weight, they will always need fewer calories and need to exercise more". And even IF that's true, it doesn't change the fact that that person can still, by eating fewer calories, maintain their weight loss.

The case with Debra Sapp-Yarwood says she eats 1800 calories, or 7500kJ/day. That's not a severe caloric restriction. For a "small-framed" but active 55-year-old woman that's an entirely appropriate intake.

Congrats! Whatever works I say. The one issue, in my experience, is that usually it's just the act of paying attention to what you eat that makes the difference (and basically all diets help with this). I still think there is value in having choice in different diets and such, but hard to see how people can get so religious about any single one of them. You're not being religious or anything, just made me think of this common conflation is all.

That's exactly his point. There is no scientific evidence that this happens systemically, i.e. "Keto will lead to weight loss". That does not mean it does not or that you can't lose weight. There's just no evidence.

That is BS - there is so much evidence that I don't know where to start.

Posting some peer reviewed studies would be a good start in convincing people.

Equally is true vice-versa, posting some peer reviewed studies that there is no effect.

You are the one that claimed there is evidence, the onus is on you to show us it, not for us to disprove your claim. No one is claiming there are peer reviewed studies showing the opposite.

Sure that works. I lost 10 kg only drinking beer (2-3 months because everyone said beer was the fat cause which it is not; it is a combination); losing weight is hard but not if you have the power to cut something out you normally do eat.

Just do not eat as much. I eat half a pizza instead of a whole one (If I do what my mind wants I eat 3-4 napolitana pizzas in a go; I eat half of one now), drink less etc and it works. Unfortunately I love food so on culinary trips the flesh is weak, but I lose it quickly by eating varied and little.

That's missing the point. You don't starve on a low carb diet.

Well, I lost weight by eating a junk-food-chain hamburger each day for a few weeks (it was an experiment, and I didn't get the fries and cola, only the hamburger). In the meantime my food intake has become a bit more varied, but ideology-free ;)

It's all about calorie intake and consumption really.

You reduced your caloric intake. That's wonderful.

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