Comment by acconrad | Hacker News Reader

Comment by acconrad | Hacker News Reader

The true key to weight loss is compliance. Your body doesn't care if you're adhering to keto or intermittent fasting or paleo or whatever is en vogue right now. Even if you lose 50 lbs and get amazing results, if you can't stick with that diet forever (and you likely can't, because diets by definition are restrictive), the evidence overwhelmingly suggests you will gain it all back, and possibly more.

Your best bet is to focus on plants (fruits/veggies), nuts/seeds, legumes, whole grains, and animals (if you choose to eat them). If you love dairy, or chocolate, or cookies...have them. Better you have a little every day or every so often, knowing it, in moderation, will not lead to weight gain. What will lead to weight gain will be a masochistic devotion to avoiding those things, and then the eventual and complete eroding of your constitution which will bring a painful and guilt-ridden rebound that will take a psychological and physical toll on yourself.

I say this as someone who placed in a bodybuilding competition last year while eating pizza, cookies, cheesecake, and whatever "dirty" food you can imagine.

I couldn't agree more. I was a part time fitness instructor for over 10 years, ate like crap but worked out intensely between teaching, weightlifting, and training for runs for at least 10-15 hours a week. My body fat percentage never went above 10-12% (measured with calipers 6 points).

Within 5 years after stopping teaching and letting life get the best of me, (career, marriage, instant family with step children, asthma getting bad) my weight and all of the other indicators start getting out of control - high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc.

Because of asthma and a few other things, I couldn't work out how I use to my cardio vascular system won't let me and I needed to eat better - not just less - to get healthy again.

I gave up on the heavy cardio stuff I use to do and started back working out by focusing more on exercise that required muscular endurance - lifting weights, walking briskly at a high incline, and the elliptical at a high incline and steep resistance.

I noticed a big difference. My weight started coming down, I actually enjoy exercising and it takes a lot more discipline for me to take a day off from exercising than keeping to my schedule.

On the food side, since I'm acutely aware of how much exercise I have to do burn calories, it doesn't take much discipline not to eat too much and not wanting to die from self inflicted causes (eating crap) it helps me stay motivated to eat correctly.

On the other hand, if I live my whole life completely giving up pleasures that are "bad for me", it's not only a mental drain but what type of life is that? It's just like spending all of my time working and not being able to enjoy the money I earn.

^this. I lost >160 lbs (and have kept it off for years) by counting calories. My wife has lost 50 lbs by count calories. I have another relative who lost 175 lbs by keeping a strict keto diet. She's kept the wait off for years. I have yet another relative who lost ~70 lbs eating something akin to a whole food diet, and has put all the weight back on. My takeaway is that all of these diets work, but it comes down to compliance and sustainability. So do whatever you'd like as long as you can adhere to it, and keep at it. A lot of people are able to lose weight, and then gain it all back shortly afterwards.

Have you joined the National Weight Control Registry? http://www.nwcr.ws/

Bingo. It's an 80% solution that you can keep 100% of the time, instead of the other way around.

The No-S Diet and "eat food, not too much, mostly plants" is the way to go.

Although I know plenty of people gain weight after losing.

Losing weight is a temporary activity. Maintaining a weight is a life long endeavor.

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