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Comment by macco | Hacker News Reader

This Diet is way to complicated. A better way is simply:

* Don't drink alcohol. Alcohol has calories like fat. * Don't drink stuff with calories. The best is plain water * Cut back on carbs. Don't eat outside. Most food you buy is not suited for dieting * Eat your veggies. Eat at minimum one pound per day. It is a must. It is healthy and fights your hunger. * After you are down to the desired weight, don't get back to normal. Still eat your veggies and you are fine.

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Maybe that works for you, but most of us in the real world have been trying that for years, and with little result. You cannot manage what you cannot measure. A simple, easy to understand, but certainly cumbersome at times system like the hacker diet works well.

Also, you'll stick to your diet longer by eating smaller portions of the food you like than by eating large quantities of food you hate (I'm looking at you, salads). You're better off being hungry than dreading meals.

As always, YMMV.

> but most of us in the real world have been trying that for years, and with little result

Oh please. If you followed all those points and didn't lose weight, you're defying the laws of physics.

Use fitday.com to actually count your calories. If you're doing all those things and STILL can't lose weight, the simple fact of the matter is you're eating TOO MANY CALORIES.

You're probably one of those people who has no idea that a small cheeseburger, fries, and a coke represent over HALF of the calories you're supposed to eat in a single day.

The diet isn't really too complicated, it just puts the emphasis in the wrong areas. What you eat is actually slightly more important that how much you eat.

Your recommendations are a good start, but you should add that 50-70% of each meal should be protein. Protein is the fuel for your metabolic fire (long term), and will cause your calorie burning to outrun your caloric intake in general terms.

Part of why the veggies are such a good idea is that they can be mostly fiber, which are calories that are not absorbed at all, but help you absorb the other, more important nutrients (protein, minerals, vitamins).

And to maintain this you must view it as a lifestyle and the goal is overall health, not a certain weight. The right weight will happen as the result of being healthy.

Forget the protein. It's ok, but you don't need. I included the veggies, because the don't have much calories and they are fighting your hunger. At the end they are healthy too, but that is not the point here.

You don't need protein? That's an odd statement to make.

That kind of protein intake is absolutely nuts.

On average, the Japanese get over 50% of their calories just from rice and over 80% from carbohydrates. They also have the longest lifespans in the world and far lower obesity and heart disease rates than similarly developed places.

You're probably talking about the Okinawa Diet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_diet). It contains 25% of the average Japanese intake of sugar and 75% of the average Japanese intake of grains in general. It is very low calorie.

To get the long lifespan, low obesity, and low heart disease of an Okinawan you'd have to truly live like an Okinawan... eating exactly the kinds of foods they eat and having little stress, similar sleep habits, and similar genetic dispositions. People have not been successful in replicating the approach elsewhere.

The approach I described is the way to eat to stoke your metabolism and keep your blood sugar low. It's good for fat loss, muscle building, high energy levels, and general good health. There's more to it than I described (such as eating 5 or more times a day), but those are the basics.

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