Re:Ask HN: Any weird tips for weight loss?
by dspillett on Thursday March 10, 2022 @06:49AM
(#30625883)
> Weird tips like that? No, no definitely not.
Yep. The best “weird tip” is to avoid weird tips. I'm sure they've all worked for someone, though I suspect in many cases by some variant of a placebo effect or an indirect effect, and some work for a noticeable subset of people, but very few work generally and trying all the tricks and having them not work is a recipe for “I'm just not destined to manage this” style demotivation.
Always start with the practically undeniable basics: eat less if you can, try eat better whether you are eating less or not, do more physical activity where you can, try not to undo the effect of the activity by using it as an excuse to eat significantly more, monitor what effect your changes have, and try not to have too high expectations or push too fast (weight lost slowly is more likely to stay off, because you fall into better habits/routine over the longer period and are less likely to flip straight back into all your old habits once you get close to your goal).
Once you have those habits down, then maybe think about tweaks & tricks to optimise the process. Getting yourself into the habits might require some self-management tricks, but don't think of them as weight-loss or getting-into-shape tricks as they are really general self-management behaviours.
One note on monitoring: be careful not to obsess over single readings. The human body can be more random than you expect and your daily/weekly life is not as predictable as you think. I stand on my scales almost daily, but don't care about individual readings: things could be high because I've been at parties recently, low because I've had two long-ish runs this weekend, weight can vary a fair amount either way just be hydration levels. I tend to watch a fortnightly average: two weeks of my normal routine seems to be enough to aggregate out most of the blips most of the time.
On being more active: the challenge there is to find something that is either easy to fit into your routine, or that you enjoy enough to want to make the effort, or both. I accidentally discovered I enjoy running, though I've since gone off pounding the streets for speed and now take more steady paces, often but not always for longer distances, through countryside trails. Some prefer cycling. Martial arts are good too (wrestling can be a great full-body workout, and if you actually enjoy it you don't realise how much work you are actually doing). Just walking more can make a noticeable difference, and is usually easy to fit into daily/weekly life.
[for reference: about six years ago I dropped from ~110KG to <64KG over the course of about two years (most of this in the middle year of that period), mostly through diet but partly through activity, <64 I feel is too little for me though over the last couple of years I've put on more than I want to (hit ~75 at one point in 2021) and not in useful mass (its around the gut, I can feel it jiggle when I run!) and I'm slowly (more slowly than I'd like, but at least steadily) getting back down to hovering around the 68KG point which seems to feel optimal]
Yep. The best “weird tip” is to avoid weird tips. I'm sure they've all worked for someone, though I suspect in many cases by some variant of a placebo effect or an indirect effect, and some work for a noticeable subset of people, but very few work generally and trying all the tricks and having them not work is a recipe for “I'm just not destined to manage this” style demotivation.
Always start with the practically undeniable basics: eat less if you can, try eat better whether you are eating less or not, do more physical activity where you can, try not to undo the effect of the activity by using it as an excuse to eat significantly more, monitor what effect your changes have, and try not to have too high expectations or push too fast (weight lost slowly is more likely to stay off, because you fall into better habits/routine over the longer period and are less likely to flip straight back into all your old habits once you get close to your goal).
Once you have those habits down, then maybe think about tweaks & tricks to optimise the process. Getting yourself into the habits might require some self-management tricks, but don't think of them as weight-loss or getting-into-shape tricks as they are really general self-management behaviours.
One note on monitoring: be careful not to obsess over single readings. The human body can be more random than you expect and your daily/weekly life is not as predictable as you think. I stand on my scales almost daily, but don't care about individual readings: things could be high because I've been at parties recently, low because I've had two long-ish runs this weekend, weight can vary a fair amount either way just be hydration levels. I tend to watch a fortnightly average: two weeks of my normal routine seems to be enough to aggregate out most of the blips most of the time.
On being more active: the challenge there is to find something that is either easy to fit into your routine, or that you enjoy enough to want to make the effort, or both. I accidentally discovered I enjoy running, though I've since gone off pounding the streets for speed and now take more steady paces, often but not always for longer distances, through countryside trails. Some prefer cycling. Martial arts are good too (wrestling can be a great full-body workout, and if you actually enjoy it you don't realise how much work you are actually doing). Just walking more can make a noticeable difference, and is usually easy to fit into daily/weekly life.
[for reference: about six years ago I dropped from ~110KG to <64KG over the course of about two years (most of this in the middle year of that period), mostly through diet but partly through activity, <64 I feel is too little for me though over the last couple of years I've put on more than I want to (hit ~75 at one point in 2021) and not in useful mass (its around the gut, I can feel it jiggle when I run!) and I'm slowly (more slowly than I'd like, but at least steadily) getting back down to hovering around the 68KG point which seems to feel optimal]