Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Hacking Weight Loss: What I Learned Losing 30 Pounds

Posted by timothy on from the can't-be-more-than-a-hundred-and-ninety-seven dept.

reifman writes The CDC reports that 69% of adult Americans are overweight or obese. Techies like us are at increased risk because of our sedentary lifestyles. Perhaps you even scoffed at Neilsen's recent finding that some Americans spend only 11 hours daily of screen time. Over the last nine months, I've lost 30 pounds and learned a lot about hacking weight loss and I did it without fad diets, step trackers, running or going paleo. No such discussion is complete without a link to the Hacker Diet.

9 of 496 comments (clear)

  1. eliminate extra sugar by i.r.id10t · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I did it by eliminating extra sugar. Doc warned me I was pushing hte pre-diabetic stage with my morning blood sugar.

    No more sweet tea, coke, or adding sugar to my coffee. Sucked for about a week, after that, no problems, and I've dropped 30lbs with no real effort other than breaking the sugar habit in that first week.

    Quit smoking 2 weeks ago, we'll see how that part goes and if I end up gaining weight back ('cause food will taste better, supposedly, or maybe just noshing as a replacement for having a smoke ... so far hasn't happened)

    --
    Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
    1. Re:eliminate extra sugar by losfromla · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I would note that the guy who dies at 65 with a Bic Mac in hand appears to be happier than the guy who dies at 82 on a treadmill sweating his bloody ass off.

      Really? Some fat guy with high cholesterol, a non-functioning penis, out of breath from walking from his car to McDonalds looks happier than the 82 year old who has a fully functioning body and still wears out his old lady? Besides, he's likely to die instead while running outside on a bright sunshiny day or harvesting in his garden. Even if he is in the gym, he died while doing what he wanted to do and outlived the 65 year old fattie by almost 20 years, win!

      --
      Only I can judge you.
  2. Move more, eat less by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Another thing is to eat slower. Put your knife and fork down between mouthfulls.

  3. Not a diet, but a lifestyle change by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Insightful
    If you "go on a diet" you are defeated before you even start.

    .
    If you want to lose weight, you have to go into the process with the goal of changing your lifestyle permanently, otherwise the weight will return when you finish the diet.

    Go into the weight loss process with the right mindset - a permanent change of what and how you eat, along with any changes in your activity regimen.

    The reason most people regain the wieght they lose on a diet is that they view a diet as something temporary, which it is.

    Don't go on a diet (Hacker's Diet or otherwise), but do make a permanent change to your lifestyle.

    1. Re:Not a diet, but a lifestyle change by dave562 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This is spot on and should be modded up.

      Enter personal anecdote...

      About fifteen years ago I was starting to struggle with sciatic nerve pain due to years spent driving a car with a heavy racing clutch in traffic, and a lack of exercise. I considered my options and decided to start practicing tai chi. I caught a bit of a break and found a legitimate sifu. After a couple years of tai chi, I started training kung fu as well. It has been over a decade and I train on a daily basis. I can eat whatever I want because I burn it off.

      None the less, it is a struggle. Despite all of the benefits, there are plenty of days when I would rather go home after work and play video games instead of heading over to the temple to train or teach classes. I still have not overcome the "exercise sucks" mentality. Sure, the endorphins are great and being able to defend myself is great, and have a strong and healthy body is great... but it is still work for me, not fun.

  4. Here's the scientific evidence by nbauman · · Score: 5, Informative

    I realize that randomized, controlled trials in peer-reviewed journals may not be the whole, final truth, but this is a nice catalog of everything that you can argue over.

    http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/1...
    Myths, Presumptions, and Facts about Obesity
    Krista Casazza, Kevin R. Fontaine, Arne Astrup, et al.
    N Engl J Med 2013; 368:446-454. January 31, 2013. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa1208051 [FREE]

    Results. We identified seven obesity-related myths concerning the effects of small sustained increases in energy intake or expenditure, establishment of realistic goals for weight loss, rapid weight loss, weight-loss readiness, physical-education classes, breast-feeding, and energy expended during sexual activity. We also identified six presumptions about the purported effects of regularly eating breakfast, early childhood experiences, eating fruits and vegetables, weight cycling, snacking, and the built (i.e., human-made) environment. Finally, we identified nine evidence-supported facts that are relevant for the formulation of sound public health, policy, or clinical recommendations.

  5. Re:Eat less than you burn by itzly · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How fricking complicated is it to eat less than you burn?

    It's not complicated, just hard.

  6. Hacking? by jdharm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You didn't hack crap. You just acted like a reasonable person and not a mindless sedentary eating machine. That's like walking and saying you "hacked sitting" to get you from point A to point B.

  7. Consider the alternative question by Average · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The flip side of the question is "Why are skinny people not fat?".

    It's a more interesting question than you may think. One bit of semi-famous research is the 1970s Vermont 'prisoner overfeeding study' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5Rv8JnFgw4). Like bits of Nazi science, this is probably irreproducible, as it'd *never* get past a human subject review committee today.

    A number of lifetime-normal-weight prisoners were fed substantially over their basal metabolic needs for an extended period. Their input was rigorously controlled (being prisoners), and their exercise regimen was pretty easy to monitor and control. Most of them gained weight, but almost none of them nearly as much as the standard "3500 kCal is a pound of fat" Standard Model would predict. Several plateaued on weight gain, and a few lucky (?) prisoners were *never* able gain 10% of their body weight when eating nearly 10,000 Calories a day. Simply couldn't do it.

    A lot of people are overeating in the western culture. A lot more that, by the numbers, should be in the 300-pound range. And while there are no shortage of very-very-fat people, they're not nearly as common as they should be if you study individual diet patterns. This is part of the problem. People look at their skinny friends' diets, and some of those skinny friends are like the luckier Vermont prisoners.