this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2024
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You Should Know

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Why YSK: many countries have issues with weight, such as mine with 74% of US adults being overweight or obese. The global weight loss industry is over $200 billion yearly, with many influencers, pills, and surgeries promising quick results with little effort. These often come with side effects, or don't work long term.

Studies suggest filling yourself with foods low in caloric density and high in fiber, like fruits and vegetables, can help reach and maintain a healthy weight. It's good to have these foods available in our living spaces to make the choice easy. Your taste buds will likely adapt to love them if you're not there yet.

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[–] TheBananaKing 108 points 4 months ago (17 children)

Better: just learn to live with not feeling satiated all the time.

Not that you shouldn't make vegies a significant part of your diet, just that a big part of the lifestyle change is learning to be hungry between meals as a normal and non-distressing thing.

[–] [email protected] 85 points 4 months ago (18 children)

That's a more complicated topic. Not everyone's endocrine system is wired the same way, and you can't always just willpower your way through it.

Insistence that willpower is sufficient for weight regulation is a big cause of people going on diet after diet that just doesn't work. They're fighting against the system that has a disproportionate influence on what you want in the first place, and if you push it too far you find yourself not giving a shit about your diet, and then being filled with a slew of complex feelings coming from your "lack of self control".

It's better to direct that energy towards getting your diet compositionally right than trying to be okay just being hungry.

You can't get your body to stop insisting it needs food, but you can get it to insist less often. You can teach it that it doesn't need "SUGAR", it needs water and maybe an apple or banana. You can give it a little solid protein between meals to keep it from asking for a continuous stream of carbs.
You can learn to identify the difference between eating because you're bored or want a little dopamine, and eating because you're hungry. The first one is your brain and you can willpower through it to eventually unlearn the habit.

You can choose to make good choices at the store instead of failing to make them in the kitchen.

Willpower is critical, but it's important to know what you can or cannot actually solve with it and work within that framework.
You're in control of your body, but that doesn't mean that you need to pick the harder path.

And, for some people, their endocrine system is a lot more forgiving. Those usually aren't the people who have a lot of trouble loosing or keeping off weight because they try to just "eat less" and it works.

[–] TheBananaKing 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I am all about keeping it sustainable; nobody has willpower longterm. Any fool can come up with a diet of rabbit food and have amazing results for a month before their brain goes postal on them and they start inhaling cheeseburgers nonstop. Trust me, I totally get that. We always attribute vast reserves of motivation and discipline to ourselves that we just don't have, and the results aren't pretty.

But on the other side of the coin, your brain can get stuck in a short-term reward loop, and it howls blue murder when you first try to break out of it.

I'm an stress-eater and a boredom-eater, and if the loop gets out of control, not constantly snacking becomes stressful in and of itself, and yeah that's a complete trainwreck.

But what I've found is that after a surprisingly short time of acclimating yourself to controlled amounts of hunger, you can break that loop. Your brain re-learns the difference between not-full and actually-need-calories, and only sees the latter as a problem.

What started out feeling like a catastrophe that you had to white-knuckle through just turns into a boring fact that takes little to no willpower at all to put up with at all.

It's a really good investment of effort, and makes the whole process a lot easier.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Learning to cope with discomfort is a very important, and very often disregarded, life skill.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Not really. Especially when talking about physical pain.

You should not be in discomfort all the time. This is the kind of thinking that prevents people from going to the doctor. Pain isn't normal.

[–] Zorque 27 points 4 months ago

Part of it is identifying differences between discomforts. Feel a little hungry? No big deal.

Feel sharp stabbing pains? See a doctor, dummy.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

Pain isn’t normal.

I get the point of your post but also, pain is normal. And not every pain requires medical intervention.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

And it's also good to remember in our modern lives, it's often just a feeling more than a state of being.

It'll tell you you're hungry just because it's the time of day you normally eat. It'll tell you you're hungry when you really just need a drink of water.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

Also, it can take up to a year for your brain to adjust to a lower calorie diet.

[–] thejoker954 9 points 4 months ago

I'd argue we should be 'grazing' more. Not just accept feeling bad.

I think we eat too much in one sitting. It should be spread out more.

Every couple hours we should be adding energy to our reserves not waiting 6+ hours.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

Plus the feeeling of being hungry between meals goes away after a few months if you are still getting what you body needs.

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Just drinking more water helps a lot to feel full.

Staying active also, is not just good for increasing your caloric needs, it's also a great way to be busy, and substitute eating out of boredom.

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[–] Angry_Autist 51 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Excuse me, fruit are NOT in GENERAL low caloric density with the exception of strawberries.

This is part of the danger of getting your nutrition advice from some internet randos.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago

What are you talking about? What's more filling, an apple or one of those "100-calorie-packs" of hyperprocessed sugar?

The apple is less calories too.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

This thread is generally filled with completely pants-on-head dietary advice.

Don't get this type of information from randoms on Lemmy, contact a professional instead. I've noticed that Lemmy is exceptionally bad as a source for this.

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[–] Xanis 43 points 4 months ago (7 children)

That little clicker in the brain that goes off when you've had enough doesn't really work for me. I have to feel physically full or I still feel hungry. Even worse, my dopamine levels are garbage and eating makes me feel good.

Not saying this doesn't work. Only that I'm far from the only one where it is this simple.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (8 children)

I'm like you, and no it's not simple. As others said, calories in, calories out. Nothing else matters, you need to find your own way to keep it. And no, exercise does not help much with weight, only if paired with a good diet. You would need to work out for hours continuously just to lose the calories from a random extra dessert.

But, you can do it. Two things I wish I had known:

  • For example, my body was able to keep my weight instead of losing it if I kept calories intake where it should be and had a "cheat day" once a week at most. No cheat days for me, my body is too smart for that.

  • Sometimes you feel you are on track, and then you get stuck at a certain weight. Even if you keep your diet, you might get stuck at a certain weight despite losing it well beforehand. Keep at it. You will break through at one point, closer than you think. But you have to keep at it.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Feeling full is about volume of food. With high calorie dense foods like fast food, that’s going to be a ton of calories. With low calorie dense foods you can eat the same amount of food, and eat substantially less calories.

The only thing that matters in weight loss is calories in, calories out.

I get that it’s harder for some people, but finding less calorie dense foods that you enjoy will go a long way towards helping lose weight. Also, don’t drink pop unless it’s diet.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Certain fruits can be very high in sugars, also not a great idea. Focus more on veggies

[–] HiddenLychee 13 points 4 months ago

Not to say avoid fruits. It's okay, and even encouraged, to eat whole servings of fruit each day.

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[–] SupraMario 36 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Holy fuck we hit 74%? Goddamn

Percent of adolescents ages 12–19 years with obesity: 22.2% (2017-March 2020)

Percent of children ages 6–11 years with obesity: 20.7% (2017-March 2020)

Percent of children ages 2–5 years with obesity: 12.7% (2017-March 2020)

This shit is child abuse people. Not ok.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Go for 100%...I know you can do it.

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[–] abigscaryhobo 26 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Despite all the interesting advice in this thread the thing that helped me the most was accepting and getting used to the fact that if you're going to lose weight you're going to be hungry.

You're not starving to death, you're not dying, but there are times where you're going to just have to be hungry and deal with it. Our bodies are very good at doing their best to keep us alive, and hunger is our bodies way of saying "we need to look for food". The problem is we didn't evolve that skill at a time when looking for food only takes a few minutes and can involve thousands of calories.

If you're overweight your body is going to sound alarm bells that it's eating into the reserves, but you need to acknowledge that and let the reserves get used so you can lose weight.

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[–] workerONE 25 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Fruits are high in sugar, how are they considered low calorie foods?

[–] rollerbang 47 points 4 months ago

It doesn't say low calories but low caloric density and high in fibre. It's a combo that matters. Though one can definitely overdo on fruit.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago

Like the other commenter said, it's about the calorie density, not the calories.
An apple makes you satisfied longer than an equivalent number of calories of Oreos, so if you get to snack as much as you want on either, you'll eat fewer calories of apple than of Oreo over a given timeframe.
You can over eat either of them, it's just easier with one than the other.

Similarly, something like a steak can fill you up a lot, for a very long time, but has enough calories in it that it's still better to not eat for every meal.

[–] nadiaraven 14 points 4 months ago

Fruits have plenty of fiber, which helps increase satiety, which is what's important here. Also check the difference between a candy bar and a piece of friut, and then think about which fills you up better with fewer calories. Density matters too, it's much easier to snarf down a bunch of candy than to eat the same caloric value in fruit.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satiety_value

It's not just fruits and vegetables, but getting the right components.
A high sugar low fiber fruit won't do as much as a higher fiber fruit, so apple > blackberry, for example.

You can also take advantage of your bodies insatiable love for protein and make that a key part of the meal as well, and it'll signal that it's full sooner and for longer.

Food that physically takes longer to eat also help because you can eat faster than you can "realize" you're full.

A trick of mine, that I don't know if there's any general basis for it but it helps me, is to not take a plate with as much food as I think I want, but to instead take a plate with about half that. That way I get to feel like I'm having two servings, and the gap between finishing the first and starting the second usually means that the second is less than the first.

[–] James_Fortis 18 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I used to be uninterested in foods like broccoli, apples, oranges, and blueberries, but after a transition period I love them and have them every day. I'd like to hear anyone's story who's also been able to integrate more of these foods.

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[–] cymbal_king 18 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Yes! The biggest factor with body weight is calories in vs calories out. Foods with volume and mass but fewer calories displace calorie dense foods. Even as simple as substituting popcorn vs potato chips is huge on calorie savings. Protein and fats (ideally plant based) can also help you feel full longer than say simple carbs like potato chips/white pasta.

I highly recommend Harvard's Nutrition Source for science-based nutrition info and recipes, the language is very accessible too!

Edit: fixed link

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[–] zkfcfbzr 18 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

My own advice:

The diet I'm on, which has lost me 36 pounds (196 to 160) and counting since early April, is simple calorie restriction - I try my best not to go over 1500 calories/day, and if I do go over, I try to make up for it by going under on following days until things average out.

Every time I've tried this diet or similar diets, I've had great success, as long as I've meticulously tracked and wrote down how many calories I ate each day. The times I've tried this diet without tracking have all ended up failing, even when I "tried" sticking to it for months. The moment I start writing numbers down, things just fall into place. So for me at least, that's the key.

Some notes:

  • Over the last 127 days my actual average calories/day has been 1472/day
  • I try to avoid meals where counting is very difficult or impractical. That means I try to avoid going to restaurants that don't post calories and I'm not big on "real" cooking. If I do have a meal where a good count isn't possible I try my best to overestimate - usually with 2500 or 3000 depending on how full I am since it's really hard to eat more than that at once. I find it very difficult to go to most restaurants without getting more than 1500 calories, also, so I don't eat at restaurants all that often anymore. Fast food places like McDonald's are actually some of the easier options to work with, though.
  • I've made little to no effort to eat healthier - just less. I can have a blizzard from Dairy Queen if I want, but that's 1100 calories and then I've only got 400 left for something else. I have mastered making delicious ice cream that's just 300 calories/pint though. In practice I usually eat processed foods from a can, box, or bag that you just need to heat up or follow the instructions on the box for.
  • A scale is essential for getting accurate calories out of things like butter, milk, ketchup, ice cream ingredients, etc.
  • In general meats are a pretty poor choice - compared to other foods they make me a lot less full compared to how many calories they take up. I can eat 8 hotdogs (without buns) and fill up my daily calories in that one meal, and still be hungry - or I can have two cans of spaghettios (580 calories total), and be so full I almost can't finish.
  • For me at least, after the first week or so I just stop feeling hungry in general most of the time. There are occasionally days where I only eat because I know I should, rather than because I got hungry.
  • When I'm on this diet, I basically never get heartburn, even after a day where I eat something that would usually have given it to me badly - probably the nicest part of all this.
  • Despite what the post says, I eat basically no fruits or vegetables in my day-to-day life.
  • In the past, I've incorporated extremely heavy daily exercise into my routine as well - I'm talking multiple hours a day, every day, for at least two months. While it did have some noticeable benefits like a very noticeably lower resting heart rate and increased strength, it had basically no visible effect on my rate of weight loss - looking at the graph, you couldn't even tell which portions of the diet were subject to heavy exercise vs. heavy leisure. The lesson learned is that diet is far, far more important than exercise - you can offset an entire workout with a single cookie.
  • When I'm not making any dieting attempts at all, I'm a huge glutton. I've never gotten over 200 pounds, because any time I get close I start doing this diet - but if I ate the way I wanted to all the time, I could easily weigh 350+ pounds. I can very easily eat single 1200-2000 calorie meals multiple times a day. I've yo-yo'd a lot in the past few years but I'm hoping to more or less keep things permanently under control this time - once I get to 140ish I plan to raise my daily calorie allowance to the point where I maintain, rather than gain or lose, over time.

An added bonus of writing things down is getting to graph things too!

Note that I'm not claiming this is healthy. Just effective. Anyone can lose weight eating nothing but chocolate cake, as long as they eat sufficiently little. It doesn't mean you won't die from it.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I’ve made little to no effort to eat healthier - just less. I can have a blizzard from Dairy Queen if I want, but that’s 1100 calories and then I’ve only got 400 left for something else.

In addition to choosing not to have something in the first place, choosing not to finish something is another great skill. Lowest calorie blizzard is still hundreds of calories, but choosing to eat only half of the smallest size can work.

Definitely a harder habit to change compared to not ordering in the first place when raised to always clean the plate.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

I've been eating fruits and vegetables but it's really difficult to get hard full with them.

With that said, oatmeal helps. I've lost around 30 pounds and I hit a wall, I'm finding it hard to lose more, I'm increasing my exercise but I'm not sure if I'm eating too little now for my metabolism to kick in and help me lose more weight or if I'm eating too much and I need to cut down more. It's all about calories in calories out, up to a certain point.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago (3 children)

This is oddly controversial, but an even more satiating method is to consume more protein. If you hit your goal body weight (lbs) in grams of protein, you won't be reaching for that end of day snack.

Note drinking the protein instead of eating it doesn't work nearly as well for this.

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[–] TonyOstrich 15 points 4 months ago

Unless your brain is fucking broken like mine, lol.

[–] hedgehogging_the_bed 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Modern fruits have too much fructose for good health these days. They've been bred to be way too sweet.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Still better than an industrial snack, don't let perfect be the enemy of good. If you already have illuminated all these snacks and other sweetened products from your diet, I think you're doing pretty great. Before that, it seems a bit silly to worry about fruits being too sweet.

[–] hedgehogging_the_bed 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I have a lot of friends who have a fruit smoothie every morning and wonder why they aren't losing weight. Bananas, apples, and grapes in particular are to be avoided. Most berries are okay.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

The main problem with smoothies is that they make it easy to really overconsume fruit sugars. People generally put way more fruit into a smoothie than they would normally consume in a single sitting. Having some grapes with a salad or a banana with eggs and toast is fine. Dumping a banana, 1 cup berries, 1/2 cup yogurt, 1/4 orange juice, and a teaspoon of honey in a blender then chugging it in the span of a couple minutes is problematic.

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[–] NABDad 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

So sitting on my ass eating candy isn't the way to lose weight?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Technically it still depends on the amount of candy.

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