@narfcake You’ve seen the fridge. How much worse could it get?!? Don’t answer that. Unless you want to find out what happened to all of those cat skins, removed in such a large variety of ways…
My philosophy for fad diets is same as for any other fad: it is only worth pursuing, if it is worth pursuing for the rest of your life. Don’t start a diet that you cannot continue in good health for the rest of your life; don’t spend a fortune on an outfit that is fashionable this season, but will not likely be appreciated in public in a year or two.
My “diet” is something I’m calling, “Why am I hungry again? Why am I always hungry! I don’t have time for this shit. Fine, know what you get? Taco Bell. How do you like that? Maybe you shouldn’t be hungry all the time then.”
I never have truly dieted. My wife would try out something and I would necessarily follow along to some degree, at least when she was around, but nothing for serious.
Then last year, my office offered to put $200 in my HSA if I’d participate in this weight loss plan. I figured I’d take their money and if I happened to lose 5 lbs, so much the better. It worked so well I stuck with it well past their class, I’m down over 35 lbs, and I feel better than I have in years.
@RiotDemon That’s the only one I actually tried, but I can’t say I really did it as it had too much food I will not eat. I lost 85lbs one year by eating 1200-1400 calories daily, 1/3rd (400 calories) each carbs, protein and fat, and exercising an hour each day, mostly brisk walking (4mph) and climbing the stairs at work on my breaks. But my dog got too old to walk with me and I didn’t want to walk alone and once I quit exercising the diet couldn’t hold.
Back in 2001 during the first dot-com bubble, I had a programming job at a place in San Francisco. One of the employee perqs was a closet filled with snacks. I had always been thin while eating as much as I wanted so I didn’t think twice about eating two or three bags of M&Ms every day. Until seven months later when I realized I had gained 15 pounds.
Ever since then I try to be mindful about taking in unnecessary calories. That’s been enough to keep me at a weight I like. (Over the past couple years I’ve cut my sugary soda intake to near-zero.) Of course it didn’t stop me from buying three bags of candy corn from meh. Two down, one to go!
I’m on the “work off whatever I eat” plan. It involves doing things like lifting weights, playing sports, going on hikes, and generally being an active person. About 4 years ago, I used this method in conjunction with basic calorie counting to lose almost 40 pounds in less than 3 months and have kept the fat off ever since while gaining a decent amount of muscle (at least for me).
I mean, do whatever works for you, but if you have even a somewhat reasonable diet and consistently burn more calories than you take in, you’re going to lose weight eventually.
The best part about this plan: you can eat whatever you want as long as you offset it with activity. Last summer, I was playing ultimate frisbee three days a week and lifting most of the others, and I could eat 3,000+ calories of cheeseburgers a day and not gain any fat. The only item I always control is processed sugar: less than 40g a day.
@Kabn can i ask your age range? i feel like when i was younger exercise worked better than calorie restriction, but now it’s the opposite. i’m nigh on 40.
Everyone’s metabolism/biology is different (which is just one reason fad diets can be dumb), but my father is 65 and still doing the same as me: he goes to the gym pretty much every morning to lift and hit the elliptical. His diet would make most nutritionists frown, but his numbers look fine, and he feels healthy (for his age). I’m hoping I take after him.
I found out long ago that if I eat too few calories (the kind of diet promoted by Weight Watchers and others) my metabolism will shut down and I not only won’t lose weight, I’ll gain back what little weight I did lose almost immediately. I can remember going to a WW meeting and after two weeks of feeling starved every day, I lost no weight. I cried.
The only plan that works for me is what @Kabn describes above. Work it off and eat what you burn (maybe 100 calories less a day than what you burn, but no more). It works like a charm. Of course, to make it easy have something like a Fitbit to keep track of how many calories you burn.
@Fuzzalini Yeah, severe caloric deficits affect people differently. I know if I want to shed a few pounds quickly, I can do a few days of 16/8 and keep my intake down to ~2,000 calories (I seem to burn around 2,400/day BMR). Others go into starvation-avoidance mode super quick and do what you describe.
The biggest thing is that people try different methods, ensuring they’re all sustainable. I just kind of hit the jackpot in that most of the activities I love are very high calorie burners.
@CaptAmehrican that’s awesome! Calorie counting has worked well for me too, though so, so slowly. I can’t say I eat whatever I like. I used to have cheat days when I didn’t make myself keep track of calories at all, but I didn’t lose weight consistently until I started tallying them up on those days too. Just being aware of what I’m eating, and the added friction of making sure it’s countable, seems to do the trick. I’ve lost ~20 lbs in the past year. Although, it doesn’t seem to have changed my appearance. I guess 20 lbs isn’t that much, relatively. Also I suppose it’s only about 10 lbs less than what my mean was before my weight loss became consistent.
How do you count it when you go out to eat and the calories aren’t on the menu? I usually call every dining-out meal 1500 calories (more if I get dessert). I don’t know if that’s close enough to right.
I eat a variety of foods. Just take a look at my refrigerator (thanks again @ACraigL!)
@shahnm Do not eat the batteries!
@narfcake I appreciate your concern, but it’s a bit disconcerting that you seem ok with me eating the other things in there…
@narfcake Not even the alka-limes?
@shahnm How much urine has Bear Grylls consumed? There’s only one jar in your fridge.
@narfcake You didn’t check the freezer…
/8ball Do I want to know what’s in @shahnm’s freezer?
Better not tell you now
@narfcake You’ve seen the fridge. How much worse could it get?!? Don’t answer that. Unless you want to find out what happened to all of those cat skins, removed in such a large variety of ways…
I avoid diets that have names. That’s my rule of thumb.
@awk Just don’t name your method. Then you’re screwed.
@awk That rule of thumb seems to work well for diseases too…
@shahnm I’m more into avoiding diseases with undesirable pathologies, to be honest.
@awk An awful lot of the more distasteful ones have names…
@melonscoop i dont know, i might try the “@awk-ward diet”
Relevant @fablefire shirt:
https://shirt.woot.com/offers/cookie-in-each-hand?ref=meh_com
@narfcake There’s a sexy diet.
@fablefire And one that couldn’t be found by searching the catalog by “diet”. Maybe ask Ben or Ocho to include the tag?
@narfcake Woot never replies to my emails haha. I’ve reached out about things like colors and the DTG stuff and gotten crickets. XD
@fablefire
I’ve been keeping vegan since 1998. But deep fried food and too much beer still aren’t healthy. So now I’m paunchy.
My philosophy for fad diets is same as for any other fad: it is only worth pursuing, if it is worth pursuing for the rest of your life. Don’t start a diet that you cannot continue in good health for the rest of your life; don’t spend a fortune on an outfit that is fashionable this season, but will not likely be appreciated in public in a year or two.
Crockpot rules? That’s an awkward phrase.
My “diet” is something I’m calling, “Why am I hungry again? Why am I always hungry! I don’t have time for this shit. Fine, know what you get? Taco Bell. How do you like that? Maybe you shouldn’t be hungry all the time then.”
@InnocuousFarmer That was my favorite diet.
I never have truly dieted. My wife would try out something and I would necessarily follow along to some degree, at least when she was around, but nothing for serious.
Then last year, my office offered to put $200 in my HSA if I’d participate in this weight loss plan. I figured I’d take their money and if I happened to lose 5 lbs, so much the better. It worked so well I stuck with it well past their class, I’m down over 35 lbs, and I feel better than I have in years.
The pole choices break down to 1) I don’t like myself, and 2) leave me alone.
Next time, try to have a positive pole response.
@hchavers
/giphy positive pole response
@SSteve Finally Giphy provides a winner.
My friend convinced me to try the cabbage soup diet once. Dear God that was tough.
https://www.cabbage-soup-diet.com/eating-plan/
The banana/skim milk day was torture.
I can eat plates of veggies and be happy, but being told what to eat each day was terrible.
@RiotDemon That’s the only one I actually tried, but I can’t say I really did it as it had too much food I will not eat. I lost 85lbs one year by eating 1200-1400 calories daily, 1/3rd (400 calories) each carbs, protein and fat, and exercising an hour each day, mostly brisk walking (4mph) and climbing the stairs at work on my breaks. But my dog got too old to walk with me and I didn’t want to walk alone and once I quit exercising the diet couldn’t hold.
Back in 2001 during the first dot-com bubble, I had a programming job at a place in San Francisco. One of the employee perqs was a closet filled with snacks. I had always been thin while eating as much as I wanted so I didn’t think twice about eating two or three bags of M&Ms every day. Until seven months later when I realized I had gained 15 pounds.
Ever since then I try to be mindful about taking in unnecessary calories. That’s been enough to keep me at a weight I like. (Over the past couple years I’ve cut my sugary soda intake to near-zero.) Of course it didn’t stop me from buying three bags of candy corn from meh. Two down, one to go!
My eating habits are appalling. I have allergies so I’m gluten free, dairy free, millet free, mostly soy free, and I have to watch sugar.
@fablefire
/giphy mullet free
@therealjrn That’s a diet I can get behind.
I did the Whole30 30-day “diet” for I believe 6 days.
I don’t need to diet.
I have a fast metabolism.
I’m on the “work off whatever I eat” plan. It involves doing things like lifting weights, playing sports, going on hikes, and generally being an active person. About 4 years ago, I used this method in conjunction with basic calorie counting to lose almost 40 pounds in less than 3 months and have kept the fat off ever since while gaining a decent amount of muscle (at least for me).
I mean, do whatever works for you, but if you have even a somewhat reasonable diet and consistently burn more calories than you take in, you’re going to lose weight eventually.
The best part about this plan: you can eat whatever you want as long as you offset it with activity. Last summer, I was playing ultimate frisbee three days a week and lifting most of the others, and I could eat 3,000+ calories of cheeseburgers a day and not gain any fat. The only item I always control is processed sugar: less than 40g a day.
@Kabn can i ask your age range? i feel like when i was younger exercise worked better than calorie restriction, but now it’s the opposite. i’m nigh on 40.
@katylava I’ll turn 36 this year.
Everyone’s metabolism/biology is different (which is just one reason fad diets can be dumb), but my father is 65 and still doing the same as me: he goes to the gym pretty much every morning to lift and hit the elliptical. His diet would make most nutritionists frown, but his numbers look fine, and he feels healthy (for his age). I’m hoping I take after him.
I found out long ago that if I eat too few calories (the kind of diet promoted by Weight Watchers and others) my metabolism will shut down and I not only won’t lose weight, I’ll gain back what little weight I did lose almost immediately. I can remember going to a WW meeting and after two weeks of feeling starved every day, I lost no weight. I cried.
The only plan that works for me is what @Kabn describes above. Work it off and eat what you burn (maybe 100 calories less a day than what you burn, but no more). It works like a charm. Of course, to make it easy have something like a Fitbit to keep track of how many calories you burn.
@Fuzzalini Yeah, severe caloric deficits affect people differently. I know if I want to shed a few pounds quickly, I can do a few days of 16/8 and keep my intake down to ~2,000 calories (I seem to burn around 2,400/day BMR). Others go into starvation-avoidance mode super quick and do what you describe.
The biggest thing is that people try different methods, ensuring they’re all sustainable. I just kind of hit the jackpot in that most of the activities I love are very high calorie burners.
I have spent a little less then a year counting calories. I eat whatever I like but count it. I am down 62 lbs
@CaptAmehrican that’s awesome! Calorie counting has worked well for me too, though so, so slowly. I can’t say I eat whatever I like. I used to have cheat days when I didn’t make myself keep track of calories at all, but I didn’t lose weight consistently until I started tallying them up on those days too. Just being aware of what I’m eating, and the added friction of making sure it’s countable, seems to do the trick. I’ve lost ~20 lbs in the past year. Although, it doesn’t seem to have changed my appearance. I guess 20 lbs isn’t that much, relatively. Also I suppose it’s only about 10 lbs less than what my mean was before my weight loss became consistent.
How do you count it when you go out to eat and the calories aren’t on the menu? I usually call every dining-out meal 1500 calories (more if I get dessert). I don’t know if that’s close enough to right.
@katylava i use my fitness pal for logging. I just guess the best closest entry perhaps not perfect but i try.