I say optimize for health and longevity, but I’m biased in that regard. Physical health is instrumentally useful for almost anything else you do. You will be more confident, you will be smarter, you will build desirable traits of self control, you will look better, and you will be more attractive.
There’s a lot of strong opinions about dieting and exercise floating around here. I’d say be a good “bayesian” and really try the status quo advice first, don’t rationalize yourself around it, and see for yourself. It’s a relatively small amount of suffering, compared to the possible benefits, about one month at a time to see what works and what doesn’t. You don’t have to go on for months with something that doesn’t work, but you can’t possibly know what works unless you really give your best.
Obligatory disclaimer: consult a doctor/nutritionist before you try any of the following. Optimized for brevity, not completeness, novelty or politeness:
Common, relevant conditions that could hinder your plans: diabetes, hypothyroidism, sleep apnea, low hemoglobin, joint and back problems.
You need a plan written down, and you need to stick to it. It needs to be long term, realistic: calories in, calories out. Healthy weight loss is about max 0,5 kg of fat a week, roughly (see below) 3500 kcal. You’ll need to adjust and estimate your current stable state calorie consumption and you need a scale for this, keep track of what you eat. When you lose weight, your energy consumption decreases. The slower you go, the easier it is.
It’s useful to be accountable to someone else, not necessarily in person. If you need to reduce fat consumption, orlistat helps you to be accountable to your bowel. A journal and a weight/food log help you to be accountable to your future self. If you have diabetes, some of the drugs can help you lose weight. Learn about the psychology of habits, healthy living is all about them.
Many stimulants are well known hunger suppressants: caffeine, nicotine, modafinil are examples. Problem is, these could hinder your sleep. If you have trouble sleeping because of hunger, weigh the calories towards the evening.
Very low calorie diets expose you to deficiencies, you will be very hungry and tired, and there is a high chance of relapse. There are ready-made preparations for VLCD and there are supplements to complete your own regimen. If you want to torture yourself, this is the way to go.
Try low impact activities 3-5 hours a week with low-moderate intensity to increase energy consumption, cardiovascular health and strength while protecting your joints: swimming, rowing, cycling, calisthenics, most weight lifting, etc. Even if you don’t lose any weight at all, low impact exercise is beneficial.
You need a plan written down, and you need to stick to it. It needs to be long term, realistic: calories in, calories out. Healthy weight loss is about max 0,5 kg of fat a week, very insanely roughly (plain wrong?) 3500 kcal.
3500 kcal/week i.e. 500 kcal/day is the figure I’ve usually seen about that and IME it’s generally roughly correct. What’s “insane” about that?
The hyperbole is a bit of out of place, not sure why I needed to use it. I guess I tried to say that using that 3500 kcal figure to predict 0,5 kg weight loss per week on constant basis will probably be inaccurate unless constant adjustment is used. The weight loss will be nonlinear and smaller than expected.
See this and search for “3500”. The article also includes a neat weight loss predictor, that uses a pretty complicated model. If you play around with it, you’ll see what I mean.
Yes, in the long run there are second-order effects.
But if you’re going to predict your weight one year from now to within a couple pounds, you’d have to take into account your amount of fidgeting, your consumption of caffeine, the temperature, and the phase of the moon. Hence the Hacker’s Diet advice to keep track of your weight regularly, so that if you’re losing weight too fast or too slowly for whatever reasons you can adjust your diet to compensate.
I say optimize for health and longevity, but I’m biased in that regard. Physical health is instrumentally useful for almost anything else you do. You will be more confident, you will be smarter, you will build desirable traits of self control, you will look better, and you will be more attractive.
There’s a lot of strong opinions about dieting and exercise floating around here. I’d say be a good “bayesian” and really try the status quo advice first, don’t rationalize yourself around it, and see for yourself. It’s a relatively small amount of suffering, compared to the possible benefits, about one month at a time to see what works and what doesn’t. You don’t have to go on for months with something that doesn’t work, but you can’t possibly know what works unless you really give your best.
Obligatory disclaimer: consult a doctor/nutritionist before you try any of the following. Optimized for brevity, not completeness, novelty or politeness:
Common, relevant conditions that could hinder your plans: diabetes, hypothyroidism, sleep apnea, low hemoglobin, joint and back problems.
You need a plan written down, and you need to stick to it. It needs to be long term, realistic: calories in, calories out. Healthy weight loss is about max 0,5 kg of fat a week, roughly (see below) 3500 kcal. You’ll need to adjust and estimate your current stable state calorie consumption and you need a scale for this, keep track of what you eat. When you lose weight, your energy consumption decreases. The slower you go, the easier it is.
It’s useful to be accountable to someone else, not necessarily in person. If you need to reduce fat consumption, orlistat helps you to be accountable to your bowel. A journal and a weight/food log help you to be accountable to your future self. If you have diabetes, some of the drugs can help you lose weight. Learn about the psychology of habits, healthy living is all about them.
Many stimulants are well known hunger suppressants: caffeine, nicotine, modafinil are examples. Problem is, these could hinder your sleep. If you have trouble sleeping because of hunger, weigh the calories towards the evening.
Very low calorie diets expose you to deficiencies, you will be very hungry and tired, and there is a high chance of relapse. There are ready-made preparations for VLCD and there are supplements to complete your own regimen. If you want to torture yourself, this is the way to go.
Try low impact activities 3-5 hours a week with low-moderate intensity to increase energy consumption, cardiovascular health and strength while protecting your joints: swimming, rowing, cycling, calisthenics, most weight lifting, etc. Even if you don’t lose any weight at all, low impact exercise is beneficial.
3500 kcal/week i.e. 500 kcal/day is the figure I’ve usually seen about that and IME it’s generally roughly correct. What’s “insane” about that?
The hyperbole is a bit of out of place, not sure why I needed to use it. I guess I tried to say that using that 3500 kcal figure to predict 0,5 kg weight loss per week on constant basis will probably be inaccurate unless constant adjustment is used. The weight loss will be nonlinear and smaller than expected.
See this and search for “3500”. The article also includes a neat weight loss predictor, that uses a pretty complicated model. If you play around with it, you’ll see what I mean.
What do you think?
Yes, in the long run there are second-order effects.
But if you’re going to predict your weight one year from now to within a couple pounds, you’d have to take into account your amount of fidgeting, your consumption of caffeine, the temperature, and the phase of the moon. Hence the Hacker’s Diet advice to keep track of your weight regularly, so that if you’re losing weight too fast or too slowly for whatever reasons you can adjust your diet to compensate.