How to Lose Weight?

[Leo Gura]

9 minutes ago, GGG said:

I do eat lots of carbs like mac and cheese

OMG! You poor creature

[Hardkill]

On 6/4/2021 at 1:29 PM, GGG said:

In the past several years I have gained 15-20 pounds. I knew that it was happening but never got to taking care of this issue - no exercise is mostly the cause of it, I think. Now I am at the highest weight I've ever been. I look worse and feel worse. I have never had a weight problem so this is new for me. How do people lose weight? I signed up for a gym membership. My diet is not that bad, but I guess I will be trying to stay away from processed foods like hot dogs. Does anyone have advice on what is most effective?  I am not sure of what to do.

Yeah, guys like Leo and Anon are right. While is exercising is definitely important to for losing fat (or for gaining weight by building muscle depending on your training regimen), diet is always the primary determining factor for your weight. In my opinion, getting into enough of a caloric deficit for your own body would be the first main thing to work on for losing weight. Then, when you get down to only being just slightly overweight, that's when you can focus more on cutting out the great excess of refined carbs, saturated fats, cholesterol, etc. that you eat in your diet. Also, make sure that you 100% eliminate any foods with trans fat in them. It's okay and actually healthy to eat a modicum of saturated fats, cholesterol, and refined carbs (sugars) in your daily diet; however, trans fats are an absolutely bad for anyone. They are essentially manmade poisonous fats that no person was ever designed to consume. Trans fats are the most deleterious fats for your body's internal organs and hormone levels. Plus, it takes weeks for your body to eliminate even 1g of trans fat out of your body.

[Forestluv]

Reducing carbs is great (especially high glycemic carbs and sugars). Also pay attention to net carbs. With net carbs, dietary fiber is subtracted since it is not digested and converted to glucose. Plus, fiber is good for gut bacteria and gives a feeling of fullness.

In addition to what you eat, when you eat is also important. The traditional “eat more, move more” strategy is not effective long term for most people. If someone burns 2,000 calories per day and consumes 1,700 calories per day, they will lose weight at first - yet the body will gradually reduce it’s metabolism, which we don’t want. In today’s Western culture, many people eat 12+ hours per day, throughout the day. This leaves the body in a chronic nutrient-rich state. It’s important to periodically cycle from nutrient-rich to nutrient-deficit. This will allow insulin levels to drop, allows higher rates of recycling of worn out cellular components (autophagy). And by allowing more time for the digestive system to rest, those energetic resources can be used for bodily repair. For example, eating in an 8 hr window gives the body 16hrs of reduced insulin levels and body repair.