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Losing weight is really all about calorie intake

Hudo

Hudo

Member
Yeah. The vast majority of loosing weight can be achieved by just watching what and how much you eat. Exercise won't do shit if you keep eating (and drinking!) like shit. However, exercise has obviously physical and mental health benefits, so it's not useless. But it's not the "main method" if you want to lose weight.

Btw, if you live in a walkable city, try to walk somewhere from time to time. Even just walking around regularly can do a lot.
 
Cyberpunkd

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
Dacvak said:
Yes sir. In my experience, it’s like 90% diet and 10% exercise. Self-control is the difficult part.
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It doesn't help that the whole environment in America works against you - huge portions (much, much more than you need), artificial sweeteners and everything else put into processed to make it more appealing. Then you have obese people and their kids saying things as: "Vegetables are not tasty", because their baseline is super sweet, flavored food, which is also the worst food possible for your health.

One also need to understand this is business - healthcare is private. More obese people = more patients = more money. Healthcare industry is not making money when everyone is walking around without cigarettes, alcohol, eating health, exercising.
 
R

RaduN

Member
It's about more than just that.

It's about accelerating your metabolism through building muscle and proper food, in both quality (~ 60% protein) and quantity (personalised).

If you really want to do things right and long term, you need to hit the gym. There's no way around it.
 
Ass of Can Whooping

Ass of Can Whooping

Gold Member
Cyberpunkd said:
It doesn't help that the whole environment in America works against you - huge portions (much, much more than you need), artificial sweeteners and everything else put into processed to make it more appealing. Then you have obese people and their kids saying things as: "Vegetables are not tasty", because their baseline is super sweet, flavored food, which is also the worst food possible for your health.

One also need to understand this is business - healthcare is private. More obese people = more patients = more money. Healthcare industry is not making money when everyone is walking around without cigarettes, alcohol, eating health, exercising.
Click to expand...

The portions actually shocked me when I went to America. You can't outrun an american diet.
 
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Cyberpunkd

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
RaduN said:
It's about more than just that.

It's about accelerating your metabolism through building muscle and proper food, in both quality (~ 60% protein) and quantity (personalised).

If you really want to do things right and long term, you need to hit the gym. There's no way around it.
Click to expand...
Wrong. Incredibly so.

Your body has a base level of calories needed daily to support your weight. Eat less = your weight drops, as does the number of calories needed per day. At some point eating at a calorie deficit is not a deficit anymore, your weight stabilises all things being equal.
Gym is extra, 90% of people will be served with just walking a little bit every day. I think the guideline is something like 150 minutes of exercise PER WEEK. However later in live weight lifting is beneficial, as muscle mass is the first thing that goes away with age, which is why old people break their bones easier than younger people - there is no muscle layer to negate the impact.
 
E

EekTheKat

Member
IMHO, just starving yourself to hit the calorie goals isn't enough - the gym work and eating healthy is key to long term sustainability.

A long term heavy caloric deficit can actually do quite a bit of harm to your body over an extended period of time. Building strength is arguably just as important as losing weight, especially given things like your back and legs will be among the first things to go as you get older.

If you're still young, put in the work to build strength and cardio now. Your older self will thank you for it. Even at a somewhat older age I'm still way better than my younger/former self after I started putting in the work.
 
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The Cockatrice

The Cockatrice

Gold Member
Cyberpunkd said:
Your body has a base level of calories needed daily to support your weight. Eat less = your weight drops, as does the number of calories needed per day. At some point eating at a calorie deficit is not a deficit anymore, your weight stabilises all things being equal.
Click to expand...

Hes not really wrong tho and neither are you. Not all bodies are born equal and being at a caloric deficit wont always mean you will lose fat. A lot of bodies will just end up being skinny fat which sadly affects A LOT of males. You see them with almost no muscle, no fat on the legs, upper body but with a belly bigger than a woman in pregnancy. Lets be real the perfect diet is hard to achieve. A caloric deficit wont help if he consumes sugar(which is found in most products) and empty calories or calories with unhealthy fats. Thats why for a male it should be ideal to add gym or physical activities in their routines. It's a know scientific fact that weight lifting + proper diet is the perfect way to achieve a lean body, and its far superior than cardio and diet.
 
GymWolf

GymWolf

Gold Member
Cyberpunkd said:
Wrong. Incredibly so.

Your body has a base level of calories needed daily to support your weight. Eat less = your weight drops, as does the number of calories needed per day. At some point eating at a calorie deficit is not a deficit anymore, your weight stabilises all things being equal.
Gym is extra, 90% of people will be served with just walking a little bit every day. I think the guideline is something like 150 minutes of exercise PER WEEK. However later in live weight lifting is beneficial, as muscle mass is the first thing that goes away with age, which is why old people break their bones easier than younger people - there is no muscle layer to negate the impact.
Click to expand...
Putting muscle in your body let you burn more calories even by standing still, muscle burn 3x times the amount of calories compared to fat, so yeah, in the long run putting some muscles is the right way, it just make everything easier and you are aestetically more pleasant to look at than just a skinny dude.


Just doing cardio and starving (or even just a lot of cardio) can bring your metabolism to a crawl.
 
Sony

Sony

Nintendo
First off, congrats on the progress and results!
Losing weight is mostly diet indeed, but being in shape is diet + regular excersize. The biggest problem - for me- with diet only (fast) weight loss is how quick you can gain weight if you consume an abundance of calories.
The sweet spot is regular excersize to increase your metabolism and basic diet.
 
DavidGzz

DavidGzz

Member
The Cockatrice said:
Hes not really wrong tho and neither are you. Not all bodies are born equal and being at a caloric deficit wont always mean you will lose fat. A lot of bodies will just end up being skinny fat which sadly affects A LOT of males. You see them with almost no muscle, no fat on the legs, upper body but with a belly bigger than a woman in pregnancy. Lets be real the perfect diet is hard to achieve. A caloric deficit wont help if he consumes sugar(which is found in most products) and empty calories or calories with unhealthy fats. Thats why for a male it should be ideal to add gym or physical activities in their routines. It's a know scientific fact that weight lifting + proper diet is the perfect way to achieve a lean body, and its far superior than cardio and diet.
Click to expand...

Sugars are just carbohydrates. All carbs are broken down into sugars and are stored in your glycogen stores. Sure, limit processed sugars because it can cause more hunger in the very near future, but if calories are counted, you can eat whatever you like. If protein and calories are equal, so is fat loss, muscle retention(or gain in some cases) are equal. There have been several metabolic ward studies proving this.
 
Venom Snake

Venom Snake

Member
S0aNARS.jpeg
 
T

tamago84

Member
How much you eat over time (and how you utilize your muscles- whether sports or lifting weights) impacts how your body looks
What you eat over time impacts your behavior and physiology
 
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KrakenIPA

KrakenIPA

Member
tamago84 said:
How much you eat over time impacts how your body looks
What you eat over time impacts your behavior and physiology
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Absolutely, it is an instant effect, and a long term effect (please do not drink drive thru sodas). I cut out energy drinks, drive thru sodas, and hard alcohol, but its fair month.
 
K

kikkis

Member
I disagree. I tried mostly calorie based diets and failed countless times on during almost a decade. Only after starting gym, I have been able to stick to weight loss for more then couple months. It's still a struggle but i have lost 17kg since last year.
 
Paasei

Paasei

Member
Same deal for me. Looking back to it, it was surprisingly simple once you get used to it. Was overweight quite a bit 115kg. I am 203cm tall, so go figure how fat I was. Then I stopped drinking soda’s at first, because of the sugar. And a little later I changed my diet to fresh dishes of any variation instead of microwave meals and takeaway.

Then I combined it with a shitton of walking. It’s really easy and a benefit for me personally is that I simply very much enjoy it.

Now, 5 years later, I hover between 92 - 95kg. Walked de 4 day marches of Nijmegen two times (4 days of 50km a day). And happy and healthy as ever.
 
R

RaduN

Member
Cyberpunkd said:
Wrong. Incredibly so.

Your body has a base level of calories needed daily to support your weight. Eat less = your weight drops, as does the number of calories needed per day. At some point eating at a calorie deficit is not a deficit anymore, your weight stabilises all things being equal.
Gym is extra, 90% of people will be served with just walking a little bit every day. I think the guideline is something like 150 minutes of exercise PER WEEK. However later in live weight lifting is beneficial, as muscle mass is the first thing that goes away with age, which is why old people break their bones easier than younger people - there is no muscle layer to negate the impact.
Click to expand...
Excuse me?
Are you sure you wanted to quote me?

What are you arguing here with me?
Maybe you should read my post again.
 
KrakenIPA

KrakenIPA

Member
RaduN said:
Excuse me?
Are you sure you wanted to quote me?

What are you arguing here with me?
Maybe you should read my post again.
Click to expand...
I was wondering when Cyberpunkd would enter into the conversation but damn that is heck of a take. I suppose y'all should settle it in the octagon, 5 rounds, 3 minutes each round.
 
T

tamago84

Member
Cyberpunkd said:
Wrong. Incredibly so.

. However later in live weight lifting is beneficial, as muscle mass is the first thing that goes away with age, which is why old people break their bones easier than younger people - there is no muscle layer to negate the impact.
Click to expand...
Should also highlight that- muscle helps promote bone growth, and muscle greatly aids in balancing of bones. I have yet to see people who deadlift seriously walk around with that crouched posture we see so often
 
T

tommolb

Member
As someone who has lost 22KG in 4 months, calorie deficit of 500-1,000 per day was key for me (via eating less and eating differently).
I helped achieve this via doing more ; I do 10 miles per day of walking (approx 22,000 steps), but that takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours of effort per day to achieve. I used to do 1/3 to 1/2 of that amount of walking previously.
From what I understand, you need to up protein intake to help counter muscle loss and help target the weight loss at your body fat content. If you fail to do this you risk muscle loss and your resting metabolism drops as a result. You risk becoming what I've seen called "skinny fat". That drop in metabolism increases the likelihood of gaining the weight back again (and more) if you stop the calorie deficit. Protein is also more filling and harder for your body to convert into energy, so helps with weight loss and keeping hunger at bay. I eat a lot more chicken, tuna, salmon and eggs now than I did previously. I also take whey protein and collagen powder in skimmed milk once per day to boost my protein intake. I'm trying to target 90g-100g of protein intake per day, but there seems to be a wide range of opinion on how much protein you should target and if it risks damage to your kidneys if you have too much.
I also have started to do weight lifting (at home and not loads) to help preserve (and very slowly gain) strength as I've always been a bit weak and weedy. I'll probably need to join a gym and/or get a Personal Trainer through to gain upper body strength and up my metabolism as I transition from a weight loss focus to a muscle gain focus.
I should add that I'm late 40's and I think that makes losing and maintaining weight loss more difficult than if I were in my 20's.
 
Quasicat

Quasicat

Member
Cyberpunkd said:
Then you have obese people and their kids saying things as: "Vegetables are not tasty", because their baseline is super sweet, flavored food, which is also the worst food possible for your health.
Click to expand...
I had no idea how true this statement is. I used to hate how sour strawberries and blueberries tasted on their own, once I went two weeks without sugar, they taste really sweet now. That seems weird to me considering I didn’t like them before.
 
Boralf

Boralf

Member
Why does everyone always recommend the gym when talking about losing weight or working out? Just do what you like most, go join a sport team, go cycling or mountain biking in nature, go for a run, go play tennis. It's way easier when it's also something you like to do.
 
Ass of Can Whooping

Ass of Can Whooping

Gold Member
Boralf said:
Why does everyone always recommend the gym when talking about losing weight or working out? Just do what you like most, go join a sport team, go cycling or mountain biking in nature, go for a run, go play tennis. It's way easier when it's also something you like to do.
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Because it's obviously good advice. If you want a healthy body that'll age like wine, you should be resistance training. Do it or don't. I don't care.
 
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Boralf

Boralf

Member
Ass of Can Whooping said:
Because it's common sense. As I just said. There are plenty of studies you can find for yourself if you feel the need to confirm what should be obvious.
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I'm not saying the gym is a bad choice. But the statement "If you want a healthy body that'll age like wine, you should be resistance training." is so ridiculously unnuanced, and seems to imply strength training/the gym is the only good choice to get a healthy body, that I thought you should at least clarify why. Maybe it's all just misinterpretation, but my idea of having a healthy body and getting old is eating reasonably healthy and working out regularly. And that working out could be almost anything.
 
Cyberpunkd

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
Boralf said:
I'm not saying the gym is a bad choice. But the statement "If you want a healthy body that'll age like wine, you should be resistance training." is so ridiculously unnuanced, and seems to imply strength training/the gym is the only good choice to get a healthy body, that I thought you should at least clarify why. Maybe it's all just misinterpretation, but my idea of having a healthy body and getting old is eating reasonably healthy and working out regularly. And that working out could be almost anything.
Click to expand...
Training focused on building muscle is the best protection against old age, since what fucks up old people is a loss of muscle mass.
 
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