Awhile back I posted a comment on the open thread about the feasibility of permanent weight-loss. (Basically: is it a realistic goal?) I didn’t get a response, so I’m linking it here to try again. Please respond here instead of there. Note: most likely some of my links to studies in that comment are no longer valid, but at least the citations are there if you want to look those up.
I think the substance is that there are plenty of people who change their weight permanently. On the other hand the evidence for particular interventions isn’t that good.
None of those address permanent weight loss per se. They all address the more specific problem of permanent weight loss through dietary modification.
A successful approach to weight loss would incorporate a change in diet and exercise habits along with an investigation of the ‘root cause’ of the excess weight i.e. the psychological factor that causes excessive eating (Depression? Stress? Pure habit? etc.)
I also question your implicit premise that “If it ain’t permanent it ain’t worth doing”. That sounds like a rationalization to me. For a woman who’s 25 and looking to maximize her chance of reproductive success (finding a mate), ‘just 5 years’ of weight loss would be extraordinarily superior to no weight loss. Permanent weight loss would be only marginally better.
(Barring you being a metabolic mutant. If you have tried counting calories and it didn’t work for you, then please ignore this post; weight loss is a lot more complicated than how I am about to describe it here.)
Permanent weight loss is possible and feasible; however it will probably require constant effort to maintain.
For example, count your daily caloric intake on myfitnesspal.com (my username is shokke, if you wish to use the social aspect of it too). Eat at a caloric deficit (TDEE minus ~500) until desired weight is attained, then continue counting calories and eat at maintenance (TDEE) indefinitely. If you stop counting calories you will very likely regain that weight.
This requires you to count calories for the rest of your life, or at least until you no longer care about your weight. Or we develop a better method of weight control.
Awhile back I posted a comment on the open thread about the feasibility of permanent weight-loss. (Basically: is it a realistic goal?) I didn’t get a response, so I’m linking it here to try again. Please respond here instead of there. Note: most likely some of my links to studies in that comment are no longer valid, but at least the citations are there if you want to look those up.
I think the substance is that there are plenty of people who change their weight permanently. On the other hand the evidence for particular interventions isn’t that good.
None of those address permanent weight loss per se. They all address the more specific problem of permanent weight loss through dietary modification.
A successful approach to weight loss would incorporate a change in diet and exercise habits along with an investigation of the ‘root cause’ of the excess weight i.e. the psychological factor that causes excessive eating (Depression? Stress? Pure habit? etc.)
I also question your implicit premise that “If it ain’t permanent it ain’t worth doing”. That sounds like a rationalization to me. For a woman who’s 25 and looking to maximize her chance of reproductive success (finding a mate), ‘just 5 years’ of weight loss would be extraordinarily superior to no weight loss. Permanent weight loss would be only marginally better.
(Barring you being a metabolic mutant. If you have tried counting calories and it didn’t work for you, then please ignore this post; weight loss is a lot more complicated than how I am about to describe it here.)
Permanent weight loss is possible and feasible; however it will probably require constant effort to maintain.
For example, count your daily caloric intake on myfitnesspal.com (my username is shokke, if you wish to use the social aspect of it too). Eat at a caloric deficit (TDEE minus ~500) until desired weight is attained, then continue counting calories and eat at maintenance (TDEE) indefinitely. If you stop counting calories you will very likely regain that weight.
This requires you to count calories for the rest of your life, or at least until you no longer care about your weight. Or we develop a better method of weight control.
Is there a lesswrong group on myfitnesspal? Can we make one?
Edit
I’ve just made one
Upvoted for action.