If you eat less and exercise more then, indeed, you will lose weight.
Surprisingly, some people don’t even believe this. I know a sizable group of Paleo proponents and some fruitarians who say that you can eat whatever quantity of food x and this will not have negative effects on your weight.
There are also people who think this advice won’t work because they’ve tried and it didn’t had any effect (but actually they weren’t aware that they were not eating less).
But there are plenty of people for whom that doesn’t work so well, and this is true even among very smart people, very successful people, or almost any category of people not gerrymandered to force it to be false.
I am between those people (those who fail to follow the simple advice, not the very smart or very successful). But I recognize that my failure is in proceeding to eat less from the simple cognition of “I must eat less”. That doesn’t make “eat less” useless, it makes it incomplete. Indeed, when I found a system that allowed me to eat less using whatever low willpower that I have, I indeed started to lose weight.
“But actually they weren’t aware that they were not eating less.”
This is why I advocate the method of using a Beeminder weight goal (or some equivalent), weigh yourself every day, and don’t eat for the rest of the day when you are above the center line. When you are below it, you can eat whatever you want for the rest of the day.
This doesn’t take very much willpower because there is a very bright line, you don’t have to carefully control what or how much you eat, it’s either you eat today or you don’t.
It doesn’t matter. Fluctuations with scales and with water retention may mean that you may end up fasting an extra day here and there for random reasons, but you will also end up eating on extra days for the same reason. It ends up the same on average.
weigh yourself every day, and don’t eat for the rest of the day when you are above the center line
That has some issues. First, changes in water retention jitter your daily weight by a pound or two. Second, you assume good tolerance for intermittent fasting. If you weight yourself in the morning, decide you’re not going to eat for the whole day, and then suffer a major sugar crash in the afternoon, that will be problematic.
Yes, it won’t work for people who can’t manage a day without eating at least from time to time, although you can also try slowing down the rate of change.
As I said in another comment, changes in water retention (and scale flucuations etc.) don’t really matter because it will come out the same on average.
don’t really matter because it will come out the same on average.
Volatility matters. Imagine that one day the temperature in your house was set to 50F (+10C) and the next day—to 90F (+32C). On the average it comes out to 70F (+20C), so it’s fine, right?
Surprisingly, some people don’t even believe this. I know a sizable group of Paleo proponents and some fruitarians who say that you can eat whatever quantity of food x and this will not have negative effects on your weight. There are also people who think this advice won’t work because they’ve tried and it didn’t had any effect (but actually they weren’t aware that they were not eating less).
I am between those people (those who fail to follow the simple advice, not the very smart or very successful). But I recognize that my failure is in proceeding to eat less from the simple cognition of “I must eat less”. That doesn’t make “eat less” useless, it makes it incomplete. Indeed, when I found a system that allowed me to eat less using whatever low willpower that I have, I indeed started to lose weight.
“But actually they weren’t aware that they were not eating less.”
This is why I advocate the method of using a Beeminder weight goal (or some equivalent), weigh yourself every day, and don’t eat for the rest of the day when you are above the center line. When you are below it, you can eat whatever you want for the rest of the day.
This doesn’t take very much willpower because there is a very bright line, you don’t have to carefully control what or how much you eat, it’s either you eat today or you don’t.
Do scales actually work with enough accuracy that doing this even makes any sense?
It doesn’t matter. Fluctuations with scales and with water retention may mean that you may end up fasting an extra day here and there for random reasons, but you will also end up eating on extra days for the same reason. It ends up the same on average.
That has some issues. First, changes in water retention jitter your daily weight by a pound or two. Second, you assume good tolerance for intermittent fasting. If you weight yourself in the morning, decide you’re not going to eat for the whole day, and then suffer a major sugar crash in the afternoon, that will be problematic.
Yes, it won’t work for people who can’t manage a day without eating at least from time to time, although you can also try slowing down the rate of change.
As I said in another comment, changes in water retention (and scale flucuations etc.) don’t really matter because it will come out the same on average.
Volatility matters. Imagine that one day the temperature in your house was set to 50F (+10C) and the next day—to 90F (+32C). On the average it comes out to 70F (+20C), so it’s fine, right?