Throwing in my two cents for the “different things work for different metabolisms” rubric:
Dieting reduces my quality of life. On the other hand, I enjoy exercising. So, although I try to limit myself to eating actual junk food on an occasional basis, I basically eat as much as I want whenever I want, and rely on getting extraordinary* amounts of exercise to achieve the body shape I want. Contrary to what everyone else seems to claim every time this comes up on LW—that exercise is largely irrelevant to weight and diet is everything—this works just fine for me. At this point I’m probably about 13-14% body fat and 52-54% lean muscle mass (as a male in his mid-30s).
*Extraordinary by sedentary US standards, that is… around 7-8 hours of strenuous activity per week, plus ~45 minutes every day walking the dog.
Admittedly, I might be able to achieve single digit body fat percentage by really dieting, but it’s not at all clear that would actually be healthier, and it would certainly make life less enjoyable.
Throwing in my two cents for the “different things work for different metabolisms” rubric:
Dieting reduces my quality of life. On the other hand, I enjoy exercising. So, although I try to limit myself to eating actual junk food on an occasional basis, I basically eat as much as I want whenever I want, and rely on getting extraordinary* amounts of exercise to achieve the body shape I want. Contrary to what everyone else seems to claim every time this comes up on LW—that exercise is largely irrelevant to weight and diet is everything—this works just fine for me. At this point I’m probably about 13-14% body fat and 52-54% lean muscle mass (as a male in his mid-30s).
*Extraordinary by sedentary US standards, that is… around 7-8 hours of strenuous activity per week, plus ~45 minutes every day walking the dog.
Admittedly, I might be able to achieve single digit body fat percentage by really dieting, but it’s not at all clear that would actually be healthier, and it would certainly make life less enjoyable.