![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lyornWe had tea and cake again today (recipes soon), and for no good reason at all got into diet talk. Which is a hot button issue for me. As in, I can do it for hours, but I regret every single minute of it while they are happening, and I become far more angry and frustrated that I ever should be at any endeavor I'm not getting paid for.
And I realized that all those "do this and you'll lose weight" diets, be they new or so last year, promise some kind of metabolism hack. Trick your insulin levels, trick your fat cells, trick your whatever other hormones might be involved (not that anyone knows for sure) by eating exactly *this* at exactly *that* time whether you like it or not, and you will lose weight. The more I read about how metabolisms might work, the less this looks like a good idea, or even a stupid but harmless idea. First, you are restricting. So, hungry or not, you will very likely develop cravings for foods you are not allowed to have, and resisting them will eat away at your willpower. Second, you are trying to hack a system that has developed to keep you alive and functioning under a wide range of circumstances, because you believe you know better.
I don't think that's a good idea, I don't think it's healthy, and I don't think it will get you what you want.
Quoting from stumptuous (Where I go to get motivation for my strength training.)
Now, friends and acquaintances ask me how I have lost so much weight, and joke that if there was a way to bottle it I'll be rich. Here's my opinion on it. This is not the Lyorn's Nice and AccurateProphecies Diet Rules. It is me being opinionated.
- Regard the whole thing as an open-ended body modification project.
- Have spare resources in time, money and energy.
- Have a healthy metabolism not damaged by years of dieting, modified by medication, or genetically opposed to whatever you want it to do.
- Be happy.
- Be active. Have fun. Enjoy challenges.
- Love and respect food.
- Don't be stressed or tired.
- Do not eat food you dislike just because it's supposed to be good for you.
- Allow for food that makes you happy.
- Indulge at parties, but do not binge. There will be food tomorrow. Really.
- You don't have a moral duty to eat leftovers, or "save" food that is about to go bad.
- Be hungry before a meal. Be sated after. Stop before you feel stuffed. Unless it's at a party.
- If you feel you need to count calories, do not let you daily kcal go under your current weight (in kg) times 20. Times 25 is still fine.
Can I be rich now please?
And I realized that all those "do this and you'll lose weight" diets, be they new or so last year, promise some kind of metabolism hack. Trick your insulin levels, trick your fat cells, trick your whatever other hormones might be involved (not that anyone knows for sure) by eating exactly *this* at exactly *that* time whether you like it or not, and you will lose weight. The more I read about how metabolisms might work, the less this looks like a good idea, or even a stupid but harmless idea. First, you are restricting. So, hungry or not, you will very likely develop cravings for foods you are not allowed to have, and resisting them will eat away at your willpower. Second, you are trying to hack a system that has developed to keep you alive and functioning under a wide range of circumstances, because you believe you know better.
I don't think that's a good idea, I don't think it's healthy, and I don't think it will get you what you want.
Quoting from stumptuous (Where I go to get motivation for my strength training.)
But biology is a bitch. The mechanisms that control eating behaviour are stronger than your pathetic attempts to delude them with fake foods. The exquisitely sensitive machinery that analyzes every last molecule that you send down the plumbing knows your game. Your brain may be fooled by the Splenda or the low-carb bread, but your digestive system is all like, "Oh honey, puhlease" before it sighs and sets about sorting the triglycerides into their allotted compartments or upregulating Poison Control to deal with the toxic sludge you just dumped in there in the form of diet soda. Your body will roll its eyes and go along with your little "I'm going to be so gooood" game from 7 am till 7 pm, and then the gloves are off — and said ungloved hands are shoving your face into a jar of peanut butter.
Now, friends and acquaintances ask me how I have lost so much weight, and joke that if there was a way to bottle it I'll be rich. Here's my opinion on it. This is not the Lyorn's Nice and Accurate
- Regard the whole thing as an open-ended body modification project.
- Have spare resources in time, money and energy.
- Have a healthy metabolism not damaged by years of dieting, modified by medication, or genetically opposed to whatever you want it to do.
- Be happy.
- Be active. Have fun. Enjoy challenges.
- Love and respect food.
- Don't be stressed or tired.
- Do not eat food you dislike just because it's supposed to be good for you.
- Allow for food that makes you happy.
- Indulge at parties, but do not binge. There will be food tomorrow. Really.
- You don't have a moral duty to eat leftovers, or "save" food that is about to go bad.
- Be hungry before a meal. Be sated after. Stop before you feel stuffed. Unless it's at a party.
- If you feel you need to count calories, do not let you daily kcal go under your current weight (in kg) times 20. Times 25 is still fine.
Can I be rich now please?
