How do people stay thin?

[Zack Alklazaris]

Metabolisms my boy, metabolisms.

Exactly, I eat nothing but crap. I ate steak, a medium chedder n bacon pizza, a few bags of buttered popcorn, tons of soda, 3 McDonalds double quarter pounders, and I think its called a pulled pork sandwich.

And thats just for this week. I don't gain anything. Its always about metabolism. One person doesn't eat for 3 days they lose a pound. I one time stopped eating for 3 days and lost 10 pounds.

So I guess in the long run when the zombies come I'll waste away into nothing while all the slow metabolism people take over the world.

 

[crudus]

Weight loss is easy. Eat less, do more stuff.

Don't say "easy", because it isn't. Say it is simple.

Metabolisms my boy, metabolisms.

That isn't how people stay thin. It is how they stay alive.

Metabolisms my boy, metabolisms.

This, I eat like a pig and hardly work out (except a 1-hour basketball session with my friends every week), yet i'm still thin as fuck.

What do you do for a living? I doubt you take in as many calories as you vaguely imply you do.

 

[dcrane]

Drink!
http://news.google.ca/news/url?sa=t&ct2=ca%2F0_0_s_4_0_t&ct3=MAA4AEgEUABgAWoCY2F6AW0&usg=AFQjCNH0AlnM0q7rZ-i0_tlo7NLbc_eDjQ&did=197664e20023c3ed&cid=8797762251655&ei=JCefTpjpBImjiQLcxgE&rt=SECTION&vm=STANDARD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theglobeandmail.com%2Flife%2Fthe-hot-button%2Fdrunkorexia-a-growing-problem-as-female-students-favour-booze-over-food%2Farticle2206213%2F
(not an actual endorsement of Drunkorexia)

 

[Johnny Reb]

i went on the paleo diet for 2 month and run 5 miles a day excluding sunday.

you wont find a single bit of jiggly fat on my now.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Am I right in saying that the entire metabolism thing is quackery? I'm certain that I read about it in an article about common misconceptions that basically explained why it could never happen and that it was mostly caused by bias in the observer.

Well, it's the only explanation I can think of as to why I eat three times the amount of food as my overweight and obese friends, and sit around playing videogames. I'm not skinny, but I am slim. I WAS fat at one stage, though that kinda fell off after high school.

EDIT: I weigh about 140lbs at 5ft10. I'd consider myself healthy. I also work at a retail stockroom which involves a lot of heavy lifting, so if I was underweight I think I'd have had problems by now.

Actually, I was just crunching the numbers (I'm the same height as you), and going by BMI, 140 is on the low end of the ideal range. Granted, that's BMI; body composition is actually more important. For example, in my case, I've got pretty broad shoulders, and 140 wouldn't be particularly healthy; I'd have to either have really wimpy muscles, or unhealthily low levels of body fat to get to that weight[footnote]you read that right, there is such a thing as too little body fat[/footnote]. 160, which is still within the ideal range on the BMI chart, is a much more realistic goal for me, but everyone is different.

I'm built very slight. I was unnaturally tiny.

Which is fine; like I said, 140 for 5'10" is within the ideal range. It's just that you have to be careful with weights that aren't clearly in the middle, because some people are built to be heavier or lighter than others; like I said, 140 would be emaciated for me. 160 would probably be a bit overweight for you. Both are considered healthy weights for someone who is 5'10" in height.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

Metabolisms my boy, metabolisms.

and running in fear from that face.
oh god that face.

OT: a combination of exercise and healthy food. or brown fat. that would work too.

 

[UltraBlumpkin]

I've wanted to lose weight for a while now, and I have tried nearly everything (except diet pills and starving, I have my standards). The weird thing is that quite a few people I know tend to stay thin despite regularly eating burger king and such. I know some of them do work out, but some (like my girlfriend) somehow can stay thin without working out and despite apparently eating a lot (hell, I'm in much worse shape than my girlfriend, yet I have an easier time walking, thank you Mini-Boot Camp). I gotta ask, when it comes to those people, what's their secret?

In case it hasn't been said yet, your girlfriend is probably 'working out' without your knowledge. If ya know what I mean...

 

[CrawlingPastaHellion]

I suggest you eliminate bread from your diet entirely. Every slice is around a hundred nutritional calories, if not more. Eat as few fats as possible and avoid sugar (even though that one I can't do, I love desserts, ice-cream especially). If you don't care for meat and like fish try building your diet around it instead. Tuna fish, for example, is low in fat and calories, but is rich in proteins. Also limit potato intake, too many starches. Some exercise wouldn't hurt either.

In the end it's all a matter of habit.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Drink!
http://news.google.ca/news/url?sa=t&ct2=ca%2F0_0_s_4_0_t&ct3=MAA4AEgEUABgAWoCY2F6AW0&usg=AFQjCNH0AlnM0q7rZ-i0_tlo7NLbc_eDjQ&did=197664e20023c3ed&cid=8797762251655&ei=JCefTpjpBImjiQLcxgE&rt=SECTION&vm=STANDARD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theglobeandmail.com%2Flife%2Fthe-hot-button%2Fdrunkorexia-a-growing-problem-as-female-students-favour-booze-over-food%2Farticle2206213%2F
(not an actual endorsement of Drunkorexia)

That's actually kind of interesting. The whole reason alcoholics tend to have beer guts is because of the calories in alcohol. It looks like this eating disorder has turned that problem on its head, creating a whole new one. Assuming there's a grain of truth to anything posted on that very tabloid-looking site. Granted, it's only really in the US that tabloids print almost literally nothing true; international tabloids are like Fox News. American tabloids are like Weird Tales -- or at least the good ones.

Edit: Actually, I can't tell if it's a tabloid, or if their IT department is just terrible. The list of sections looks pretty legit, but the web design is some of the worst I've ever seen.

 

[Gamblerjoe]

i would really like to know what I said is incorrect considering I lost 30 pounds from January

Actually, it wasn't. mysecondlife and Zetion were pretty bang on about what to eat and what not to eat to lose weight, though I would actually recommend getting rid of all grains myself. Some aren't as bad as what's used to make the bread you buy in the store, but it's still not great for managing blood glucose, and there's no nutritional value you can't get elsewhere in your diet much more efficiently. Actually re-reading x EvilErmine x's post, they're not totally wrong either. There's no evolutionary reason to consume three meals a day. You can consume less or more and be fine. If you're eating the right types of food you will actually stay full a lot longer since your blood sugar isn't crashing two hours later and the fat content will give you plenty of energy to carry you for hours. So eating when you're hungry you may find that you eat less, or at least less frequently.

The only person you quoted who was actually incorrect about anything was Mallefunction when they said not to avoid carbs. Sure you don't want to avoid all carbs. vegetables and the occasional piece of fruit are fine. But you do want to avoid sugar, starch, and grains if you want to lose weight and be healthy. But he was right about not limiting fat intake. It's what will give you good energy throughout the day and leave you feeling full longer. It's also required for the proper development and functioning of the human brain and immune system. Limiting fat is only hurting you.

I can assure you that limiting carbohydrate intake is not some "crap people made up to sell books." Though eating as many carbs in the form of grains that the USDA recommends IS crap that they made up to sell you the grains they heavily subsidize.

ok. In all fairness, the OP only asked how to lose weight, not how to be healthy, so you got me there. If you want an over simplified explanation that will only work for a small percentage or people, but is guaranteed to be bad for your health, then by all means listen to all the the ignorant responses in this thread.

What is incorrect about those posts, from a health standpoint, is that you should not cut out entire food groups from your diet. Anyone who would follow the Atkins diet deserves the sharp decline in health. Cutting out dairy and forgoing the multivitamin can be countered if you have a perfect diet, but that would require the knowledge of a professional dietitian and blood tests to see what your body is lacking in order to compensate.

The main problem I have with most of the posts in this thread is that they try to oversimplify it. If someone oversimplifies something for you, they are trying to sell you something. In this case, it is a bunch of people trying to sell themselves, i.e. look smarter than they really are.

Yes, you should stay away from soda or anything else with high fructose corn syrup. Yes you should stay away from bleached starches. Of course you should stay away from most processed foods, especially processed meat (like slim jims.) These are not answers by themselves. You also have to watch your sodium, but dont cut it out completely. Stay away from the weed and the binge drinking. One beer a day has some decent health benefits, but it has its drawbacks too. A glass of wine is your best bet since it has benefits beyond the alcohol.

Everything I said is based on the advice of professional dietitians and has been implemented by many successful MMA fighters. When you compete at the top levels in that sport, especially when you cut 20-30 lb. for a fight and still have tons of endurance, you have to do it right. Every person is different, but there are people who devote their livelihoods to figuring out what the human body needs in general, and the stuff they have figured out, with only minor tweaks from person to person will work. (If you would like me to elaborate on what Im talking about with the weight cut, Id be glad to.)

Ultimately its up to the OP to decide who he wants to listen to, and how hard he is willing to work. Dare I be so bold as to suggest that my post was better thought out, and better worded than most.

 

[J4RD]

Personally, I'm one of those disgusting people who will regularly fast for a day or so simply because I forget to eat. However, I wasn't always this way, and cutting back on soft drinks helped me get here.

 

[The Funslinger]

Learn the one weird [http://www.choosemyplate.gov/myplate/index.aspx] trick to blast stubborn belly fat!

It really works!

Have I ever told you I find your particular brand of sarky wit extremely entertaining?

 

[Gamblerjoe]

Only eat when you're hungry. Eating when you're not hungry is when you gain most of the weight.

the feeling of hunger is your brain's response to low blood sugar and your muscles entering a catabolic state. Ideally you want to eat small meals at scheduled increments. If you do it right you will never feel hungry. If you go for hours without eating, then eat a huge meal because you're starving, you will be ingesting more calories than your body can burn at a time when your metabolism is at its lowest. That is how you gain weight. When you are hungry and eat, the feeling of hunger doesnt go away when the proper amount of food enters your stomach, it takes some time.

This is a good time to segue into another supplement that works quite well if combined with a proper diet and exercise. I dont use it myself, and I would only advocate it if you really think you need it but: Muscle Milk. What that stuff does is level out your blood sugar, and by proxy your metabolism. Think of it as a wave. When you eat, your blood sugar spikes. As you use that energy, it declines. If you can keep the oscillation nice and compact, your metabolism will in turn not fluctuate so much. This gives you the benefit of not being as hungry, and you wont store as much of what you eat. The reason I dont take Muscle Milk is because I dont need to. My metabolism is average to high, and I eat many small meals throughout the day, which gives me the same result. No need to spend extra money on something I dont need.

 

[Sabiancym]

There's no such thing as just not being able to lose weight. It's 100% self control.

No one who has ever been dedicated to losing weight hasn't been able to do so (barring some medical condition).

Eat 1000-2000 (depending on age, metabolism, and gender) calories a day and you'll lose weight. Simple and pretty much guaranteed.


If you're unable to do that than there is some psychological things going on that should probably be dealt with first. You may feel hungry, but eating 2000 calories a day will not make you starve (assuming you're at an average activity level of course).




I've always been athletic and fit, but after high school I put on about 30 lbs. So I just started counting calories and limited myself to 1500-1800 a day and I lost the weight in a couple of months. I didn't even need to exercise much. 20 mins a day on the treadmill and that was it. I've done harder things in video games..

 

[Skoosh]

Weight loss is easy. Eat less, do more stuff.

Don't say "easy", because it isn't. Say it is simple.

Simple is also appropriate, but I'd ague easy is too. It takes little effort to lose weight, people make a bigger deal out of it than they should. Drinking water instead of soda is easy. Taking a walk is easy. The things needed to lose weight are easy and relatively minor lifestyle changes. It's harder to lose weight than gain weight, but that hardly means weight loss isn't easy.

Losing a lot of weight in a short period of time isn't as easy, but no one specified 10 pounds or 100, 5 years or a month.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Fortunately, weight loss is no mystery: reduce your calorie intake below your daily calorie burn (estimated to be between 1800 and 2300 for most adult males, not counting exercise), or increase your burn above your intake. With the help of any calorie/exercise tracker (tons of apps fot this for iOS and Android, as well as many websites), it is easy to keep track of both gain and loss of calories, and thus ensure that you stay below the required intake.

7000-7700 calories respond to 1 kilo of weight (whether from proteins, carbs, fat, etc). This means that if you create a ~7000 calorie deficit, you will have lost 1 kilo. For example, staying 500 calories below your daily calorie burn will lose you approximately 1 kilo each week, since 7 days X 500 calories = 7000 calories = 1 kilo of fat (which, incidentally, is the normal upper limit for weight loss as recommended by most doctors).

Yep, really that simple. Then why is weight loss guides one of the most common and popular forms of guides in the history of man, next to Windows support guides? Because while the theory is very simple, and the practice is just as simple in theory , what people find hard are following the two principles that are key to weight loss: 1) Eat less and more importantly eat right. 2) Exercise.

So, the vast majority of weight loss guides that have any basis in science, deal less with the nutritional principles behind weight loss (or they explain them as quickly as I have, above), and more with motivational factors, ways to stay on target and uphold self-discipline, and ways to gain exercise and reduce calorie intake that might not be directly obvious, but are still based on the simple principles above.

It's always interesting to see all these replies touting a fast metabolism as an answer, when nutritional science is very clear on that calorie deficit versus surplus is the rule for weight loss and gain for damn near every single living human.

Check your math; it takes 2 weeks to drop a kilo by cutting 500 calories a day, assuming you're right that it takes 7000 calories to do so. 500*7 is only 3500. 500 a day is actually supposed to get you to drop a pound a week, which is a significantly smaller amount of mass (within earth's gravity) than a Kilo.

Incidentally, that last sentence was really hard for me to word: the main metric measurements are units of mass, while the main customary units are measures of weight. Nobody ever says "I way one kilo-newton" or whatever an appropriate amount of newtons for a person's body weight would be.

 

[Dags90]

Have I ever told you I find your particular brand of sarky wit extremely entertaining?

I don't think you have. Sometimes it gets me in trouble, but I'm not keen on changing.

Spoiler: A token of my appreciation.

 

[Caverat]

Be more concerned with being healthy, being thin doesn't automatically mean good health.

Eat right, maintain a physically active lifestyle. Who cares how thin you are when you can add 20+ years to your life expectancy? More video game playing time to be had that way.

 

[Cpu46]

My dads side of the family have black holes where their stomachs should be. They gorge themselves and rarely show a pound of it. My moms side eat just as much but tend to show it more. I am a bit of a happy medium where I can eat as much as I want and only pack on a fraction of what I should. Now that I am out of my parents house I normally just eat 2 moderately sized meals a day when I get hungry. Aside from my treks to my classes I don't exercise that much but I am planning on starting, especially as the holidays come around.

So in short, speedy metabolism and a reasonable intake of food, soon to add a mild exercise regimen.

 

[Ayjona]

Check your math; it takes 2 weeks to drop a kilo by cutting 500 calories a day, assuming you're right that it takes 7000 calories to do so. 500*7 is only 3500. 500 a day is actually supposed to get you to drop a pound a week, which is a significantly smaller amount of mass (within earth's gravity) than a Kilo.

Yah, yer right, of course. I'm so used to working with a 1000 daily calorie deficit (and kilos) that I forgot I had lowered the number in all but writing ;-) The downside of doing work as a journalist in two different languages, on two different continents... The math is all good, but the premise was fudged.

Incidentally, that last sentence was really hard for me to word: the main metric measurements are units of mass, while the main customary units are measures of weight. Nobody ever says "I way one kilo-newton" or whatever an appropriate amount of newtons for a person's body weight would be.

But they should! What good is dropping fat, if you might still be overweight on another planet?

(Actually, in modern usage, in popular speech, a kilo is a measure of weight, as it refers (whether knowingly or unknowingly) to the non-SI unit of measure known as kilogram-force. It is a prime example of a word that has gradually lost its formal and etymologic meaning, in favour of its popular content, to the point where the formal meaning has changed, even if the etymology remains the same.)