[mellowdream]

This is a cool idea that I'd personally love to see work in some form or another.

In my experience, though, the tedium of tracking macros and the like has probably been the biggest obstacle for being consistent. When I cut now, just maintaining some very simple principles like "eat less, eat vegetables, it's OK to feel hungry" has been vastly more useful long-term than weighing food on scales and calculating BMI every week... But maybe that's just me.

This solution might make for a nice compromise.

[xwowsersx]

Agreed. I did a couple of cuts using templates from Renaissance Periodization, measuring out every single thing that I ate. I think that's a very useful exercise for people who are totally clueless (it amazes me how little of a conception people have). But once you've done that once or twice, you have a feel for what a (healthy) caloric deficit feels like and you just embrace some hunger, as you said, keep protein relatively high, and the other obvious principles. Measuring everything just doesn't seem worthwhile unless you're trying to step on stage and even then you might not need to do so.

[TheAdamAndChe]

When I first started learning about and applying personal finance principles, I counted every dollar going in and out of my accounts, made projections, and planned for everything. This conscious effort very effectively changed my spending habits to the point where finance principals are now second nature. For many people, getting started with dieting requires(or is at least helped by) such a conscious effort too.

[allovernow]

>eat less, eat vegetables, it's OK to feel hungry

I think one of the biggest things a person can do is move away from the three daily meal regimen that as I understand is a relatively modern invention. After a few weeks or so you don't miss breakfast anymore, especially if you're the type to drink coffee in the morning.

[slothtrop]

Right but merely skipping breakfast won't ensure you'll consume fewer calories in a day. There are recorded advantages to breakfast consumption with regards to metabolism etc. It's worth experimenting to suit preference. Maybe when trying to run a deficit, skipping is easier, but that doesn't apply to me.

[leetcrew]

part of the problem is that the conventional american breakfast (cereal, fruit, maybe some toast) is almost entirely carbs. unless you go to the trouble of frying some eggs, you're getting off to a bad start that will leave you crashing by the end of the morning and overeating at lunch.

[scythe]

I've dealt with insomnia for most of my life (I regularly saw the clock pass midnight when I was 8, just laying in bed) and making sure I ate breakfast early every morning has seemed to be one of the most effective ways to fight it.

After experimenting with various options, breakfast settled on a few handfuls of hazelnuts and coffee with sugar. It turns out to be impossible to overeat hazelnuts because they're chewy and filling^1, it requires literally no preparation, and it keeps me full for a while. I find unsalted nuts go better with coffee; salt clashes somehow.

[PeterStuer]

I regularly see people snacking 1 bag of nuts (250g, 1700 kcal) or even 2 bags a day mindlessly in front of their computer at work.

[scythe]

I think snacking is the key concept here. I just eat quickly until I'm full and put the bag away. Lots of things are unhealthy when you just eat them out of boredom.

Imagine sitting next to a huge amount of any other kind of food all day!

[Retric]

That’s why eggs are so often part of breakfast menus. Eggs with cheese on toast is a fairly solid breakfast option. Alternatively, bacon or sausage are also popular.

You can also up the fat content with some creamer in your coffee rather than sugar.

[jessant]

Intermittent fasting seems to have health benefits.

[papa_bear]

I've never been able to stick with tracking macros for very long for similar reasons. Following a meal plan takes a bit of time to set up, but once I have everything in place, I get a huge sense of relief throughout the week whenever I eat. There's never a question of what I'm going to eat, or if I'm eating too much or too little, and I can be confident that I'm making progress toward my weight goal (whether it's bulking or cutting).

I think the main downside is a lack of flexibility, which can throw me off the wagon for a while if I miss one too many meals by going out with friends. Improving flexibility is one of our goals right now, and adding better support for restaurant meals, so hopefully not a big downside for too much longer.

[SecureVillage]

Following a meal plan is a form of tracking calories.

I tend to stick to a handful of "meals" when I'm cutting just to make the counting easier.

Once you have the meals entered in MFP, it takes seconds to log an entire day's worth of eating.

Eating out is always hard. It feels stupid to skip a good food choice (e.g. a food stall) just because I can't determine its macros. Still, I'd rather get the cut done and resume normal eating ASAP!

[ahnick]

For me using an app like "My Macros+" where you can search for and add your own custom recipes has been the best change I have made. Once you have done it for a couple of weeks then a lot of the recipes for the food you eat are already in the app. Then every time you eat a meal going forward it only takes about 5 seconds to log it. The app sums the macro nutrients for you and you can see if you are on track. If I'm a little behind I know I can have a 1/4 cup of peanuts or a protein bar or whatever and I will be back on track. I never weigh food on scales or calculate BMI.

[reinkaos]

Tracking macros is really boring so people either give up dieting or converge to a simpler approach. In my case I just watch protein closely to make sure I get around 150g per day and then I adjust energy calories accordingly. Fat is pretty easy because I get most of it through my animal sources of protein. I avoid foods with added fat. In the end for me it is just a matter of cutting back on the carbs a bit.

[leetcrew]

I would guess that most americans who try to "eat healthy" (or at least not eat take-out / fast food all the time) probably don't get enough fat. I'm always sad when I go to the grocery store and realize that only the premium yogurt has >2% milkfat. I find that when I deliberately choose the full fat version of things I feel satisfied after consuming many fewer calories.

[samatman]

I make yogurt by the gallon in an Instant Pot.

Couldn't be simpler, and at the rate I consume the stuff it paid for the pot fairly quickly.

I consider low-fat dairy products a hustle by dairy producers to sell the low-value leftovers of extracting butter. Don't fall for it.

[PeterStuer]

You can rest assured that the dietfashionmediamachine has been advertizing the "fat is good" matra very effectively for the last 10 years.

[throwaway286]

Except everyone is still scared to death of saturated fat, which may actually have unique satiety mechanisms (see video below for a dive into saturated fat and reverse electron transport). There's some questions about the Ancel Keys studies that lead to the demonization of saturated fat as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIRurLnQ8oo

[PeterStuer]

I'm sorry but the Keto family of diets has been the mainstream mantra for the last decade.

It also fails so many people because the supposed satiety mechanism only seems to work shorttime for most practitioners.

Most, if not nearly all, fail to match satiety in line with reduced caloric need as they go through the initial weight-loss phase. Even worse, most experience a habituatiuon and start increasing the amount of (low-carb/high fat) energy intake, negating the initial benefits and reverting to a state of over-consumption and stored energy surplus.

[throwaway286]

Mainstream keto does not seek to avoid polyunsaturated fat, which we've been taught is heart healthy. This theory isn't keto, it's rather that the society wide switch away from saturated fat to polyunsaturated fat has disrupted satiety mechanisms. Some people are even examining these ideas with adequate carbs, example search term: "the croissant diet".

[MuffinFlavored]

> eat vegetables

It was recently said on an episode of Joe Rogan's podcast (with Pavel Tsatsouline in this clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4qVbVJhZaY at 7:18) that fruit + vegetables don't do as many positive things for us as previously thought.