[xazo]

> ... your brain thinks you're starving and has all sorts of ways to wear down your will ...

I thought losing weight was about willpower and starving as well. But you can only keep that up for so long until your willpower breaks. Then I read this book, Allen Carr's "Good Sugar, Bad Sugar: Eat yourself free of sugar & carb addiction". It changed how I view things and now I no longer worry about how much I eat.

The key is in understanding that your hunger is driven by an addiction to sugar and carbs -- they're not what your body considers food so it always feels hungry. Change your diet and you no longer constantly feel hungry while still losing weight.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

Yeah, I hear this and other fad internet diet stuff all the time. You think in 10 years I never tried this stuff? It did not make a significant difference.

[xazo]

> I hear this and other fad internet diet stuff all the time

I've been eating a lower carb diet with portion control for more than 10 years now with little to no exercise. I recently changed into a low carb diet. Over this 10 year period I lost 30% of my body weight.

The only fad I've seen so far is the notion that practicing willpower and portion control while still eating sugar and carbs is a maintainable position.

Best of luck to you. But as others have noted, the rampant obesity in today's society is a recent problem - not something that happened in previous generations. What's different?

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

The vast majority of people no longer do manual labor for a living. And food used to cost a lot more. It's also possible that anti-smoking campaigns have had an effect since nicotine is a stimulant (which can suppress appetite) and reduces your sense of taste (making food less appealing), but that's probably a stretch.

[lazerpants]

There seems to be something else going on in addition to what you've mentioned.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871403X1...

[xazo]

I agree with all of your points. But there is more going on here.

Take a look at the top 5 strongest men in the world. They spend their days working out and probably burn more calories in a day than I do in a week. They have big, strong muscles that are covered over by a layer of fat. Same is true of many manual laborers today - landscapers, roofers, builders.

http://theworldsstrongestman.com/athletes/

Compare that to body builders (work out, eat lower carb/sugar) or concentration camp prisoners who are underfed (whether they do labor or are almost entirely sedentary).

https://www.google.com/search?as_st=y&tbm=isch&as_q=concentr...

https://www.google.com/search?as_st=y&tbm=isch&as_q=body+bui...

Comparing the groups (and my own experience) convinced me that eating (rather than exercise) is >80% of how much fat you will carry.

I'd say one of the biggest differences today is that sugar and carbs have become well accepted highly addictive drugs in our society. Feeling down? Go treat yourself to some ice cream! Is it any different with nicotine or heroin addicts?

I look at obese people in the same way that I look at nicotine or heroin addicts. It's not their fault, they're just normal people who are unfortunately caught in the tractor beam of addictive substances and they may not even know it. I didn't know it when I was a carbaholic. I thought I was fine -- didn't really connect my hangry episodes with withdrawal symptoms.

[djsumdog]

Keto style diets made a huge impact on my life. I will say this though: it's very difficult to eat low-carb in America. While I was overseas in the South Pacific, there were a lot more low carb options and produce was of higher quality. Here in American, everything is loaded with sugar and I've had to cook a lot more of my own food if I want to stay healthy. But I agree, cutting out sugars/starches greatly changed things for me. Have a Steak and Salad instead of a Steak and Fries. For breakfast, just have the bacon and eggs and skip the toast. It makes a massive difference.