[zug_zug]

meh, this is the kind of statement that sounds meaningful but isn't really useful at all. It's like saying "The only way to make money is to have more income than you spend." Like great, but mostly worthless advice, the really important advice IS the details (e.g. different investments, getting promoted, etc) or in the dieting case it's details like like drinking calories, many different medications cause weight gain, hormonal levels, etc.

[dabbledash]

I think it would be a meaningful statement if 90% of advice about saving was some variation of “how to save money without making a budget!”

People seem to desperately want some trick to losing weight that isn’t “eat less food.” It won’t be forthcoming. You can’t trick your body into losing weight. We are adapted to scarcity, but food is not scarce.

[zug_zug]

Let's first define "bad advice" and "good advice."

"good advice" - Advice that actually works, and makes the person like you more

"bad advice" - Advice that doesn't help the person and makes the person like you less.

"Eat less food" would fall in the latter category, pretty obviously.

---

"Everybody should have infinite self control" is an obscenely naive starting point that erases the whole practical problem. The practical problem is "What habits require the minimum amount of self-control/unpleasantness to get the results I desire"?

[dabbledash]

I think weight loss is an area where giving advice is a bad idea unless it’s specifically asked for. It’s not like it’s hard to figure out what to do, it’s just incredibly difficult to do it.

If I were asked, i’d say that all diets that produce a calorie deficit are similarly effective and to try different things until you hit on the plan you can see yourself following for the rest of your life (at maintenance calories). Lots of people lose weight, maintaining is the biggest challenge.

[zug_zug]

I do think it can be hard to figure out what to do though -- e.g. diet soda says 0 calories, but does it mess with your metabolism? (research is undecided). Personally I've done keto and found it less effort than working out every day. Some people don't understand that 10 chinups burns comparable calories to walking up the stairs. Also muscle weighs more than fat, so scales may be a fairly bad measurement.

[dabbledash]

That’s true. I remember being so surprised when I found out how few calories I burned running a mile! There are other reasons to exercise obviously, but it’s easy to overestimate how important it will be to weight loss for sure.

[scotty79]

You might be surprised how many people were helped by internalizing this simple noncircumventable truths.

Until they do they are susceptible to many get rich (or slim) quick schemes and dreaming they can eat their cake and have it too.

You may go into details once you firmly internalize the base. Not before.

[watwut]

Like, that thing above is promoted all the time - while Americans are getting heavier and heavier. And while most people who loose weight gain it back again and some more.

As an advice, it is most common and there are no promissing long term weight loss results of it.

[0xcde4c3db]

> Like, that thing above is promoted all the time - while Americans are getting heavier and heavier. And while most people who loose weight gain it back again and some more.

I suspect that this is largely because for the average person, the majority of their physical activity is a response to the physical organization of their environment rather than a specific lifestyle choice. We've spent the past ~70 years filling America with places where not only does one need to deliberately seek out excuses to physically move, economic and infrastructure factors might also demand that one spend upwards of an hour per day sitting in a motor vehicle.

[yupper32]

It's not the most common advice.

Not many understand what causes weight gain and weight loss. As evidenced by my massive amount of downvotes.

[haltingproblem]

Totally agree. I would further argue and diet is just a methodology on how to sustainably consume less calories than you spend. A successful diet is sustainable. An unsuccessful one is not.

When I began Keto, several intelligent and well-meaning friend made that exact same comment. A year later they are asking me what is the best way to start and stay on keto ;)