[theodric]

My anecdata:

- a year of busting my ass on the bike almost daily: -15kg

- a year of restricting calories to ~1200/day and not doing much else: -40kg

- 2 years of sitting in my apartment being afraid of COVID and drinking too much: +50kg

Conclusion: booze is a really great way to put on a lot of weight quickly

[reverendsteveii]

my anecdata aligns with yours. A year of cardio every day and resistance 6 days a week bought me no weight loss, 2 years of limiting myself to 1800 cals/day on top of that stripped me of 25% of my body weight.

[darkwater]

Cool, but being physically active is not just to lose weight but to gain health. Your heart works more, your lungs work more, they develop a bit more, putting more oxygen in your body and the effects compound over time. So if you can, do both: control calories intake and exercise.

[reverendsteveii]

I did exactly that, and I thought I made that clear in my original comment but maybe I was unclear. With that being said, this article is about drivers of obesity so weight control is sort of the topic du jour itt.

[brailsafe]

All impressive numbers, but it seems like the move would be to keep doing #1 while being slightly less restrictive about #2 and just as restrictive about #3, which will eventually leave you not just lighter, but with a good level of fitness if you aren't already there. It's way easier to keep excess weight off and feel great about it if you're practicing athletics of some sort regularly

[ch4s3]

If you're drinking beer or wine it is certainly very calorie dense. You're looking at 208 kcal per pint of beer or 123 kcal for a 5oz pour of wine. A pound of fat takes about 3,500 excess calories, or 16 pints of beer. So if you drink 2 a day all else equal you could gain nearly 1 lb a week.

[audinobs]

This is just pointless ceteris paribus because genetics are the biggest variable.

If someone has a predisposition to diabetes they can't drink alcohol and hold things ceteris paribus because of the way alcohol effects the liver and then effects insulin.

Insulin sensitivity gets worse, blood sugar is all over the place and then the person is on a rollover-coast of over consuming calories to try to stabilize blood sugar.

IMO your post is why almost all dieting advise is just complete oversimplified nonsense. Meaningless ceteris paribus linear combinations that mostly add up to a non-reality for a non-linear complex system. It is a way for people to pick and chose what they want to be true.

[ch4s3]

Did you mean to reply to me? I'm simply pointing out that beer is calorie dense.

[throwawaylaptop]

Another thing you can do is one day of regular calories, and one day of zero. You still average to 1200 a day, but I think it's better for you for several reasons you can look into if interested.

[nottorp]

This is why you should walk to the pub instead of drinking at home...

[arealaccount]

[ throws out the protein powder ]