Losing weight: the bottom line

J72FIT

"Regardless of the nonsense you read in most diet books, losing weight is not fundamentally difficult. In my honest opinion, the last 30 years of research has told us all we really need to know about the topic. My grandmother knew how to lose weight before that but everybody knows that grandmothers know everything.

The bottom (and rather simple) line is that you have to adjust your food intake (or activity levels) so that you’re burning more calories than you take in. Over time, this causes you to lose weight (I’ll be making a distinction between weight and fat loss in the next chapter). That’s really it and I’ve joked that my job is to turn the idea “Eat less, exercise, and repeat forever” into a 300 page book. One of these days I’ll write/finish my magnum opus but for right now, this is what you get.

Even the books that tell you that you don’t have to count calories still ultimately trick you into eating less, by adjusting what you can eat (and sometimes when you can eat it). Low-carbohydrate, low-fat, the Zone, you name a diet and they are making you eat less food in the long run. There’s simply no way to escape that, no matter what magic they promise. Other weight loss approaches take the exercise route, get you burning more calories through activity under the assumption that you won’t just eat more to compensate (which tends to be a rather bad assumption most of the time). There’s really nothing magical to weight loss no matter what you want to believe."

–Lyle McDonald - A Guide to Flexible Dieting

diannethegeek

just bumping this.

SezxyStef

bumping it again

Fkika3131

Thanks for sharing.

J72FIT

It would seem magic is way more exciting to talk about... lol!

PJPrimrose

*Sob* I'm not a special snowflake?

BTW, when you make all those millions on "eat less ,lose weight" 300 page books, remember your friends on MFP.

lemonsnowdrop

This brought a happy tear to my eye.

Antlady69

*bump*

manicautumn

This is so important for newcomers to know.

ninerbuff

Ooooh this is going to make a lot of the diet industry upset.............................................

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

suejoker

Great quote! My favorite part was "losing weight is not fundamentally difficult". It made me think, losing weight is not fundamentally difficult, people are! I am truly enjoying eating well & exercising now, but I spent years before now fighting being healthy. Then, I would complain about being unhealthy. Then, I would feel bad. Then, I'd eat more. Then, I'd complain about being fat. Then, I'd feel bad, then I'd eat more...

CipherZero

Lyle macdonald gave me some great advice way back when that I really should have heeded:

Eat less you fat ****.
Move more you fat ****.

Lyle's kind of an *kitten*, but he's not wrong.

J72FIT

Follow up quote...

"Eat less, exercise (or both), repeat forever. That’s the bottom line and the sooner you accept that the closer you’ll be too reaching your goal."
–Lyle McDonald - A Guide to Flexible Dieting

stefaniem76

Bumping this...

Christizzzle

“Eat less, exercise, and repeat forever”

Love it!

fannyfrost

My doctor once said to me answer this question:

"will any diet work if you stick to it"

The answer is pretty much yes, if the diet has you eating less and burning more calories, YES it will. The real question is what diet can you stick with for the rest of your life? What eating combination and food and exercise will make you happy and skinny forever.

My daughter went vegan, not for weight reasons, but it really helped her health. Can she stick with it? yes she always preferred vegetables. Me could I go vegan, no my body will actually crave meat or eggs. I could never stick to it. So its not about just being on a diet or eating a certain way, its really about eating a certain way forever.

elbaldwin0525

what does bumping mean:?

SuperC_85

Amen!

J72FIT

My doctor once said to me answer this question:

"will any diet work if you stick to it"

The answer is pretty much yes, if the diet has you eating less and burning more calories, YES it will. The real question is what diet can you stick with for the rest of your life? What eating combination and food and exercise will make you happy and skinny forever.

My daughter went vegan, not for weight reasons, but it really helped her health. Can she stick with it? yes she always preferred vegetables. Me could I go vegan, no my body will actually crave meat or eggs. I could never stick to it. So its not about just being on a diet or eating a certain way, its really about eating a certain way forever.

I think the key to this is changing our behavioral habits for the long term and not just the short term. The weight loss is the easy part. It's the maintenance that most people find challenging.

diannethegeek

what does bumping mean:?

In the olden days of the internet, bump stood for Bring Up My Post. Here at MFP it means that someone is replying to push the post back to the top of the message board or to save it to their topics to read later.