10 Simple things you can do to facilitate weight loss

Not really feeling 6... this can seriously backfire if the person isn't skilled at counseling or offering advice. Either they are recreational athletes since childhood who have never had an ounce of fat in their life and assume it's all about "willpower", or they are older folks who think they magically absorbed a bunch of knowledge about everything by just existing. It turns out most of their "advice" will come in the form of fat-shaming or other insensitive remarks. To be fair you can blame the media too, with shows like "The Biggest Loser" reinforcing outdated misconceptions about weight loss.

Here's an example: they see you drinking a milkshake or something, and tell you you shouldn't have that. In their mind, they are being totally helpful by informing you that a milkshake is high in fat and calories (OMG REALLY?). Maybe they don't know you're on a cheat day, maybe they don't care, maybe you skipped a meal to make up for this treat or something... regardless of your plan, are you really obligated to explain to them why you're doing that? Is it really their business? A comment like this gives me the impression that they see me as ignorant or weak, and i'm more likely to hide my milkshake in the future than actually stop drinking them.

I think the advice OP gave in general is fairly good even if he is suffering from the standard "If it worked for me it will work for everyone so let me share my insights with the world" syndrome.

Personally I just tacked on "I found that for me personally...." onto each one of his statements and gave him the benefit of the doubt.

Dude sounds like he is having some success, is excited by that and wants to share...don't need to crap on that really.

I think the advice OP gave in general is fairly good even if he is suffering from the standard "If it worked for me it will work for everyone so let me share my insights with the world" syndrome.

Personally I just tacked on "I found that for me personally...." onto each one of his statements and gave him the benefit of the doubt.

I linked the source in that last post if you missed it
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/02/01/what-burns-more-calories-cardio-intervals-or-weight-training/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/421082-weights-vs-cardio-your-guide-to-the-perfect-body/

From the nerd fitness article:
"If time isn’t a factor for you, and you don’t mind spending more time in the gym on a daily basis, you can burn way more calories doing steady cardio than with just 30 minutes of weight training three days a week."

I think the advice OP gave in general is fairly good even if he is suffering from the standard "If it worked for me it will work for everyone so let me share my insights with the world" syndrome.

Personally I just tacked on "I found that for me personally...." onto each one of his statements and gave him the benefit of the doubt.

I linked the source in that last post if you missed it
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/02/01/what-burns-more-calories-cardio-intervals-or-weight-training/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/421082-weights-vs-cardio-your-guide-to-the-perfect-body/

From the nerd fitness article:
"If time isn’t a factor for you, and you don’t mind spending more time in the gym on a daily basis, you can burn way more calories doing steady cardio than with just 30 minutes of weight training three days a week."

That's absolutely true
But 30 minutes of cardio will burn less calories than 30 minutes of weight lifting

This isn't necessarily true. It would greatly depend on the intensity of either exercise.

I think people put too much science in all that. I grew up in Germany and when I was a kid I never got fat. And neither were my parents. Obesity was basically unknown. I was active a lot. Not by doing doing sports on a regular basis or going to a gym. I never even joined any sports team. I just did a lot of walking or riding my bike. We had no fast food place in the area and the first burger chain restaurant opened in the early 80s and was about 8 miles away. Most of the food was home cooked. And I mean cooked. Not fried. And some of the veggies even home grown.

Yes our society has changed and so have we. I became a couch potato as well and gained lots of weight. Too much work, too much stress, not enough time here and there... In addition the move to the USA with the convenience where almost everything and sometimes only can be done by car and where food is available 24h a day and restaurant portions for 1 easily feed 2-3 did not help it either.
With a lot of common sense and a more healthy life style it is very easy to loose weight. Yes this sometimes requires more time.
- Spend some time to cook a healthy meal instead of take-out or a trip to the restaurant. It is fun too.
- Don't use the car for everything but get the bike out when you need to run to the store
- And when you use the car don't circle the parking lot to find the closest spot to the door. Park in the last row and WALK,
- Dump the heavy fried food for some more healthy stuff. E.g. a salad vs fries for a side.
- Don't finish the plate just because they loaded it. Take part of it as to go and use it for lunch or dinner the next day
- Get away from the TV and take stroll through the neighborhood.
- Replace the unhealthy snacks with fruits, dump the white bread for multigrain, ....
- and and and....

I personally don't believe in rigorous diets but rather change my life style which can maintain with joy. I use MFP to get a rough track on what I eat. I am not a bean counter and don't count every calorie. Plus/Minus 200 calories I really don't care.
But I have changed my life style over the past 2 months and with a more watchful eye on what and how much I eat I easily lost over 20lb in 2 months now.
And as a a side note: I am a homebrewer and still have my daily dosage of homebrew... ;-)

4 5 and 6 are more for controlling hunger and preventing binge eating
As for weight lifting, it's been proven lifting heavy weights several times a week burns more calories than cardio due to the body expending energy rebuilding the muscle

Take my advice however you choose to

I think the advice OP gave in general is fairly good even if he is suffering from the standard "If it worked for me it will work for everyone so let me share my insights with the world" syndrome.

Personally I just tacked on "I found that for me personally...." onto each one of his statements and gave him the benefit of the doubt.

I linked the source in that last post if you missed it
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/02/01/what-burns-more-calories-cardio-intervals-or-weight-training/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/421082-weights-vs-cardio-your-guide-to-the-perfect-body/

From the nerd fitness article:
"If time isn’t a factor for you, and you don’t mind spending more time in the gym on a daily basis, you can burn way more calories doing steady cardio than with just 30 minutes of weight training three days a week."

That's absolutely true
But 30 minutes of cardio will burn less calories than 30 minutes of weight lifting

I would like to hear more about this. According to MFP, I only burn about 3 calories a minute when I lift, but my cardio burns range from 8 to 11.

MFP is amazing for counting calories with foods, but for exercising I've found it to be lacking. Try using Nike+ and see what that gives you for a simple run.

For the most accurate calculation of calories burned the best method is via HRM.

I think the advice OP gave in general is fairly good even if he is suffering from the standard "If it worked for me it will work for everyone so let me share my insights with the world" syndrome.

Personally I just tacked on "I found that for me personally...." onto each one of his statements and gave him the benefit of the doubt.

I linked the source in that last post if you missed it
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/02/01/what-burns-more-calories-cardio-intervals-or-weight-training/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/421082-weights-vs-cardio-your-guide-to-the-perfect-body/

From the nerd fitness article:
"If time isn’t a factor for you, and you don’t mind spending more time in the gym on a daily basis, you can burn way more calories doing steady cardio than with just 30 minutes of weight training three days a week."

That's absolutely true
But 30 minutes of cardio will burn less calories than 30 minutes of weight lifting

I would like to hear more about this. According to MFP, I only burn about 3 calories a minute when I lift, but my cardio burns range from 8 to 11.

MFP is amazing for counting calories with foods, but for exercising I've found it to be lacking. Try using Nike+ and see what that gives you for a simple run.

I have a BodyMedia which was generally step-in-step with MFP on cardio burns. I've recently started using my iPod Nano which has a fitness app (I think it's Nike+) and it's usually within 2-3 calories of what MFP and the BMF say. If I jog at 5 mph for half an hour, I will get credited with roughly 240 calories burned. Half an hour of weight training seems considerably less. I usually lift for an hour and MFP gives me 179 calories burned for that, so about 90 for a half hour...?