# My epiphany about eating and weight loss (pretty long) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** diet-weight-loss\ **Created:** [December 14, 2023, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-epiphany-about-eating-and-weight-loss-pretty-long/994596 "2023-12-14T06:15:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2023, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-epiphany-about-eating-and-weight-loss-pretty-long/994596/41 "2023-12-23T04:39:36Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Eat when you’re hungry. Don’t eat when you’re not hungry. But I’m ALWAYS hungry. So the first step for me is cutting out the huge meals and shrinking my stomach. And getting used to not grabbing a donut on my errands… > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > As for alternatives to calorie restriction, it is pretty difficult to lose more than a little weight through exercise alone, without also restricting calories. At least this has been my experience. A friend lost 50 pounds. His comment: _“Muscles might be made in the gym, but ABS are made in the kitchen.”_ ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2023, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-epiphany-about-eating-and-weight-loss-pretty-long/994596/42 "2023-12-23T04:40:21Z")
> [@digs](#): > > But I’m ALWAYS hungry. It may be simple, but it’s not easy. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2023, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-epiphany-about-eating-and-weight-loss-pretty-long/994596/43 "2023-12-23T12:49:30Z")
'Zactly. Deciding that you _like_ that vague feeling of unease you’ve taken as a signal to eat your whole life is hard. But not too different from the person who takes up exercising and has to decide they _like_ that semi-stiff semi-sore feeling in their muscles. That feels like progress, like increasing health and vigor; not like a mistake to be avoided today and tomorrow. Some folks can make the mental transition and some cannot. Sadly, fat cells themselves get a vote and they are very efficient at secreting the chemicals that scream “feed me!!!”. They most truly sincerely do not want to die, and meanwhile your conscious goal is to kill them all. You have saboteurs on board your ship and they hate your health goals. And the more overweight you are, the more saboteurs you’re carrying. I found that consciously characterizing them as “saboteurs” helped. > [@digs](#): > > So the first step for me is cutting out the huge meals and shrinking my stomach. That is oh so true. If you’ve gotten used to giant meals then normal ones seem so skimpy. Your eyes and your stomach size both need to recalibrate downwards and that’s not an instant process. Whether incrementalism or cold-turkey works better is a matter of personal psychology. For me cold-turkey wins every time. For you (any you)?? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2023, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-epiphany-about-eating-and-weight-loss-pretty-long/994596/44 "2023-12-23T15:35:53Z")
I quit caffeinated soda cold turkey last year, and it was a bit painful because of caffeine withdrawal. I really stuck to it, though. (Except occasional frozen Cokes, but I never intended to cut those out.) For a while I was drinking sparkling water instead, until I realized it was wreaking havoc with my guts. Lots of carbonation is not great for IBS. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2023, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-epiphany-about-eating-and-weight-loss-pretty-long/994596/45 "2023-12-23T16:10:36Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > fat cells … most truly sincerely do not want to die, and meanwhile your conscious goal is to kill them all. If I understand correctly, it takes years to starve a fat cell to death, mostly they just get smaller. On the other hand, it’s ridiculously easy to make new ones (once the existing ones are nice and fluffy). This is the main reason (I believe) that it’s so much better never to get fat, than to try to lose weight. I think this is what I would tell my 21-year-old self, if I could go back in time. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2023, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-epiphany-about-eating-and-weight-loss-pretty-long/994596/46 "2023-12-23T16:15:23Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > If I understand correctly, it takes years to starve a fat cell to death, mostly they just get smaller. On the other hand, it’s ridiculously easy to make new ones (once the existing ones are nice and fluffy). This is the main reason (I believe) that it’s so much better never to get fat, than to try to lose weight. I think this is what I would tell my 21-year-old self, if I could go back in time. I think this is generally true. Of course everybody’s metabolism is different, but we don’t have simple ways to measure that and a ounce of prevention will forestall the need for a pound of cure. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2023, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-epiphany-about-eating-and-weight-loss-pretty-long/994596/47 "2023-12-23T16:55:54Z")
Scientifically I agree w you both. Fat cells are good at shrinking but surviving. They _hate_ shrinking; they’d rather be fat and sassy, but they can shrink when you corner them badly enough. As you’ve said, actually killing them is quite hard. So avoiding growing them in the first place is the winning play. If only young us could / did absorb that message early enough. For motivational purposes I prefer to think of it as killing them. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2023, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-epiphany-about-eating-and-weight-loss-pretty-long/994596/48 "2023-12-23T19:17:11Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Where they get you is on the test strips. Which are in fact pretty magic chemical lab test thingies, so some amount of expense is realistic. But the test strips are ~$1.50 each. Some testers use cheaper test strips than others. Mine cost a whole lot less than that, also full retail. The tester was also one of the cheaper ones. All of this from my local indy pharmacy. My dieting epiphany was many years ago: going on weight loss diets was making me fatter and fatter – even though I was still eating less than before I started going on the diets. Once I quit dieting, I stabilized. I’m still fat, but at least I’m no longer ballooning further. YMMV. Paying attention to what one eats, and being active, are both important for health. > [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > the problem isn’t that we lack understanding of what a healthy diet consists of. It’s that we lack knowledge of how to get large numbers of people to get on and stay on said healthy diet. The best diet is however going to depend on the individual person and also on what work they’re doing (with some exceptions, I suspect a diet made up mostly of soda and cheese puffs wouldn’t be good for anybody.) There is no one diet that’s best for everybody. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > Deciding that you _like_ that vague feeling of unease you’ve taken as a signal to eat your whole life is hard. It ain’t “a vague feeling of unease”. Not by a long shot. The only time I eat at the point of “a vague feeling of unease” is when I’m about to go spend several hours doing something that precludes getting a meal. It’s a hollow aching feeling followed by a cramping ache, a bad mood, and increased clumsiness; and if further ignored dizziness and headache added in. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2023, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-epiphany-about-eating-and-weight-loss-pretty-long/994596/49 "2023-12-23T20:36:40Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > My dieting epiphany was many years ago: going on weight loss diets was making me fatter and fatter – even though I was still eating less than before I started going on the diets. Once I quit dieting, I stabilized. I’m still fat, but at least I’m no longer ballooning further. YMMV. Exactly this. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2023, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-epiphany-about-eating-and-weight-loss-pretty-long/994596/50 "2023-12-23T22:25:41Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > She is my best friend, she is a former bulemic who had binge eating disorder for most of her life, and she was recently diagnosed as diabetic. She told me that the medication has made it so that food is no longer rewarding to her. > > Horrified, I asked her, “Without food, how do you regulate your emotions?” > “I just have to feel them. It sucks.” > > In that moment I was able to see outside of myself a little and realize how deeply problematic my operating assumption was in that conversation. Of _course_ food is for regulating your emotions. What, you don’t expect me to actually feel what I’m feeling, do you? It was such an automatic reaction, but I was never really aware of it as acutely as I was in that moment. That’s interesting. I don’t think of food as regulating my emotions at all; except that if I’m overly hungry I get short tempered. Doesn’t seem to me to connect with any other emotion – except possibly, come to think of it, that if I feel utterly terrible emotionally I may be briefly less hungry. That effect doesn’t last long, however. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-epiphany-about-eating-and-weight-loss-pretty-long/994596.md?page=2)