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Comment by josefrichter | Hacker News Reader

I lost 30 kg. Crucial components:

ZERO cheating. Not a single beer. Not a single extra bite. Managed this for 3 months, losing 15 kg. Then occasional cheating for 6 months, losing 0 kg... Then managed once more for 3 months, lost another 15 kg. This is the hard part, I managed by introducing the following habits:

Same "default" meal every day. Chicken with broccoli, day in day out. It's not the best nutrition advice, but not having to think what to buy and what to cook is a huge factor.

Drinking a lot of water. 3 litres a day. I'd basically put two 1.5 liter bottles of water on my desk and made sure to drink all of it. Simple, effective.

Mindset shift. Told myself "I don't eat sweets" and "I don't drink alcohol" - sounds stupid, but very efficient to have preprogrammed reaction when facing a temptation.

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I've lost about the same amount but have since regained about 12kg and have been sitting about 7kg more than I would like for some time.

I've been asked what I did to lose weight but I really don't have a good answer for it. At a couple points in my life I've decided to take dieting very seriously. "ZERO cheating" works when you are serious. Other times I've started "seriously" and the eventual work party, birthday, vacation, etc throws me off and I lose motivation.

I wish I could tell someone what I did to make the mindset change necessary to diet seriously, but I can't figure it out myself.

I am in the same situation: Roughly at a time where I moved to a new house I decided to loose weight (133kg). In 2.5 years I lost 40kg, for 6 months I stayed in a plateau, then in the next year I regained 20. Since two years my weight is more or less stable.

Today I am, like you, not sure why I loose so much weight, why I had a plateau, then why my weight went up again.

On the 'default meal' thing, I actually find I become essentially physically unable to eat the same meal for more than a week. For important psychological reasons, I suggest changing up any 'default' meal on a weekly basis. If that's too much effort then, well, your chances of success are poor anyway.

Yes, exactly! Zero cheating and accurate measurements seem to be paramount. I'm glad for some of the others posters who could take a more lax approach and only eyeball stuff or vaguely count macro, but that didn't work for me at all.

This is why I wrote it's a journey.

It is indeed true that calorific deficit and accurate measurements is the best way to predictable weight loss.

But can you eat chicken and brocoli for the rest of your life? Can you do zero cheating and accurate measurements for ever? Is losing 15 kgrs in 3 months healthy? It is very easy to take the weight back and then some. There is a reason we have the term yo-yo dieting. :(

Food is sustainance, but also is enjoyment. Following a more lax approach where you ease into a better diet and keep enjoying food is a more sustainable long-term approach. Lose 15kgrs in one year instead of 3 months and magical things will happen. After 3 months of hard dieting you will probably reach for a chocolate during a crave. After 12 months of moderate dieting, you will reach for an apple and you will enjoy it as much as a chocolate. Reprogramming ourselves takes time.

Can you eat chicken + broccoli for the rest of your life? No you can't. But it teaches you to ditch all crap from your fridge and find good unprocessed stuff. Boy, who doesn't love a piece of steak with just grilled veggies, or a good roasted fish with just a nice salad? Why fill yourself with potatoes, rice, etc. if you can have good meat.

Is losing 15 kgrs in 3 months healthy? It's healthier than staying fat..

What’s your other food apart from the default meal?

breakfast: slice of rye bread with low-fat curd 1st snack: an apple lunch: chicken breast + broccoli 2nd snack: an apple dinner: chicken breast + broccoli

Of course I did sometimes eat something different. But having the default always readily available was paramount.

Btw broccoli is amazing - you cook it for exactly 3 and half minutes and you have half a kilo of warm healthy veggies that fills you for hours. I haven't found anything else that comes even close to broccoli "efficiency".

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