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Comment by dbsmith83 | Hacker News Reader

I've lost significant weight twice (~20-25 lbs). Once was purely diet with very little exercise, and the other way was way more exercise, but less diet control.

The first way made me feel tired and light-headed, and not that great overall. The second way (high exercise, a little diet control) took longer, but also makes me feel 10 years younger and pretty much as healthy as I've ever been.

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My personal experience is that establishing a good exercise routine helps with the diet a lot. If you're pushing yourself fitness-wise, you start to notice the impact diet (and sleep) has on your performance and select for foods that won't make you miserable during your workout.

Yeah, working out regularly makes me think twice about ever drinking enough to get even a minor hangover. Plus, a good exercise routine inspires a good diet because after all that time and energy working out, who wants to mess it up?

Thank you! Though anecdotal, it is super helpful to learn about your experience like this.

For whatever is worth, I had similar experience. The thing, calories deficit means you are passive, tired, irritable, have problem to focus. So you are less effective at work too. How bad the irritability is for others I understood only when someone else was dieting and turned into someone constantly angry.

In addition, if you diet only, it is very easy to cause yourself annemia or other health issue. It happened to me and it actually affects life a lot. Most of sources talk about what you should not eat, but very little about how to recognize you are missing something or overdoing it.

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