How I Lost 76 Pounds at Age 59 and Changed My Life | Hacker News Reader

How I Lost 76 Pounds at Age 59 and Changed My Life

twitter.com

32 pointsjamesgill19 comments

I went from 255 to 190 at age 50. No great change to my diet. I just eat less of what I was eating when I weighed 250. It didn't change my life. I just weigh less.

Changing of life isn’t a unique separate phenomenon on its own, is it?

Things like weighing less, or weighing more, or having an acne, etc are what constitute a life change.

When someone says something changed their life it usually means it significantly changed how they live their life or the path their life has taken. This is certainly how the OP is using the term. My weight loss has done neither.

I’ve lost (and kept off for a few years) 20+ lbs a couple times in my life. Each time by rigorously logging calories and less rigorously doing strength training and running.

I’ve found myself again in a position where I want to lose about 20 lbs, but I find logging calories is such an unbelievable drag. It forces me to think about food all the time, meticulously breaking down every meal and putting it into an app. I think this ends up making me more hungry.

This time around I’m just trying to do common sense approaches to restricting calories: don’t snack in between meals or after dinner, skip breakfast 4/5 days a week, almost no alcohol. So far it’s been just as effective as logging calories but much more pleasant.

I made a very concerted effort to lose weight last year and it was such an overwhelming exercise in concentration. I did a lot of fasting and walking, fasts for 2 - 3 days once a week.

I looked and felt fantastic. But the mental energy required was too high for my workload.

I’m starting to focus on health and fitness again, basically going on a majority raw foods diet involving vegetable and fruit shakes.

I feel a lot better and a lot more energy, not really sure if I’m losing weight.

It was so much damn work to remember and focus and plan to stick on these diets while having super high workload and family.

I really liked how I felt and looked after dropping 35 lbs but was hard to stick on that approach.

I wish it was easier.

I lost 10kg in 60 days; I am in my mid 30s. Lots of walks, less calories (but slowly increasing towards my needed range), lots of greens and food tilted towards boiled, roasted, raw food; completely cutting of refined sugar, balancing carb intake, and greatly decreasing oil from life.

Felt good to again not have those belly, love handle, chest, cheek, under-chin, thigh fats after a 3 year gap of COVID years.

Then during new year holiday I was out for ~2 weeks and discipline fell somewhat (but not completely and I was anyway walking like crazy). Gained back 3 kgs and every bloody gram of these kgs came directly for the tummy and love handles. I mean it seemed body has a direct calorie pipe with outlets only around lower torso.

I think walk alone doesn’t cut it. Some muscle mass might help. Gyms don’t light me up sadly. Sports do. Gotta find if there’s one that builds muscle :/

Bicycling will get your legs absolutely shredded. Bouldering/rock climbing is really good whole body muscle conditioning.

For reference, every thousand steps burns about 40 Calories. So a 5km walk can be negated with a single donut.

Awesome work!

After college, I dropped from 300 to 185 (currently at 200 and trying to get to around 170 as a goal). I made a similar lifestyle change and found many of the same benefits!

To me, the mental and emotional benefits alone make losing weight worth the effort. The physical side is nice and the ability to lift heavy things comes in handy, but the mental side is what keeps me working.

More recently, I got a formal diagnosis of ADHD and learned that a lot of my struggle comes from a similar root. Meds allow me to be much more intentional with my snacking.

Went from 230 to 145 at age 60. Cut out meat and alcohol and sugar. The pounds fell off. You're welcome to keto. I like food.

Meat is food :)

So are plenty of other things that a keto diet restricts. Not saying I gave it up completely; just not eating a pound of New York strip at a meal with everything that goes with it. It's amazing how much less you want to eat when you start eating less.

Edit: Don't get me wrong, whatever gets the lard off one's ass is a good thing. Whatever works for you is what's important.

Wasn't quite as good at 235->190, but my program was about as simple: Eat and drink less, less meat in the mix, keep no snacks at home, a couple vegan days each week, and get on the bike more.

Of course this depends on where you find where the lines cross, for me: 40+ minutes a day on the bike means progress, anything less is maintenance at best.

Congrats, OP! What a great change. Out of curiousity, how did your relationship with food change? Also, did you have anyone in your life that supported you along your way? What was most helpful?

Thanks. That's a very good question. Lots to say, but the most practical change was: switching from carbs to fat for energy makes me far less hungry. This is common, because the rollercoaster ride of insulin levels/blood sugar on a carb-heavy diet make it more difficult to eat less.

For example: some days I have to make myself eat, because I just don't feel hungry. Fasting also plays a role here; with more satiating, high-fat/protein food, my body just wants less food.

My family was supportive, but not participative. The most helpful thing was to simply start very small and having daily habits and 'go to' foods.

I can confirm that intermittent fasting does work. I guess the cave men weren’t eating meat three times a day.

Phenomenal! Keep us updated!

tried the keto diet mainly out of curiosity over the summer. main issue was the "keto flu", the headaches and tiredness.

Same. It was hard for me, but eventually I adapted.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com