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Comment by theshrike79 | Hacker News Reader

It's not just less or more food. Calorie density matters, as does taste.

Yes, one can lose weight by drinking some Soylent Green mush with the exact correct caloric count and macros for steady healthy weight loss.

You know what else that person will lose? All happiness and the will to live =)

Some people really are just "food is fuel" and don't care what stuff tastes like, others (like me) actually get enjoyment from eating food, different foods on every day.

This is why there isn't a one size fits all solution to weight loss. Even "calories in calories out" is a bit hazy, because not every single calorie in the food is consumed with 100% efficiency - it depends on your gut bacteria, which we know way too little about.

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Nah dude it really is as easy as eat less = lose weight. In all cases if you reduce your food consumption you will eventually weigh less this is thermodynamics 101. Nobody has to drink Soylent green mush or even just salads. Just eat less. And maybe go for a run here and there that helps too.

If bodys were thermodynamic engines. We aren't! We have hormones and steroids and various receptor sites we have the stomach to brain connection... That's how someone can be put on antipsychotic medication or certain bipolar medications and then end up gaining a whole bunch of weight without changing their diet. We aren't simple calorie and calorie out engine machines we are extremely complex.

Regardless of your disease, if someone else controls your food input and limits it the weight will go out.

No one will gain weight with 500G of plain bread and water 3x daily + supplements

No one's getting fat on cucumbers

Sure we aren't simple thermodynamic engines but we are thermodynamic engines.

Calorie counting works. If you input less energy than your body consumes, you WILL lose weight. If you disagree with basic physics like that then you're deliberately misunderstanding.

And sure, many factors affect the exact balance, but it remains true that reducing calorie intake will reduce your weight.

When people say "calorie counting doesn't work" they really mean "calorie counting is hard to stick to", which is fair.

Yea, that works.

But WHAT you eat is also significant for long term weight loss. Anyone can eat 1000cal deficit of only kale and unseasoned chicken breast. But nobody can do it for 40 years, which is needed for a lifestyle change.

And now we’re back to the psychology of things, the food needs to be balanced and tasty. Not just 100% healthy.

Also if two people eat the exact same amount of the exact same food, they get different amounts of calories from it. The body isn’t a 100% efficient engine, there are losses.

I agree. Some people don't realize how many calories some of the things they regularly consume have, though, and I think that's why many have trouble losing weight, which is why it's important to track your calorie consumption when trying to lose weight.

People have different gut/intestinal flora which affects the amount of calories digested from different foods.

There are actual studies on this:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10368799/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8291023/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7463616/

We all know that one person who can eat literally anything and is still fit and that one person who sees an ad for ice cream and gains 5 pounds (hyperbole of course). According to these studies it's the difference in gut microbiota that's the difference here.

Thanks for sharing; I hadn't known that there were studies that show that the microbiome affects weight gain in the body.

> We all know that one person who can eat literally anything and is still fit and that one person who sees an ad for ice cream and gains 5 pounds (hyperbole of course). According to these studies it's the difference in gut microbiota that's the difference here.

I know people who seem to eat the same amount of food but gain different amounts of weight from it, but I had always chalked it up to a combination of these factors: 1) bigger, taller people naturally burn more calories than shorter people even while sedentary; 2) people may do different amounts of activity (e.g., one person jogs 30 minutes daily and another doesn't); 3) you can't know if someone is actually eating the same food as someone else without observing all their caloric intake over an extended period of time, which only happens in scientific studies.

Now I know there are more factors. Thank you.

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