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Comment by ja30278 | Hacker News Reader

Exercise is wonderful, and (particularly strength training) can dramatically change how you look and feel. If you just want to lose weight though, just stop eating carbs.

It really is that simple. There are many ways to lose weight, but dropping sugar (in all it's forms) is the most straightforward. It's the closest thing to a 'weight hack' I've ever seen.

If you are currently overweight, just cut out carbs completely for 3 months..don't bother to count calories; don't fret about nonsense like whether your food is organic, or free range, or locally sourced. Just stop eating sugar. No rice, no potatoes, no bread, no sugared soft drinks, no pasta.

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Elimination diets work because people fail to replace the missing calories, not because there's something magical about the thing you choose to eliminate.

You can do this with colors of food, textures, anything that eliminates ~30-40% of the available food options.

Most of what's left if you eliminate high carb foods is either not calorically dense or hard to eat above maintenance calories. Going vegan limits a lot of choices while making overeating quite easy.

You couldn't be more wrong. You realize you can stock different foods in your house, right? Or buy different things at the store? You really think people go to the store on a wheat belly / LCFH (low carb high fat) diet and buy 30-40% less stuff?

I've lost over 10% body fat cutting the bread and carbs with NO exercise. Get a clue and either 1. try a no wheat / sugar / starch diet for just 2 weeks 2. read up on insulin, its causes and effects.

While we're on anecdotal evidence, I stay at a steady 155 (6 feet tall) eating pints of Ben and Jerry's and Krispy Kreme donuts fairly often.

There is indeed something magical about what you eliminate. By eliminating carbs you stabilize your blood sugar. Thats the magic. Sleep, drink water, don't eat (white) bread and its ilk. I lost 100 lbs in 2003 and 10 years later I have a very low body fat (low carbs and weight training). Body builders know their stuff.

The problem with the 'a calorie is a calorie' theory (which I used to subscribe to as well) is that is that your body doesn't burn food like a calorimeter. Different types of foods require very different amounts of energy to digest; some are only broken down with help from intestinal flora (or not at all)..while others are digested quickly and completely. Combine this with insulin's role in triggering fat storage, and you should be able to see that _what_ you eat, and not just how much, absolutely matters.

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