If you struggle to manage weight due obsessive food consumption you might find ideas here. I struggle as I’m tempted when not hungry. My mind ignores stomach signals and I slip into feasts. Being sugar and meat addict adds fuel too. It’s a psychological flaw.
I’ve gone through cycles of rapid weight loss (up to 20kg in 6 months), but issue was maintaining kgs afterwards. I had to consume only as much energy as body uses. But I never tracked it with precision.
2023 being chubby again I plunged in the intimidating world of calorie (cal) tracking and found ways to reduce urges.
Numbers and descriptions are approximate
Simplified, calories are unit of energy provided by nutrition (fat, salt, carbs, protein). Meals can be reduced to single number of cal per gram. Consume more calories than body uses -> excess is stored as fat -> you gain weight. Consume less -> body recovers rest from the fat -> you lose mass. Daily calories for male to maintain kgs are ~2500. 100g chocolate is 570 cal. 100g french fries is 350. 100g butter is 720.
Tracking cal for weight loss means setting a daily target of cal to eat, below body needs, and not breaching the goal. It is challenging at first. Requires cal calculation for each meal (get a scale). Grocery shopping devolves to buy/not decisions based on cal labels at back of packaged foods. Daily meals require planning to avoid blowing through target in one sitting and be hungry later.
But best thing vs other diets - there’s no restriction of what’s consumed, just how much. There’s no “avoid fatty meats or doughnuts”. It reduces cravings.
Workouts as lazy way to fight weight are not sufficient. 1h high intensity training burns 600 cal, [1]. My workouts burned 300 when I could consume 6k.
It’s important to track calories in written form (I use [3]). Forces you to admit failure when goal is not met. The ego doesn’t like it so it pressures to meet expectations or to recover next day.
There are low cal versions of meals. Try them. You might like the taste. I don’t and avoid anything “low cal”.
Once goal is to keep mass, main obstacle is days with lots of appetizers - parties, new year, restaurants… - it’s decision to weigh up or be miserable. I have set cal goal (2300) which causes me to lose little mass every day (up to a point) and on event days I feast without limit.
Be aware 1500 is the minimum cal intake for all male body functions to work. I didn’t know which functions would be impacted and played with 1300. And got a surprise. Couldn’t sleep 2 nights because my feet couldn’t warm up. And erections stopped. Had to revert back to 2500 and still took 3 weeks to be back to normal.
I’ve been tracking from 5 months and meeting goals. Though don’t have high hopes. As it’s a daily trial and I’m not sure how long persistence will last.
[1] www.calculator.net/calories-burned-calculator.html
[2] www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html - whole page is worth it
[3] www.loseit.com