I stumbled .a reddit thread. that really got my attention.
Someone asked “What was the ‘one thing’ that finally made weight loss work for you?”
And this question has had 5,400 answers (and counting).
Some of the answers involve environmental changes or changing how they prepare their food:
“Pour snacks into little ramekins to eat them. Suddenly I’m eating a normal amount of snacks.
“The meal prepared my typical amount of food and instead of putting it in 2 containers, I spread it evenly across 4 containers. I forced myself to eat only 1 container per meal and tricked my brain into thinking it was my normal amount “.
Others changed what they ate:
“I found a salad that I really liked. It sounds silly, but I’d never craved a salad before, and having one that I really liked meant that I strung together a few solid weeks of eating a lot of lettuce – it went from there, because I actually felt good and then the cravings started.
Some had a more holistic approach that involved reassessing their relationship with food, hunger and discomfort:
“Making it a lifestyle change NOT a diet.”
“Embrace the suffering. Expect to breathe hard and uncomfortable when you do cardio, expect to be sluggish after getting up, and expect to be hungry when you limit your intake.
Others used apps to track their calorie intake, which made them realize how much they were eating:
“Using an app to keep track of everything I ate. I realized a lot of the “healthy” things I was eating, in the amounts I ate, were much more caloric than I thought. Just reducing some foods did the trick” .
And some have succeeded thanks to an initial boost with medication:
“I saw a doctor about my type 2 diabetes. I weighed over 300 lbs and also had coronary artery disease. I qualified for diabetes medication which also helps control appetite. Started tracking calories and exercise.”
“Semaglutide”
Some prioritize physical activity instead of focusing on food:
“Find a hobby. I used to binge because I was bored. Coming home from work to sit on the couch would make it much easier to eat like shit… now I just go and do something I like so I don’t find distraction in eating.
“Walking. Validation I lost 45lbs in 7 months just by walking every night around my neighborhood. It was free and low impact, I walked rain or shine even through snow storms. Now I have a treadmill and walk at home , but the feeling is still as good as it was in the beginning.
While looking at this list, reading thousands of comments from people who think about the “one thing” that changed their life, and how different many of them are, we can draw fascinating conclusions.
3 Short Lessons We Can Learn
LESSON 1: “Success goes from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill.
The hardest part of being healthy is no lose hope when a strategy you try doesn’t work. I bet for every person who shared their answer above, they tried dozens of different strategies to try and get in shape. Hell, I bet they tried most of the things that worked for other people until they found one that worked. for them
What we can learn from this: “Hope is a .the warrior emotion that destroys cynicism.“, and it’s good to have hope that every failed attempt means one less strategy to try in the future.
For example, if you’ve tried Keto 5 times before and couldn’t stick with it, congratulations! You have found the diet that does not work for you.
If you can hold that .“beta test” mentality.. of “I’ll see if it works for me,” you may just find the first domino to fall yours trip!
LESSON 2: Beware of the Charlatan.
Spend enough time on social media, and eventually you’ll encounter health and wellness quacks. These are the people who tell you that they only have the a single solution to all your problems. They often have a villain for all the bad things in the world (“its sugar! It’s carbs! It’s X ingredient!”).
And of course, once they’ve scared the crap out of you, they give you hope with their expensive unregulated supplement or foolproof system.
As you can see in the examples above, there is no “one size fits all” solution for this stuff. Every human is a unique stranger with different baggage and triggers and traumas and experiences that make certain solutions a homerun and other solutions will be a nonstarter.
You can read more about how to spot and avoid charlatans in my past essay here: “.How not to go crazy on the Internet..”
Which brings me to my third point!
LESSON THREE: All fitness stories have 3 boring things in common!
Although all of these “one thing” solutions to getting in shape are different, they all have a few similarities.
The good news? None of these things are revolutionary, proprietary or fancy.
Put literally 3 things into shape:
- Eating the correct number of calories for your goal weight
- Have some form of physical movement
- Doing these two things is part of a lifelong lifestyle adjustment.
Weight loss is not magic. It’s math and behavior change.
How to cover in my .weight loss guide.science is settled on it.
Any diet can work if you put yourself in a caloric deficit. We have .coaching clients. who are vegan, others who go Keto, some who count calories and others who do intermittent fasting.
Our ability to turn dietary changes into a lifestyle we can live is how we find success, and that looks different for everyone.
Speaking of lifestyle changes, most of the answers above also involve finding ways to make exercise a regular part of life.
Remember: it’s okay if you don’t like exercise. We are not designed to love exercise! Especially if it’s an activity we don’t like! We are designed to survive in times of scarcity, NOT to thrive in times of unlimited abundance.
So how do we make exercise part of our lifestyle?
We need to find ways to .make exercise fun, beneficial or necessary.: :
- Entertainment: join a walking/running club with friends, try it .bundling of temptation..
- Beneficial: to fall in love with .it becomes stronger. and more confident and how much better you feel after exercise.
- Required: pre-pay for a trainer, parking at the end of the parking lot, bike to work.
Remember that hope is the warrior’s emotion.
We humans are incredibly adaptable creatures who are capable of change.
Keep trying different strategies, watch out for charlatans, and don’t forget the basics!
And soon one day, you too might share the first falling domino that changed things for you.
– Steve
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