[chris (OP)]

I decided to do a personal experiment - called a diet  - to see how hard it would be to lose some weight. Without making life too difficult I lost nearly 2 stone (that's 28 pounds, for American people, or 12.7 kilograms to keep the EU and metric-aficionados happy).

I worked on the premise that energy in = energy out; if that equation doesn't balance then weight will change.

My approach was to eat less overall, not eat junk full of sugar, front-load my day with protein, make my own lunchtime sandwich (so it wasn't crammed with butter or mayo), and also increase my exercise a bit.

I remain convinced that this obesity epidemic gripping the world is owing to the panoply of crap that we're being force-fed by having constantly on-the-go lifestyles. Unsurprisingly, we reach for the nearest convenient food when we're busy and for the biggest energy-boost when we're tired. Together they are a toxic combination.

What's been everyone else's experience?

[chris (OP)]

I liked - and identified with - this reply to this thread when it was circulated on Twitter:

The 'Change Your Job' diet, where not working crazy hours & in terror of toxic managers helped me lose more than 20kg.

[alancalverd]

Eat less. Never fails.

Exercise is not a very efficient way to lose weight. Most people can only manage to sustain about 100W mechanical output for an hour: 360 kilojoules = half a small Mars bar. If you have to spend more than an hour every day just burning calories in the gym, what is the point of your life?   

The UK population, at least, actually consumes fewer calories per capita than we did 70 years ago. The difference is that we don't get cold any more. My cohort's strongest memories of childhood tend to be  huddling round a coal fire, warming your pyjamas before rushing off to sleep under a pile of bankets, with your school uniform under the bedclothes to make the morning bearable. Compulsory games twice a week and around an hour every day in the playground (or in an unheated gymnasium if it was pouring with rain to the point that you couldn't see across the playground), unheated swimming pools, coats steaming on radiators, and up to 3 miles walking or cycling to school in all weathers (you got a bus pass above 3 miles, but the bus wasn't heated and you still had to spend half an hour waiting for it in the rain) meant we were burning about 2000 Calories a day just staying alive, so lunchtime stew, "stodge" and custard were essential to maintain consciousness until it was time to go home and play in the street.     

Being a softie, I raised my children in a centrally-heated house but never set the thermostat above 15°C for a treat and usually 12°, and encouraged them to spend time outdoors. They all became teenage eating machines, ate every kind of junk they fancied, and ended up as lean and fit as I wished I could be.

[chris (OP)]

Completely agree, Alan; a third of the day's calorie burn can go on just keeping warm... unless you work in my hospital, where even in summer I was shocked to find that the radiators are on in my office... so we've got aircon systems running to keep the conditions right for the lab analysers, and we're using those to burn energy throwing away heat that we burned money to produce into the sky... meanwhile, the population get larger, and unhealthier...

[Bored chemist]

Diets either:
Follow the laws of energy conservation or
Fail.

You have a choice; eat less or work more (or, of course, both).

[Colin2B]

I worked on the premise that energy in = energy out; if that equation doesn't balance then weight will change.

My approach was to eat less overall, not eat junk full of sugar, front-load my day with protein, make my own lunchtime sandwich (so it wasn't crammed with butter or mayo), and also increase my exercise a bit.....

What's been everyone else's experience?

I've never needed to diet as what I eat seems to match what I expend in energy. However, I have looked at quite a lot of the healthy eating advice for heart,stroke, diabetes prevention because of family history and have used it to modify my eating.

Increase in protein in your diet could be a useful way of increasing feeling of being full and hence reducing snacking. You might be interested in review of high protein diets for weight loss (Johnstone, 2012) showed evidence to support the use of high-protein, moderate-carbohydrate diets to achieve weight loss (e.g. 30% protein, 30% fat and 40% carbohydrate). Conclusion is that there is no ‘one diet fits all’ for achieving sustained weight loss, but a high-protein, moderate carbohydrate diet is a useful tool to achieve weight reduction. Alexandra M. Johnstone (University of Aberdeen) “Safety and efficacy of high-protein diets for weight loss”  Proceedings of the Nutrition Society (2012), 71, 339–349

[RD]

My cohort's strongest memories of childhood tend to be  huddling round a coal fire, warming your pyjamas before rushing off to sleep under a pile of bankets, with your school uniform under the bedclothes to make the morning bearable ... and up to 3 miles walking or cycling to school in all weathers

Sounds like you're from Yorkshire    ...

[alancalverd]

It was brass monkeys dahn the East End too, mate.

[Colin2B]

My cohort's strongest memories of childhood tend to be  huddling round a coal fire, warming your pyjamas before rushing off to sleep under a pile of bankets, with your school uniform under the bedclothes to make the morning bearable ... and up to 3 miles walking or cycling to school in all weathers

Sounds like you're from Yorkshire

I'm from further south than Yorkshire (just) but had the same experience as Alan except we had to wipe the frost off the inside of the windows. One year the goldfish bowl froze on the windowsill, goldfish survived when thawed out but swam on its side for about an hour before recovering - don't think its memory was that good afterwards

[alancalverd]

For what it's worth, I have used a very successful diet three times in the past. My wife used to get involved in a "sponsored slim" for some charity or other but every time she signed up for it, she turned out to be pregnant, so as it was all my fault (like everything else - the joy of marriage is that you always know who to blame!) I had to lose the weight for her.

My diet consisted of pickled herrings and salads. Plenty of vitamins and good protein, but it is almost impossible to eat more than two rollmops at a sitting - your mouth puckers! Weight loss was around 150 gram per day over 2 months.

Health warning: don't diet for fun unless you are physically fit and a bit hefty. I went from a 15 stone forward to a 13 stone  threequarter each time, and enjoyed the change of scenery, but if I'd been normal-to-skinny to begin with, I might not have survived.

I was pleased to learn that sumo wrestlers use a variant of the pickled herring diet. They build muscle with fish, vegetables, and running up mountains, and at the start of the contest season they bulk up by eating more fish and more vegetables.

[diverjohn]

I run marathons and compete in mud obstacle courses. Last year I lost 15 pounds and realized a noticeable improvement in my athletic performance. How did I do it? By reducing food intake and increasing exercise.
This year I'm more aware of the sins of refined food (white bread and sugar mostly) and the benefits of nutrient-dense foods (nuts, eggs, etc) so I may be able to achieve the happy place of having a full belly, a satisfied palate, and a trim body.

[kazbert]

As already mentioned, the energy balance equation is the foundation for any successful weight loss plan.  If you consume too many calories you can't lose weight. 

Simply stating that fact is insufficient.  The recidivism rate for weight loss is a staggering 95%.  There is a psychological component to weight loss that gets largely ignored because it is difficult to address.  If you can't control your eating, you can't lose weight and keep it off.  We have triggers for eating.  Those triggers must be addressed, especially if they can't be removed from your life. You have to learn how to face your eating triggers and not get triggered.

Losing weight and keeping the weight off are two different matters.  95% of us put the weight back on.  We get our eating under control and then later resume our old habit of uncontrolled eating.  It is difficult.  I usually instantly reject any advice that begins with "All you have to do is ...." I also place a higher value on advice from someone who has lost a lot of weight and kept it off versus someone who has never been more than 20 pounds (9 kg) overweight. 

And by "overweight" I mean the size of your waistline.  I don't care how much you weigh.  Your waistline doesn't lie.  If you're waist is more than two inches (5 cm) greater than your lean/fit waist measurement then you need to be honest with yourself and accept that you are increasing your risk for a variety of ailments.  You can "love your body as it is" when you are young, but when you pass 50 that attitude will bite you in the bum and you won't be able to undo all the damage that accumulated from when you were young.

I suggest looking into the USA's National Weight Control Regsistry (NWCR): http://www.nwcr.ws/research/ 

The NWCR maintains a registry of those amazing 5% who don't put the weight back on.   People who have lost at least 50 pounds (22.7 kg) and kept it off for at least five years are invited to fill out a questionnaire and then the NWCR mines the data for looking for common factors.   It's worth a look.
 

[healthguy1]

I decided to do a personal experiment - called a diet  - to see how hard it would be to lose some weight. Without making life too difficult I lost nearly 2 stone (that's 28 pounds, for American people, or 12.7 kilograms to keep the EU and metric-aficionados happy).

I worked on the premise that energy in = energy out; if that equation doesn't balance then weight will change.

My approach was to eat less overall, not eat junk full of sugar, front-load my day with protein, make my own lunchtime sandwich (so it wasn't crammed with butter or mayo), and also increase my exercise a bit.

I remain convinced that this obesity epidemic gripping the world is owing to the panoply of crap that we're being force-fed by having constantly on-the-go lifestyles. Unsurprisingly, we reach for the nearest convenient food when we're busy and for the biggest energy-boost when we're tired. Together they are a toxic combination.

What's been everyone else's experience?

You have to work hard. Take nutrition diet plan in order to burn your fats and to stay healthy. Losing weight is not an easy task. Best of luck for your journey. . Search for the sites with nutrition diet plan. Like [url "https://sanesolution.com/"]sane solutions[/url] you will get many sites with the perfect diet plan.