Culture Is weight loss primarily about exercise or primarily about starving oneself?

L | A (Translated with ChatGPT)

When it comes to weight loss, it's often a matter of 'to each their own.' Indeed, some people say that adjusting your diet is key, as controlling calorie intake is crucial for losing weight. However, others believe that exercise is the true path to weight loss, as the sweat and relief after a workout make the body and mind feel relaxed.

For us, weight loss should be a comprehensive process. Not only should we reasonably control our diet, but we should also emphasize the supportive role of exercise. Balancing both, combining diet control with exercise, will better help burn calories and achieve weight loss goals. In short, eat a little less and exercise regularly—this is the real path to losing weight!

This topic has sparked a heated discussion among netizens.



"I do 16+8 (intermittent fasting), don’t drink beverages, don’t eat snacks, I even skip dinner and keep exercising, but I still haven’t lost any weight at all "

A small amount, right?



"It’s all about saving money. Outside of the three meals, I don’t eat anything except water. No snacks, no drinks, no fruit. Every night before bed, I’m always hungry."

Will I rebound if I eat snacks and fruit in the future?



"I feel that exercise isn’t very practical I haven't lost any weight for a month, and my mindset is a bit blown. Although it might be due to water retention and a slight change in dimensions, it's still easy to get discouraged."

Many people also can't stick to exercising.



"My husband and I have been exercising for three to four years, but I genuinely don’t like exercising. First of all, I have no athletic talent at all, and I can’t do any sport correctly. Secondly, no matter how much I practice, my stomach hasn’t changed at all, and I don’t feel any soreness. In this situation, why would I like exercising? I’d rather rely on starving myself."

No way! I feel like my stomach should change in a month.



"I haven't eaten rice for ten days. I generally eat corn, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and vegetables, along with skipping rope about 1,500 times a day, sometimes over 2,000. I've only lost 15 pounds

Don't you eat protein? This is obviously not right.



"When it comes to weight loss, just starving yourself to death will do—that's the hard truth."

"I haven't had a full meal in half a month. I really want to eat something!"

This kind of weight loss feels like there's no light in my eyes.



"Controlling diet = slow weight loss
Controlling diet + exercise = fast weight loss
Not controlling diet + exercise = fast-running fat person "

Insightful!

Weight loss is not merely a physical competition, nor is it a solo performance of hunger. Cherishing our health, we need to find a balanced path. Reasonable exercise, scientific dieting, and a customized weight loss plan are the way to go. Don’t let weight loss become a sacrifice in life; instead, let it be a bridge to a better life.

The purpose of losing weight is to enjoy life more joyfully, not to lose weight through asceticism. Choose a weight loss method that is both healthy and enjoyable, so we can reach our ideal weight while enjoying life!

 

[xX_rAcE_wAr_420_Xx]

People are bad with math, people are bad at understanding and intuiting numbers and relating things to each other. Show them that a tablespoon of peanut butter is the same calories as half a can of soda or a whole handful of veggies, show them one of these images:

Their brain will hurt, and they'll tell you that doesn't make sense. Nuts are healthy, snacking on them must be good, they're in trail mix!

Tell someone that they should be like 150 pounds and their jaw drops, they'd have to lose 100 pounds to do that! Explain yes, they're morbidly obese and they should lose the weight, and if they can follow a simple calorie tracking program they can lose a pound a week. They spend 20 seconds doing the math and go "that would take two years though!", tell them yeah well they spent 10+ years getting fat, they won't lose it overnight. Their brain just breaks, they cannot square it all and it's way easier to subscribe to the mental model that lots of people ~exist in bigger bodies~ and you're just a weird bigot.

 

[Iron Jaguar]

@xX_rAcE_wAr_420_Xx
Show them that a tablespoon of peanut butter is the same calories as half a can of soda or a whole handful of veggies, show them one of these images:
1729658247060.png
Their brain will hurt, and they'll tell you that doesn't make sense. Nuts are healthy, snacking on them must be good, they're in trail mix!

It wouldn't make any difference anyway. Weight loss is much less about the number of calories you eat than it is about the type of calories you eat. - If you eat 2000 calories of protein in a day, you will lose visceral fat. If you eat 2000 calories of carbohydrates of any kind, you probably won't.
But most people, including damn near all personal trainers, still do not understand this and subscribe to the Eat Less, Move More myth (then wonder why their clients keep quitting because they never see real results). You cannot outrun a poor diet.

 

[SBG]

People are liars or delusional. If you're jumping rope 2000 times a day and only eating 2000 calories max, you will lose weight. It is a foregone conclusion. Everyone I personally know who "just can't lose weight no matter what I do" drinks like 3000 surplus calories a week in Starbucks and/or alcohol. They're probably not even aware they're doing it because it's so routine.

I hate to use le thermodynamics argument because it's a pseudo-intellectual oversimplification, but the body cannot create mass from nothing. There's only so much you can blame on microplastics before it becomes painfully obvious that you're just lying.

You can’t out exercise a bad diet. A person can be lifting weights, running on a treadmill daily, and still be fat if they eat too much. This annoys people since they want to imagine if they’re active enough their body should work out fine and have them looking great, when in reality they still need to cut back to below their calorie needs for a while.

 

[Slimy Time]

More on the latter.

Unless you're a high level athlete who trains really hard, an extra thousand calories a day will make you fat. Moderate exercise that most people are capable of and willing to do will likely buy you just a few hundred calories - easily covered by a big Starbuck's order.

To add, if you are a high level athlete you probably don't even think about food, because that's done for you. All these top athletes have nutritionists who calculate what they need for the volume of training they do, and the recovery, as well as any other needs that have to be met (example - combat sports and cutting weight). The food part deals with itself if you are a pro.

Pretty much none of us have that luxury, have to decide how and what to eat to lose weight.