Ask HN: Food Addiction
I am in my second year of controlling my weight. Down ~30kg and I am in the healthy range now for more than 6 months. So far it seems to be sustainable. I am in a paid fitness (online) group and I have learned a lot, though it&#x27;s still up to me to find ways to fit into the requirements... Here are some random observations that seem to work for ME (might be different for you).<p>- Nothing &quot;extreme&quot; works for me, as it&#x27;s not sustainable for periods longer than a few months. I did keto... works for some time, then a total rebound. In the end it seems that a &quot;balanced diet&quot; works. For me (and my training regimen) this means 150g protein, 180g carbs and 50g fat per day.<p>- While you are cutting, you have to weigh everything you eat. There is no good way around this as you cannot control what you don&#x27;t know and you can&#x27;t know how much you eat unless you measure it.<p>- It&#x27;s perfectly fine to eat completely uniform food every day for some months. For the first months, for me it was chicken breast, raw cabbage, peaches, cheese and the occasional high-protein pudding. This puts the dopamine under control, as you (or at least me) get trained to not expect anything &quot;special&quot;, ever. After some months I was able to start varying a bit, while still staying 100% within my macros (no more and no less of each macronutrient). After some time I stopped weighing the veggies I eat and now I eat all of them (like broccoli, kale, turnips, tomatoes, cucumbers, salads etc.). I eat all kinds of meat and seafood. Mostly never eat any vegetable oil, as meat and cheese provides the needed quantities.<p>- Yeah, what I described above is almost exactly the same as your described &quot;quitting food&quot;, just it&#x27;s &quot;healthy&quot;, as you consume enough fibre. Yeah, do supplement with some multivitamins.<p>- You have to cook, no way around it. But it&#x27;s not as frightening as it sounds. Once you accept bland (and uniform) food... it&#x27;s easy. Buy an Instant Pot and start prepping the meat there. 2 kilos of chicken breast under pressure for 10 minutes will last you a week.<p>- Always have your &quot;correct&quot; food handy, so that you don&#x27;t need to eat something else, or think what to eat. (yeah, buy the instant pot).<p>- Throw away all the &quot;junk&quot; food you own and never buy any.<p>- If you are out and you are not able to eat your &quot;right&quot; food, just fast and eat at home whenever that is. Yeah, I get it it might not be possible for everyone, but it&#x27;s possible for me.<p>- Don&#x27;t do this initially (the first months), but later... everything is allowed if you do not exceed your macros. French fries? Alright, you can have that now and then. Pizza? Sure thing, I am having a slice or two almost every week. But never exceed macros.<p>- Artificial sweeteners are your friend when you are in a crisis. (Ab)use them as much as you want and you are still better than being fat (or having bad lab readings as you mentioned).<p>- If you are still hungry, always have cabbage&#x2F;kale&#x2F;etc. handy. You can eat as much as you want in raw form (and in several months you will start to like it, I promise).<p>- Fasting is mostly not a great idea as it doesn&#x27;t help you learn how&#x2F;what to eat and how to control your cravings. After lots of experimentation with it, I arrived at 3 meals a day with carbs early in the day. Breakfast in the morning, then lunch, then a light dinner around 4 and no food afterwards. Yeah, if you are a social person it will suck. But I guess you can find your own thing... but don&#x27;t be afraid to experiment and don&#x27;t have prejudices. I always thought that having breakfast is not my thing (or a good idea) despite the overwhelming evidence for the contrary. Yeah, there are actually studies that show that it&#x27;s beneficiary to eat early in the day, opposed to late. But if your body is broken you will need time to arrive to this.<p>- Despite the previous point, initially do whatever works. At least for several months. Then what works will change. Do not be afraid to follow along.