Ask HN: Any weird tips for weight loss?
Lift weights two or three times per week, and walk just barely enough to avoid being completely sedentary.  Nothing crazy, I&#x27;m talking about using the weight machines at a gym, and walking just ~8k steps per day with a pedometer watch to gamify it.<p>I&#x27;m a naturally obese person, and I&#x27;ve read a thousand of these threads over the years.  Nearly every comment is either:<p>* Telling you to &quot;hack your body&quot;, with keto or whatever the latest low-carb fad is called.  They are so adverse to exercise, that suggesting exercise seems offensive to them.  They emphasize that it&#x27;s entirely about diet.<p>or<p>* Telling you to &quot;just eat well and exercise&quot;.  Which is about as useful as telling drug addicts to &quot;just stop using drugs&quot;, and is usually more about the speaker smugly moralizing to feel superior.<p>There are two things that ARE really useful for obese people to hear, and that hardly anyone says:<p>1. Exercise <i>helps you eat well</i>.  When I was 100% sedentary, I had constant cravings for all kinds of junk.  And the portions that I ate at mealtime were double those of a normal person.  When I&#x27;m lifting weights (has to be lifting weights, I don&#x27;t see this benefit from cardio alone)... the cravings magically disappear and I have a normal appetite at mealtime.<p>2. It... takes... so... LITTLE!  You don&#x27;t have to go full ham, with extreme workout advice that you find in bodybuilding magazines and forums.  A 30 minute workout, two or three times a week is sufficient (i.e. hit 6 or 7 machines, for 3 sets each).  If you&#x27;re just trying to keep your hormones and appetite on a healthy track, then you don&#x27;t have to go &quot;to failure&quot; either.  Just enough to feel like a mild challenge.