0 sats \ 0 replies \ @0fje0 1 Mar \ on: Any advice to motivate me to lose some weight? health
Not all people get motivated by the same incentives. When it comes to losing weight, I've learnt this from personal experience. Which is to say: what worked for me hasn't worked for most of the people who've asked me how I did it. (And still do to this day 20+ years later, without becoming overweight again, as many people unfortunately do.)
At first - and I'm talking many years ago here - this caught me by surprise. Why would it not work for everyone when it so obviously worked for me?
Turns out I was just fortunate enough to stumble on to a piece of weight loss advice from a like-minded internet stranger at the exact right time that resonated with me - probably because we were in the same profession.
Of course, I didn't realize that at the time. It was only in retrospect that I put two and two together and concluded that this stranger and I were probably just motivated by similar incentives: engineering incentives, no less. Simple math. Not medical. Not health. Certainly not dietary.
So, what was this piece of advice? Remember, I already know that it doesn't work for many people. But I also know that it works for some - including myself.
Only three things (rules, if you like) to constantly keep in mind:
  1. You gain weight when you consume more energy than you expend. To loose weight, you need to expend more energy than you consume. There is no way around this. In the universe.
  2. You can't manage what you don't measure. Weigh yourself every day. At the same time. With the same (or no) clothes. Keep a record of every day's weight. Nowadays there are scores of apps that can do this for you, but doing it manually adds - in my opinion - more value to the exercise. (Oh, and make sure you have a good scale and don't use it for any other purpose. Readings on scales - especially cheaper models - have a tendency to vary quite a bit when moved around or used for different loads.)
  3. Nothing succeeds like success. Seeing results daily is a huge motivator for some people. Which is why daily is so important. You're much more likely (and able) to adjust your energy input and output on a daily basis rather than weekly, for example. For me, this is really the one that stands out.
To recap: I know this only works for certain types of people. And I don't know what type of person you are. But maybe, I'm that "internet stranger" today for you - or someone, somewhere...
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