No Diet Cites the Precise Foods Needed to Reduce Weight

That is an excellent video and shows how to eat very well while keeping calories down.

But I think it's your "calories in vs the calories out" point that gets to the crux of how to lose weight.

And points out the "Elephant in the Room" that few people want to acknowledge. That's why fad diets and medical interventions (chemical as well as surgical) end up being so popular because at the end of the day, losing weight is hard work and takes a lot of discipline. Not to say there are not medical issues that affect some people, but I would bet a lot of money that the calorie surplus is by far the biggest factor for most people struggling with this issue.

I feel blessed that my body has endured the years and still allows me to remain active enough to pretty much eat what I want. I like to eat and enjoy food with a hearty appetite. I endeavor to eat the kind of diet that our mothers told us to eat for millennia and that helps, but I do enjoy those occasional forays into the devil's den.

Diets should not be punishment, otherwise they are doomed to failure.

Agreed, apart from a few genuine cases of hormone imbalance etc, it's down to willpower. We're often told obesity is due to poverty, forcing people to eat junk food as they can't afford healthy. My tip to them is to eat the same food, but 2/3 of the amount. Then they'll have a chance of slimming, and save money as a bonus.

Anecdotally, when I was young (50+ years ago), poor people were not fat. Poor people can well afford to eat healthy given the money doled out on SNAP, food stamps, etc., but they choose to buy 'junk foods'. Several years ago, I stood in line at the register in a supermarket and watched a woman pay for her purchase with an EBT card that included a large percentage of premium cuts of beef that I cannot afford on my budget. That particular sound bite is just from folks who want to give away more of your/our money to other people. I'm ready for food assistance to go back to dry milk and government cheese in plain brown boxes.

Well I think the main problem is sugar in the diet...people get hooked on sugar it's very addictive, and sugar cravings, which I think over the years people have come to regard as hunger pangs...which they are not...that and the fact that sugar makes the food taste better, both contribute to overeating...a double edged sword...If you delete sugar from your diet, not an easy thing to do, you find you don't eat as much, and you have no 'hunger pangs'....after a brief period of withdrawal, your weight and blood sugar levels return to normal....you might miss the sugar high, but that can be replaced with exercise to release endorphins and dopamine in the brain...and your transformation is complete...

thanks for the information!

I like how this thread pushes back against generic “eat less, move more” advice — it’s true that a lot of diets float around without ever specifying what actually works for weight reduction. People want real guidance, not slogans, and the conversation here reflects that frustration with vague recommendations. When it comes to building habits, tools that make tracking and consistency easy can really help. For example, using one of the fasting apps for weight loss that’s free and intuitive takes the guesswork out of timing your eating window. I’ve been trying https://wellness-app.com/ and it’s been a surprisingly simple way to stay consistent without feeling overwhelmed by options.