I fell over ,a reddit thread, that really caught my attention.
Someone asked “What was the ‘one thing’ that finally made the weight loss happen for you?”
And that question had 5,400 answers (and counting).
Some of the responses related to environmental changes or changing the way their food was prepared:
“I put snacks in small ramekins for us to eat. I suddenly ate a normal amount of snacks.”
“I prepared my meal the standard amount of food and instead of putting it in 2 containers, I spread it evenly in 4 containers. I forced myself to only eat 1 container per meal and tricked my brain into thinking it was my normal amount.”
Others changed what they ate:
“I found a salad that I really like. It sounds silly, but I’d never really craved a salad before, and having one I really liked meant I put together a few weeks of eating a lot of lettuce – it just snowballed from there, because I actually felt good, and then I started craving good.”
Some took a more holistic approach that involved reassessing their relationship to food, hunger and suffering:
“Realizing it’s a lifestyle change NOT a diet.”
“Embrace the suffering. Expect to be breathing hard and uncomfortable when doing cardio, expect to be sore after lifting, and expect to be hungry when you’re cutting back.”
Others used apps to track their calorie intake, which made them aware of how much they were eating:
“Using an app to track what I ate. I realized that a lot of the “healthy” things I was eating, in the amounts I was eating, had a lot more calories than I thought. Just cutting back on certain foods did the trick.”
And some succeeded thanks to the initial boost with drugs:
“I saw a doctor about my type 2 diabetes. I weighed over 300 pounds and also had coronary artery disease. I am qualified for diabetes medication which also helps with appetite control. I started tracking calories and exercising.”
“Semaglutide”
Some prioritized physical activity instead of focusing on food:
“Finding a hobby. I overate because I was bored. Coming home from work to sit on the couch would make it so much easier to eat like shit… now I just go and do something I enjoy so I’m not distracted by eating.”
“Walking. Confirmation I lost 45 lbs in 7 months walking every night in my neighborhood. It was free and low impact, I walked rain or shine even through snow storms. Now I have a treadmill and walk indoors but the feeling is still so great as it was in the beginning.’
As we go through this list, reading thousands of comments from people thinking about the “one thing” that changed their lives, and how different many of them are, we can draw some fascinating conclusions.
3 short lessons we can learn
LESSON 1: “Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill.
The hardest part of being healthy is not losing hope when some strategy you try doesn’t work. I bet every person who shared their answer above tried dozens of different strategies to try to get fit. Hell, I bet they tried most of the things that worked for other people until they found what worked. for them.
What can we learn from this: “Hope is the ,warrior emotion that destroys cynicism,,” and it’s okay to hope that every failed attempt means it’s one less strategy to try in the future.
For example, if you’ve tried Keto 5 times before and can’t stick with it, congratulations! You found the diet that doesn’t work for you.
If you can hold it ,“beta test” mentality., of “I’ll see if it works for me”, you may find the first domino to fall your travel!
LESSON 2: Beware of the Charlatan.
Spend enough time on social media and you will eventually come across health and wellness charlatans. These are the people who tell you they have it themselves a solution to all your problems. They often have a villain for all the evil in the world (“its sugar! It’s carbs! It’s ingredient X!”).
And sure enough, once they scare and terrify you, they will offer you hope with their expensive unregulated supplement or foolproof system.
As you can see in the examples above, there is no “one size fits all” solution to this material. Each person is a unique weirdo with different baggage and triggers, traumas and experiences that make certain solutions home and other solutions non-starters.
You can read more about how to spot and avoid charlatans in my previous essay here:,How not to go crazy on the internet,.”
Which brings me to the third point!
LESSON THREE: All fitness stories have 3 boring things in common!
While all of these “one thing” solutions to getting in shape are different, they all have some similarities.
The good news? None of these things are revolutionary, proprietary or fancy.
Settle down to literally 3 things:
- Eat the right number of calories for your desired weight
- Getting some form of physical movement
- Making these two things part of a lifelong lifestyle adjustment.
Weight loss is not magic. It’s math and behavior change.
As I cover in mine ,weight loss guide,science has come to this.
Any diet can work if it puts us in a caloric deficit. we have ,customer guidance, who are vegan, others who go Keto, others who count calories and others who do intermittent fasting.
Our ability to turn dietary changes into a lifestyle we can live with is how we find success and that looks different for everyone.
Speaking of lifestyle changes, most of the answers above also include finding ways to make exercise a regular part of life.
Remember: it’s okay if you don’t like exercise. We are not designed to love exercise! Especially if it’s an activity we don’t like! We are designed to survive in times of scarcity, NOT to thrive in times of unlimited abundance.
So how do we make exercise part of our lifestyle?
We have to find ways ,Make exercise fun, beneficial or necessary,:
- Fun: join a walking/running club with friends, try it ,accumulation of temptation,.
- Beneficial: falling in love ,gets stronger, and more confident and how much better you feel after exercise.
- Necessary: prepay for coach, park at end of car park, cycle to work.
Remember that hope is the emotion of the warrior.
We humans are incredibly adaptable creatures that can change.
Keep trying different strategies, watch out for charlatans and don’t forget the basics!
And very soon one day, you too could be sharing the first falling domino that changed things for you.
-Steve
###
