Ask HN: Most sustainable diet long term?

a balanced diet with energy input/ouput balance should be the default. avoid sugar and preprocessed food, drink enough water, exercise and you should be good to go. lost 30kg that way.

I think maybe intermittent fastening is okay, eating more mediterrain stuff... but for instance just eat twice from 12 to 8pm and then don't eat anything till the next day :-)

The null diet can be sustained indefinitely, which is longer than the competing metabolic diets.

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

The canonical advice, as someone already wrote is: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

I'd add:

- Eat mostly what your grand-grandparents would identify as food (e.g. no preprocessed stuff, no chips, etc).

- Don't eat constantly. Leave 14+ hours that you don't much (if you sleep 8 hours that's just 6-wake hours off of food).

- Don't eat refined sugars, wheat, etc. Whole grain is OK.

- Mediterranean diet has been proven good time and again. Go for more greens, fruit, olive oil, fish, legumes, scarce meat etc.

- Don't overdo it in any direction (too much protein, too much fat, too many carbs, etc).

- Don't tax your stomach with too much complicated meals to digest. Keep it simple but balanced.

- Drink enough water (not too much - 2 lt per day is fine, can do less if you eat fruits and watery food - tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, soups, etc)

Basically that. Easier said than done of course...

>Exercise is also important but i've been told that i cannot do weightlifting since i have neck hernia.

Maybe you can still lift small one-hand weights? Check with a doctor.

I think what a healthy diet is fairly individual-specific. I think there are probably general guidelines that are pretty good for most people, but the details depend on how different people metabolize different things, their taste preferences etc.

I think I feel the best eating vegetarian, whole grains, lots of fruits and vegetables, nuts and legumes, no restrictions on unsaturated fats but little or no saturated fats. I basically try to avoid processed foods, saturated fats, artificial colors, artificial flavorings, and preservatives, and meats (including fish). I try to avoid added sugars too but am not too strict about it, and don't have any restrictions on complex carbs. I've kind of done intermittent fasting before it was a "thing" and I do think that's been helpful/feel better with that at the right times, as has not eating after a certain time at night, and keeping breakfasts light or waiting a bit later.

It's worked for me but I think everyone's optimal diet is probably a bit different. I think in general you can't go wrong with whole grains and nuts, whole vegetables, and whole fruits. The rest of it is kind of tweaking for an individual.

I suggest downloading MyFitnessPal and just learning what different amounts of food look like calorie wise, then you can eat whatever you want as long as it's within your caloric goals.

As soon as you've reached your weight goal, you can switch to time restricted eating (aka intermittent fasting while circadian clock says "day") and just avoid sugary drinks/food and you'll (probably) be good.

The best two things you can do long term are to learn how to cook and to make friends who like playing sports regularly. Note neither of those two things require being in shape to start making progress.

Whole30 or Paleo.

No sugar. Read labels.

If you are just getting started I recommend trying the Whole30 plan. If you can power through for 30 days it really can change how you eat.

Simple, old-fashioned calorie counting worked for me. Eat less energy than you need each day, and your body will draw on fat reserves to make up the shortfall.

I used the NHS 6-week weight loss plan [0] as a general guide and inspiration, calculated my daily requirement in kcal based on a steady rate of weight loss, then used MyFitnessPal to track everything I ate and drank. The first few days are really hard work and frustrating, weighing out everything and checking nutritional values everywhere, though scanning barcodes in MFP does make that slightly easier and after a few days it becomes more natural and as a stats nerd it's very satisfying to achieve a day under the target calories and with the right balance of macros (protein/fat/carbs), and even more satisfying to watch the weight reducing as the weeks go by. Try not to lose more than 2kg/month, it's not too healthy or sustainable.

[0] https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/start-the-nhs-we...

One personal observation I can make about my own journey... there are foods that I never would have touched 10 years ago that today I find enjoyable and foods that have become more palatable and even decent over time.

I was never a “salad person”. Now there are several salads that I enjoy. I would never touch beans, now I recently found I can sub them for rice in some dishes and still enjoy it.

This is something that happened over years of trying to eat better. There are little things you may find hit more quickly but the macro stuff just takes time.

For example, cutting out soda completely for a month. Not even diet soda. Just find something else to drink, ideally which isn’t fizzy. It’s a relatively small ask as far as “diets” go. After a month or two, you may go back to taste a soda and wonder how the heck you ever liked it.

There are diets which focus on deprivation. And if you actively trying to cut fat then you will need to be in a deficit and you will feel hungry.

But there is also the long term “diet” of just trying to eat better and the good news is that the more you eat healthier foods (e.g. lower sugar) the more your palate will adapt and you will eventually find the sweeter things too sweet and the less sweet things more pleasing. Which makes the whole thing much more sustainable.

Forget all the fad diets. Eat sensible. Eat low glycemic foods. Eat smaller amounts, more frequently. You will feel full all day. AND, give yourself a cheat meal once a week to reward yourself!

The trick to weight loss is doing a variety of exercises that make you breathe heavy but not pushing your body too hard. You don't have to train like a pro athlete or do cross fit crap. Take your time. If you lose it slower there's more likelihood it becomes habit.

I think dieting follows an 80-20 rule where you can get 80% of the results with 20% of the effort required to get max results. Most people's issue is simply that they eat too many calorically dense foods, so they need to eat more calories to feel full. A lot of people fail at dieting because they recognize that they need to cut out calorically dense foods (e.g. potato chips, pastries) but then fail to replace them with less calorically dense foods, so they start feeling very hungry and go back to eating unhealthily.

So, I recommend following the typical advice of cutting out junk food and drinkable beverages (alcohol, soda, juice) but also to EAT MORE VEGETABLES. Vegetables are simply amazing, usually high in fiber, packed with micronutrients, low calorie, and they keep you full. Don't be afraid to add some butter/oil (in moderation!) and salt to them either.

Calorie counting can work, though I have a hard time keeping up with that long term. I tend to fall days behind and then just give up. It's yet another thing that I then "have" to do.

I started doing a diet similar to keto, but tried to keep things as simple as possible. ~25g of protein at every meal, < 100g of carbs per day. No carbs at dinner. Meal prepping can help big time with this. It also saved me a ton of money.

The fitness coach who helped me start my weight loss journey insisted that I stop thinking and calling it a diet. A diet implies something temporary, and what you're after is a lifestyle change. The mental aspect of "lifestyle change" has helped me a lot for whatever reason.

So far I'm 2 months in and down over 20 pounds, with very minute amounts of exercise. Weightlifting is great for building muscle, but isn't the end-all-be-all of exercise. Start as simple as possible. I go for a 30-45 min walk with my dog after I get home from work. And that's about it.

Best of luck on your journey, I've done a lot of different things professionally but being successful with changing my eating habits and lifestyle (even if it's been relatively short) has been one of the greatest things I've ever felt. It turned me from obese and cranky into slightly overweight and waking up with a smile.

A few generic tips:

- Don't think of it as a diet, do something that could theoretically sustainable for the rest of your life

- Learn about food and how it affects your body (that's an important knowledge investment, given you'll be eating for the rest of your life; nutrition is a complex field and studies are not super reliable, but you start to notice patterns with time)

- Try food replacement powders (or bars) to replace unhealthy meals with something more balanced (I use Huel but depending on geography)

- Eat enough proteins (how much depends on your goals and your body) - with some exercise, this will help you build muscle

- Sleep plenty

- Split your meals (and your proteins) across the day to avoid hunger

- Get a reliable scale and weight yourself at the same time every day

- Start with an online calculator (like iifym.com), try to eat that amount of calories for 2 weeks and monitor your weight

- Keep track of calories / proteins / fibres / sugar / saturated fat / salt in the food you're eating so as to reach your goals

- Do strength training to build muscle instead of tons of cardio (this will help you to build muscle, which will increase your metabolism) - I would still do some HIIT cardio for your heart's health

- When you reach a plateau and you're not losing weight anymore I'd recommend adding more cardio instead of cutting calories (mainly not to lower the amount of protein intake)

- Once you're happy with your body fat percentage I'd go back to strength training + little cardio.

On training:

Body-weight training is perfectly fine even if you can't lift weight (even though if you have health concerns you may want to consult your doctor, as body weight exercise can still be problematic).

This can be a good starting point: http://www.startbodyweight.com/p/start-bodyweight-basic-rout...

Once things get easy you can decide if you want to improve your endurance (by going for sets with high reps) or your strength (by going for sets with low reps and adding resistance - like weights).

My story (hoping you'll find something useful):

I recently lost 16kg from 84kg to 68kg over 4-5 months going from roughly 24% to 13% body fat. I may have lost some muscle but very little - my strength and my measurements seem to be increased.

What I do exactly on top of following the above tips:

- I'm on Huel 95% of the meals and "cheating" every once and then when I'm missing chewable food or for social eating (Huel helps because you know exactly how much you're eating)

- When eating food which isn't Huel I'm roughly calculating how many calories would that be and how many proteins - and then I'm adjusting my Huel meals or replacing some with protein powder

- I eat every 2 hours, 6 meals a day, from 10am to 8pm (fasting for 14 hours, which is something I've accidentally been doing all my life).

- For the first 3 months of my journey I did only strength training (push-ups, pull-ups, squats, various core exercises)

- In the last 2 months I added 1 hour of cardio per day as I wasn't losing weight anymore and I still wanted to burn more fat.

Future plans:

I plan to lose some more weight and then focus on building muscle + little cardio by going 200 calories over maintenance and cutting every once and then.

I already tried in the past to build muscle with 600 calories over maintenance and I definitely put too much fat on.

My workout regime is going to stay the same and I'll keep on eating mainly Huel (unless I create / find a tool which will help me create a diet as structured and precise as Huel and deliver the ingredients to my door).

Best of luck on your journey!

I'm not affiliated to any of the products / websites mentioned.

For me, the best I've been able to do over the last 6 years is this:

- No(or very low) sugar. This means not eating many fruits, although I incorporate raspberries a lot because they are fairly low sugar and high fiber, resulting in low net-carbs.

- Low carbs, and definitely no refined carbs. Having gone the no-carb route, I didn't feel great on it, but some people do. I think carbs are fine for replenishing glycogen stores. Otherwise, I just don't have enough energy to do weight lifting.

- Intermittently fast, although I haven't been doing this nearly enough for the last 6 months. This is a good reminder for me.

- Eat lots of good fats, but really don't overdo it to the point where your body gets pissed off. I love MCT oil and ghee.

- Similar to Tim Ferriss' diet, I usually budget for cheat days. I agree with his assessment that a cheat day a week just isn't enough to negatively impact one's diet, and an imperfect healthy diet that's maintained is better than a perfect healthy diet that someone can't maintain. Plus I will get sick of the junk food and really desire to eat healthy again. This is also good because I don't want to be that guy who can't socially eat with friends, so just accepting the cheat day as an option means I can have pizza and beer and not feel bad about it when I see my friends occasionally.

- Don't overdo the protein, but have some protein. You really don't need that much protein despite what marketers are trying to sell you on, even if you are building muscle(serious bodybuilding being an exception). Excess protein can be converted to glucose. However, you can go down the frequent protein shake route if you are doing tons of exercise a day. I lost tens of fat-pounds at one point drinking lots of whey protein while hiking 6+ miles a day. No, I didn't have a full-time job at the time. ;)

When I'm maintaining it, my diet basically combines attributes of Keto, Paleo, and Mediterranean. This way I'm not too restricted or bored of what I eat. Unfortunately, it's been nigh impossible to maintain during periods where I've made little money. With the Mediterranean portion, I generally skip the rice.

By the way, if anyone's looking for a healthy shake to have in the morning, this is the recipe for the one I make all the time:

- 1 cup unsweetened pea milk (70 cal, 4.5g fat, 0g net carbs, 8g protein) (NOTE: water is just fine, and often times I'll adjust closer to 1/2 cup for a thicker consistency)

- 1/2 cup frozen raspberries (45 cal, 0 fat, 6g net carbs, 1g protein)

- 1/2 cup frozen avocado (92 cal, 8.58g fat, 2g net carbs, 1g protein)

- 1 tbsp stevia or erythritol (You might have to do it to taste)

- 1 tbsp MCT oil (130 cal, 14g fat)

- 2 tbsp sunflower seed butter (210 cal, 19g fat, 1g net carbs, 5g protein) (Almond butter tastes better, but has a few more carbs and has less omega-6 if I remember correctly.)

- 1/2 tbsp ceylon cinnamon

- 2 large raw pasture-raised eggs (71.5 cal, 6g fat, 0.5g net carbs, 6.3g protein) (make sure they're pasture-raised since they're the most safe)

Blend that in a bullet blender, and you've got yourself a sweet and fulfilling snack to start your day. Sometimes I replace the raspberries with a second 1/2 cup of avocado, use cold-brew coffee instead of water or pea milk, and add 1 tbsp high-fat cocoa powder. I'm kind of lazy with my measurements on that one, so I can't guarantee it will work out the same for you. Also, definitely don't have too many of them in one day; excess avocado causes certain phenomena in my bowels, but I feel great with just one or two shakes a day.

Some months I go "eff it" because I'm focused on work and devolve into eating junk, but I usually soon go back to my healthy diet. I've effectively maintained my weight of ~160 lbs despite sometimes going weeks or a month failing the diet.

The most sustainable thing for me is the 50% rule: Roughly 50% by weight of your daily food intake should be unprocessed fruits and vegetables. There is no science behind this heuristic, but it's a way to a) make sure that you're eating more non-calorie-dense foods, and b) to force you to get creative in how you plan meals. There are undoubtedly more efficient ways, but it works for me because it's easy to stick to long-term.

The answer is a habit that works for you. Find healthy food that you enjoy, or at the very least you don't mind eating. Focus on building a good habit. Realize when you get cravings for unhealthy food and how to overcome them.

I'm also on a journey: https://twitter.com/charlehan/status/1117535352275648512

Intermittent fasting is, for the most part, just skipping breakfast. I do that in combination with a mostly low carb/high fat thing, but I'm not too strict with anything. I also don't track my calorie intake.

More importantly, I believe that cutting sugar is the key to weight loss and maintenance. I mostly drink water, black tea, and black coffee.

You should make sustainable changes that fit your lifestyle, not follow a diet trend.

I suggest to follow research-based advises. For example, there is Harvard Schoold of Public Health:

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you...

Follow a low glycemic diet. This means don't eat sugar at all, and eat very few refined carbs like flour. Don't worry about fats. The fellow who invented this method is Michel Montignac, and it became popular enough in Europe to affect the national food purchasing statistics in the Netherlands. It is very similar to the Mediterranean diet.

Counting calories is a pain, and most people won't stick with it. Instead, you have to change your diet forever and become accustomed to following it. To maintain weight, you may find that you have to follow a more strict diet once a year (no alcohol or starch) following the holidays.

I plan my diet around whatever vegetable is on sale that week. Then pair a protein with it and maybe a staple starch like lentils or quinoa. You can roast the veggies and protein in simple seasonings and make the starch in a rice cooker with some low sodium broth. Easy weeknight dinner in 30 minutes

--READ--

Reading all the comments on this thread is pretty funny.

I was a trainer for many years and the strategy (note that it’s a strategy rather than a diet) that was most successful takes years to complete with the goal of never doing too much at once.

Take the worst thing in your diet. Over the next few weeks, replace it with something slightly better. When your body starts accepting it, move on to the next worst food you consume on your list and repeat the process.

A year or two years down the road, you’ll notice that your entire diet has changed without much effort.

This process isn’t sexy and won’t solve any problems quickly. However, it is aimed at long term change.

As for working out...

To start off, just move around. it doesn't matter. After that starts becoming comfortable, use machines @ the gym that don't require any stabilization on your part--just push & pull. This is because you're not going to be strong. You should be focusing on major muscle groups and that's it when you start out--chest, back, legs. For a few months, just focus on getting your proper form down. Over these first three or so months of working out, even without putting on any further muscle mass, your strength will increase by 20%-30%.

Exercises to do: - Machine Chest Press: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlXTzUUR9AE

- Machine Pull Down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwJeh3QyhVE

- Machine Row: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNUztYbC0G0

- Machine Leg Press: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2KtIZn2vOc

How do you select the weight to use? - Pick something that you can't do more than 20 times the first set.

How many sets: - 3 sets should be good starting off.

How many reps should you do each set? - Up to 20, yet if your form breaks down, stop that set. - Your form is the primary goal at this point.

    0.5 c.    Cream
    1.5 c.    Milk
    0.5 c.    Sugar (or substitute; we use Splenda)
    1.0 pinch Salt
    0.5 tsp.  Vanilla
    Up to one cup of flavor

After watching the documentary Forks Over Knives and reading The China Study, I switched to a whole food plant based diet two years ago. The experimental, clinical, and epidemiological evidence convinced me of the danger of eating animal products. I dropped 20 pounds without even trying and my weight is stable. I walk for 20 minutes at lunch on weekdays. My cholesterol is under 150. I feel more energetic and my mood is slightly better. I occasionally eat animal products, for example when I eat at my mother’s house.