Theorems

A list of personal theories I’ve developed over the years of going through apps, diets, and programs. Should work even when you’re mostly sedentary.

(note: mileage may vary)

• What to Eat: Prioritize satiating food that has as few calories as possible (e.g., fruits, vegetables, legumes).
  • If I go to a Mexican food place that serves burritos, I usually get the bowl. Ideally, I ask for no rice.
  • If I get it with the wrap, I don’t stuff it with rice. Why even stuff it with rice? You already get a load of carbs from the wrap alone!
• Restaurants
  • If you go to the restaurant, order the salad.
    • Ask for dressing on the side and only put a small amount of it on if your salad is too dry, otherwise.
  • Also, for restaurants (in the US, at least), most will give you the caloric equivalent of lunch and dinner in every meal.
    • For any meal, cut it in half as best as you can. Eat one half now, and ask to have the other half wrapped as take-home.
    • If they give you a big plate, ask for a smaller plate where you eat your actual meal.
    • If you’ve paid $20 for that meal, eating the other half tomorrow effectively makes it $10, so both your body and your wallet will thank you.
• Eating Unhealthy: Only go for unhealthy fattening foods on occasions. The fatter you are, the rarer those occasions should be.
  • Hint: If you wonder whether you’re too fat to eat the Double Heart Stopper Burger three times a week, ask a close friend or loved one what they think.
• Nighttime: Avoid heavy (or any) eating during nighttime.
• Portions: Limit portions to small plates or bowls.
  • Tricks your mind into feeling full after one or two portions.
  • Even if you ask for seconds, your total intake would basically amount to around what you would’ve had with one bigger bowl.
  • If you’re in the habit of asking for seconds or thirds, drink a full bottle of water after your first portion, then ask yourself if you want to eat more.
• Bloating: To avoid bloating, limit salty foods and counteract any heavy salt intake with water and potassium-rich foods (e.g., banana, avocado, potato).
• Speaking of Water: Drink a lot of it. Have it close to you at all times, especially in environments where you tend to get hungry or start craving.
  • Try to go for plain or sparkling water. If your drink has calories, you have to treat that as a meal, depending on how many calories we’re talking about. At least 100 is a snack. If you’re still hungry after drinking it, avoid it in the future.
• Exercise: Do the easiest possible exercise (e.g., light walk) every day at a minimum.
• Sleep: Nothing makes you feel hungrier than being forced to do anything on less than 7-8 hours of sleep.
  • Lights off after 9 pm. Avoid light as much as possible during nighttime. If you must use your phone or computer after 9 pm, switch to dark mode and use Night Shift (or your device’s equivalent) to limit the blue light emanating from your screen.
  • Nevertheless, we all find ourselves in this situation. Some spend too much time doomscrolling at night. Others just wake up on the wrong side of the bed.
    • I have no easy solution for tired hunger, but know that if you binge one day, it’s not the end of the world.
• Calorie Tracking
  • When tracking for weight loss, it’s usually ideal to overestimate your calorie intake and underestimate your calorie burn.
  • This is because you don’t have 100% accurate information on either metric.
  • As you become leaner, you can afford to be laxer or even stop calorie tracking altogether.
• Fasting
  • Personally, I only recommend it on special occasions (sorry, Zero).
  • Then again, doing some degree of intermittent fasting may tweak your brain chemistry to be more long-term-oriented, so if you can’t help but eat everything in sight, and your average daily calories are over 2,500, give intermittent fasting a try.
• Genetics
  • Avoid ruminating on them.
  • The world is cruel and unfair. Some people seem to gain weight from thinking about a crumb; others eat everything in sight and stay lean.
  • If you feel like you fall closer to the former side, seek help from a medical professional.
  • Even if losing weight comes harder to you, you can be the one to break the cycle and build up those habits.
  • And if you end up having to undergo surgery, it would be better to have healthy eating and exercise habits so that you’re less likely to regain the weight the moment you leave the hospital.
  • Finally, you need to prove to yourself that it isn’t just because you’re lazy. Having great health habits can improve your mental health even when your body refuses to reflect your hard work and ideals.
• Seek Immediate Satisfaction
  • By that, I mean don’t measure your progress by metrics that take a long time to change.
  • The weight on your scale, along with how much you like your appearance in the mirror, will most likely be the same tomorrow as it is today.
  • Instead, look at metrics that change faster: how many reps can you lift, or can you lift heavier? How far can you run in under 15 minutes?
  • Sports are a goldmine for these faster-changing fitness metrics. Working on them shifts your focus from wanting to look good to wanting to get better at the game.
  • And because the win condition is a black-and-white binary, it’s easier to see your progress — over a more subjective metric, like how much you like your current appearance.
• Added Sugar Is The Devil: When scanning the nutrition label on snacks, cereal, etc., minimize the amount of added sugar you get as best you can. Added sugar makes you feel hungrier for more calories.
• Eating Disorders
  • I know that I make references to looking in the mirror, but for cases where you have eating disorders like Anorexia or Bulimia, I would suggest not relying on your lying eyes. Instead, put more stock in the analyses of trusted friends/family and medical professionals.
  • Also, for this situation, I would make an exception to the previous rule I made for calorie tracking. If you are suffering from an eating disorder, you would most likely over-underestimate your burn and over-overestimate your calorie intake, leading to you going longer without food than is healthy.
  • I’m not a medical professional, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I don’t think you should be using my app or any calorie tracker geared toward weight loss while suffering from these disorders.