I came across it a reddit thread that really caught my attention.
Someone asked, “What was the ‘one thing’ that finally made weight loss work for you?”
And this question got 5,400 answers (and counting).
Some answers related to changes in the environment or the way they prepared their food:
“Pour snacks into small bowls to eat them. Suddenly I was eating a normal amount of snacks.”
“I prepared my usual amount of food and instead of putting it in two containers, I divided it evenly into four containers. I forced myself to eat just one bowl per meal and tricked my brain into thinking this was my normal amount.”
Others changed what they ate:
“I found a salad that I actually really like. Sounds stupid, but I’ve never craved a salad, and having one I really liked meant I ate a lot of lettuce for a few weeks. From then on it started to snowball because I felt really good and then started craving feeling. Good.”
Some took a more holistic approach, reevaluating their relationship with food, hunger and discomfort:
“Realize that it is a lifestyle change, NOT a diet.”
“Embrace the suffering. Expect to breathe hard and uncomfortable when you do cardio, expect to be sore after lifting, and expect to be hungry if you limit your intake.
Others used apps to track their calorie intake, which helped them realize how much they were eating:
“Using an app to track everything I ate. I realized that many “healthy” things I was eating, in the quantities I ate them, contained a lot more calories than I thought. Just eating less of certain foods was enough.”
And some succeeded thanks to an initial push with medication:
“Saw a doctor about my type 2 diabetes. I weighed over 300 pounds and also had coronary artery disease. I qualified for diabetes medication that also helps control appetite. Started tracking calories and exercising.”
“Semaglutide”
Some prioritized physical activity instead of focusing on food:
“Find a hobby. I was eating because I was bored. When I get home from work and sit on the couch, it makes it much easier to eat… now I just do something I enjoy so I won’t have any distractions while I’m eating.”
“Walking. Confirmation that I had lost 50 pounds in seven months just by walking around my neighborhood every night. It was free and low impact, I walked rain or shine, even through snow storms. Now I have a treadmill and I run indoors, but the feeling is still as great as it was in the beginning.”
Looking through this list and reading thousands of responses from people who think back to 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 the transition from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” -Winston Churchill.
The hardest part of getting healthy is… not Losing hope when a strategy you try doesn’t work. I bet every person who shared their answer above has tried dozens of different strategies to get fit. I bet they tried most things that worked for other people until they found the one that worked for them.
What we can learn from this: “Hope is the warrior emotion that destroys cynicism‘, and it’s okay to have the hope that each failed attempt means one less strategy to try in the future.
For example, if you’ve tried Keto five times before and you can’t stick with it, congratulations! You’ve found the diet that doesn’t work for you.
If you can keep that “beta test” mentality from “I’m going to see if it works for me”, you might just find the first domino you fall for your travel!
LESSON 2: Beware of the Charlatan.
Spend enough time on social media, and you’ll eventually come across health and wellness charlatans. These are the people who tell you they’re the only ones who have it one solution for all your problems. They often have a villain for all the evil in the world (“the sugar! It’s carbs! It’s X ingredient!”).
Sure enough, once they’ve stoked your fears and scared the hell out of you, they offer you hope with their expensive, unregulated supplement or foolproof system.
As you can see from the examples above, there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution for these types of issues. Every person is a unique weirdo with different baggage and triggers, traumas and experiences that make certain solutions a home run and other solutions a non-starter.
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 my third point!
LESSON THREE: All stories about getting fit have three boring similarities!
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.
Getting fit by literally 3 things:
- Eat the right number of calories for your goal weight
- Getting some form of physical exercise
- 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 my weight loss guidescience has looked into this.
Any diet can work, if it puts us in a calorie deficit. We have coaching clients who are vegan, some who use Keto, some who count calories and others who practice intermittent fasting.
Our ability to turn dietary changes into a lifestyle we can live with is how we achieve 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 that you don’t like exercise. We weren’t designed to like exercise! Especially if it’s an activity we don’t actually enjoy! We are designed to survive in times of scarcity, NOT to thrive in times of unlimited abundance.
So how can we make exercise part of our lifestyle?
We have to find ways to do that Make exercise fun, useful or necessary:
- Pleasure: join a walking/running club with friends, try it bundling temptation.
- Advantageous: fall in love with become stronger and more confident and how much better you feel after exercising.
- Necessary: pay in advance for a trainer, park at the end of the parking lot, cycle to work.
Remember that hope is the emotion of the warrior.
We humans are incredibly flexible beings capable of change.
Keep trying different strategies, beware of the charlatans and don’t forget the basics!
And soon, one day you too could share the first domino to fall that changes things for you.
-Steve
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