I spent most of my life obese. Since I lost over 100 pounds in the second half of the 2000s, I have been able to maintain it fairly well, very easily, and without any monetary cost. It all started for me with a free book:
“The Hacker’s Diet, notwithstanding its silly subtitle, is a serious book about how to lose weight and permanently maintain whatever weight you desire. It treats dieting and weight control from an engineering and management standpoint, and provides the tools and an understanding of why they work and how to use them that permit the reader to gain control of their own weight. The book is intended primarily for busy, successful engineers, programmers, and managers who have struggled unsuccessfully in the past to lose weight and avoid re-gaining it. Computer-based tools and experiments in Microsoft Excel or the Palm Computing Platform are available, as well as an online Web application, but a computer is not necessary to use the techniques described in the book; paper and pencil alternatives are provided.” – The Hacker’s Diet – http://goo.gl/tsnjph
TL:DR: We gain weight, in great part, because we do not know what we are eating or burning, and we do not know where to start to learn how to know these things. The book says many things, but among them are the ideas that if you drove your car without a gas tank gauge, you would have a very hard time knowing when to refill, and your body is the same. As a result, we often eat more than we need, which turns into stored fat. With gauges, we are able to assess whether we should be eating more fuel or not, whether we need to get more exercise, and whether we are done fueling for the day. This was an incredible revelation to me: the idea that I was essentially guessing at what I was eating, calorie wise, what I was burning, calorie wise, and how much I was supposed to be doing of both. Another incredible revelation for me was that I did not need to exercise to lose weight. If you are looking for a place to start to learn to lose weight, I can not possibly recommend this book any more strongly.
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