u/AnonymousOtter9124

I'm a bit stuck in this loop. My goal weight is ~175 and I'm hovering at about 5 lbs above that. My history looks like this:

• Ad libitum low carb = first ~50 pounds lost
• CICO/portion control = last 40 pounds

Since this is one of the few places that actually understands how CICO works (i.e., calories in AFFECTS calories out), portion reduction has had the classic effects we all know:

• I have, indeed, lost weight
• But the amount I eat to maintain weight is laughably small now, due to metabolic adaptation

For reference, i'm 6 feet tall and about 182 lbs. to maintain my weight, calculators say I need "2500 calories." That feels inaccurate for me. I'm eating more like 1800-1900 calories to maybe get a pound a week of weight loss, and it feels to me that at 2500 I'd gain.

I've done a little Ray Peat style eating with the idea that I'm raising my metabolism (eating more carbs in the morning, almost like a half-ass honey diet), and it actually has helped me lose weight recently with slightly more than I'm accustomed to. Just not insane amounts. But I keep reducing my portion size bit by bit to maintain weight loss and, well, you know the effects.

How do I start building my metabolism again? I still want to lose ~6 pounds or so, but the downside is...

...and i hate to admit it...

...nothing does that for me as reliably as shrinking my portions.

I see all these people on Twitter talking about drinking 4000 calories of coke a day and losing weight or something and I Just ca'nt do that.

Please help. I'm a six foot tall man and all this portion control has me eating like a skinny Victoria Secret's model just to maintain. I should be eating 3-4k a day to maintain where I am, yet I eat 1800 (starvation levels, in some diets) and just feel normal.

Foods I do well with:

• Baked cheese (like parmesan crisps; super high in metabolism boosting calcium. a diet superfood, i'm convinced)
• All cheese really
• Fruits in the morning, lots of dates, prunes
• Eggs seem okay
• Diet soda really, really helps eliminate suffering due to portion control
• Dark chocolate, I eat a lot of it, but easy to go overboard (i'd love to eat more, but you konw...adaptive thermogenesis)
• Fiber wraps

Foods I do poorly with:

• Peanuts kill all weight loss and make me cold
• Not sure what else is getting in my way since it seems portion dependent mostly.

I've tried, and it didn't work:

• Almost all carb in the morning, with the idea of "Randle cycle" hacking (adding more fat actually helped, weirdly)
• Ad libitum low carb gave me the initial weight loss at my fattest, then simply stopped working like it did for /u/exfatloss, except then I started portion control and continued losing

I agree with the PUFA logic and am greatly trying to reduce my top source of PUFA which is probably pork.

I've done some weeks hwere I'm ad libitum with lots of cheese and little peanuts and those are the weeks I might still lose a pound. So cheese good, peanuts bad

In light of Sarah Shahi's recent comments on how attracted she was to James Gandolfini, I once again want to remind people about James Gandolfini's incredible performance on the show. People say "women were attracted to him because of power, money, whatever," and some of that is true.

But there's something about the charisma itself. Whenever I just decide to adopt a Gandolfini-as-Tony like presence (relaxed face, busting chops, generally feeling like the most powerful person in the room), things change.

• Instead of awkward hellos, you say stuff like "ohh there he is!" or "Hey, Missus Conte, come sta? How's the hip?"
• Instead of having nothing to say, you bust chops ("what's the matter, no openings in the post office?")
• Ordinary situations become more relaxing
• There's no real standard for "doing it right" because Tony gets rattled and frazzled all the time
• You drop the bystander effect and start taking action to right wrongs
• Talking to old people is less of a drag when you treat them like kids like this

Benefits:

• People treat you with more respect
• Women look your way even if you're fat balding and ugly
• You naturally care about their opinions less because you're adopting the manner of a sociopath, much like how smiling tends to put you in a good mood

Warnings:

• Panic attacks possible side effect
• Take as directed, do not go about in pity for yourself