For the benefit of latecomers and CICO bros, my current equilibrium is "spend 1 month fasting / starving on 700 cal/day keto; spend 2 months eating enough to work during the day, going to bed hungry, and therefore gaining 1-2 lb/wk".
I don't need a weight-loss solution, kids. Starving 1 in 3 months already works to lose weight. I need a "have enough energy to work, without gaining 1-2lb/wk" solution.
Diets like the potato diet fail, not because they don't succeed in forcing me to eat less -- I do, indeed, end up with not enough room in my stomach to eat enough potatoes to work and not feel tired. The potato diet fails because it doesn't protect me from the consequences of starvation, the brainfog and the trembling hands. If I'm going to be too sick and exhausted to work, I might as well go full keto on 700cal/day and actually lose weight, rather than hanging around indefinitely in potato purgatory.
Semaglutide failed, tirzepatide failed, paleo diet failed, potato diet failed, honey diet failed, volume eating with huge salads failed, whipped cream diet failed, aerobic exercise failed, weight lifting with a personal trainer failed, thyroid medication failed, T3 thyroid medication failed, illegal drugs like clenbuterol have failed, phentermine failed (but can help make it easier to endure a bad day when I'm in my 600cal/day phase), mitochondrial renewal diets and medications failed, Shangri-La diet worked for me twice to effortlessly lose 25lb per session and then never worked for me again.
Next up is retatrutide + cagrilintide, and while I'm still titrating up the dose on that, it sure is not helping so far.
I am not interested in your diet advice unless you have evidence about something that works for people who have metabolic disorders that have resisted fairly extraordinary efforts. While pretty pessimistic about retatrutide at this point, I am trying it all because a poll claimed that it had worked for 75% of people on whom tirzepatide failed.
Your grandmother's dietary solution is not going to work, also I already tried it, also you have flatly failed at reading comprehension since you did not understand that my problem is not "How can I possibly eat less?" but "How can I be protected from the usual consequences to me of eating less, well enough for me to keep working?" And yes, I can eat less by an act of will, I eat 600cal/day for 1 in 3 months, even in the other 2 months I go to bed hungry instead of eating at nighttime, you are failing at reading comprehension if you think that this is about willpower. I just can't work at the same time as eating so little that I'm not gaining weight, which means that my hands are shaking and my brain is fogged.
Thank you and I will be following my usual practice of blocking reply guys who fail at reading comprehension.
This is a perfectly reasonable question. No one wants to be fat, so it follows that no highly competent individual will be fat.
Turns out, it's just a very difficult problem, and that degree of difficulty also varies greatly between people. It's far more difficult for certain individuals than for others.
No one really knows why, yet. If they did, we'd all be thin and healthy again.