* Lose 30 pounds * Eat a strict carnivore / keto diet for a year * Get stronger * Be more flexible
I know what you’re thinking: It doesn’t cost much to eat healthy, go for walks, buy some running shoes. But these things never last for me.
I’m 47. Overweight (240lb), and I suffer from chronic digestive issues and inflammation. I’ve tried on and off for years everything under the sun but I just can’t stick with it. I run out of will power.
I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars to figure out what’s going on with my body and this is what I know:
- I need to eat strictly carnivore (or Keto Low FODMap) - I need to lose weight. - I want to get strong. - I need to stretch.
Whenever I try and do these things myself it works for a few weeks, and then I go back to old habits. I’m done trying the same thing over and over, and then failing. Instead of a stupid cyber truck I want to buy good health.
If you were me, and you could spend 50k to get healthy. How would you overcome these will power issues?
Looking for creative ideas please. I don’t want to die early, and don’t want the diabetes….etc. that’s coming down the pipeline if I continue this way.
I know you can't buy discipline. But can I kick start it somehow? How would you do it?
I've read all the books, tried all the apps, need something that's a higher level of intervention.
Side note: There might be a startup here. How many millionaires out there are happy to spend 100k for a high-touch, guaranteed upgrade to their health and well being?
How much longer do you actually need to work, or work full-time, for your values of 'need'?
Would $100K effectively 'buy' you more time off so you can spend more time on yourself without feeling like you need to always try to carve time out of your day for yourself?
I mention this because I tried my whole life to maintain a healthy weight, and was never super-successful until I retired. Then it's like a switch flipped, and taking care of myself became my job, and I enjoyed doing it. Now it's almost kind of spooky how long I've stably maintained the lowest weight I've been as an adult.
In my case, I think that direct effects of stress on cortisol levels, along with the placating psychological effects of overeating and eating unhealthy foods on my stress levels, made it harder for me to achieve my goals while I was working.
As a teacher, I make far less than 100k a year (far less!), but my health hack is that I bike to work every day, so at the very least, I get 5+ miles of exercise. I have the luxury of having bought a house just over 2.5 miles from campus, but it's part of the lifestyle I chose years ago.
1) Get therapy. There’s something wrong if you can’t stay reasonably healthy. Don’t have to be a nut just to take care of yourself.
2) Change your lifestyle. Move one mile or so from work and walk everyday. Preferably in a walkable neighborhood.
Standard advice, after the two above: Take stairs, eat vegetables, don’t eat late, have normal size dessert on Saturday evening only. Remove bad people from your life, etc.
I walk or cycle to work or run errands, it sucked for a month but after I got used to it, I was actually getting proper exercise (along with a 3x gym visit a week).
Food wise the EU is great, no HFCS, no glyphosate in the grain, very limited fillers, and food production leans towards minimal processing. Getting rid of HFCS and seed oils (cold pressed olive oil and ghee are my go-tos here) helped a ton.
I got fit through diet and exercise, and in the past that’s what I would have recommended. But now it’s 2024 and now there is are working diet miracle drugs. It’s expensive, but within your price range.
Maybe you could spend a maximum of 5k, and I would recommend that only for buying exercise equipment, and for other items like a nice road bike. Start exercising 30 minutes to 1 hour everyday
Start with a diet full of fresh fruits and vegetables and cut out sugary crap and oily, fried stuff. Cutting out or drastically minimizing meat might also help. You'll see huge changes in 30 days.
Most of us go hunting and foraging at the grocery store, which is not particularly challenging, and often stressful with all the colors and choices and exercising willpower to not buy the chocolate (I like chocolate); how might you shift your habits to get more of your food from the land and water? Is there a group of people practicing this that you could join up with?
All you really need to do in life is find sustenance, enough shelter from weather and predators, be part of a community, and maybe pass on your genes (not a need these days, but still a biological directive). My family of three lives a year off the money you're willing to put into this project- I challenge you to go big. I'd emphasize progress with a group of people for the mutual support. I'm excited for you!
Given your budget you can hire a trainer for every session. A good trainer won't just tell you what to do but will also help track that you're doing it. It's only a partial solution, but it's a start.
I'd also suggest tracking more bio metrics so you get a sense of progress before you see it in the mirror, which can take a while.
Some related reading from a few years ago -- A millionaire seeing how far they can get by throwing money at the problem: https://medium.com/hackernoon/im-32-and-spent-200k-on-biohac...
Take a friend or hire a trainer for support.
The first week or so will be hell, it gets better - you'll enjoy it by the end.
Plan for the weather, Tasmania in the summer (christmas time in the southern hemisphere), the walking tracks in the winter (no snow, it's the Australian mainland).
Many parts of the world have hiking trails of varying degrees of difficulty, long walks with packs and a commitment to finish are more immersive than intending to go to a gym. If there are track forums it might suit you to walk with a group.
I’m sure if you throw up some ads offering a free place to stay for a year and $75k, you’ll get a lot of applicants. Maybe also offer a 25k bonus at the end of the year if they get you to hit your goal, or hit the goal and maintain through the full year.
Itzler wrote a book about his experience called, “Living with a SEAL”. He lived when David Goggins (who you may have heard of). They’ve done some podcasts taking about it as well.
Do Wendler 5/3/1 4 days/week. Run couch to 5K 2 days per week.
Cook all your food. Eat 2500-2700 kcal per day. Eat whatever you want Sunday afternoon. Yes, this means food prep the night before and carry your food to work.
Weigh yourself every morning.
2 years. I went from 233 lbs to a jacked 183 lbs with abs. I was a C*O and had a small child and I was single.
Doesn’t cost $100K. If you need to spend $100K, hire a trainer to meet you every day at the gym (who agrees with this or any protocol). Buy food prepped food from any of a number of options.
Mind: 1. Do a 10-day Vipassana[1] to jump into meditation (this could take some time as they usually have a wait list). My belief is everything starts with the mind. This will help establish a foundational meditation practice (which in time will become your ultimate weapon against stress). Not to say one can ever be stress-free, but more along the lines that you will have tools to deal with it in a healthy manner. 2. See a therapist so that you can talk to someone about the struggles you have (using BetterHelp you could start this today). I don't think anyone is immune from stress. Stressors (like work, relationships, money, kids etc) can (for some people) show up as weight on the body as a defense mechanism. Talking to someone regularly may help with this.
Body: 1. Hire a sport nutrition person to come up with meals that work for you that take any food allergies into account. Sounds like you already found something that works for you. 2. Do blood work regularly (every 3 months) to track various health markers. 2. Hire someone to cook the meals from the nutritionist 3. Hire a personal trainer that can help keep you getting to the gym. The personal trainer can help come up with a program that will help you achieve your goals.
Consistency is more important that how much weight you can lift or how far you can walk.
It’s approximately 5000 calories per pound of weight that you want to lose. 30 pounds * 5000 calories = 150k calories to lose 30 pounds. That’s pretty close to $100k Pay yourself to count calories, $1 per calorie. Track everything. Every meal, every snack, everything you put into your body. Every week, add up the total calories consumed and subtract the total amount from your weekly “maintainence” calories. To calculate that, multiply your current body weight by 16 or 18, depending whether you exercised that day. For instance, if you weigh 200 pounds, you should eat about 3200-3600 calories daily to maintain that weight, closer to 3200 if you don’t exercise, 3600 if you do. Every week, pay yourself $1 for every calorie you burned, re-weigh yourself, and repeat.
No exercise needed, but that will definitely accelerate the process, but only so much. It took months to get you here, so expect to spend months to get you out.
- hire a chef or use meal service. I know of a few companies locally which deliver premade chicken, beef, etc in all different styles. This beats takeout!
- hire a personal trainer at a gym. You probably don't need to be too picky, just get started doing something! As you get more experience you can adjust.
Good luck!
I have a friend who tortured herself trying to stick to a keto/low-carb routine, even though she knew the slimmest she'd ever been was when she was eating rice cakes and egg whites (iirc - she wasn't that healthy, just was slender.)
Something happened in the early-mid 1970's. The results started to appear 1978 to 1980: the population's weight on the scales started ticking up. I've posted about this a few times recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39493758 All the interventions in the decades since 1980 haven't helped, because they don't address what changed circa ~1975-1977.
I recently found a newspaper article from 1981 that's basically a smoking flare gun. I'm certain it covers what set off the obesity epidemic in the mid- to late- 1970's: the removal of a protective factor in the food supply. The sources cited in that 1981 article were so proud of themselves. Not sharing until I figure out how to take credit. The clues are all out there, you just have to know what's important.
After addressing what happened in the mid-1970's, losing weight should be easier. There are still lots of details, and things that'll be specific to your own personal situation, but it shouldn't be so insurmountable.
I'd be happy to chat with you about 'weight'. I just added a firefox relay email to my profile. I'll check spam to make sure it goes through... I'll respond to anyone who writes with a picture of my note about the fatal defect of 'keto', and a basic strategy for humans to keep themselves from gorging at their meals.
I'm in excellent physical shape with visible abs. While I do have some genetic advantage in general it's as simple as walk a lot & go to the gym once( you read that right) a week.
That's all it takes. Just start walking. Doesn't matter the shoes, doesn't matter where.
I’m already $30K down in legal fees on top of it all.
The one bit of good news is that I lost 1/3 of my total body weight since Thanksgiving.
Every time I fail like this, it's because I tried to do too much too fast and it wasn't sustainable. If it's not sustainable, it's inevitable that you'll quit.
For me it's been a mistake to focus on the goal (i.e. don't focus on "lose 30 pounds"). Instead, establish exercise as a daily habit, regardless of the goal. Set aside the time to do it every day at the same time of day, a sustainable amount of time (not too much!). Ramp up slowly, don't injure yourself, don't get impatient, just do a little every day. Mentally commit to doing it for the rest of your life. Don't think of it as a thing you're doing for some other purpose, just think of it as part of your life that you must do every day.
It took a few years of weekend hikes before I was willing to make a commitment to walk a whole 1 hour every day -- and the only reason I did that was because I was going to do a multi-day high-altitude hike (EBC trek) and I knew from experience that if I didn't train for it then I'd probably not complete it. It was a decade before I moved on to other forms of exercise -- it's a very long process!
Someone else mentioned you should cook all your food. I agree, cooking your own meals is an amazing habit with some key benefits (not just nutrition). It provides instant gratification and also once it's established as a habit then you can use it as an exemplar for how to establish other daily habits.
Edit: By "exemplar" I mean that you need proof to yourself that a small gradual habit will eventually lead to the benefits you want from it. It's not easy to see the worth of delayed gratification that doesn't come to fruition within a few months. It requires "faith". Having gone through the process once will give you the proof you need to have faith that you can do it again.
Here’s the game-plan I’ve followed myself to lose 50lbs and turn my bloodwork from highly concerning to near textbook.
1. See a clinic or doc who will prescribe Mounjaro / Ozempic or the compound pharmacy versions (tirzepatide, semaglutide). This will take all the weight off with little effort. You’ll suffer nausea and other side effects but it’s reactive instead of proactive. Costs about $1k/month. No need for nutritionists or special meal plans at first (not a bad idea though!), you will restrict calories on your own. If you are reticent to take these drugs diabetes may force your hand later. For me it was either now with the option to stop, or later and quite likely forever.
2. See a TRT doc (if male) and make sure your hormones are “balanced”. Most will put you on the very high end of Testosterone range, and may give you HGH or other enhancements. Costs vary, but $500/month should cover everything. My T went from low for an elderly man (220) to the high end of a younger one (950). I also take HCG for aesthetics (ball size) and to maintain some natural production. My doc is willing to give me Deca, Anavar, and others to meet my goals, but I’m not trying to be Hollywood jacked or ripped so I pass.
3. Forget a regular gym membership, that’s too proactive. Go with regular 1-1 training sessions, starting slow with 3/week. FlexIt and other remote training services are great for motivation. You can roll out of bed and start. I’ve never skipped a remote session but in-person can be a chore. You don’t need fancy home equipment, and nothing at all to start. Costs about $40/session so $500/month. The more weight you lose the more energy you have and the easier it is to keep up with the exercise. I actually do some Apple Fitness classes now even for fun.
As for business opportunity, this is a market a ton of TRT / life extension clinics and concierge doctors are already serving.
That's what I would do, but I don't have any digestive issues, eat healthy already, and love the gym.
Figure out what is causing the chronic digestive issues and inflammation. Honestly, a strict carnivore diet sounds guaranteed to cause digestive issues. (The digestive system needs fiber.) An elimination diet to figure out what is causing the chronic digestive issues, with the help of a nutritionist and a doctor, would be a good place to start.
Consider what would actually make you do something, then pay that person to do it.
I still want to lose more though as I'm not where I should be for my height, so I'm going the medicated route.
If you're going to spend the money, do it on a trainer and do it often. You're talking a hollywood film prep training budget, that's probably how you should approach it to get to your target and then wean it back.
I talk about both of these because you can achieve the weight loss without spending the money, you just need to power through the first two weeks with strictly less than 20g carbs. At that point, you're probably golden (much like cutting nicotine or caffeine).
But if your goal is a transformation, your budget buys you accountability.
Easy to ditch a book or an app, not that easy to give up, futss around, etc when you deal face to face with a human being trying to keep you accountable.
You need a vision, a goal. A long term one. Ironman is perfect for that.
You practice 3 sports - and they are complimentary - you're unlikely to get injured.
It's achievable - yeah, I know that right now at 240lbs it probably doesn't seem like that, but the beauty is that anybody can do it. And once you register, you will have a strong incentive to prepare.
It will completely transform your self-esteem and the relation with your body and food.
PS. It doesn't cost 100k, but it's still expensive - registration, bike, maybe a coach - you're looking at 5-10k probably.
GLP1's are the future. The future is here. You don't need to struggle with weight anymore. The mircacle cure for insatiable hunger is here. You will never think about food again.
Hand on heart, the last few weeks i've been on a GLP1 has been the easiest time i've ever had "dieting". It doesn't even feel like a diet because I just don't give a shit about food.
I would also strongly recommend doing a sport that you enjoy whether it be basketball, volleyball, boxing, muay thai, etc. If you enjoy the sport and want to excel on it, you will need to be fit, and it'll give you extra motivation to lose weight if it'll help you become better at something you love doing.
Keto is hard to stick with and you tend to yoyo. Integrate exercise into your daily routine.. so get a job where you walk to work, or walk to the store or just walk. (Or move a lot of boxes) -- ask me how I know) but it was more about caloric intake than anything.
But more seriously ask your doctor about ozempic.
keto... kind of a different story, but incredibly hard to sustain. and why are you doing FODMap? do you have a diagnosed gut issue?
it sounds like you're just rattling off diet memes.
with 100k I'd hire someone to design meals and/or get some of the al a carte meals like hello fresh. i'd also pay for a nice gym and a personal trainer.
also a maid, or other cleaning services. outsource annoying or unfun tasks, and find ways to concentrate willpower / stay busy with things I want to do.
and then cutting back some work hours, like going on 2/3 schedule at work for a while. a lot of weight loss is about being able to tolerate not having the dopamine hit from food, and usually that means lowering stress elsewhere or outsourcing other tasks. a therapist or counseling might also help identify what's pushing you to eat or preventing you from forcing the discipline.
but honestly if you keep backsliding then you need to change your life. new job, or new house, or something else. throwing more money at the problem won't fix the habits cuz eventually the cash will run out but everything else will stay the same.
It's a cool device that allows you to track your body visually and easily understand how it progresses over time! Fits within your budget and I've found it to be super effective in tracking my body and getting a sense of how my body is changing.
I think your approach to “buying” health is all backwards but you can work with experienced professionals to help achieve your goal.
Best of luck cheers
Not a money or technology problem, likely a social one
1. Go to a running store and do a group 5k 2x a week; develop friendships; eventually move to the 10k level
2. Join a sports ball league (tennis?) for 2 nights a week
3. Workout to get better at the above
If you're interested in an accountability partner, feel free to reach out. I don't need to be paid, and if it works, maybe you can make a donation to a charity I support?
Here if you need me! Good luck either way. :)
Get an app like Macrofactor and a food scale for tracking food. Aim for losing 0.5-1% of your bodyweight per week.
Try to eat a gram of protein per cm of height.
Eat sufficient fiber from whole food sources however you can. At least 20g per day, if not 40g.
Try to get fat from healthy sources like polyunsaturated fats like from olive oil.
If will power is an issue and you have money to burn, just hire a personal chef to make all the food you eat according to the above constraints and eat nothing else.
Strength:
Get a copy of the third edition of Starting Strength to learn the basic barbell lifts. That'll cover the first 2-6 months of strength training. I'd recommend the Tactical Barbell books for more sustainable training after that.
Buy a power rack and weights (barbell and plates) and a bench from a company like Rogue (or check out Garage Gym Reviews for recommendations).
If you don't trust yourself to stick to a training habit, hire a coach who knows how to get any able-bodied adult male to deadlift 400+ lbs. A coach who doesn't know how is fundamentally incompetent.
Cardio:
Get a heart monitor like a Fitbit. Your goal is for all your cardio to get your heart in the 120 - 150 bpm range.
Start just going for walks. Listen to podcasts or something. Gradually increase the distance/duration over time until your walks are an hour or longer. Go for a walk at least 3x per week, up to more than 7x per week.
Or you could just buy a treadmill and put a TV in front of it and watch it while walking. Increase the pace or incline as needed to keep your heart rate in the right range. Maybe even have a rule in place that any passive consumption of video can only be done on the treadmill.
More info:
I'd strongly recommend binging the Barbell Medicine podcast for evidence-based recommendations that deeply investigate the benefits and limits of lifestyle changes for health.
If for any reason you can't sustain any of the above habits, just pay someone alarming amounts of money to keep you accountable. Like they should just show up to your house and work out with you or coach you.
I'd also strongly recommend some form of therapy if you're having trouble sticking to new behaviors that you recognize are beneficial and align with your values.
Personally I'd suggest moving to a new environment that is more conducive with your health goals.
Posting on the internet is easy. As is buying a book or downloading an app.
One might argue accountability is wanting.
- Go on a run every day. Start easy, ramp it up. - Go to the gym twice a week. Same as above. - Skip dinner while you're trying to lose weight.
The key is consistency, honestly. Just stick to it. Also use an app like Google Fit/Apple Health that gives you rings, since it's a good way to subconsciously motivate yourself.
The rest is nonsense. If you feel good and you have energy, when your body gets better from metabolic syndrome, everything else gets into place.
You don't need 100k to get better. Maybe spend half of it for a year of a live-in chef that can eliminate any kind of junk food temptation. No one would choose a Big Mac if they had someone to cook them really healthy and freshly cooked meals 2 times a day.
Evivo with 2'FL from Layer Origins, a synbiotic prebiotic for this strain. My code is EVIVO-1075 if you want 15% off. It's been successfully engrafted in adults [2] and improving acetate, lactate, and butyrate (byproducts of breaking down the HMO) seems to be correlated with better diabetes outcomes, less inflammation and potential appetite modulation [3]. Bifidobacteria have potential to be protective against T2D [4].
Akkermansia muciniphila with a Layer Origins Super Reds [5, 6]. It's a chicken and egg problem, but reduced Akkermansia muciniphila is associated with obesity and supplementation seems to improve metabolic disorder, but research is limited.
Omega-3 and more poly and mono unsaturated fats [7]. Omega-3 reduced all-cause and cause-specific mortality in diabetes patients [8]. I was vegetarian for a long time and avoided saturated fat, then started eating more when I got into Weston A. Price and started keto and continued to eat moderate fat when not doing a low carb diet. Long term, I've had issues with satiety and discipline even with keto, while a diet with grains helps me feel fuller longer. My sibling did 23 and me and found out they have variation on alleles associated with higher weight with increased saturated fat consumption, which has made me reconsider what kinds of fats I consume [9].
Inositol and COQ10 [10]. Peter Langsjoen, who pioneered the research on ubiquinol, has said he has the healthiest cardiology patients and attributed it to ubiquinol. You need a dose high enough to maintain a certain blood serum level and ubiquinol is water soluble where cheaper ubiquinone is less readily absorbed.
Gluten can be inflammatory for people, and I found this talk helpful for understanding more about leaky gut and dysfunction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evQAzGaW1JU. Emulsifiers have been shown to alter microbiota composition, so less processed foods is probably wise [11]. Dishwasher pods and rinse aids contain alcohol ethoxylates that can disrupt the microbiome but you can find ones that clean decently without them.
1. https://bnrc.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s42269-023-01...
2. https://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/pdfExtended/S1931-312...
3. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aao5774
4. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-39...
5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10310354/
6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4856456/
7. https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/13/6/1322
8. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00592-022-02003-w
9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4214897/
10. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5...
11. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150225132105.h...