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The story
“Run and you’ll lose weight.” “Lift weights and you’ll lose weight.” “Just stop eating rice.” — a three-way diet debate broke out on 5ch. One user pointed out that even with a reduced basal metabolic rate, adult men still need at least 1,500 kcal a day, only to be countered by someone claiming their weight didn’t budge for a week even after cutting down to 1,000 kcal a day. Success stories varied wildly too — one person lost 28kg through diet alone, another dropped 20kg just by cutting rice. The thread seemed to drift toward the simple conclusion that “burn more calories than you take in” is all that matters, but opinions stayed split to the very end over whether lifting weights is actually essential.
What people said
Because I want to eat, that's why
You're the one stuck in the Heisei era
No matter how much your basal metabolism drops, an adult man still needs 1,500 kcal a day — go below that and you'll lose weight
I tried cutting down to 1,000 kcal a day as a test and my weight didn't move for about a week
No way that's true
That's physically impossible
Are you asleep all day or something
There's no way you went a full week at 1,000 kcal with zero change — you're probably eating without realizing it
More precisely, you won't lose weight unless you cut how much you eat
If you eat normally and just work out, you'll just end up a muscle-bound blob
Why do you hate muscle so much?
That's just unhealthy
That's not losing weight, that's wasting away
People who actually need to diet in the first place don't waste away
First just cut your food and drop some fat
If you're carrying way too much weight, even exercise is inefficient
I don't want to get ripped, but somehow the diet conversation always turns into a conversation about muscle
"Low-carb wastes your muscle," "cardio eats away your muscle" — I don't want to hear about muscle, I just want to lose weight
If you just stop eating, you'll lose muscle too, so you can't dodge lifting forever
Unless you're fine staying at a high body fat percentage
If all you care about is the number on the scale and not how you end up looking, sure, you don't need to lift
But if you want to be healthy and look good, not just lighter, lifting is a must
I'm saying this as someone who lost 28kg with just diet and walking — no gym, no lifting — so this is the real deal
I've never done a single ab workout and I've still got a six-pack
Not eating is the ultimate truth
Lifting and having abs aren't really related, are they?
Depends on your starting body type, but for most people doing just that won't improve your body fat percentage — you just end up with a pot belly, classic "dad bod"
You don't need to get buff, but to actually tone up you can't avoid lifting
Your recovery is on a completely different level
It gives you energy so you can move more, and that's what actually makes you lose weight
You need carbs to burn fat in the first place
For digestion too, plus the fiber and nutrients — rice in the right amount is actually ideal for dieting
Keep it under 1,500 kcal a day and walk 10km daily, and you'll lose 20kg in a year, easy
At the end of the day, people who are fat are just eating too much. "I barely eat and I'm still fat" is always a lie — they're definitely downing high-calorie food or drinks somewhere
I noticed that if you cut fat, you can actually eat quite a bit and still stay under 2,000 kcal
Oil really is the enemy
There's no such thing as someone who runs consistently and is still fat
Nah, I joined a local soccer club back in first grade and ran an hour every day, and I still got chunky
Out of 40+ kids in my grade I was always a starter and fast, so people kept calling me the "fat kid who can still move"
No matter how much I ran, I never lost weight
Running training nearly wrecked my knees, so now I only swim
Source: me
Classic case of losing nothing but muscle mass
That explains literally everything
No need for all the fancy talk
Exactly right
Either eat less or move more
If the calorie math checks out, you'll lose weight, guaranteed
For reference I eat one meal a day
So true
Apparently recent research shows people tend to underestimate their own calorie intake, so it really just comes down to tracking that properly
Fat people's gut health is usually pretty bad anyway
When I was dieting I made a point of eating yogurt and natto every day
Once your gut's in good shape you start craving vegetables, and your diet naturally balances out
That's just overeating or snacking
If you're middle-aged, you probably need at least some minimal self-control just to maintain
Not impressive in the slightest
Your metabolism doesn't really change that much though
Background and key points of this debate
The basic principle of dieting — “burn more calories than you take in” — is widely supported by nutritional science, but what split the thread was the question of how to actually achieve that. Basal metabolic rate for adult men is generally put at around 1,500 kcal, yet there are reports of people seeing no change in weight even after sticking to extremely low calorie intake for a while. This is likely explained by the gap between that figure and the total energy expenditure needed to maintain body weight, plus people underestimating their self-reported intake (overlooked snacks, seasonings, and so on). Research has in fact shown that people tend to underestimate how much they actually eat. It’s also true that drastically cutting carbs like rice tends to produce quick weight loss, but much of that comes from a drop in muscle mass and water retention rather than actual fat loss — and that distinction is part of what fueled the disagreement in the thread.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “Dieter A: “Run and you’ll lose weight” / Dieter B: “Lift weights and you’ll lose weight” / C: “Stop eating rice”“.
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