things you learn whilst researching health and weight loss

1. Almost all weight loss studies and for that matter, websites, are devoted to people who have quite a bit of weight to lose.

Ex. Common in tips for losing weight is shiz like: "Cut out soda from your diet",  "Substitute fruit for dessert", etc.  And then at the end of this list, I'm like: but I never had any of these horrible eating habits and yet I would still like to lose 5-10lbs thxxx.

Solution: Google 'how to lose the LAST ten pounds, etc.' and that will be mildly helpful.

2. No one really knows anything at all about nutrition, and yet people treat particular diets like religion.

Veganism seems to be the worst, probably because it is mostly about an ethical stance.  And yet, denying that there are some dangerous vitamin deficiencies on this diet seems pretty common... it doesn't seem rational, since the ethical stance does not require non-supplementation (as long as with non-animal-based products) or the belief that humans were not evolved to eat animals (this claim unsupported by evidence/research).  Raw food veganism seems largely, in the long run, unsustainable for 95% of people.  But it is not the worst by far, some flavors of paleo and low-carb also seem militant.  Reading about the perfect health of 'Grok' made my eyes roll.  However, there are reasonable people in all these competing camps....

Anyways, so any life-changing diet, I'd be skeptical of.

3. No one knows anything about nutrition, Part 2. USDA guidelines are pretty fucked by special interests and weak research, particularly the high requirements for grains. It is hard to find any large, comprehensive study without a significant number of confounding factors, or else something that could really be applied to one's diet without caveats.

4. Keep a food journal.  This is practically the only way to lose weight that is universally supported by scientific studies.

5. Again, medical/scientific studies usually study overweight people trying to lose weight, not average-sized people trying to lose weight. Its hard to say whether the difficulties or strategies are exactly the same for different situations.

6. Despite some studies being skeptical for exercise for weight loss, it pretty much works.  The key is to at least monitor your food intake so it doesn't increase to much after exercise.  If you eat enough to make up for the calorie deficit you've created by exercise then you've negated the weight loss effects.  This is a fairly common thing to happen. Cutting calories and exercising is the best way to lose weight.

You should basically exercise anyways. It is pretty much always good for you.  Except if you do crazy endurance sports, apparently.  Which sucks since I always wanted to run a marathon.