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The Hacker's Diet Revisited
e4 writes "Remember the Slashdot article last summer on The Hacker's Diet? Well, it looks like John Walker finally gave up on maintaining his Excel spreadsheet tools. Instead, he's written a Palm-based implementation of his "Eat Watch" to make this stuff more convenient. But even if you're not ready to hack your own body (or if you don't have a Palm), the page is worth a look just to get some vintage anti-MS ranting, like 'that ever steepening spiral into the foul pit of intellectual corruption from the days of "386 Enhanced Mode" to the era of the talking paper clip.' "
I'm not surprised that 3500 calories/day didn't make you gain weight.
Big Mac - 560 calories. Popeye's fried chicken - 120-300 calories per piece. A large 2 topping pizza - 3500 calories? These kinds of foods aren't very filling and you can eat 2000+ calories/meal pretty easily. That's what happened to me.
Well from my experience as soon as I gave up smoking my weight shot up.
Also how old are you, you may get away with that lifestyle in your ealy twenties but I give good odds you will start to "grow" as you appraoch your thirties.
What is the logic behind caffeine xor citrus??
I mean genetically. I drink copious ammounts of alcohol and caffine. I smoke, I rarely excercise, I sleep too much. I also love eating. I'll spend hours in the kitchen just so I can enjoy some decent pastries.
But I'm a little over 6 feet and I cann't get my weight over 135 lb. Occasionally I'll spend a week or two exercising and that seems to raise my weight by the greatest amount. Since I haven't been to the gym in a few months I'm probably at around 125 right now.
People say I just have a high metabolism but I've always thought that it's because I'm a sino-european crossbread. Does anyone know if this larger gene pool could account for my general health dispite the abuses I put my body through?
I saw them when this was first posted, but didn't have a copy of Excel around. So I keep my weight log on... wait for it... a piece of paper!!!! Which works surprisingly well, since I'm personally not real good at working electronics at 7 AM when I wake up. Stepping on the scale and scrawling a number is about the best I can do. But for calculating the trend and seeing the pretty graphs, these programs are MUCH nicer.
I read the book after hearing about it last time on /.
:)
I'm 16kg's less and loving it
I highly reccomend it to anyone who's interested - I found that once you know what's going on, the actual loosing weight part is easy.
Last I checked, 7up and Sprite HAD caffeine...
Yeah, a lot of scrawny little weaklings like to tell themselves that.
IIRC they are suspiciously similar to the food points system used by diabetics. Not sure how the equation works on it, but thought I'd share that.
I also remember using some "superbulk-2000" type shake mix, and it was practically the same calorie and nutrition-wise as the GF's Slimfast.
Another testimonial here:
./, and I definately haven't followed it that carefully.
I've lost 35 pounds (from 175 to 140) since it was first posted on
At first, I was calculating calories, then I just got a feel for what constitutes a light day's eating. My original goal was 150 pounds, so I stopped dieting when I got there. Then, I decided to go down another 10 pounds, and then stopped there for a while. Then, over exams and the Christmas break (during which time I went on vacation), I gained back about 7 pounds. I've just got back down to 140.
When I was "actively" dieting (but definately not starving myself), I was losing about 1 pound every 1-2 days.
I'm now thinking I'll get down to 134 (I don't know why, but my weight was always the most stable at xx4), before I start really trying to replace some of that lost fat with muscle. I just started going to the gym...
That move, incidentally, was motivated by the exercise program, which is great too! It's not too time consuming, and it's pretty easy to advance. I don't know how much influence it has had over my appearance, but I'm certainly much stronger now, and have much better endurance.
I found the book very motivating. It takes a common-sense engineering approach to the problem, presenting a pretty easy solution. I'll take that over a screaming Richard Simmons any day!
Hmmm...could this be the reason to finally get a Palm?
what happened to the internet filtering article? It disappeared!
What exactly is Ephedrine, if you don't mind me asking?
What? what's differnet about Canadian Jolt?
Insulin rises in response to any carbohydrate intake. And even if insulin is at 'normal' levels, it's still present, and able to transport carbohydrate across cell membranes to replenish glycogen, if at a somewhat lower rate. Do you think that glycogen will decline to zero, if one never eats within 1/2 hour of exercise? Nope. Will you see more carbohydrate converted to glycogen if you chug sugar water right after exercise? Probably: insulin sensitivity is high due to exercise, and insulin levels are high due to the sugar. But glycogen levels can't rise indefinitely, either, so unusually elevated levels mean that your body will more readily use glycogen over fat next time you exercise, so you're still no better off in the long term.
An exercise program has to be tailored to the person.
I agree completely: the best exercise is the kind you'll do. I thought of including a paragraph to this effect in my original post, but thought it wasn't necessary, since a careful reading makes it clear that I wasn't criticizing low-intensity exercise, so much as the idiotic reasoning sometimes used in support of it.
IMHO, batroom scales are useless unless your are under 330 lbs. The ones I have used did not give accurate measurements (they were upto 10 pounds lower than my weight according to a balance scale) until my weight dropped to about 290.
I have found that some supplements like ECA (ACE) stacks and others can help lose weight as well. NOTE: For me ECA really works well if I exercise.
The real question is whether I'd rather be a person with a 42 waist or a thin jackass like you, who would try to discourage someone who's making definite progress. Enjoy your 30 inch waist, moron.
Seconded - and 170 lbs on a 6'4" frame is too thin. You are sacrificing muscle you should be carrying.
One word. Crank
Why not stay off soft drinks altogether?
I'm constantly amazed by the ability of Americans to obsess over questions like "Which brand of soft drink has less caffeine?" or "Which brand of chips has less fat?". If you want to lose weight, just stay off junk like this. And you wonder why a whole 1/3 of adult americans are obese.
Actually large amounts of caffeine and sugar make you thinner, not fatter.
People who are fat are consuming more than just cola and chips.
what about Crystal Pepsi a few years back, then? and what about that caffeinated spring water that is popping up now and then? and what about Red Bull ?? (If you've never had Red Bull, then you've never lived yet... the rules here in Canada seem to be inconsistent. I was surprised when the people at Bawls said they couldn't sell in Canada (this may have recently changed), but lately 7-11 here in Canada has been selling five or ten brands of guarana based soft drinks - XTC, RedDevil, etc. Head to your nearest Chinatown for RedBull or GoldBull (goldBull is actually a knockoff of RedBull, but is actually stronger - YMMV).
I just wanted to add that people losing >2 lbs per week are most likely losing weight *too fast*. Unless you are really very obese you should pace yourself at 1-2 lbs per week (or 1% of your body weight, if you happen to be very large). I have had some success following a diet that is somewhat inspired by this tho. I don't feel the need to weigh myself every day, it feels rather excessive to me. You don't need to weigh yourself that often to see results. Plus, water weight can make a *huge* difference in your weight for a given day (especially if you are female), so I don't put much stock in it.
If your gonna do than you might find it more reasonable to start munching speed, it replaces caffeine and your weight will drop..j/k
Yes, if you take ephedrine like a mo-ron, you're going to see bad effects. The best site for information to evaluate the safety of ephedrine is not a law firm that seems to specialize in liability suits against ephedrine manufacturers. You're going to see bad if you drink two gallons of strong coffee, too. I've been taking ACE for a little over tow months, with no negative side effects.
You're right. Most adult males are far stronger than I am. But that's what the martial arts are for right?
I started smoking about 5 years ago (about the same time I stopped training for martial arts)
I've tried quitting a couple of times but my record was about 2 months off. But my weight didn't seem to change.
I wish someone would write "A Hackers Guide to Beating Substance Abuse." I could use that.
Yes, if you take ephedrine like a mo-ron, you're going to see bad effects. The best site for information to evaluate the safety of ephedrine is not a law firm that seems to specialize in liability suits against ephedrine manufacturers. You're going to see bad things if you drink two gallons of strong coffee, too. I've been taking ACE for a little over tow months, with no negative side effects.
I saw a empty can of that lying in the street a couple months back, here in Lincoln Nebraska. I wondered if they still make the stuff.
Please put your diatribe-generating software away. It does not pass the Turing test. ;)
. I've been taking ACE for a little over tow months, with no negative side effects.
As long as you don't count double-posting and an inability to spell as "side effects".
Also be sure you don't do stupid things like focusing strictly on muscles visible in the mirror like the chest and shoulders, to the exclusion of 'hidden' ones like the back. Neglecting the back will fuck up your posture, and make you look worse (shoulders rounded forward) rather than better. My basic rule of thumb is that for the upper body, I should do one set of 'pulling' exercises for each set of 'pushing' exercises. Here's my basic workout, which I consider super-simple but also pretty well rounded:
Monday: front squats, overhead presses, chinups, side bends
Thursday: deadlifts, bench presses, bent-over rows, crunches
Some days I throw in additional work for calves or forearms, or arm isolation work. But if I go into the gym and get the first 4 exercises from one of the above done, I can take off and still feel that I've gotten in a decent workout. Takes about 30-45 minutes not counting warmup and stretching. Speed things up by supersetting the overhead presses / chins and bench presses / bent rows. This won't turn you into a competition weightlifter or bodybuilder, but in concert with a decent diet, it'll keep you far stronger and better looking than typing does.
I guess I should be more specific.. over 350# :) I'm close to 400#
"sugary foods like candy actually don't stay around in your mouth that long. " You've never eaten a butterfinger?
Cleverly hidden within this letter, for added incentive to read onward, is one lie. Not a lie of statistical or grammatical error, but a ludicrous falsehood at once so absurd as to strike the reader as an insult to human intelligence, and yet so blathering as to convince the reader that much of Mr. Screeching Weasel's success is due to the rest of us bending over backwards to assist him and to overlook his failings. Let me begin by saying that if Screeching Weasel wants to complain, he should have an argument. He shouldn't just throw out the word "unexceptionableness", for example, and expect us to be scared. Don't be fooled: The fact of the matter is that statements like, "His invectives are nothing shy of a slap in the face to all those who have fought and fallen in war for this country" accurately express the feelings of most of us here. Screeching Weasel seems incapable of understanding that it's irrelevant that my allegations are 100% true. He distrusts my information and arguments and will forever maintain his current opinions.
His whitewash of the issue offers no real analysis of the situation that resulted in his pathological accusations in the first place. To quote the prophet Isaiah, "Woe to ye who take us all on a completely reckless ride into the unknown". When I state that the comparison between Screeching Weasel and disingenuous dweebs is remarkable, I'm merely trying to give direction to a universal human development of culture, ethics, and morality. His foolhardy beliefs arose out of an unjust system only to spread more injustice in their wake, proving that there is no end to unrestrained favoritism. I unequivocally cannot emphasize enough how much I resent his morals. Next time, Screeching Weasel, you may want to check your facts correctly. Doubtlessly, I am appalled that I have cause to write this article. While he might not pooh-pooh the reams of solid evidence pointing to the existence and operation of a scary coterie of Dadaism per se, Screeching Weasel's musings are a spiritually destructive propaganda instrument aimed at our children.
I am not in any way placing the blame on Screeching Weasel for maladroit mystics who pooh-pooh the concerns of others. That notwithstanding, Screeching Weasel is still culpable for plotting to suppress people's instinct and intellect. While we all despair over his insufferable threats, we must also remember the principles that will guide our better behaviors and higher aspirations. In plain language, his cronies allege, after performing shoddy research and utilizing threadbare scholarship, that a number of their enemies are planning to manipulate public understanding of elitism.
However much Screeching Weasel may deny it, he has been, still is, and always will remain more prolix than stinking crackpots. If he wanted to, he could overthrow democratic political systems. He could misdirect our efforts into fighting each other rather than into understanding the nature and endurance of perverted revisionism. And he could confuse the catastrophic power of state fascism with the repression of an authoritarian government in our minds. We must not allow Screeching Weasel to do any of these. And what of it? Authority without wisdom is mere noise against the music of eternity. With this in mind, I must turn random, senseless violence into meaningful action. Judging by the generally corrupt nature of Screeching Weasel's lackeys, I can see that nothing would make Screeching Weasel happier than to see me sell my soul to the devil.
The "facts" he has often stated contain some serious distortions. Some are blatant; others are subtle. One of the most illiterate is his discussion of the most pathetic rabble-rousers you'll ever see. In order to solve the big problems with him, we must first understand these problems, and to understand them, we must compare, contrast, and identify the connections among different kinds of whiney sappy fanaticism. Screeching Weasel's henchmen are not, technically, fork-tongued freeloaders, but rather self-deceiving slanderers. I contend that there is a small -- yet not entirely insignificant -- difference.
What exactly is the principle that rationalizes Screeching Weasel's narrow-minded tracts? I don't know when nonrepresentationalism became chic, but if you spot a bumper sticker that reads, "Screeching Weasel throws the word "counterexpostulation" around as if it had the same meaning to everyone," you're probably looking at my car. How can he live with himself, knowing that what I take much more seriously than garrulous intrusive mob bosses are depraved wimps? No matter what he thinks, a number of serious questions need to be asked -- and answered -- before we give him carte blanche to challenge all I stand for. Do you really think that he has achieved sainthood, as Screeching Weasel claims? Wake up! Screeching Weasel controls a secret underground empire.
You may not understand this now, and I don't fault you for that, but he has lost sight of the lessons of history. Screeching Weasel's screeds just don't stand up. I have seen and heard enough. Now, it is time to build a true community of spirit and purpose based on mutual respect and caring. Now, lest you jump to the conclusion that Screeching Weasel can guarantee the destruction of anything that looks like a vital community and get away with it, I assure you that his crusades all stem from one, simple, faulty premise -- that every featherless biped, regardless of intelligence, personal achievement, moral character, sense of responsibility, or sanity, should be given the power to produce nothing but filth. Well, let's get our facts straight. He feels he has not only a right, but also a duty, to view countries and the people that live in them either as economic targets to be exploited or as military targets to be defeated.
In order to set the stage so that my next letter will begin from a new and much higher level of influence, we must stand up and fight for our heritage, traditions, and values. And that's just the first step. Remember, Screeching Weasel uses isolated incidents to make inhumane, all-encompassing claims about his adversaries. As amazing as it seems, I don't care what others say about him. He's still pernicious, ostentatious, and he intends to make bribery legal and part of business as usual. It is the height of arrogance and untruthfulness for Screeching Weasel to imply that courtesy and manners don't count for anything. To be blunt, there is something inherently wrong with a man who wants, more than anything else, to diminish society's inducements to good behavior. It's not necessary to go into too long of a description about how Screeching Weasel plans to fan the flames of pharisaism into a planet-spanning inferno one day. Suffice it to say that the failure of his assistants to recognize that he somehow forgot to tell his helpers that his demands command as much respect as the tales in the supermarket tabloids casts doubts upon their methods.
Did he cancel his plans to create problems that our grandchildren will have to live with because he had a change of heart, or is he continuing the same battle on another front? It would appear to be the latter. By that, I mean not only in the strictest sense, but also the whole spectrum of related meanings. Many people aren't aware of how foul Screeching Weasel's arguments are, so let's present a little breakdown. First off, we must, in one voice, cry out that we will not tolerate Screeching Weasel's beer-guzzling zingers. Please let me explain that what Screeching Weasel is doing falls just short of giving handguns to schoolchildren. He is thoroughly mistaken if he believes that newspapers should report only on items he agrees with.
Just to add a little more perspective, the original purpose of plagiarism was to criticize other people's beliefs, fashion sense, and lifestyle. Under these conditions, Screeching Weasel has really pulled a fast one this time. If you don't believe me, see for yourself. His toadies are profoundly influenced by what he says and does. In the strictest sense, Screeching Weasel's impetuous hijinks are an epiphenomenon of licentious classism. If Screeching Weasel doesn't like it here, then perhaps he should go elsewhere. As a parting thought, remember that Mr. Screeching Weasel's utterances celebrate deception, diversion, and fashion.
These work well and are safe (if used intelligently (i.e. not to excess, and not by people who have blood pressure or heart problems or who are on certain antidepressants)). The only downside I saw to it was that when ephedrine wears off, it leaves me in a terrible mood. Things that normally wouldn't bug me at all leae me fairly depressed. For this reason, I've stopped using it. It's a lousy long-term solution, anyways - if your weight loss is dependant on the drug, the weight will come back when you go off. Just never go off? I don't think so: staying on this indefinitely is a bad idea.
Straddle a pair of bathroom scales, one under each foot, and add the two weights together. This works as long as you don't shift around between the two readings. Probably easier to do with ordinary mechanical bathroom scales than trying to syncronize two press-the-button-and-hop-on fancy electronic ones.
Eat more, and never let yourself miss meals. Keep stuff around that's convenient and relatively healthy. Don't fear fat - low fat diets will depress your testosterone levels and make it far harder to gain muscle (it might be a good idea to avoid processed fats like margarine, though). I used to think I was absolutely unable to gain weight, until I stopped letting myself skip meals, and added a few 'snacks' various times during the day. Then I put on 20 lbs of muscle in about 3 months.
I am 6 3" and 130 lbs. you do the math.
I also eat more pizza, junk food and drink more coke than anyone I know.
"Coke or Pepsi" is why you're a fatass!
Sounds more like self abuse than self maintenance. Maybe this should be in Jon's whining-cuz-he-can't-get-enough-porn thread.
Bah. Energy drinks in Europe 320 mg/l.
Except for the "energy drinks" in Europe, at least in Scandinavia they contain 320 mg/l caffeine.
Woooh... careful what you say. People have different body frames. 170 on a thin 6'4" frame is fine. I say that because I weigh in at 175 give or take a pound and I'm 6'4". I also work out regularly and have a good amount of muscle on my body (bench around 225lb for reps). Losing weight that fast isn't the greatest, but the final weight is not bad.
I've followed this since it was posted to /. during the summer. Stats:
height: 5' 11"
weight then: 190#
weight now: 165#
I haven't found it that difficult. I was in fact losing more during late summer than I am now, when I was eating worse. I don't think I was eating much different. Just cutting out the usual 20 oz Coke and junk food at lunch, and avoiding having open bags of of crackers or chips at home. (Too easy to get relaxed and reading for a while and end up eating the entire damn thing.)
As was said in the movie Apollo 13 about the first lunar landing, it isn't a miracle -- we just decided to go.
Oh, c'mon!!! About the only thing I work out regularly is my wrists (by typing). Perhaps after reading this diet book, that'll change, but don't go insulting the only bit of excercise I get daily!
Limp wristed! These here are a fine example of the most manly wrists given to any of God's creations! My wrists should be held up in awe by those who are unlucky enough to have a job that doesn't afford them the level of wrist excercise mine does!
Pot bellied? Sure. Weakling? Okay. But, never, never call me limp wristed!!!!
This diet looks very interesting and all, but when you're over about 300lbs, it gets hard to find a scale you can easily use at home. Are there any other big geeks out there that know where to find decent, "high capacity" scales? I weigh myself about once a year, at the fair on a cattle scale. I need to do it a bit more often than that ;)
Great way of loosing weight.
Hunger will be just a minor annoyance and you can convince yourself eating will just take time away from you and make you fail. As your blod sugar drops you will get into a downward spiral. Not sleeping also helps.
If you exercice do it at nigth and in scary places such as unlit running traks and churchyards.
Stay away from food. Eating will only get you into a good mood and then you will eat more.
Remember people that worry alot are thin.
I fully recommend it. I did practically no exercise -- previous attempts to lose weight through exercise now seem very stupid. I can now jog/run/bike much longer and better than I could before I lost this weight. Everyone I know has noticed and made positive comments, the difference between being obese and merely overweight is enormous.
The measurement techniques of this diet give you the real edge over any other technique I have seen. You can really see what direction you are heading and how fast. When you keep the calorie conversions in mind you know what food to avoid and what to enjoy. I usually eat whatever I want for 2 meals of the day, and only have a third meal if the other 2 were light. This puts me on a very slow descent, and keeps me steady if I "cheat" by going out for a rich dinner.
This is a great hackers diet because once the mechanics of the diet are explained, you understand why all your previous diets didn't work, and how you can change your eating habits to avoid this happening again. Plus the promise that you will be able to eat "bad" food is true, it's easy to say "December my goal is to stay steady" and enjoy yourself, then get back on the weight loss at a more reasonable time of year.
Good ideas are: start eating sushi, cut out all sugared drinks, fill up on salad, don't be afraid to leave half a meal unfinished (put it in the fridge if you can't bear to throw it out), eat slowly and try to detect the point at which you are no longer hungry. Good luck!
Why didn't you turn her to stone? You missed the opportunity!
That weight lost is a little too fast. You need to see a doctor.
What did New Zealand do? Was their a ban or something?
Cut back on the daily 12-pack of Jolt and get some sleep, man.
Then you'll never again lose weight. Period. You see, a catabolic diet, by definition, is one in which your body is breaking down complex stuff (i.e. fats, proteins) into simpler stuff (i.e. free fatty acids, sugars, ketones) than vice versa. Other than shifts in water weight, any negative net loss in weight is a result of catabolism. That stuff about fasting and 'negative calories' is not an intrinsic part of catabolism.
It will let you stay awake longer than caffeine, but that's a negative. Don't stay up for days, you'll lose your mind.
These people are idiots. You know when the largest percentage of energy used by the body comes from fat? When you're sleeping. Are you going to snooze your way to slimness?
Percentage of fat burned doesn't mean shit - sure, when you're running, the percentage of energy coming from fat is smaller than when you're walking, but the absolute amount of energy from fat is greater when running than when walking.
In fact, in the long term, even the absolute amount of fat burned by exercise doesn't mean shit - what matters is calories in minus calories out, whether those calories come from stored fat, or stored sugar (i.e. glycogen in the muscles). Know why? Because if you burn glycogen during exercise (which is what happens at higher intensities, and what causes the percentage of energy from fat to drop), then next time you eat, some or all of the carbohydrate you consume will go to replenishing that glycogen burned during exercise. Since that carbohydrate is stored and not available for other bodily processes, fat gets burned for those processes instead, and thus, you get about the same fat loss as if the glycogen calories burned during exercise had come directly from fat.
Of course, the above is an oversimplification, since it assumes that fat is the only kind of tissue the body can build with excess energy or break down in the event of an energy deficit. But a closer look indicates that high-intensity exercise is actually better for fat loss: studies have shown that sprint intervals (i.e. sprint rest repeat until you're ready to puke) leads to a greater fat loss (and less muscle loss) per calorie expended on exercise than a steady moderate pace. This seems to be due to hormonal changes (such as elevated adrenaline, which mobilizes fat stores) that accompany sprints.
False. There's actually a very strong positive correlation between fat intake and testosterone levels. Cutting fat means decreasing testosterone, and decreasing testosterone means you lose muscle much more readily. Some bodybuilders, in preparing for contests (when they want to lose as much fat as possible, while holding on to as much muscle as possible) go onto diets with lots of fat (like 60-70 percent) and the remainder protein. These diets work great for losing fat while retaining muscle. Not recommended for the general population, since they're monotonous as hell, and aren't really a long-term solution.
What's better is to eat a high-calorie diet and just run for a few hours a day.
Oh, just a few hours a day. Is that all? No, that won't scare anybody off. What's far more realistic for most people is to control their diet, and exercise for 30-60 minutes, 4 or 5 times per week.
Dude! You forgot Josta!!
hi. i'm the original grits boy, but your comment was funny as all heck !!! keep up the good work, i can't do it all by myself.
"from the 'its-funny-department'" - come on, is that all you can think of?
BTW, I must also scream "old news" here (which is an oxymoron, come to think of it), because this program has been around for the palm for quite some time (at least a year, maybe two).
EagerEyes.org: Visualization and Visual Communication
it's in my head
Is Jolt really that caffienated?
Real men dump cores! Read my journal, I am neat.
True hackers don't worry about their weight, looks, body odor etc etc etc..
I don't have a Palm but i am very familar with the hackers diet. The diet is extrememly logical and well thought out, and is EFFECTIVE. I lost 65lbs in 150 days. Your mileage may vary (and I was pretty hard core about it). Down from a fat 235 to a svelt 170 (on a 6'4" frame). I recommend the diet to anyone who needs to lose weight but who doesent want to go through the whole Richard Simmons lets feel good about ourselves schtick. Just thought i'd plug the book.
why is this redundant. I want to ask the same question. I just checked freshmeat and didn't see anything. It would sure be nice to have a X version of this.
Nice! I think the best part about WW was deriving their "top secret" points equation. Trade secret, my ass.
Gee, I know I have a couple of hours of day to throw away on doing something that I don't enjoy at all. 2 hours a day is 1/12 of your life! Do you realize that?
Hmmm... I did the same thing last week. I wanted to start doing some exercises, but figured I'd do at least a google search for 5BX, and yep, I ran into that page that says they don't reccommend it. Kinda scared me a little. :)
I picked up on this right after it was mentioned on /. the first time. I went out and bought a scale even!
I started out at 270 pounds. Within 2 months, I was at 250, and have since been bouncing around between 245 and 255. Of course, I've also stopped planning out my meals too, which might explain why I've leveled out at this weight.
According to a recent body-fat test, I would be at about 210 with 10% fat, which is my goal now. Hopefully by -next- X-mas, I can be there!
The tools are great, although I had to fiddle with the spreadsheets to get them to work with Office 2000. Maybe I'll buy a Palm so I can use the new tools.
"Tomorrow's forecast: a few sprinkles of genius with a chance of doom!" - Stewie Griffin
I started on the hackers diet right after it was posted here. I have found it to be a wonderful tool for losing and MAINTAINING my weight.
276 lbs when I started.
221 lbs this morning and continuing to lose.
I look much thinner and my girlfriend says that I haven't looked this good since I got out of the Marine Corps.
I highly recommend this diet to all geeks.
This is a very academic book, as it cites references from all over. I bought it precisely because it isn't "fashionable"-- a lot of people into "lifting" because it's telling them things they don't want to believe.
The most important thing this book taught me is that you don't need to be in the gym all the time to get results-- in fact, if you are in the gym all the time (more than 2-3 times a week), you're probably hurting yourself more than you are helping yourself. You generally work your muscles in small sets at enough weight until you are too tired to use them and then that's it. You rest a couple days.
I certainly surprised my girlfriend after a couple weeks after I fixed up my decidedly wimpy nerd-ceps into some pythonesque arms.
ISBN 1-57028-018-5
_______
computers://use.urls. People use Networds.
On the exercise making you eat more . . . when I wrote down my dietary habits, and revealed the patterns, I used that as a guide for eating after exercise. If my habit before starting the exercise was 1 chicken breast, 1 baked potato and some corn, I don't eat 2 chicken breasts, 2 baked potatoes and some corn after exercising. Had I not tracked my patterns, I probably would just eat more after exercise.
Eating less and doing less is just telling your body to buckle down and use the few calories you are giving it more efficiently, turning more into fat. Eating more and doing more will likely at least increase your endurance, your heart will get better, etc., but it's still not a great plan. You leave yourself open to overeating. The best plan is the one doctors the world over have recommended: eating less and doing more. Study after study indicates that the other methods have astronomically high failure rates. After all, as a hacker, aren't you after your highest probability of success?
LetterJ
The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things
True enough. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the metric units. However, as I live in the States, and this is my program, and my scale is in pounds, and the math I found was in pounds and calories and my doctor uses pounds and I was raised thinking in pounds and am too dang lazy to convert the math, I'll continue to use pounds, calories, and other arcane, outdated measurements.:) If someone wants to convert the math and send it to me, more power to them, but I don't have the time . . . I have to get on the treadmill.
LetterJ
The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things
I don't track calories - I just watch the EatWatch trend and eyeball the rest. :-) Then again, I'm only losing a half-pound a week right now. I'm trying to maintain my food habits before ramping up into serious daily exercise.
:-) Even if I'm not losing as much weight as I want yet, at least I feel lighter and more positive.
As for the grazing (a former bad habit of mine as well!), try making sure you have low/no fat snacks around the house. Fresh raw vegetables, diet snacks, etc. I found that fresh grapefruit is *great* for evening snacking - healthy, low calorie and oddly filling.
Another hint is to always give yourself time to feel full. Since I started watching my portions, I'm getting a better feel for how much it really takes to fill me up without stuffing myself. In the past, I'd eat until I felt full, then the feeling would catch up to reality and I'd feel stuffed and incredibly bloated. Not good for morale.
He's also really right about the water. Lots and lots! Fills you up, cuts the hunger cravings, and it's better for your body all around. (Not to mention one's complexion.)
-- Raven
I wouldn't call something that glows in the dark and looks like piss after a dose of mega-vitamins "lightly colored".
-- Raven
I hope that Slashdot regrets what it has done. It's a pity.
And yet, how does this differ from any other mass media news grinder that we can "choose" from today? Slashdot doesn't have a social responsibility to think for us. Nobody does, except for (hopefully) one's self. If you choose to blame Slashdot for your misconceptions, then you must also blame everyone who opines about anything with the same judgement. I agree with much of what you say, but your blame is ill-placed; put the responsibility where it belongs, with ourselves.
Expecting to be fed what you want to eat is slothful. You are part of Slashdot. No, that's not correct. You are part of humanity. Do you regret what you have done?
The wheel is turning but the hamster is dead.
The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.
I feel left out. I am probably about 40 lbs. under weight :) Oh well, I'll just be sitting around waiting for my thyroid to take a rest.
I always thought the Fourmilab was in Switzerland ;-)
-------
Warning: Slashdot may contain traces of nuts.
>Jolt 71.2
>Sugar-Free Mr. Pibb 58.8
>Mountain Dew 55.0 (no caffeine in Canada)
As a Canadian, I am thoroughly disgusted by our government's refusal to allow *real* Mountain Dew and Jolt into Canada. I am seriously considering emigrating to the US after I get my college diploma. No, seriously. I really am. This whole situation pisses me off beyond all belief.
Pepsi tried to convince the gov't to allow caffinated MD, but the old men in the Senate wouldn't listen. The Senate is actually considering making it illegal to use caffiene in any product except coffee and cola. I wish our Parliament would get with the program and do what New Zealand's government did.
If you're doing all these measurements you might find Covert Bailey's latest Fit or Fat (ultimate Fit or Fat). He claims his staff over the years has found a tape measure way of determining body fat that is only +/- 2 off of immersion. They require waist, hip, thigh, wrist, and forearm then some basic math. There are four formulas men and women over and under 30. If memory serves men over 30 is: waist + 0.8thigh - forearm - wrist.
Herb
Again, feel free to sentence me to death if my questions annoy you. I'll come back in 5 minutes anyway. -Sythi
Lets see if I remember my HTML.
... and missing.
Thinkgeek has a cool shirt if you like caffeine
I sure know I want one
---------------------------------------
The art of flying is throwing yourself at the ground...
ACE stacks will have you calling an ambulance. Trust me on this one. Last summer, I discovered the wonders of Asprin, Caffine, and Ephedrine. I was in the mood to lose weight, and I combined this with a strict exercise regimen. I lost weight and shaped up. In two months I lost over thirty pounds - until the crash. My heart rate started going spastic and I felt like absolute shit. I felt like I was dying, and I ended up calling an ambulance after several hours agonizing over that decision. The paramedics showed up and took me to the emergency room. They watched over me, and released me the next morning, but for the next week I felt so terrible I couldn't go to work. ACE stacks are a threat to your health. Don't be stupid about them. Just eat right and exercise. You'll be better off in the long run.
65.0% slashdot pure
well, since I wasn't around in the 50's, I guess I'm going to have to just believe you on that one. in any case, soda isn't just sugar -- it's quite acidic. maybe my dentist doesn't know what he's talking about, but he told me about some interesting clinical research regarding soda and tooth decay... now, it's worse if you use a straw because you get more decay per soda, but if you spend a great deal of time drinking soda, it's probably not wonderful for your teeth.
just a guess.
Lea
Isn't that just because you have an addiction to something you put in your mouth and have no time to eat between cigs?
-==-
Coke or Pepsi is my big quandry. Which has more caffiene?
Let me start by saying congratulations! You're probably quite a bit healthier than the average hacker. I take issue with the beginning of your post, only on the basis of internal consistancy and my experience with exercise and weight loss. Have you attempted the diet without exercise?
1) this is weight loss for sedentary people. If we were into exercise we wouldn't have had time to memorize all those opcodes :-).
2) Those are one-hour numbers. I don't know about you, but "20-minute workout" tended to make me sleepy, after they started watching those camera angles. I can walk outdoors for an hour, sometimes, but otherwise... no.
3) Exercise increases your appetite. It frequently serves as a short-term appetite supressant, but when you finally do get hungry you'll tend to eat more (and make up for the deficit). So it's better to do less and eat less than do more and eat more. When I was taking Kung-Fu lessons I'd work out about two hours every other night (save Sundays) and sweat buckets. After the first two months I lost no weight. Though I was trying to limit intake, the cravings were enormous. I was down 80 lbs and the body was alarmed (though still corpulent).
Congrats on the pound a week. I'm heading out to get my scale at tomorrow's lunch break.
Also I think the daily trend analysis can help keep those "wild weekends" from getting a trend started. WW wants us to weigh weekly to spread out the datapoints (rather than average them) and make trends apparent, but that can backfire if you tend to "celebrate" a good week :-).
For first statement "Yeah, but is it Open Fucking Source(tm)?", tells us where you stand. If there will be no monetary gain from the project, then it is not worth doing.
"The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule." -- Samuel Adams
Its actually very cool. I just installed this on my PalmIIIe over the weekend. jarod
1) I hope to god that didn't just post prematurly :P
2) I'm sure you can still get some phen phen somewhere
If you think you know what the hell is going on you're probably full of shit. -- Robert Anton Wilson
If you think you know what the hell is going on you're probably full of shit. -- Robert Anton Wilson
jdube is who
Ephedrine is many things to many people, from 'herbal ecstacy' to decongestant to study aid. It's basically an oral form of adrenaline. The Lycaeum has a FAQ which is very informative.
Heh, I've got the same problem, too, and I don't smoke. A 3500 calorie/day diet didn't get me a pound over 140, and I'm 6'2" on a short day.
;)
Not that I think the fact that I can't sit still to be unrelated.
On the other note, sheer weight doesn't necessarily dictate strength.
- Cattywampus.
I compeletely agree with you there. The lack of an adrenal rush can leave you feeling pretty worn out, but as I said, "Also long term use is not reccomended" as it can be damaging if used over a month. Some people are likely to be adverse to caffiene as well, so like an above poster said "You're going to see bad if you drink two gallons of strong coffee, too. " .. Drugs are bad, and natural solutions are probably better for you in the long run. Try excersize.
For those above that think that I think ACE is a "cure" or anything, it's not. Hard work is the only cure. You can't look like Bruce Lee unless you practice a little Kung Fu -- Anything worth doing right is worth doing well.
Lowmag.net
That AC only mis-spelled "two" as "tow" and anybody can double post. It happens all the time, since the submit button doesn't always seem to work.
Lowmag.net
Pepsi is a "citrus" drink technically then. -- it has citric acid for flavoring. go figure. It's brown, therefore it's cola.
Lowmag.net
Just pop ACE stacks. It's :
:(. It is a bit tough on the stomach at first. Also long term use is not reccomended.
Aspirin
Caffiene
Ephedrine
It raises your base metabolism, gets you thinking faster, and is completely legal for sport competition, used in anything from running to sparring. The reason it is legal is that the three ingredients are available everywhere. If you have a history of ulcers, I wouldn't reccomend it though
Lowmag.net
A student at Indiana University lost 245lbs in less than a year by eating a daily diet which consisted of: two Subway sanwiches, a bag of baked Lays potato chips, and diet Mountain Dew.
The article is here.
I've just got a dinky little Pilot 5000....what do I need to run this?
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I dunno about pant sizes (since my jeans were so old their actual size bore little relation to the number printed on the label), but I AM on my third belt.
I used to wear a belt only with my work clothes. After I had to tighten that about three notches I had to also start wearing a belt with my jeans. A couple (hand-punched) notches later I switched to a new belt. I worked all the way down that one and into some more hand-punched holes. I'm about halfway down my third belt now.
Once I saw how easy it was to lose the weight I stopped being as strict as advocated on the site. The bit thing for me was the charting. If I can get the feedback I do the work. Unfortunately I've moved and my scale is still in storage. So I haven't charted for over 2 months. I haven't had to loosen my belt yet, but I may have to soon....
I also highly recommend the exercise program. I figured it would be lame, but after I started I loved it. The only reason I'm not doing it now is that until we find an apartment we're living with someone else--and I don't want to exercise in front of everyone.
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But you should try a Kabalic diet, based upon ancient Jewish Mysticisim and folklore, the Kabalah. :-)
A wealthy eccentric who marches to the beat of a different drum. But you may call me "Noodle Noggin."
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
Very cool weight loss program, even cooler new palm pilot version.
My recommendation, then, is to sit down and figure the calories of, say, whatever you ate the past week. Then start doing it pre-emptively whenever it's your turn to cook, and post factum when it isn't. Make it into routine, and before you know it, you'll be able to guesstimate most things. Whenever you're in doubt, just calculate the correct answer. Also, try to guess the contents before doing the math; this will improve the efficiency of the training. Once you've reached the point where you can judge how many calories are in your intake, without planning the intake in advance, you're in a much better position to diet.
"A *person* is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."
"A *person* is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."
- 'K' in Men in Black.
Most people don't heat up and lose that much weight that fast. I seriously doubt if it was healthy.
I tried a catabolic diet once over the summer and I'm too afraid to try it again. First, I fasted for a week (water, juices, vitamins every day), then for the next two weeks I tried a catabolic diet (eating foods that take more calories to digest then they give you). I lost 40 lbs in those three weeks, but I could almost see myself shrink and I warmed up noticeably. It scared me! Was this healthy? Getting rid of those spider veins kept it off.
It was all because of a reaction to exercise. I didn't like it. For the most part, I could physically exercise just fine. (Except for running or swimming. I can't run because after a block, my asthma kicks in and my right lung feels like it's being shredded and torn out by a large claw. I can't swim because I've never in my life actually floated.) There were still things like sit-ups or weights, but mentally it was driving me insane. I tried listening to music, thinking out physics problems and looking out the window--nothing worked. Worst of all, I suffer from extended periods of exhaustion.
Has anyone tried any more interesting exercises that I could try? Is there anything that doesn't require a court or field? I live in a very small town with an asphalt track with trees literally growing in it, and some tennis courts.
Yeah, I can confirm the success. Though I hafeta admit I haven't been 100% faithful (the holidays is brutal that way).
However, -6" in the waistline, and a net loss of 25 lbs. I;m happy, generall, though I figure I still have another 2" a/o 20 lbs to go.
I figure being consistent with the exercise has actually been more beneficial than the diet itself, as I:m not actually cutting anything out...just being more conscious of the volumes going in.
Overall, the main issue is awareness and motivation. If the diet, whichever one you're on gets you thinking about what you eat, and keeps you motivated enough to keep doing it, then it should work.
(Personally I find that doing the exercises while the Playboy channel is on is the best motivation I can find. Nothing like positive reinforcement of why you're doing this in the first place!)
--sugarman--
30 pounds since October for me. Also lost three pant sizes and my disgusting tendency to sweat rivers when I get overheated. Much happier, and hell, I'm actually eating *more* food than before. Some of it even tastes ok.
Caffeine-free Mountain Dew as test marketed in the states; I picked up a six-pack in Colorado Springs many years ago (5?) and kept one can as proof that Coke doesn't have a monopoly on brain-dead ideas.
Drinking caffeine-free MD was a weird experience; I was reminded of the "Hi-C" fruit drink of my youth, since there was no caffeine kick. Of course, on the flip side that shows just how much of an impact the caffeine in the soda has!
Meanwhile, Canada should post warning signs on its borders, right below (or above!) the reminder that the speed limit in Canada is in kph, not mph. I've driven from Calgary to Vancouver a couple times, and each time I "crashed" a day or two after crossing the border. This Is Not Good since that's a mountainous trip. I had assumed it was because I was tricked by the longer days and not aware of how late it was (both trips were within a month of the summer solstice), but now I wonder if it was due to the sudden absense of caffeine in my system!
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
I lost ten pounds in those eight weeks. The first rung in the ladder wore me out when I started -- now I consider it to be trivial.
Many of those ten pounds came when I was moving. I was quite busy and didn't really have time for snacking. I think it's the snacking that gets me. I think the next step of my experiment is to get a little more disciplined about it. I'll probably need to do so if I am to reach my target weight of 170.
-- $SIGNATURE
Well...
:-)
Do you want to hit another planet by "flaws" caused by antique units?
What's wrong with kilo Joules and kilograms?
The World is not limited by an ocean in the east and the west
-- From Denmark
dentistry has changed since the 50's. unfortunately, no one told you. starchy foods, like chips, pretzels, breads, in other words, things that stay in your mouth and attract bacteria, are found to be the root (no pun intended) of tooth decay.
sugary foods like candy actually don't stay around in your mouth that long.
Hates people who have stupid little sigs
So, did you have any problems with all the extra skin? If so, how did you handle that problem?
-Vel
:-)
/. and am finding the planning to be a pain. Not enough time to plan with a family and all. My question: is everyone doing the planning part? Are you all eating frozen dinners? I got a program called DietLog for the pilot and it lets you track calories as you go along. It's cool, but I always get hungry at the end of the day and graze. Maybe it's a discipline thing. Any pointers or ideas?
It seems like this is working for everyone. I tried to start just after the story here on
"After the first two months I lost no weight."
it's not about what's your weight. it's about the relative amount of muscle tissue anf fat tissue. so while your body weight might stay the same you are most probably getting more muscles and less fat... (even though after while your absolute weight might decrease, depending on what kind of excercize you do).
I would definitely say do more and eat more. the more you do the harder it is to overeat, the more efficient your metabolism becomes and you're getting rid of lot of garbage in your system.
also, if you excercise a lot the body tends to regulate what you eat better (that's more my personal experience then research backed fact).
erik
...all excited, don't know why...
Last I checked, 7up and Sprite HAD caffeine...
:) (and make sure that the bottling location on the label is in Canada)
Check again
Caffiene isn't explicity forbidden from citrus drinks here in Canada, however it is forbidden from "lightly-colored" or "clear" beverages.
At least this was what I was told by Regional Director for Western Canada when I worked for Pepsi a few years ago.
So by this "color guideline" any dark cola can be caffeinated, however no Dew, no 7up/Sprite, etc. etc. This was a relative non-issue in Crystal Pepsi's failure up here - it was just plain terriable regardless of caffeine content.
Maybe PepsiCo will smarten up and make a "dark" Mountain Dew - as long as it tasted the same and had the caffeine of it's southern cousin I could care less how it looks.
-ct
.. and I was actually interested and wanted to check it out because it sounded good. Oh well, I guess I'll wait a few hours.
Mmmm.. Donuts
Because if you burn glycogen during exercise (which is what happens at higher intensities, and what causes the percentage of energy from fat to drop), then next time you eat, some or all of the carbohydrate you consume will go to replenishing that glycogen burned during exercise.
That only works well if you eat within 1/2 hour of exercising, as the insulin level drops back towards normal after this point.
There is, however, an effect where after high intensity training the metabolism stays at a higher level for several hours. This has led to a belief that instead of one long aerobic workout, athletes should include two workouts of half the duration each during the day. That way the same calories are expended from exercise, but more are burned due to a longer aggregate period of higher metabolic rate.
You also missed the point that the original poster had trouble with high intensity exercise. How would he possibly eat straight after high intensity exercise if it makes him ill? Just because a power-lifter lifts a 4x4 in his workout, and weight-training (using good technique) is a good form of high-intensity exercise, does that mean everyone should start an exercise program by lifting 4x4s? An exercise program has to be tailored to the person. That leaves low intensity exercise as the only option for some people, and walking is a good way of burning fat and raising the metabolic rate. In fact, brisk walking can burn as many calories as jogging without the attendant risk of injury.
If the guy hadn't said he finds weights boring, I would have recomended a weights workout, because as well as burning calories it builds muscle, which as you know raises the metabolic rate and helps to burn fat.
Some people recommend low intensity exercise, like walking, because as a percentage of energy consumed, it uses more fat than any other form of exercise.
Alternatively, you could try cycling.
I suffer from asthma, yet manage to teach jujitsu in two universities with the help of a preventer inhaler. I find jujitsu keeps me fit and is interesting as well as being a valuable self-defence skill. However, during school holidays I tend to put on weight because of not training and, like you, I don't find weights much fun. My final advice is to go on brisk walks.
Oh yeah, I forgot to include my experience that convinced me Ultimate was working. Please don't moderate this down as troll, 'cuz it's the truth. I was visiting a friend at Harvard one weekend, whose roommate happens to be dating Natalie Portman. I got up late on Saturday, stumbled off to the showers. I come walking in, wearing nothing but a towel. Natalie Portman looked at me, and I was actually proud that I had some muscles to show her. I'm not big, but I am cut. She's not quite as cute in real life, though. So anyway, I said "hi" and she said hello, and then I went to put some pants on, and then the three of us made small talk for a little while.
Point 4 is a must. If you reduce your caloric intake but do not exercise, then then your body breaks down your muscles _first_ for fuel. This happens because it is easier and faster than converting your stored fat. Metaphorically, your body thinks you are starving because you can't find enough food (damn that meddling Darwin). This reduces your base muscle mass, which in turn lowers your resting metabolism. So, you have to eat even less calories for the same average weight loss. Rinse, lather, repeat.
This is the number one reason people drop off of a diet. The diet forces their body into destroying itself. The really nasty part about this cycle is that when people drop off of a diet they usually jump back up to their pre-diet caloric intake or more. So now they experience a rapid weight gain and usually end up 5-15 pounds heavier than when they started the diet.
The Hacker's Diet seems to follow the pattern for successful long term weight control: make a long term change in your eating and exercise pattern. Think lifestyle, not diet.
IV
"These laws they're passing won't even compile anymore, let alone execute." - anon
bun-fhuinneog agam!
Is caffeine still forbidden in citrus drinks? I seem to recall something from spring 99 or so where the rules were being channged to allow caffeine in citrus drinks. Is MD considered a citrus-flavoured drink?
Hey send some of those caffeine penguin mints to the great white north!
Still coping with caffeine addiction after 2 years
Lars -
I used to think the most optimized route to nutrient/dinner/meal (to maximize coding time) is microwave burrito.
... those meal as liquid gulch in a can things ... just drink like diet coke.
... spells more caffeine.
... which gives more time to code and /. .
Little did I realize, that microwave time could be eliminated.
I discover liquid lunch
Thusly, save even microwave time. (ah that microwave steak thing is just for Christmas, no such luxury in normal months.)
The time saving is quite cool. You can drink your meal in one hand and code with your other.
It is relatively economical. Sure it tastes horrible, but so does Diet Coke, which I drink all the time.
I find a liquid lunch flavor that contains real coffee
I finally trained my tastebuds to be acclimatized to ucky tasting liquid lunch
Wonder if anyone has (realistic) equally and more optimized route to dinner/lunch/nutrient than this idea.
Corrinne Yu
3D Game Engine Programmer
Subway, 12 pack of coke, and 15 pounds of candy a day. What's so hard about that?
He doesn't support Windows Powered devices! I mean, if Excel makes him unhappy, then Pocket Excel on a Windows CE PocketPC should really get him going!
seriously, run. sit-ups, pull-ups, push-ups. Hell, if you actually CARE about losing weight, just go down to your local marine corps recruiter and ask him/her what the best kind of exercising is for you to do.
You're not going to find any other way around it, diets will make you weaker, as eating less will cause you to lose muscle as much as fat (and if you eat less but still eat high-fat foods, it's even worse). What's better is to eat a high-calorie diet and just run for a few hours a day. It's not that scary, just start off slow and work up to whatever you can get to. Once you're done, you'll feel a lot better about yourself too.
People just need to stop bein' so damn lazy.
~~Lofwyr "iLLusive"
The most valuable part of the Hacker's Diet for me was the fact that it taught me to monitor my weight properly. If you don't know about exponentially smoothed curves and moving averages and stuff, read up on it (all you need to know is in there). Using both those trendlines, you will be able to see how you are doing every so often. So if you gain 500 grams in 2 weeks (about 1.1 lbs) on your trendline you can see this as significant. Your weight will bounce around a lot, and you need trendlines to, well, help you see the trend.
Monitoring your weight daily is a MUST. For those of you out there who need to lose weight, be it 15 pounts or 150 pounds, the first thing you must do is buy yourself a reliable digital weight scale, one that is accurate to about .2 kilograms, or .5 pounds. (I paid US$30 for mine here in Delaware.) Learn how to calculate a moving average and an exponentially smoothed curve (10%), and then start plotting your weight.
That's where a computer will come in handy, the author supplied Excel worksheets, but if you are a typical hacker reading /., then you probably don't use a Windows machine all too often. But it shouldn't be too hard to whip up some simple programs with Perl and Gnuplot, I use an HP 48G programmable handheld calculator myself. If you don't mind using plotting paper, and pencils, you can do that to.
And that's about it, as you accumulate more data, you will be able to interpret it properly over time, and lose (or gain, if you wish) weight properly.
Best of luck to you.
Seriously, I have no idea why this is under the "humor" section. I've known about the Hacker's Diet for quite some time, since I saw fourmilab mentioned in an internet magazine, and I have to say that it isn't a joke. The only really funny thing about it is the title. It's actually a well thought-out guide that Walker has put together for executives and hackers so that they can lose weight, as well as help them get back into shape. I'd suggest that people actually take time to read things before putting it up under the "humor" banner.
I don't know about John Walker, but I'd be pretty insulted if my work on whatever serious subject that just happened to have a funny title was made fun of at a popular internet site.
-- K
I don't know about the teeth! soda and candies tend to have interesting effects on the teeth, long-term.
:)
let's just say I don't think any dentists will be recommending it
Lea
Yeah, I remember that article from last summer all right. In my not so humble opinion, there are serious problems not just with the so called "hacker's diet" but with dieting plans in general. That's right. Dieting plans in general. That's all the hacker's diet is: a diet for people that feel like they're getting somewhere faster if they take the matter into their hands mathematically by religiously counting every calorie they consume, as if they were analyzing and optimizing the runtime of a complex algorithm. You want to lose weight? Great, but don't think about losing weight. Think about getting healthy. And don't EVER write off exercise.
--
grappler
Vidi, Vici, Veni
...as you lose weight excercise will become easier, and you will lose weight faster. It becomes a self-reinforcing loop.
Alas, it doesn't work that way. When most of us diet, the body goes into a sort of "famine mode". Our minds have eveolved, but our bodies are the same ones we had in the stone age. The body recognizes that it's not getting enough calories, so it sends out hunger signals, telling us to eat more. Also, since the "famine" may last a while, it tends to preserve fat (that's what fat is for - to keep you alive during famines) and burn up blood sugar (reduced blood sugar levels result in irritability and loss of concentration) and muscle (noooo!) for energy instead. The loss of muscle can be prevented by rigorous exercise (tricks the body into thinking that it needs that muscle to outrun predators or something) but there's not much to be done about the blood-sugar thing except suffer through it.
Exercise becomes easier as one loses weight, but that's not the whole story. Hauling lots of weight around burns calories, and when there's less of it, the "easier" exercise burns fewer calories, not more. It's not a self-reinforcing loop - it's more of a self-regulating mechanism.
And there's more! A heavy body uses more calories as it exercises than a light one... but a lean body uses more calories as it rests than a fat one. Just maintaining muscle - even at rest - burns calories.
Oh Well...
Exactly. Diet is okay, but obsession is not.
Not only can it just piss you off and make you stop and do something easier, but it can also lead into an eating disorder, which really isn't any different than any other compulsive disorder, but focussed on health, and thus more likely to wreak your health than some other disorder.
Diet, but don't sweat the small stuff. A hundred calories to either side is nothing. Any diet can be broken without problems. If it's a special day, have cheesecake, and if you really like it, have another. And target weights are only a rough guideline, my friend at 240 is all muscle, I am semi-soft, but we're both the same size, weight is a simplistic measure of when to stop dieting.
Take it easy, think of everything as a rough guideline, and don't commit to a diet if you don't think you can stick with it.
Most of all, do a moderate diet to cut out problem foods, don't just restrict intake, it doesn't do anything because your metabolism kicks in, and going on and off of restricting diets will screw you up and cause major health problems later in life, not to mention that stopping a restricting diet causes you to gain weight as your starved body prepares for the next lean times.
I started using this diet the day after /. posted it. I lost about 40 pounds in 2.5 months. 15 of those pound were in the first 3 weeks. After that I started slacking off....
....
In fact, I started writing my own spreadsheet for the Palm just so I could chart my diet progress on it. Now maybe I won't have to
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The great thing about it is that it speaks directly to hackers. It doesn't tell you to lose weight in order to be more attractive and get laid (although there's that advantage *grin* ). It tells you to successfully diet because it's a hacking problem and you should treat it as such.
That small bit really got me. It's actually the reason I've started reading this thing and went through with it. I've lost 50 pounds as a result.
Any other 'testimonials' out there? :)
(Darn, this thing makes me wish I had a Palm!)
Beefcake!
j/k >;)
Actually, there are a few things that "underweights" can do to increase body mass. Of course, I no longer have that problem...Norwegian genetics have kicked into full force so I'm on the upside by just a few pounds.
Dieting the wrong ways can help bulk up mass but assuming that you want to gain muscle, that isn't the best.
Working out 3 times a week MWF or TRS works ok. Make sure you do some stretching etc, so to minimize chances of hurting something and do some light weightlifting. It'll take a few weeks for your body to adjust to the resistance workout but after that you should be able to begin to push yourself. (Don't use free weights without a proper spotter!!!)
Any new muscle groups you work will usually take 2+ weeks to get acclimated to the program. (age varies this)
Squats/leg workouts will help you gain the weight the fastest but complement it with some upper body because chicken legs and chicken wings (results of 100% upper xor lower body workouts) are unbalanced.
30 min - 1 hour should be sufficient for any workout. If you feel like you can go longer than an hour, odds are that you're not pushing yourself hard enough and vice versa with the being totally exhausted at the 30 minute mark.
Drink plenty of water, it helps move nutrients, wastes around and is used as a cooling system.
Hope that helps...any more questions, just ask...
Vel
Seriously, it might also be alcohol that's driving your weight down. It tends to drive mine up, but I've got more of a German metabolism.
--
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
One of the things that will drive your metabolism up is nicotine. Have you tried quitting the cigs for a while and seeing what it does to your weight?
--
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
http://zerodefect.net/123
Don't tell the lawyers.
"I didn't believe the claims of the Hacker's Diet, and used Microsoft's Diet 2000 instead. I've gone from 100 lbs to 1000 lbs, my hair turned blue and if I chew just so, my tounge flies out and around the room."
There you have it.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I read it this summer, but never got time to reply. it'll be interesting to see if he got certain bugs ironed out, e.g. :
:)
"these are the charts for men. the women's ones are completely different, but I can't see why" etc.
well, for starters, any mensturating woman's weight is going to fluxuate a bit depending on hormones. for some women this can be 10 pounds or so gained/lost over the course of a month -- AND IT'S ALL WATER. makes the whole chart look a bit different, not to mention clothes.
the whole exercise thing is going to be different as well. there are ways of exercising that work very well (developed for the military academies, I believe), but don't require as much strength.
another thing about the book was it's relentlessly self-congratulating tone. maybe some people like that, but it's quite annoying to me.
but if it inspires someone to eat a few more vegggies and do some jumping jacks, I guess it's a good thing. no need to shrink the geek community unneccisarily due to heart attacks caused by caffine and pizza!
Lea
I started back when this came out and have lost 50 pounds and 6 inches off my waist in about 6 months. I'm thrilled.
:-(
The one important thing I can't remember him mentioning is that as you lose weight excercise will become easier, and you will lose weight faster. It becomes a self-reinforcing loop.
Now all I need to do is to port this to the Newton.
Don't question authority -- they don't know either.
You people disgust me.
~Month ago, A friend and myself coined the "All sushi, Rootbeer, and Penguin Mint Diet."
Strong teeth and bones, low fat, lots of sugar, Assloads of caffeine... Stick to it, and you'll loose 50 pounds in 6 months, WE GUARANTEE IT!
Not to mention, the benefits of sushi on the geek brain....
wow, that was quite a run-on sentence. But you get my point. I would even, in fact, recommend Ultimate, along with a suitable weight training program, for the folks out there (like me) who are 6'1", 115 lbs. I'm steadily improving speed, strength, and muscle mass, and I feel great too.
For a couple of months now. It hasn't been out for much longer than that, and when I asked the author why he hadn't announced it, he told me he wanted it to be out 'in the wild' for a while to iron out any bugs before a full-scale announcement. Apart from a problem at the start of January when calculating the trands resulted in a Palm lock-up (no, not a Y2K problem, it would have happened in any January), it's great.
And I've lost some serious weight while trying out a new cool program for my Palm. How great is that???
Paranoia isn't an infectious condition, it's a way of life
I first found out about The Hacker's Diet a few years ago. It is an entertaining read and makes a lot of sense. It inspired me to go out and buy a scale, which I didn't own up until then.
I was happy to discover the new Palm tools last month. I had been using a program called WeightLog, which I didn't like much. The "Eat Watch" program with its moving averages is excellent and gives you pretty swift feedback on what your diet is doing to your weight. (It has been progressing steadily downward this month, but the Godfather's pizza I had on Saturday already made a noticeable blip on the chart!)
But I must say I have some issues with the exercise program (even though I have been trying to get into the habit of doing it just to do some kind of exercise). Walker claims to have based it on the Royal Canadian Air Force's "5BX" exercise program. When I did some rudimentary Web research on this program, I discovered that the RCAF itself recommends not using this program anymore: "...the exercise principles of the program have long been proven invalid--or even hazardous--by scientific advances in modern exercise physiology." Going by the ACSM Fitness Book from the American College of Sports Medicine (a book I had for years before reading The Hacker's Diet), the exercises that are ineffective or potentially hazardous appear to be the standing toe touches, the full sit-ups, and the jumping jacks.
It would be nice if The Hacker's Diet exercise program could be reworked into something like the program recommended in the ACSM's book. Admittedly, that program is more complicated and it might take more convincing to get the average hacker to stay on it. Maybe a happy medium could be found. I'm envisioning a new document: Hacking the Hacker's Diet. :-)
I was struck by the similarities after I tried both. Weightwatchers 1-2-3 Success is basically the same system. Instead of counting calories, you count points. But points are basically just manipulated calories.
:)
The relation is: Take the number of calories, add the number of fat grams times 4, then subtract the number of fibre grams times 10. Divide that number by 50 and you get the number of points. Simple...
Essentially it takes a lot of the accuracy out of the Hacker's Diet method. NO! you scream... less accuracy??? We should be measuring our calories to the 3rd decimal place, right? But in a diet, the goal is to try to stay on it, and having to obsess about every little calorie is very hard. Especially in food that you have no real control over, like a school cafeteria. Guesstimating make it realistic and followable.
I'm using his mathematical principles and creating my own version. Rather than planning out meals, I make changes for each meal. I started out by writing down what I eat for 2 weeks or so. That was as long as it took to detect patterns. In those patterns I looked for ways to cut 200-300 calories per day. It ended up being pretty simple. For example, I typically eat a sub sandwich and a cup of soup with a 20oz Coke every day for lunch. How to cut from that? Well, I started drinking water with lunch. There's a couple of hundred down already. I also looked at the soup and noticed that I eat 8 or so Saltines with it every time. That's 60-80 calories or so (I don't have the real numbers in front of me right now). I eat at McD's once a week or so. By switching from the large fries to small fries is 230 calories alone. Basically, this has resulted in the following philosophy on food, "Is there any way I can cut calories from this meal?" Cutting butter, sour cream, mayo, etc. are good ways to still eat where you want, what you want.
I weigh myself every day and measure my neck, chest, waist, hips and one thigh every 7 days. I walk on a treadmill, lift weights and other exercise as well as taking the 6 flights of stairs at work.
I use his "trend" weight concept on my weight and chart it. I then use the measurements, both keeping general track of them in a trend and using the waist measurement to determine lean body mass and fat percentage, and approximate needed calories.
Math: done in pounds
Trend weight = (Today's weight - Yesterday's trend)/10
Round that number to one decimal place.
Monthly loss = Initial Trend - Final Trend
Extra Calories Burned Per Day = (Monthly loss in pounds x 3500)/days in month
Lean Body Mass = (Trend weight x 1.082) - (Waist measurement in inches X 4.15) + 98.42
I use the trend weight on the day of measurement.
Fat Percentage = (Trend weight - Lean Body Mass)/Trend weight
Base Metabolic Rate = Lean Body Mass * 13.83
That's the number of calories needed daily to sustain your weight.
I chart weight and fat percentage. As long as fat percentage is going down, you're losing fat. Weight can go up when gaining muscle. And, since one pound of muscle burns 50 calories per day just sitting around, adding muscle is a good thing. I put it all in a spreadsheet that prints out on one piece of paper. Works pretty slick. I've been using this for about a month and I'm losing about a pound a week.
LetterJ
The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things