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Hacking Weight Loss: What I Learned Losing 30 Pounds
reifman writes The CDC reports that 69% of adult Americans are overweight or obese. Techies like us are at increased risk because of our sedentary lifestyles. Perhaps you even scoffed at Neilsen's recent finding that some Americans spend only 11 hours daily of screen time. Over the last nine months, I've lost 30 pounds and learned a lot about hacking weight loss and I did it without fad diets, step trackers, running or going paleo. No such discussion is complete without a link to the Hacker Diet.
Another thing is to eat slower. Put your knife and fork down between mouthfulls.
More lean meats and proteins (fish, chicken breast, etc). Cut back on the carbs, cut back on the sugars. More fiber in your diet. Drink more water and less soda.
How fricking complicated is it to eat less than you burn?
Calories and Macros
Basic Terminology
1/ BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate): The amount of calories you need to consume to maintain if you were comatose (base level).
2/ NEAT (Non-Exercise Associated Thermogenesis): The calorie of daily activity that is NOT exercise (eg: washing, walking, talking, shopping, working). ie: INCIDENTAL EXERCISE! It is something that everyone has a good amount of control over.
3/ EAT (Exercise Associated Thermogenesis): The calorie requirements associated with planned exercise. Unless someone is doing a whole heap of exercise (eg: two or more hrs training a day) it usually doesn't add a stack of calories to your requirements (30 minutes of 'elliptical training' isn't going to burn 6000 cals)
4/ TEF (Thermic effect of feeding): The calorie expenditure associated with eating. This is NOT dependent on MEAL FREQUENCY. It is a % of TOTAL CALORIES CONSUMED (and 15% of 3 x 600 cal meals is the same as 15% of 6 x 300 cal meals). It varies according to MACRONUTRIENT and FIBER content. For most mixed diets, it is something around 15%. Protein is higher (up to 25%), carbs are variable (between 5-25%), and fats are low (usually less than 5%). So more protein, more carbs, and more fiber = HIGHER TEF. More FAT = LOWER TEF.
5/ TEE (Total Energy Expenditure): The total calories you require. It = sum of the above (BMR + NEAT + EAT + TEF).
To make things simple, NEAT + EAT + TEF is often just calculated through a daily ACTIVITY FACTOR.
How much do I Need?
A multitude of things impact MAINTENANCE calorie needs.
- Age & sex (males generally need > females)
- Total weight & lean mass (more lean mass = more needed)
- Physiological status (eg: sick or injured, pregnant, growth')
- Hormones
- Exercise level (more activity = more needed)
- Daily activity level (more activity = more needed)
- Diet (that is - macronutrient intake)
In order to calculate your requirements the most accurate measure is Calorimetry [the measure of 'chemical reactions' in your body & the heat produced by these reactions], either directly (via a calorimeter where the heat you produce is measured) or indirectly (eg: HOOD studies where they monitor how much oxygen you use/ carbon dioxide and nitrogen you excrete over a given time). But these are completely impractical for most people & we rely on pre-set formula to calculate our needs.
Estimating Requirements
The simplest method uses a standard 'calories per unit weight (usually kgs)'. They calculate a TOTAL CAL REQUIREMENT (TEE). That means you DO NOT need to x by an ACTIVITY FACTOR. They are:
- 26 to 30 kcals/kg/day for normal, healthy individuals with sedentary lifestyles doing little physical activity [12.0-14 kcal/pound]
- 31 to 37 kcal/kg/day for those involved in light to moderate activity 3-5 x a week with moderately active lifestyles [14-16 kcal/ pound]
- 38 to 40 kcals/kg/day for those involved in vigorous activity and highly active jobs [16-18 kcal/ pound].
For those involved in HEAVY training (eg: athletes) - the demand is greater:
- 41 to 50 kcals/kg/day for those involved in moderate to heavy training (for example: 15-20 hrs/ week training) [18.5-22 kcal/ pound]
- 50 or above kcals/kg/day for those involved in heavy to extreme training [> 22 kcal/ pound]
THEN - There are also other formula which calculate BMR. For these you then ADD AN ACTIVITY FACTOR TO REACH TEE. These are:
1/ Harris-Benedict formula: Very inaccurate & derived from studies on LEAN, YOUNG, ACTIVE males in 1919. Notorious for OVERESTIMATING requirements, especially in the overweight. DON'T USE IT!
MEN: BMR = 66 + [13.7 x weight (kg)] + [5 x height (cm)] - [6.76 x age (years)]
WOMEN: BMR = 655 + [9.6 x weight (kg)] + [1.8 x height (cm)] - [4.7 x age (years)]
2/Mifflin-St Jeor: Developed in the 1990s and more realistic in todays settings. Still doesn't cons
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If you want to lose weight, you have to go into the process with the goal of changing your lifestyle permanently, otherwise the weight will return when you finish the diet.
Go into the weight loss process with the right mindset - a permanent change of what and how you eat, along with any changes in your activity regimen.
The reason most people regain the wieght they lose on a diet is that they view a diet as something temporary, which it is.
Don't go on a diet (Hacker's Diet or otherwise), but do make a permanent change to your lifestyle.
East less calories? Gotcha.
The problem isn't so much "too many calories" consumed, but that the sedimentary lifestyle people are accustomed doesn't require even close to the 2000 calorie "standard diet". If you drive to work, sit behind a desk all day, go home and even do mundane, unimpactful chores, like vacuuming and wiping things down, and average person would be lucky to need maybe 1200-1300 calories as their TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). Even drinking nothing but water, and consuming mostly calorie empty foods like lettuce/salad, you still need your macronutrients, which when adding carbs and fat now will take you to your quite low TDEE with very little food/effort.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
I used to have 2 sugars in my tea or coffee. After I quit smoking, I found it disgusting because my taste buds started working again. Now I have tea with no sugar, and coffee with half a sugar.
I believe my experience isn't the norm, however.
Neither was one called "Salad" or "Tofu".
Just eat WHOLE, unprocessed foods. Tons of veggies and fruit (you can't really over do these, seriously people this is where we get our nutrients). Nuts and seeds and other healthy fats, avocados and some meat protein. It really is that simple. STOP EATING PROCESSED "food". Start with completely cutting out junk, no cookies, cake, donuts, candy, nothing from a box. Eat only bread that is made using WHOLE ingredients, which means 99.99% of the bread in the grocery store is off limits and if you're in the mid-west/south probably 100% of the bread is off limits. Eat as much organic food and ingredients as possible. Yes people the GMO'd and herbicide and pesticides are actually bad. The science isn't there to support it because the money isn't there to do the research. Monsanto has seen to that. Stick with what nature actually intended and we as a whole will become a healthier population and see diseases drop, cancer drop, autism drop, and people will be happier.
THIS IS NOT A DIET to lose weight, it's a diet in the sense of what you eat for living, permanently for the rest of your life.
STOP EATING OUT!!!!!
60 years ago families rarely ate out, now few kids have ever sat at a dinner table, let alone had a real meal that wasn't McDonald's or mac-n-cheese or some other microwave, heat up frozen "food" bullshit.
You didn't hack crap. You just acted like a reasonable person and not a mindless sedentary eating machine. That's like walking and saying you "hacked sitting" to get you from point A to point B.
"Whee! 30 pounds! I'm a weight loss wonder story fit for the front page!" It's a good start. Maybe it was all you needed to lose. I know several people (myself included) down by a hundred or more. None of us claim to be experts.
Among young people with all this attention to detailed fitness numbers and the gadgets that generate them.
I've dropped 30lbs with no real effort
So all that really means is that you're still a flabby fuck.
Do some sit-ups, push-ups. ffs, go hop on a bike for a half-hour.
Start off slow. Before you know it, you will be pushing yourself.
Take if from a former flabby fuck.
I would note that the guy who dies at 65 with a Bic Mac in hand appears to be happier than the guy who dies at 82 on a treadmill sweating his bloody ass off.
Really? Some fat guy with high cholesterol, a non-functioning penis, out of breath from walking from his car to McDonalds looks happier than the 82 year old who has a fully functioning body and still wears out his old lady? Besides, he's likely to die instead while running outside on a bright sunshiny day or harvesting in his garden. Even if he is in the gym, he died while doing what he wanted to do and outlived the 65 year old fattie by almost 20 years, win!
Only I can judge you.
Glycemic index is the immediate response, glycemic load is how much sugar you took in. Sorry, I confused your responses with Tablizer's who mentioned he was still plump.
Yes, beer does contain carbs and should also be eliminated. Your tone makes it sound as if eliminating that is out of the question or beyond the pale.
I am pretty close to zero carbs, it is not impossible but it does require work and discipline, like anything that is worth doing in life. Any extra calories from carbs that are not needed immediately need to be cleared as they are digested as you know. Since most of us lead sedentary lives, that means most of them will need to be cleared(stored) as they are digested. Fat on the other hand can happily float about without causing the body to panic and cause an insulin response. This is why eating fat is much healthier, the body doesn't feel a compelling need to shove it into storage to maintain a healthy/low blood sugar level. I think we agree more than we disagree as I also believe that losing weight on a low carb diet is the best way to do it. That some people are too weak to do it is another matter.
Only I can judge you.