NOTE: This post originated as a 14 Feb 2011 email that I sent to the men in my church cell group (i.e. Bible study group). I have adjusted the date on this blog post to match the original email and made some minor edits. One of the guys in my cell group was highly motivated to lose a significant amount of weight over a short time period. He requested prayers and advice. That request prompted me to share my weight loss experience even though I was obviously failing at the time. Looking back, I find it interesting that I only shared the first two years of my EatWatch history with the guys. I think I was simply too embarrassed by my lack of dietary discipline to share the whole data set.

Guys:
Yesterday we discussed weight loss strategies. The one that worked for me (despite current evidence to the contrary 🙂 ) is called The Hacker’s Diet. See below for some notes I prepared a few years ago. As you read the following please keep in mind that this is what worked FOR ME. I am not pitching this as a universal solution – just sharing what worked FOR ME.

NOTE: I lost 35 lbs in the first 22 weeks of this diet, so this seems applicable to the weight loss objectives we discussed yesterday.

keys to The Hacker’s Diet

• calorie counting (yucky, but not as hard as I expected)
• daily weight tracking (uses exponentially smoothed moving average to show “true” weight)
• simplicity (a calorie, is a calorie, is a calorie and 3,500 calories = 1 lb )

tools and sample data

The attached spreadsheet has the formulas and about two years of my data for an example. The blue data points are in the chart (below) are the daily weights which vary quite a bit. The solid blue line is the exponentially smoothed moving average. The solid red lines are the calorie targets and the green data points are my estimates of calorie intake. You can see that I increased my calorie budget as I approached my weight loss target. This was to reward myself and execute a “soft landing” at the target.

SAE EatWatch log through spring 2008 [click on chart for a higher resolution version].

What went wrong for Shawn???

I began the Hacker’s diet in April 2006 and quit actively counting calories in early 2007. You can see from the chart that I lost pretty close to 50 lbs during that period. I continue to track my weight daily. Over the ensuing 4 years I have gained most of that back. What went wrong? My data shows that I have consistently gained 0.22 lbs/week over the last for 4 years. That’s about 110 calories/day – equivalent to a can of soda per day. Basically, I got lazy and undisciplined and have not countered this gradual weight creep. If only… If only… Sigh… The good news (if there is any) is that I have a weight loss tool that is absolutely proven to work (FOR ME). I just need to muster the discipline to use it again.

but counting calories is such a pain

Indeed it is, but not as bad as I had imagined. I am really pretty consistent in what I eat. I simply had to figure out the calories for items I regularly eat and then tabulate these as I went. I found a smartphone calorie counter app helped with the tabulation. Also, most restaurants now publish complete nutritional info (examples attached) and the USDA has some good resources.

This 2011 email concluded with a forward of my 2006 email on weight loss.