Nutrition and Weight Loss Details

After my remarkable weight loss over the past month, and in particular the last few days (more on that in the next post), I've had some of my friends tell me that they didn't think that what I am doing is very healthy. And I do think that if I wasn't monitoring myself very closely their criticism would be correct, as most workers in the  health and nutrition field caution that losing more than 2 pounds per week is excessive, and that a better weight loss number is around one pound per week. The web application (and iPhone app) I'm using, MyFitnessPal, prevents a user from even calculating a weight loss program of less than 2 pounds per week - of course, as long as you stay under the calorie targets you can lose as much as you want, to the point of starvation if you don't make sensible decisions. So I'd like to examine what I'm doing to lose weight, and you can decide for yourselves whether I'm thinking this through or not.


We started the "diet challenge" at work by weighing in and committing to the competition on Monday, January 7, 2013. My weight at work was 235.0 and at home that morning 226.6 - the differences in weight were due to clothing and weigh-in times: at work it was after lunch and at home before leaving for work. As a group, a bunch of us went to a local restaurant and really piled on some food as it would be the last time we could gorge before food-austerity began. I went back and calculated that lunch and figured out that I had eaten about 1200 calories of regular food (not including the bread, sweet corn-bread and butter that was served to the table). If you're surprised that it was so many calories, I wasn't, as I have done some bulking-up for heavy-lifting programs in the past to the point where I was eating 5000-6000 calories a day (basically, the only way to do this is by eating "mega bulk" type supplements as shakes several times a day, along with mass quantities of food).

Because I had eaten so much for lunch and the "start gate" had been flung open, I compensated at dinner by consuming only about 200 calories. Along with breakfast and some snacks, my total for day one was 1634. MyFitnessPal calculated a basal metabolism figure of 1768 for me for the day, based on my weight and age due to the cardiovascular exercise I did that evening before dinner - that exercise added 408 calories to my base of 1360. So the way the software works - if I wasn't doing any exercise and wasn't worried about calorie reduction, I could eat up to 2250 calories per day and maintain a "steady state" of my current weight. To lose about 2 pounds per week, MFP reduces your caloric intake by a safe amount, in my case, the new goal is 1360 (the app projects a weight loss of 1.8 lbs/week). If you do cardiovascular exercise, the effort is given a caloric score, which increases the amount of calories you can eat for the day.

So the way I've been using the software - since I've been doing some cardiovascular exercise at least 6 days a week, I've been targeting the 1360 calories even on those days when I can eat more - in that way I've managed to burn off about double the weight as I've been averaging about 4 pounds per week instead of 2 pounds (I do go over that number and approach the target calorie figure, but generally save that for the weekends, banking up the reduction during the week). Since I've been on several fad diets in the past, I also know that the faster you burn the food, the more you need to supplement what you're eating with a good range of vitamins and minerals (you usually get those from the foods you eat and it's still important to maintain a good balance, especially by adding in lots of green vegetables and fruits, but since you're reducing your consumption it's wise to up your vitamin intake - not excessively, but you should be consuming more than what's normally recommended, especially in the water soluble vitamins like C). It's very important that you're honest about your assessment of portion sizes - MFT does a good job providing the nutritional analysis based on portions, but if you fudge then the calculations will be off. When I look at the nutritional information, I pay more attention to the weekly totals and averages than I do to the daily consumption. Studies have shown that you can make up for deficits on subsequent days as long as you're fairly consistent on a week-to-week basis.

So here's a sample of the totals I've been writing about, one week apart: 

Tuesday, 2013.01.08 (Day 2 or first full day): 

Totals	1,509	34	81	110	2,589
Your Daily Goal	1,564	215	51	58	2,500
Remaining	55	181	-30	-52	-89
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium
	*You've earned 204 extra calories from exercise today

Tuesday, 2013.01.15 

Totals	1,307	111	62	83	1,452
Your Daily Goal	1,557	214	51	58	2,500
Remaining	250	103	-11	-25	1,048
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium
	*You've earned 197 extra calories from exercise today

Tuesday, 2013.01.22:

Totals	1,412	80	59	135	1,679
Your Daily Goal	1,641	225	54	61	2,500
Remaining	229	145	-5	-74	821
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium
	*You've earned 281 extra calories from exercise today

Tuesday, 2013, 01.29:

Totals	1,243	84	59	98	1,827
Your Daily Goal	1,767	242	58	66	2,500
Remaining	524	158	-1	-32	673
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium
	*You've earned 407 extra calories from exercise today

Negative numbers mean I've gone over the target (so bad, mkay?). I don't worry too much about going over the recommended Fat or Protein numbers as I believe the Carbs target is skewed and that you just don't really need that many carbs (blood tests are the only way to determine if the fat is detrimental to your health, so make sure you go in for regular physicals as I do). I do pay a lot of attention to the salt intake. Recently we tried a Japanese restaurant and the following day I could feel all the water retention due to the excessive salt. I don't use salt at all at home so as long as I stay away from processed foods and most restaurants, I should be able to control the salt intake (and for the most part I've been fairly successful at that). You can see by the numbers that I end each day around the base calorie target of 1360 - on the weekends I'm much closer to the target number, as already mentioned.

I'm thinking that if I feel any hint of dizziness, light-headedness or incoherence, I'll make some adjustments to the the food intake or see a doctor - starvation can be dangerous so I'm not taking it lightly. Right now, I haven't changed much in what I'm eating (still a mix of carbs, proteins and fats, although my ratio of carbs to proteins is lower on the carb side, higher on the protein side as I think the accepted targets are skewed as already mentioned) as I wanted to limit the number of variables as much as possible for the experiment. It's pretty much straight calorie reduction and exercise - note that I have increased both the intensity and extended the time of my cardiovascular workouts. I feel great - no headaches, starvation or other pains. I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I'm also drinking about 8-10 liters of filtered water a day (sometimes more).

One aspect of my quick weight loss I think I've mentioned but would like to elaborate on, as it's impacting my overall approach, is the ramp up to the current program. I started going to the gym regularly about 7 months ago (so 6 months prior to the weight reduction effort). This allowed me to bulk up a bit, turn flab into muscle, and get used to the layout of the gym, so my workouts are more efficient. It also allowed my body to acclimate easier than some of my coworkers bodies to working out on a daily basis, as I've been doing it for so much longer than them, which has resulted in an immediate observable weight loss. I think this is giving me an edge.

Next post will be the results of week 4, the midpoint of the 60 day weight challenge (we're calling it REALLoser at work).

-- John