Saturday, June 30, 2012

The "Free Lunch" Weight Loss Plan v.013

I continue to climb at least 20 extra flights of stairs per day. I also continue to drink at least one extra glass of water. That's it. It takes about 4-5 minutes to do the bare minimum.


Click to enlarge.

It was a good month. Seasonal effects now appear to be offering a tailwind.


Click to enlarge.

I am satisfied with the long-term trend. I am 8 pounds lighter than I was a year ago. I have done nothing consciously to limit food intake. Hunger is not a part of this plan.

The trend in red is a basic exponential trend line. It has a flaw though. I know for sure that my weight will not reach zero pounds. I will stabilize at a lower weight that is yet to be determined.

The trend in blue assumes that my weight will stabilize at 190 pounds. This is just a crude guess. I won't know for sure until more data comes in. I tried to estimate it using the data I have so far. It's too noisy. The best fit was the one that said my weight was going to zero. I really don't think that's going to happen, lol.

The following chart shows why the system is working and why I think it will continue to work.


Click to enlarge.

The chart shows what a 10 calories per day (equivalent to roughly 1/25th of a Twix candy bar) surplus does to a person's weight over time. The tiniest of changes in one's behavior can have huge effects over the long-term. By climbing 20 extra flights, I'm theoretically burning about 70 extra calories each day. I'm probably eating a bit more to compensate, but apparently not enough to matter. Further, by climbing the 20 extra flights of stairs per day I'm also more likely to want to do other things that burn calories. For example, last night I went on a 25 minute walk. The key here is that I wanted to do it. I did not feel obligated.

I'm heading across the state to spend time with my family tomorrow. I'll be there about a week. This will probably be my last post until I get back. Have a great 4th of July! :)

See Also:
The "Free Lunch" Weight Loss Plan v.000

5 comments:

Troy said...

Also, getting in better shape also raises your resting metabolism, plus the act of exercising requires your body to "recover", which also burns up calories in the background.

Good month for me:

http://i.imgur.com/0Hb9S.png

Lost another 2 lbs and the college-era 501s are getting ever-so-less impossible to fit in. The spare tire effect is turning back into the baby bump it was in the 1990s, too.

In other news, I see Science has confirmed my original research that lower-carb / higher-fat is the way to go to lose weight.

That approach certainly worked for me in 2004 and no complaints now.

Hope to get back into those 501s by fall. . .

Stagflationary Mark said...

Troy,

Congrats!

Your chart doesn't have as much (if any) seasonality to it. I'm curious why you think that is. Does it exist for you? Or do you work harder to compensate?

Troy said...

Not really doing much exercise on this, plus we had a fabulous winter for that matter so I was able to get out more than usual.

The basis of this diet is basically extreme portion control. I eat a regular breakfast -- cold cereal and maybe a banana.

Lunch is usually a serving of almonds, cheese, maybe crackers & ham, that sort of thing, just enough to get me comfortably to dinner.

Dinner is a normal meal to fill out the day's calories.

Unintentionally, this is also doing a "16/8" intermittent fast, which allegedly helps on the fat-burning.

I've only gone off the regimen three times -- at the end of the year, when I visited family down in LA and ate what I wanted.

Then in March when I went off for 10 days and again ate what I wanted. I balanced that with a lot more exercise.

So my food intake has been incredibly regular day-in, day-out, for a year now.

One thing I do not do is snack at all after dinner. I might have a 2nd treat before or after exercise, but generally it's not any more calories than the exercise itself.

It's amazing how much money you can save living off of 50 lbs of fat. That's 175,000 kcal, over 300 Big Macs.

Here's hoping I won't be needing those fat savings in the future . . .

Stagflationary Mark said...

Troy,

It's amazing how much money you can save living off of 50 lbs of fat. That's 175,000 kcal, over 300 Big Macs.

Your way is more cost effective than mine. I more than likely eat ever so slightly more while simultaneously increasing the wear and tear on my stairway, my stair climber, and/or my shoes. ;)

Here's hoping I won't be needing those fat savings in the future . . .

On the one hand, a nation of excess may overshoot the mean on the way down. Sigh.

On the other hand, there's this.

Unknown said...

I saw some useful articles over here. I would like to relate my experience. I was overweight due to work.Just imagine working from morning to night and eating those unhealthy stuff like pizza,chinese food etc. I decided i had enough of these nonsense and pick myself up. I read various website and formulated my own diet and work out exercise.It was tough initially but i persisted. I cut down my intake on those oily food(but i still enjoy them!), step up my gym workout and bought some natural slimming tea from a website called haroldwilsonhealthcare.After some months,it paid off and i lost around 10 pounds.I regained my self confidence and ha ha great sex with wife.So it takes some hard work and a great slimming tea to acheive result.For those who are in the process,persist!