2023 results: No projects done, but I did read and listen to some books. Also closed some tabs but opened new ones so no real progress on that front.
2024 goals: A lot less Elon content. Maybe give some of those projects another shot.
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I did not, in fact, read Infinite Jest.
I did read a bunch of books this year, but Iāve found myself getting distracted any time someone on a podcast or in person makes a recommendation that sounds good - Iāll immediately put it in my library queue, and then feel obligated to read it when itās available. Which is fine, except that all of the new recommendations crowded out books that Iāve been wanting to read for a long time.
This year, Iām going to try to prioritize reading the books I actually own and in many cases have been looking forward to for a long time. This yearās priority stack:
(Trust by Hernan Diaz should also be in that pile. Christmas gift from the in-laws, but Iām not sure where I put it.)
Weāll see how it goes.
Other more boring resolutions are to be kinder and run a marathon.
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Curious how that Posnanski book is
If itās 1/10th as good as The Baseball 100, itāll be a great read.
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While I dont generally do resolutions, the new year is coinciding with me beginning a weight loss journey. Iāve succesfully logged all meals the firs two days, stood an extra 90 minutes at work yesterday (and will again today) and cooked all meals at home the last two days. Ive also increased my water intake from 50-100 oz per day up to 160 the last two days (giant thermos with oz markers for Christmas is a godsend.)
It feels like this time its for real. My tracker seems ambitious (curious what others think) but im ready to try.
Tracker stats and goals - 317 starting weight, 220 goal weight, tracker imagines that I will reach goal in 11 months at 2400 calories/day (this is likely more than I intend to eat. First two days has me at about 1800/day.)
Does that seem obtainable? 220 honestly seems like a distant dream (likely around 22 years since Ive sniffed that number) so getting there in less than a year seemsā¦ aggressive? I dunno, maybe Im wrong.
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How old are you? Unfortunately, the older you get the harder it is to lose weight. 100 pounds in 11 months is < 10 pounds a month which is around 2 pounds a week which is aggressive but not impossible. Just remember that every step of the calorie counting process is lying to you so keep that in mind if you plateaux.
Iām starting from close to the same spot you are; 308 starting weight, 57, Iāve been working at home the last few years and it is killing me. Iām starting from basically no fitness. Have done 30 minutes of walking the last 2 days for the first time in months, when it takes more than 30 minutes of walking on the flats to close my 30 minute exercise ring Iāll start pushing the duration. Going to see how much hills suck this weekend, but thatās my plan is to, find hills to walk up.
Iāve been using Factor for a few months and I think that is helping keep the amount of leftovers down and just need to keep working on not bringing crap into the house or eating out by myself pretty much at all. 3 days down so farā¦
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Im curious what this means.
40 btw, im not going into this expecting miracles and plan for this to be a full time lifestyle change, so if it dorsnt happen in 11 months Im not gonna be arsed, just hoping to see steady decline.
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I bought The Power Broken in 2009, and itās been sitting on my bookshelf since - I know it was 2009 because I found the receipt in it.
I started on it - what gave me a kick, not sure if youāre into podcasts, but 99% Invisible is going to do a monthly podcast on the book - they said roughly 100 pages a month - with the main hosts being Roman Mars and Elliot Kalan. First episode also features Conan OāBrien. It got me to finally pick it up.
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The values on foods is not super accurate and the amount your watch or fit bit tells you youāve consumed is also not very accurate. They are probably consistent though so you can use it to judge how hard you worked on the same activity over time.
If you can maintain the calorie deficit you should see some impressive losses at your age. No pressure :)
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Thank you, no pressure taken. Its the first step in a lifestyle change. If it doesnt work Ill likely go with the surgery.
I want to live past 65. Not a ton of guys over 3 bills get that far. If I cant do it by making the lifestyle changes, I will give up and get the assist in order to live longer.
But goddamn, I hope it works without it. I would love to be able to sleep without being hooked up to a machine again. At least my blood sugar is in check.
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I used to use myfitnesspal for tracking and it always seem to overestimate weight loss based on calorie intake for me. Looking back at my logs when i lost 30 pounds from mid Jan to mid June 2020 i did:
Average daily calorie intake: 2100
45-60 min of excercising 3-5 times a week, mix of weights and cardio.
Best way is just tracking and adjusting your calorie intake if you arenāt seeing results. This is easier if youāre eating a lot of the same stuff every week, you can just decrease portion sizes
Counting calories accurately can be difficult or near impossible if you arenāt making most of your own food. I donāt know how reliable pre packaged or prepped food nutritional info is but it wouldnāt shock me if itās not very accurate.
You should have a decent scale for weighing everything. When I did it I entered everything I thought I was putting in my body, a few grams of butter on bread, the oil you might use to roast veggies, any sauces or condiments etc. Maybe thatās overkill but it worked for me and as someone with a science background busting out my scale to portion out whatever was not a big deal. Iām already transferring it to a plate or container may as well weigh it at the same time.
A note about proteins that Iām guessing many people miss. When you cook meat youāre going to lose 20-30% of the weight to water and fat loss. So if you weigh out a portion of chicken for consumption after cooking that 6 oz piece was probably more like 8 oz raw. Most or all calorie/nutritional info for proteins are based on raw weight so enter in 8 oz in your tracker.
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Would it be best to weigh the meat raw and use that number?
If that works yeah. I was always cooking large or multiple pieces and then portioning them out after cooking for multiple meals so it wasnāt really possible unless I wanted to try and track each individual chicken breast/thigh etc.
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My experience is similar. I donāt want to debate it, but the effect of exercise on weight loss will decrease over time as your body adapts. Ofc exercise has value beyond weight loss, so you should still do it.
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Matt,
Ignoring everything else for now, but I think if you average 2400/day for 11 months you will have done a fantastic job. If you try to eat anywhere close to 1800/day for 11 months (on average that is), I think thatās 5% to work out, if that.
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Getting active is almost as important as losing the weight. Fit and fat is better than just fat. Figure out a way to stay active, keep track of what gasses you now and see how that improves over time. Iām in Colorado so it may be more noticeable here, but getting dressed didnāt used to leave me windedā¦
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TLDR: I think 2400 cals / day will probably get you to -43 pounds in 11 months.
The most important thing IMO is getting solid ground truth data on your actual daily calories burned (i.e. living + walking around etc). That means diligently tracking calories in (food logging) and weight change, so you can fill in the ācalories outā part of the equation with confidence.
For reference Iām 6ā2" 230, and mine is ~2500 calories/day. I plugged my numbers in here Basal Metabolic Rate Calculator and got that the ālittle/no exerciseā level aligns with ~2500.
For you, taking 6ā0" 317 I get 2850.
Losing 97 pounds (3500 calories/pound) is a 339,500 calorie deficit over 335 days (11 months) or 1013 calories / day.
If you eat 2400 cals / day (and 2850 is right) youād be -43 pounds in 11 months - which is a very respectable weight loss btw. If you wanted to get to -97 pounds youād need to be around 1850 cals / day. Again just based on my math.
I think the other things to consider are
- Itās important to be aggressive and diligent in logging, every calorie you forget or undercount (and itās tempting to undercount!) still counts in your body
- To a first approximation exercise is worth 0 calories - most calorie numbers (fitbit, peloton, etc.) are pretty far off and exercise is totally valuable for itās own reward, plus not counting exercise calories is consistent with principle (1) and gives you a bit of a tailwind.
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How doable is something like 1800 cals/day for someone my size who has been maintaining at this 315 for about 3 years?
Which I guess means Ive been averaging 2850 a day during that time.
Itās a pretty big cut. If I were you I would aim for 1) 2000 cals/day - which is just a bit more grace and 2) -10% as an initial milestone to really focus on diligent logging while losing weight to build that ground truth.
Doing 2k/day would have you losing 1.7 pounds / week (pretty fast) and put you at -10% in early May, on track for -88 pounds over the year.
At least for me the tactics that work are delaying eating until the day (iām never super hungry in the am) and reducing or eliminating calories from liquid, then go to bed at a reasonable hour to eliminate late night snacks.
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Really, really good. Thereās much more in here that I was already familiar with than there is in the Baseball 100, but the writing is so good that itās like Iām seeing those moments again for the first time.