Dieting, weight loss, warning
I want to point out that what I'm doing here is probably a bit extreme. ⚠
️
I'm approximately on a deficit of 1000 kcal per day, meaning that I eat a little over half of what my body needs. I have 400 kcal per meal, and that's… not a lot. :/
I have to be strategic, and pick food that's high on protein and not too energy-dense. On some days, I'm really hungry. In social situations, I envy people who just eat what they want.
Dieting, weight loss, background
I got the idea that it's an option to lose weight that fast from the book "Fettlogik Überwinden" by Nadja Hermann (of @erzaehlmirnix@mastodon.social fame), which is a science-based look at weight loss and the risks of overweight.
Like her, I find that fast weight loss motivates me a lot! Instead of doing this for a year, it only takes 5 months…
One precaution I take is to take a comprehensive vegan multivitamin, so I don't run into deficiencies while I'm eating this little.
Dieting, weight loss, logbook
Two weeks over, time for another report! I ate 1206 kcal/day on average! With that energy, I could've powered a heating blanket for a full week! ♨
️
- Since I last checked in, I lost approximately 2 kg.
- I'm now halfway to my (somewhat arbitrary) goal! \o/
- During the first week, I experimented with eating more protein, and arrived at 96.6 g/day! It didn't make me very happy though – to get there within my energy limit, I had to chug a lot of protein shakes…
Dieting, weight loss, warning
I want to point out that what I'm doing here is probably a bit extreme. ⚠️
I'm approximately on a deficit of 1000 kcal per day, meaning that I eat a little over half of what my body needs. I have 400 kcal per meal, and that's… not a lot. :/
I have to be strategic, and pick food that's high on protein and not too energy-dense. On some days, I'm really hungry. In social situations, I envy people who just eat what they want.
Dieting, weight loss, logbook
This week, I ate an average of 1242 kcal per day! That's the energy required to type 50 million characters on my Thinkpad, and enough to type out 1/5th of the current Mastodon source code!
- I ate an average of 81 g of protein per day! I still want to raise this a bit more.
- I ran 27 km this week. Marathon coming up at the end of April! 🏃
I think I can lower the frequency of these check-ins, so see you in a fortnight!
Dieting, weight loss, logbook
Two weeks over, time for another report! I ate 1206 kcal/day on average! With that energy, I could've powered a heating blanket for a full week! ♨️
- Since I last checked in, I lost approximately 2 kg.
- I'm now halfway to my (somewhat arbitrary) goal! \o/
- During the first week, I experimented with eating more protein, and arrived at 96.6 g/day! It didn't make me very happy though – to get there within my energy limit, I had to chug a lot of protein shakes…
Dieting, weight loss, logbook
Over the past week, I ate 10577 kcal!
Which is what Michael Phelps (the most decorated Olympian athlete of all time) ate PER DAY during his training! 🏊
- I allowed myself to dig in on two days, which felt great!
- I still only ate an average of 1511 kcal/day, which is below what I burn per day.
- I've lost over 10% of my body weight since the beginning of November!
Dieting, weight loss, logbook
This week, I ate an average of 1242 kcal per day! That's the energy required to type 50 million characters on my Thinkpad, and enough to type out 1/5th of the current Mastodon source code!
- I ate an average of 81 g of protein per day! I still want to raise this a bit more.
- I ran 27 km this week. Marathon coming up at the end of April! 🏃
I think I can lower the frequency of these check-ins, so see you in a fortnight!
Dieting, weight loss, logbook
Another week over! On average, I ate 1209 kcal/day.
With that amount of energy, I could've powered a soldering iron all week! 🔌
- I was really hungry on a day where I ran for 2 hours, and I allowed myself an extra 517 kcal that day.
- I ate 69 g of protein per day, on average. It seems advisable to raise that a bit while dieting, to retain lean body mass.
The coming week might not be as consistent, as I totally plan to indulge on at least two evenings! 😋
Dieting, weight loss, logbook
Over the past week, I ate 10577 kcal!
Which is what Michael Phelps (the most decorated Olympian athlete of all time) ate PER DAY during his training! 🏊
- I allowed myself to dig in on two days, which felt great!
- I still only ate an average of 1511 kcal/day, which is below what I burn per day.
- I've lost over 10% of my body weight since the beginning of November!
Dieting, weight loss, logbook
Time for a report one week later!
- On average, I ate 1220 kcal/day.
- That's the equivalent of 50 pieces of popcorn per hour, if I ate nothing but popcorn all day!
- I now weigh 80 kg, which is the lowest I've been in 7 years.
- I'm now officially in the "normal range" of the BMI (which is an imperfect measure, but still).
Graph generated with https://github.com/blinry/nom:
Dieting, weight loss, logbook
Another week over! On average, I ate 1209 kcal/day.
With that amount of energy, I could've powered a soldering iron all week! 🔌
- I was really hungry on a day where I ran for 2 hours, and I allowed myself an extra 517 kcal that day.
- I ate 69 g of protein per day, on average. It seems advisable to raise that a bit while dieting, to retain lean body mass.
The coming week might not be as consistent, as I totally plan to indulge on at least two evenings! 😋
Dieting, weight loss, gratitude
Thanks for following along here, and cheering me on! Having your accountability here (and having fun with the energy calculations) was super motivating to get this started!
Dieting, weight loss, logbook
Time for a report one week later!
- On average, I ate 1220 kcal/day.
- That's the equivalent of 50 pieces of popcorn per hour, if I ate nothing but popcorn all day!
- I now weigh 80 kg, which is the lowest I've been in 7 years.
- I'm now officially in the "normal range" of the BMI (which is an imperfect measure, but still).
Graph generated with https://github.com/blinry/nom:
Dieting, weight loss, tools
For drawing the weight graphs and estimating calorie requirements, I used my own little tool, https://github.com/blinry/nom, which I've been using over the past 8 years now! <3
Dieting, weight loss, gratitude
Thanks for following along here, and cheering me on! Having your accountability here (and having fun with the energy calculations) was super motivating to get this started!
Dieting, weight loss, tools
For tracking calories, I used https://cronometer.com, which performed flawlessly! I tried a bunch of other tracking apps (MyFitnessPal, Lose It, Yazio, FDDB Extender), but they all miss some crucial features for me. Cronometer can:
- Create custom "recipes", and then log portions of it.
- Visualize the macro nutrient percentages (protein/carbs/fat).
- Scan the barcode of most packaged food items to log them
Dieting, weight loss, tools
For drawing the weight graphs and estimating calorie requirements, I used my own little tool, https://github.com/blinry/nom, which I've been using over the past 8 years now! <3
Dieting, weight loss, reflection
Eating a lot of protein seemed to keep me satiated longer. I often started the day with a simple protein shake.
Making sure to have enough calories "left over" for eating in the evenings seemed crucial to me. Also, lots of voluminous veggies!
Yeah, I often was hungry, but I somehow got used to it. "It's the feeling of losing weight", right?
I'm really happy with how this experiment went, and I plan to keep going! :) Might switch to weekly check-ins here.
Dieting, weight loss, tools
For tracking calories, I used https://cronometer.com, which performed flawlessly! I tried a bunch of other tracking apps (MyFitnessPal, Lose It, Yazio, FDDB Extender), but they all miss some crucial features for me. Cronometer can:
- Create custom "recipes", and then log portions of it.
- Visualize the macro nutrient percentages (protein/carbs/fat).
- Scan the barcode of most packaged food items to log them
blinry