Data Driven Weight Loss: Losing 66 pounds and gaining a six pack in 8 months • Hacker News Board

Re: Data Driven Weight Loss: Losing 66 pounds and gaining a six pack in 8 months

#61

Post by sidlls » Fri, Aug 04, 2017, 10:01 PM UTC

JamesBarney wrote: post #50

vamerock wrote: post #31

Don't let the fact that he was 24 deter you. Over at r/bodyweightfitness, there are hundreds of people who started above 45 and are in better shapes than 20 year olds. Obesity is now a taboo topic in tech because you might unfortunately step on the toes of a few sensitive people and be labelled a fat shamer. This is not the case.Obesity in tech is a disease on it's own and it needs to be fought with a sharp edged pit…

"Sustainable weight loss is achievable by everyone, whether you're 40 or 50 years or 400 pounds or 600 pounds." While I applaud those individuals that have kept off weight long term, the science disagrees that is an achievable goal for everyone.(only about 5% of people who successfully lose large amounts of weight will keep it off long term) For example here is what happened to the contestants on the biggest loser. h…

The "Biggest Loser" contestants undergo an extremely rapid weightloss regimen. It's not clear that similar slowdowns would impact more gradual weight loss regimens, or that it would affect people who start dieting at a lower (but still fat) weight.

Re: Data Driven Weight Loss: Losing 66 pounds and gaining a six pack in 8 months

#62

Post by dsacco » Fri, Aug 04, 2017, 10:01 PM UTC

vikiomega9 wrote: post #47

dsacco wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cardio on its own is very sustainable.

Yes in general. What I meant to say is for someone like me, I had trouble with what I ate, for example overeating after a cardio session. Understanding this and changing behaviour is a lot harder as compared to building more muscle which is "sustainable" in terms of a larger TDEE that's evenly spread out. Unless I'm mistaken building muscle is far more efficient than bursts of cardio. HIIT seems to work on a similar…

I'm a little confused by what you mean. I'm not a nutritionist, but I am very active in both running and weight lifting (in other words, I have a lot of personal results, but take my opinions as qualified observations, not educated prescriptions). They're targeted to sufficiently different goals that I wouldn't agree you can make an efficiency comparison for weight loss. Realistically I wouldn't prescribe either for weight loss, and I'd personally suggest anyone looking to partake in one of those activities reach a healthy weight first. The likelihood of injury in distance running, sprinting and weight lifting is far higher for someone starting with a poor base weight.

As for the specific exercises: HIIT will train fast twitch muscle fibers, which is more similar to weight training than long distance cardio is, but neither is really comparable to weight training (precisely because of the TDEE increase, which you mentioned). Sprinting and weight training complement each other but quickly diverge in outcomes if you do one or the other.

If I understand you correctly, you're talking about the way in which additional muscle on the body increases daily energy expenditure overall, which cardio does not achieve in the same way. But that's (in my opinion) a poor way to calibrate your training - if you're optimizing for weight loss and you find yourself hungrier when you exercise, you're likely going to find yourself hungrier when your caloric needs increase in general. This will happen regardless of which particular exercise you engage in, which means it's a problem to be conquered independent of the exercise.

Controlled weight loss (or gain) is most effectively achieved by understanding what your body actually needs for survival and strategically increasing or decreasing that. Exercise is helpful for altering the composition of your mass, but it's relatively negligible (hundreds of calories per day) for controlling the amount of mass you have.

Re: Data Driven Weight Loss: Losing 66 pounds and gaining a six pack in 8 months

#63

Post by Blackthorn » Fri, Aug 04, 2017, 10:04 PM UTC

sidlls wrote: post #54

vamerock wrote: post #31

Don't let the fact that he was 24 deter you. Over at r/bodyweightfitness, there are hundreds of people who started above 45 and are in better shapes than 20 year olds. Obesity is now a taboo topic in tech because you might unfortunately step on the toes of a few sensitive people and be labelled a fat shamer. This is not the case.Obesity in tech is a disease on it's own and it needs to be fought with a sharp edged pit…

Some obesity is a disease, and some (perhaps much) in the western world is brought on by the combination of available foods and the lifestyle driven by our culture as it relates to compensation and work "ethic." Quality, healthy nutrition is hard to come by in America, either because it's scarce in an area or else the basic mechanics of putting together healthy things isn't really taught or socialized. The whole conc…

> On the other hand, the concept of "fat but fit" is also not helpful.

I don't know. One of my friends is fat, but she's also an incredibly competent rower (including doing it as a varsity sport in college). If that's not fit, I don't know what is.

Re: Data Driven Weight Loss: Losing 66 pounds and gaining a six pack in 8 months

#64

Post by throwaway2016a » Fri, Aug 04, 2017, 10:04 PM UTC

munificent wrote: post #42

throwaway2016a wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 32 and I found a free-weight system for upper body I've had success with. It auto-adjusts the weight over time whether you want it to or not so you are forced to continually improve. It also forces you to do repetitions every day whether you want to or not. Sometimes I do extra reps and the system responds with positive reinforcement. It gives extra positive reinforcement if I hold it over my head and fly it arou…

> I don't know many 30-somethings (especially in tech) that can work out for a half hour uninterrupted, nevermind an hour. I work full-time in tech, have a wife, two kids, two dogs, and work on my book [1] writing every single day. I still definitely have 30 minutes of free time every day to work out. What I don't have as much of is will-power/discipline/execute function whatever you want to call it. I workout twice…

Kudos on the book. I have two myself (one with Wrox and one with O'Reilly). It's a lot of work and you should be proud.

I didn't say I couldn't find an hour just that most people in their 30s I know in tech can't.

You also lowered the requirement from the hour the author and I said to a half hour. Keep in mind too unless you want to sit in sweat all day that hour does not include changing cloths and showering.

I also didn't say "ever" I said "reliably" and "uninterrupted" which are key qualifiers. One work out day where you have to spend two hours at the doctor's office and there goes you're whole routine.

Edit: autocorrect changed sweat to suite for some weird reason.

Re: Data Driven Weight Loss: Losing 66 pounds and gaining a six pack in 8 months

#65

Post by T_D_K » Fri, Aug 04, 2017, 10:05 PM UTC

balls187 wrote: post #23

Amazing transformation, both in the article and the comments. When has rapid weight loss ever been sustainable? I'd love to see follow up article w/ comments in 2 years.

It's easy to maintain your goal weight if you truly enjoy the lifestyle you've created. Obviously, if you get up one day and say, 'Well I don't actually like going to the gym / tracking calories / etc., so I'll skip today', you've started to gain the weight already. The trick is finding a healthy lifestyle activity that can keep you active and that you can stick with. Climbing, running, hiking, kayaking / canoeing, cycling, tennis, etc etc are all great options if going to the gym to lift weights isn't your thing.

Re: Data Driven Weight Loss: Losing 66 pounds and gaining a six pack in 8 months

#66

Post by raarts » Fri, Aug 04, 2017, 10:07 PM UTC

Coincidentally I am on the same diet: keto, plus IF. No supplements, no workouts. Lost 10 kg (22 lbs) in 2.5 months. Expensive, 'cause new wardrobe.

For one week, I reverted to my old high carb diet because I was on a camp and could not maintain it. My weight loss plateau'ed, but resumed after that. Daily calorie max is set to 1250, (I live a sedentary life).

Keto works. Workouts not needed.

I'm struggling to take enough protein though.

Re: Data Driven Weight Loss: Losing 66 pounds and gaining a six pack in 8 months

#67

Post by cheald » Fri, Aug 04, 2017, 10:08 PM UTC

Blackthorn wrote: post #63

sidlls wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some obesity is a disease, and some (perhaps much) in the western world is brought on by the combination of available foods and the lifestyle driven by our culture as it relates to compensation and work "ethic." Quality, healthy nutrition is hard to come by in America, either because it's scarce in an area or else the basic mechanics of putting together healthy things isn't really taught or socialized. The whole conc…

> On the other hand, the concept of "fat but fit" is also not helpful. I don't know. One of my friends is fat, but she's also an incredibly competent rower (including doing it as a varsity sport in college). If that's not fit, I don't know what is.

Counterpoint: strongman competitors are often incredibly unhealthy. They are also literally the strongest humans on earth, who dedicate their lives to the singular pursuit of being able to pick up more weight than anyone else on the planet. Eddie Hall, this year's WSM, retired from the sport after achieving the win, because he has been destroying his health in pursuit of the title. Strongmen are famously at elevated cardiovascular risk, and they nearly universally require CPAP machines to sleep because their weight puts them at serious risk of death by obstructive sleep apnea. NFL defensive linemen tend to be in a similar position - very strong, very athletic, and at very elevated risk of fatal or debilitating health conditions.

One can be extremely strong and extremely competent - world class, even - and still not be fit.

Re: Data Driven Weight Loss: Losing 66 pounds and gaining a six pack in 8 months

#68

Post by T_D_K » Fri, Aug 04, 2017, 10:08 PM UTC

notliketherest wrote: post #45

Nice job and all but the sheer amount of shirtless photos at different angles just shows how narcissistic you are.

He's proud of what he's accomplished, in a weightloss post-mortem. How does that make him narcissistic?

Re: Data Driven Weight Loss: Losing 66 pounds and gaining a six pack in 8 months

#69

Post by teilo » Fri, Aug 04, 2017, 10:16 PM UTC

tobltobs wrote: post #8

sawmurai wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you say so?

The upper part of the door in the background doesn't fit to the lower part. Addendum: I was wrong with my accusation.

Nonsense. The door is ajar, and the camera isn't in perfect vertical alignment with the door. I just checked this by drawing a line in photoshop. It's a straight line at an angle. And your "broken carpet" looks like a reflection on the carpet trim to me. The tile pattern is also consistent around the "break."

The photo with the line: https://www.dropbox.com/s/v6bxpfedcdeotyg/beforeafter.jpg?dl...

Re: Data Driven Weight Loss: Losing 66 pounds and gaining a six pack in 8 months

#70

Post by noir_lord » Fri, Aug 04, 2017, 10:50 PM UTC

I lost about that amount of weight in 7 months a couple of years ago (and kept it off), there was very little data driving, I just wrote down what I ate and ate the same thing 6 days a week, porridge made with water, cottage cheese and salad for lunch and chicken and veg/beef and veg for tea.

Came out to about 1450 calories a day which is a deficit of 1050.

1050 * 7 * 4 * 7/3500 comes to 58.8lbs, I lost 62lbs (I slightly increased my exercise rate), it was almost scary how accurate the 3500 calories to a pound thing was in my case.

It wasn't that hard at the time either, just required a clear goal and keeping at it.

I quite smoking on my 30th birthday (7 years and counting) by just stopping.

No messing with patches, therapy, my mum got ill from smoking related illness, I realised how stupid it was (or more correctly woke up and truly realised) my 30th was a few weeks later so I made a note and stopped cold turkey.

You can do pretty cool things when you draw a line and just go for it.

As for keeping the weight off, I just run a mental tally of what I've eaten and approximate calories, if I get close to 2500 I stop eating for the day, if I go slightly over I go under the next day, 1 day a week I eat whatever I want if I want it (rarely do, I've lost a lot of my cravings for junk over the last couple of years, it always leaves me feeling shitty the next day).