Calorie Counting Pitfalls and the Hacker's Diet?

So my weight has been climbing steadily for a few years now.

I've heard good things about the "Hacker's Diet". It's definately oriented
to my geek lifestyle. ( http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/ )

The big idea is the idea of an "Eat Watch"/clock, a hypothetical device
that would tell you to start eating or stop eating based on your caloric
needs... fit folks have a well tuned one of these built-in, folks who tend
to be overweight need to use an artificical one, just like folks with poor
vision can use glasses.

The core ideas seem to be:
1. Carefully know # of calories in, and make sure its below your
guesstimated daily burn rate
2. Weigh-in daily, and here's some nifty software to let you chart a
weighted average
3. Weight loss is calories in minus calories out, though the day to day
water variance swamps a day of weight loss, which is why you take such
statistical care in step 2
4. Consider adding in this simple Royal Canadian Air Force-derived
exercise routine DAILY (which is "stepped" to start very easy, and then
progresses to be a very decent work out) but don't fool yourself because
the amount you can incidentally add with "extra" food overwhelms what you
can remove with extra exercise.

I've *always* though Daily Weigh-In made a lot of sense, despite the
conventional wisdom of doing it weekly. Ideally, either the daily news is
good, and you're happy, or it's bad, and you're encouraged to be more
strict.

So besides the difficulty in knowing calorie counts in social settings,
what are the gotchas of this sort of approach? Is calories in minus
calories burned a reasonable rule of thumb?

(Actually, it's similar to the approach I've successfully used once
befo daily weigh in, record that, and put an estimate of how "well" I
did in eating less.)

I would guess that one big bugaboo is your metabolism slowing down in
response, so that it becomes more and more difficult to eat few enough
calories to make a difference.

And he glosses over nutritiion; he thinks as omnivores, from a weightloss
perspective WHAT calories we eat just doesn't matter that much, though
obviously you want to maintain decent nutrition through all of this....

So anyway, I dig the palmpilot weight tracker you can get for this, which
does the graphing for you. (Before I used a palmpilot db, but it did no
graphing. The site also has some Excel spreadsheets) Also, I like the idea
of simple, scaling, no-props-needed, do-anywhere exercises for maintaining
and gradually improving conditioning.

--
QUOTEBLOG: http://kisrael.com SKEPTIC MORTALITY: http://kisrael.com/mortal
"There are two adults and one child. Majority rules.
Live like an animal or die." --James Israel

On Wed, 31 May 2006 14:10:32 GMT, Kirk Is wrote:
So besides the difficulty in knowing calorie counts in social settings,
what are the gotchas of this sort of approach? Is calories in minus
calories burned a reasonable rule of thumb?

The gotcha is that it may not be easy to stick with it due to being
hungry. Otherwise, if you do stick with it, calorie counting (a form
of eating less) is the only guaranteed way to lose weight.

(Actually, it's similar to the approach I've successfully used once
befo daily weigh in, record that, and put an estimate of how "well" I
did in eating less.)

Make sure to use some sort of a filter (moving average) to filter out
daily fluctuations.

I would guess that one big bugaboo is your metabolism slowing down in
response, so that it becomes more and more difficult to eat few enough
calories to make a difference.

It is mostly bull****.

i

Ignoramus2833 wrote:
Make sure to use some sort of a filter (moving average) to filter out
daily fluctuations.

Yeah, that's what this program is all about...actually he goes on and on
about the math of it, but also provides a very convenient Palm application
(and Excel spreadsheet) that charts it out nicely.

Frankly I think just looking at a straight forward graph and blurring your
eyes a bit would get most of the the same idea...

I would guess that one big bugaboo is your metabolism slowing down in
response, so that it becomes more and more difficult to eat few enough
calories to make a difference.

It is mostly bull****.

Hope you're right!

--
QUOTEBLOG: http://kisrael.com SKEPTIC MORTALITY: http://kisrael.com/mortal
"There are two adults and one child. Majority rules.
Live like an animal or die." --James Israel

On 5/31/06 11:10 PM, in article , "Kirk
Is" wrote:

Is calories in minus
calories burned a reasonable rule of thumb?

Yes. That is really all it comes down to. Any way you can create a plan that
works for you that accomplishes that then - go for it!

doug

Weight Loss

Weighing too much is not good for your health. Being overweight
increases your risk of health problems, like heart problems, high blood
pressure, diabetes, and some kinds of cancer. A calorie is a unit of
energy that your body gets from food. Calories are stored as fat if you
eat more calories than you need. ......
To see more about that:

http://epsdrugstore.com/weight-loss.htm

"Kirk Is" wrote in message
...
So my weight has been climbing steadily for a few years now.

I've heard good things about the "Hacker's Diet". It's definately oriented
to my geek lifestyle. ( http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/ )

The big idea is the idea of an "Eat Watch"/clock, a hypothetical device
that would tell you to start eating or stop eating based on your caloric
needs... fit folks have a well tuned one of these built-in, folks who tend
to be overweight need to use an artificical one, just like folks with poor
vision can use glasses.

The core ideas seem to be:
1. Carefully know # of calories in, and make sure its below your
guesstimated daily burn rate
2. Weigh-in daily, and here's some nifty software to let you chart a
weighted average
3. Weight loss is calories in minus calories out, though the day to day
water variance swamps a day of weight loss, which is why you take such
statistical care in step 2
4. Consider adding in this simple Royal Canadian Air Force-derived
exercise routine DAILY (which is "stepped" to start very easy, and then
progresses to be a very decent work out) but don't fool yourself because
the amount you can incidentally add with "extra" food overwhelms what you
can remove with extra exercise.

I've *always* though Daily Weigh-In made a lot of sense, despite the
conventional wisdom of doing it weekly. Ideally, either the daily news is
good, and you're happy, or it's bad, and you're encouraged to be more
strict.

So besides the difficulty in knowing calorie counts in social settings,
what are the gotchas of this sort of approach? Is calories in minus
calories burned a reasonable rule of thumb?

(Actually, it's similar to the approach I've successfully used once
befo daily weigh in, record that, and put an estimate of how "well" I
did in eating less.)

I would guess that one big bugaboo is your metabolism slowing down in
response, so that it becomes more and more difficult to eat few enough
calories to make a difference.

And he glosses over nutritiion; he thinks as omnivores, from a weightloss
perspective WHAT calories we eat just doesn't matter that much, though
obviously you want to maintain decent nutrition through all of this....

So anyway, I dig the palmpilot weight tracker you can get for this, which
does the graphing for you. (Before I used a palmpilot db, but it did no
graphing. The site also has some Excel spreadsheets) Also, I like the idea
of simple, scaling, no-props-needed, do-anywhere exercises for maintaining
and gradually improving conditioning.

--
QUOTEBLOG: http://kisrael.com SKEPTIC MORTALITY:
http://kisrael.com/mortal
"There are two adults and one child. Majority rules.
Live like an animal or die." --James Israel

If you're motivated by numbers and graphs, you may find my WeightWare
(http://www.WeightWare.com) program to be useful in your efforts. It's
based loosely on the Hacker's Diet, and emphasizes the benefits of a
"frequent weighing" approach, along with some program-provided statistical
analysis.

Based on your daily weight changes alone, it can tell you exactly how your
weight loss program is progressing, and let you know what your daily caloric
deficit or surplus has been (without having to actually count calories).
Besides weight, it can also track all of your exercise activities, along
with other health indicators (blood pressure, heart rate, body fat, etc.).

You can download a free, fully functional 30-day trial version from the
website to see if it meets your needs.

BTW - I really like your idea of a daily "how well did I eat today?" rating,
and have added that to my list of new features to add to WeightWare Thanks
for the idea.

GaryG
http://www.WeightWare.com
Computer-Assisted Weight Management