(click here to enlarge)

Here are some bulletpoint take-aways from my experience so far on The Hacker’s Diet, referencing the chart above:

General:

• My start weight was 222 pounds on November 3, 2011. Today’s weight is 185.0 pounds. I was so amazed that I had round numbers on my 3 month anniversary that I took pictures of my scale.
• The yellow line is my target line. To lose 60- pounds in 6 months, I’ve got to stay below the line.
• The red line above is a trend line, which is less stressful to look at than the actual jagged progress bubbles below it.
• The red line starts low on my chart as a reminder that I used to weigh 209 pounds the first time I tried—and failed—to diet.  But I failed myself. I stopped tracking. I stopped trying. Two years later, I tried again and as my weight loss began the trend line leveled at 215, then has dropped ever since.
• Using an online calorie tracking service helps tremendously. I use MyFitnessPal, which offers a great mobile app, too.
• Weight loss is not linear, but there’s regular downward progress if you stay committed to the calorie counting regimen.
• Daily fluctuations can be due to many things, but if you’ve been sticking to your calorie target more often than not an upward spike is caused by excess sodium.
• More than 2500 mg a day of sodium will cause water retention, and it is remarkably easy to double or triple this amount through normal eating, especially if you eat in restaurants or drive-thrus.
• MyFitnessPal allows you to define which nutrient columns you see in your food diary. Turn on the sodium column, and watch it throughout the day. Find low sodium snacks you enjoy. My favourite is roasted unsalted almonds.
• Sodium levels return to normal 24-48 hours after your start eating the recommended amount. 8+ glasses of water a day helps with this.
• Pure calorie counting can be enough to lose weight, provided you’re patient. Apparently, my impatience trumps my laziness, because I exercise daily.
• I didn’t go into this experience at maximum intensity. I started with calorie counting, then added exercise in the second month, then tried to improve my overall nutrition in the third month. Reading is the unsung ally of weight loss. You can’t expect to master your body without fully understanding how metabolism works.
• Social support is essential, which is why programs like Weight Watchers work. Online programs offer this too for free (via advertisements on the site).

Must dos:

• Log everything you eat, honestly. If you search the food database for ‘chocolate chunk cookie’ and several pop up, choose the average calorie one, not the low one. By cheating on your calorie estimates, you’re only cheating yourself.
• Log your exercise, whatever it is. Systems like MyFitnessPal estimate your calorie requirements based on your job and no exercise.  Any extra walking, swimming, sports, etc. expend calories, and the system needs to know this to adjust your calorie goal for the day.
• Don’t starve yourself. Ever. Eating too few calories is as bad as eating too many. Your body will stop losing weight and try to protect fat if you undereat.
• Eat back your exercise calories. Eating 2000 calories is meaningless if you do 1000 calories worth of exercise. The 1000 calories still left in your stomach spells “starvation” to your body. If you burn 100 walking, eat 100 back.  If you burn 500 running, eat 500 back.
• Use an app or online tracking service to make this simpler. If you log food and exercise, MyFitnessPal gives you your number of calories remaining to eat. So eat that much. Want to eat more? Exercise more, and log it. Now, you’ve earned more calories to eat.
• Currently, I typically eat 2000-2200 calories per day, and exercise 500-700 calories per day to achieve a net intake of 1500 calories. That target of 1500 comes from the app I use. Your target will vary, and will be set for you when you create an account.

Why my results may not be typical:

• I’m a lapsed mesomorph. Mesomorphs gain and lose weight easily. Look at the first section of the chart, where my weight initially goes down then surges back up.  That’s the result of a few days of vacation eating in the States. You may have a harder time losing, but perhaps your body will resist putting it back on too. I benefit tremendously from calorie counting, but have to stick to it rigidly.
• I exercise 7 days a week, unless something insurmountable happens (I miss about 1 day per month).  Without exercise, 37 pounds would have taken much longer to lose.
• I lift weights. The more muscle you have, the easier it is to burn calories.
• I use supplements like protein bars and powdered Whey Protein Isolate shakes as meal replacements, and to compensate for my lower protein vegetarian diet. Your experience eating your particular diet may be different.

In December I lost slightly less (9 pounds), so what did I do to improve my number this month? Read on.

Ironically, the more weight I lose, the harder it is to lose weight.  My heart is getting more efficient, and it has less body to move with each passing week.  Additionally, it was getting used to the same exercise every day. I was also concerned that as the pounds were dropping off, some of the loss might be muscle.

Solution: more intense routines, more variety of routines, and more protein.

I’m now alternating between cardio and weights every other day, and doing more types of weightlifting. From week to week I’ll switch between heavy weight days (80-90% 1RM) with fewer reps and mid-weight days (65% 1RM) with high reps. I’m doing barbell, EZ curl, dumbbells and machine exercises. I’m using the solid bench some days and the balance ball on others. My speed of lifts can be varied from day to day: fast lifts with slow lowers, or slow lifts up and down. Anything to prevent my muscles from becoming complacent. I’ve even started carrying weight while walking the treadmill (35 pounds at the moment, which is equivalent to what I’ve lost in weight since starting this program).

I’m seeing results; much more so than last month. My strength has been creeping up again, exceeding the amount I was able to lift 10 and 20 pounds ago, and in some cases, 35 pounds ago. My upper body is getting noticeable definition, and my arms are bigger with visible triceps.

My protein intake has been slowly increasing, from 100g+ a day to over 150 g a day, with a desired target of 1 g per pound of body weight.  It’s hard to get that much some days, but I try.

I’ve received some criticism from well intentioned people that the only way to get big is to lift ultra-heavy weights with few reps.  I think I’ve read more than enough evidence on both sides to understand that this isn’t completely true, and that the risk can seriously outweigh the potential benefit. There is a sweet spot of moderately high weight which stimulates the muscle fibres and encourages growth with protein that is well below the point of risk from injury. I intend to stay in that zone, in the interest of keeping my back and shoulders intact.

Building size and seeing steady gains doesn’t take relentless heavy weights.

Some links of interest:

Bust Out of Your Rut – Men’s Health

Are low reps (1-6) better than high reps (8-12) for muscle growth? – Exercise Biology

Break Through Your Fitness Plateau – Men’s Fitness

• You don’t want to spend entirely too much money each month paying to access a dirty, poorly-maintained club where the profits go straight into building more locations (that also get run down, to build more locations).
• You’re sick of clubs constantly trying to upsell you with classes, personal training, and testing services (which are intended to provide results that recommend that you sign up for personal training).
• You’d rather not feel inferior to The Beautiful People™ who are in maintenance mode, or are just there to strut and chat.
• You don’t want to waste time traveling to a club and back, waiting around for the equipment you want to use, cleaning the aforementioned smelly equipment that others have sweated on … before finally changing and showering with strangers, and hoping you don’t catch any foot diseases from the floor.

Sound familiar?  Consider the alternative: Get your own equipment for free (or cheap), then learn how to use it properly.  Start with the free stuff, then add what you need in lieu of a monthly membership fee at a club.

My wife collected a bunch of exercise equipment for me I never used for years.  Once I had the internal motivation to change and stay committed to it, I started doing the basics with what she’d given me, and then I looked for more equipment.

What did I get for free?

Primarily, my home gym is comprised of  stuff collected from other people who gave up on exercise: a Weider home gym (with chest butterfly, press, leg curl, and cable pulldown features) , an exercise bike, a manual treadmill, a weight bench, 8 hex dumbbells and 4 regular dumbbells (from 8-30 pounds), some extra vinyl weights (sadly, no weight lifting bar included) and a padded vinyl exercise mat with exercises illustrated on it.

Craigslist, Freecycle and Kijiji are your friend. Also: the front street the night before garbage day… that’s where I grabbed the exercise bike from. Rather than being “garbage”, this street find turned out to be better than the one my wife had initially procured through a web ad.  My guess is it was taking up valuable space in a home where the owner realized it wasn’t going to be used anymore. Or maybe it was surplussed from an upgrade? In any case, it was an upgrade for me.

My brother in law gave me his mega-sized boombox with a busted CD changer that he was ready to ship off to Value Village.  I considered the enormous amount of money that people will pay for teenie little stereo systems where they can dock their iPod, then I decided to take it for myself.  I already had the required connector cable from Radio Shack (1/8″ Stereo MiniPlug  Y-Cable to Left and Right Male RCA plug—Don’t panic if this sounds like gobbledygook: just tell the store what devices you’re trying to connect and they’ll find the right cable).  Now, I plug my laptop to the AUX input of the boombox and rock out for 40-60 minutes 6-7 days a week.

I looked at the price of weighted vests and thought, “Pfft! Why not just get a used backpack and fill it with my old vinyl weights?”  And so I did.  Now, I’m looking at the price of resistance straps and weight lifting chains and thinking the same thing: why pay a “fitness equipment” premium for items you can buy at the hardware store? Princess Auto sells chain and lifting straps for cheap.

Most importantly, I collected enough second hand T-shirt and sweatpants outfits on my rack that I could—in theory—only do laundry once a week. In practice, that would be horribly stinky, but there’s definitely never the excuse that I can’t work out due to lack of an outfit.

What did I actually buy new?

• I ordered a book with schedules and planned workouts you can do at home with no equipment / modest equipment (~$18). Even if all you have at home are soup cans, milk jugs and a beach towel, this book has exercises you can do.
• I picked up a discount subscription to Men’s Health because I love getting mail and I want something to reorient me to the goal each month ($40 for 2 years).
• I added a 300 pound Olympic barbell system  (for ~$300, now upped to 365 pounds). I could probably have been satisfied with a free barbell system had I found one I liked, but I wanted one ASAP. I got it from Fitness Depot Ottawa. They’re a franchise-owned store and their prices are higher than the corporate entity that runs their website and most of the brand stores. Still, if you complain a little about their higher prices and buy enough, they’ll discount (though not to corporate’s level). But the quality of equipment is high and you could spend the same at Canadian Tire for lesser quality stuff.
• I added a chin-up bar and an EZ curl bar from Fitness Avenue (online). It was a  bit scary ordering a bar over the Internet, but the price was right. If you go this route, order everything you think you’ll need because for the shipping cost (which is reasonable) it’s better to order several items at once.  The EZ curl combo bar was great!  20 pounds of solid, chromed steel. Perfectly balanced. A wonderful bargain for $40! My only qualm was that the included spring collars didn’t stay on the smooth bar ends too well. So, I swapped a pair of T-Bolt screwed collars that came from my 7 foot barball. Great idea, because the spring collars were much better suited to that bar (which has threaded ends that the spring collars grip well!). Double bonus! The chin up bar I ordered was $20 (marked down from $60). I’ll write more about it after I’ve tested it more extensively.
• A stability ball (also known as a Swiss ball or a Balance ball). Using it instead of a flat bench saves space, adds challenge to your exercises, and saves money. A good bench runs $100 and up. My ball (ZoN Balance Ball, Medium size – 65cm – includes pump and DVD) cost me $5.93 on sale (saved $14.06) at Canadian Tire.
• A heart rate monitor ($30, including tax and shipping). When I started adding hard, daily exercise to my calorie counting regimen, it became less clear what my net calories were. I had stopped losing weight because I was exercising too much for the amount I was eating. Having this monitor makes it possible for me to exercise just the right amount every day. Using the calorie counting function, I exercise until my eaten calories are reduced down to my net target (e.g. 2000 calories eaten – 500 calories burned through exercise = 1500 net calories). And the weight is coming off again.

What’s left to add?

I will be upgrading the weight bench to one with a wider spacing and higher capacity (so I can lift more weight on my barbell safely). My new bench will be from Costco. Their Marcy benches are well rated, shipping and handling is included in the price, and I know the return policy will be good if I have a problem. Naturally, I’ll keep looking for a used one. However, Olympic width benches are rarer, and the used ones I’ve seen rival the cost of a new bench at Costco.

What’s in your bargain basement gym?

I don’t recall such a sustained period of high functioning without periods of stress, depression or exhaustion… well, not since before parenthood, anyway. It’s not that my circumstances have changed significantly. If anything, life has gotten more challenging recently… but somehow the daily physical exertion of exercise has relieved the effects that normally stem from the uncontrollable aspects of my life.

I look at myself differently. In fact, I’m starting to look at myself, period. I’ve had difficulties in accepting my appearance for much of the last 20 years, and particularly in the last 10 as I watched myself worsen year by year while I’ve balanced my professional development and my family responsibilities.

Now, I wake up and I’m not ashamed to catch sight of myself in the mirror. I’m interested to see if there’s any visible change: new definitions of muscle which used to be obscured by excess padding.  I’m no longer immediately anxious to throw on something  loose that will cover my shape. If anything, I’m starting to intensely dislike clothes that make me look like I’m drowning in them.

And I’m starting to notice other people… people that I realize would be really attractive—much more than me!—if they could lose 25 or 50 pounds.  Am I becoming a fitness snob?

I don’t think so.  I don’t feel superior to anyone.  I’m more comfortable with myself, knowing that I’m transforming into the best incarnation of me.  As far as other people: It’s more like I’ve discovered a life-changing secret, and wish I could bring more people along with me to experience it for themselves.

So far I’ve only shared what I’ve done with people who were curious enough to know how it was possible. But no-one’s been sufficiently inspired to want to try the lifestyle for themselves.

I think the soft sell is best.  Nothing that anyone else said or did compelled me to change. It was only when I decided for myself that I had to change that every day after was different.

Until recently, I though that fruitflies were mythical creatures of legend like dragons or unicorns. I’d heard people talk about them, but I hadn’t really seen any.  This might have had something to do with my old, largely fruit-free diet and my limit grasp of entomology…  To my knowledge, there are no sausageflies or chipflies, and definitely no cookieflies or Cokeflies.  Apparently there are popflies, but only in baseball.

But fruitflies do exist! And they love my office.

One day, there I was, eating some fruit, and one started buzzing around my head. Several more were zipping in and out of my trash bin.  I dumped it immediately into the main waste collection for the office, and then got a good workout hopping and clapping to exterminate the little beasts.

Then all was well, and I endeavoured to empty my waste bin more often after that.

The next day I peeled an apple and was just settling back to enjoy it when–you guessed it–more fruitflies buzzing around my skull.  Wastebasket in hand, I fled to the big bin, then returned to unleash my vengeance on the winged attackers.

Surely I’ve exterminated a small colony’s worth by now, I thought. I ate my afternoon orange in peace, and made sure to dump out my bin before leaving for the day.

The next day all was silent, until I started carving up an apple. Then, another sortie of attackers. I felt like King Kong. The apple was my object of desire, clutched carefully in my fingers, while my other hand waved menacingly at the circling aircraft.

It made me think: why fruit?  Why is nature punishing me for good eating habits?  Why not  sausageflies, chipflies, and cookieflies?

I’m not making excuses, nor am I giving up. When my King Kong routine gets old, I’ll just switch to “When You’re Happy and You Know It”, content in the knowledge that I’m eating well and getting exercise while I do it.