A couple of years back I took stock of my fitness and made some changes to lose about 30 pounds. This summer, especially with schedules out of whack after the baby arrived, I noticed myself backsliding a little and wanted to fix it before things got out of hand.
Quick recap:
- Weight in Nov. 2006: 216
- Weight in 2007 after a year of improvements: ~187 (got down as low as 184)
- Weight this summer: ~188 (touching the low 190s at times)
- Current weight: 177
I initially took the same approach I’d used with success previously: I started being a little more conscious about what I ate and started working out a couple times a week at home again (weight training). I also get exercise playing sand volleyball twice a week and walk a round of golf a couple times a month.
I wasn’t seeing significant results, so I upped my workouts to daily and I downloaded Lose It on a lark and tried it out. Lose It is a free iPhone app to help you count calories – something I’d never done before.1 There are a bunch of apps like this out there now – if I were choosing today2 I might go with the app from Daily Burn (a TechStars company) which syncs back to the Daily Burn web site.
Counting calories has been a very interesting experience. Seeing how certain foods and exercise affect things on a daily basis has been eye opening. It’s worked well to keep me on track.
In the last four months I’ve brought my weight down 10 pounds, and as a result of doing some lifting 5 days a week I’m probably physically stronger now than I have ever been (I’ve increased weight in all of my lifting exercises). If I can keep my weight hovering in the 175-180 range, I’m pretty happy.
For me, the process of losing weight basically boils down to willpower: I have to want to lose weight more than I want to not exercise or eat too many high calorie foods, and make choices accordingly. Keeping track of calories along with daily weigh-ins has definitely been worthwhile in making sure I’m honest with myself – I recommend trying it.
- Because there aren’t enough of these out there. [back]
- Or if I could export my data from Lose It and import it into Daily Burn… [back]
Popularity: 1% [?]
Geof F. Morris adds this Comment:
You know that the Daily Burn guys are from my neck of the woods, right? I know the founder.
Good job on the loss.
October 14th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
sanjeev bhadresa adds this Comment:
That’s a pretty impressive amount of weight you have lost.
I wouldn’t worry too much about weighing yourself daily though (especially if your weight has increased from the previous day!). Your weight will from day to day depending on your levels of hydration, amount of food in your digestive system and a host of other factors.
A much better way of tracking changes are a pair of body fat calipers.
October 14th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
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October 14th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Alex adds this Comment:
Geof – I hadn’t connected the dots, small world!
sanjeev – completely agree about the daily weigh-in. My weight fluctuates big time from day to day. Like any data, you have to know how to properly interpret it for it to be meaningful.
October 14th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Geof F. Morris adds this Comment:
I hadn’t looked to see physically where they were in town until just now … turns out it’s literally down the street from where I work, right across from my alma mater.
October 15th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Julia Rencontre adds this Comment:
I didn’t know there was such an iphone application ! I’ve been using that kind of software for some time and it really helped me to become aware of how many calories a day I was gobbling (ie too many !)
October 20th, 2009 at 2:22 am
Colin Devroe adds this Comment:
I too have had my fair share of weight struggles. Thanks for sharing your methods and progress.
October 27th, 2009 at 5:32 am