Diet: The Slimming

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:28 pm

So, reading about those stupid point system things that a lot of diets work on in a cracked article made me realize something. You can look at losing weight as a mathematical system, there is a clear goal, or can be (ie, whatever weight I should be for my 6' ass to fit into those pants/whatever weight I should be for my 6' ass to not have a lot of excess padding), and there are clear numbers going into what makes you gain, lose, or keep weight (calories, mostly).

A nerd diet could actually be made, and probably be somewhat successful, if it basically treated it like a table top leveling system. Take your ideal weight, subtract it from your current weight, divide by 20, and that's the weight to level equivalency. So, basically if you want to lose 100 lbs, you go up a level for losing 5 lbs.

Then you define the xp gained for various types and amounts of physical activity, and the xp lost for eating more than what would sustain your goal weight, providing a min max opportunity for "pushups versus cookies".

I think this is one of those "dumb smart" ideas, where it sounds dumb, but could work rather well.

thoughts?

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:37 pm

http://caloriecount.about.com/

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:40 pm

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 12:30 am

Losing weight is a matter of burning more calories than you consume.

So long as calorie output exceeds calorie intake you'll burn fat.

It is simple, just use calories instead of XP.

Sashi · Post by **Sashi** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 5:32 am

http://fitocracy.com

I'm currently level 11

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 5:55 am

well, I'm going to take it as a good(ish) sign that I'm not the first person to think of this.

jadagul · Post by **jadagul** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 6:32 am

This isn't RPG nerdy precisely, but if you want the seriously nerdy, min/max, numbers oriented approach, check out the Hacker's Diet:

http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html

Comes with a whole suite of Excel spreadsheets to make dieting easier.

(No personal experience--I'm one of those lucky bastards whose idea of "dieting" is "I'd like to lose the five pounds that keep me from having a six-pack, and can probably do that by cutting down to 3000 calories a day". But I've read it and it's entertaining and looks reasonable).

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Jun 12, 2011 6:37 am

I've been doing the calorie count thing yesterday and today, and have found a few things.
First: I actually may not be over eating on the calories as badly as I thought, if yesterday is anything to go by. Today's not too bad either, but, see point three, below...
Second: Holy shit, do I consume a lot of sodium.
Third: FUCKING HELL eating out has a lot of calories. A simple buffalo ranch chicken sandwich and fries at Chilis is like half the calories I'm supposed to eat in a day if I want to lose 100 lbs in about a year.

Ravengm · Post by **Ravengm** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 5:48 pm

Yeah, restaurants are pretty bad that way. The biggest things that people don't realize before seriously dieting are portion size and additives (dressing, etc.). An actual serving of cereal, for example, is almost depressing--about 3/4 of a cup, not enough to fill your average bowl. People go to McDonald's and order a salad, not realizing the ranch dressing that goes on it is probably worse for you than a lot of other things on the menu. Subway sandwiches have that "6 grams of fat or less" deal going for them, but that's for 6" subs without cheese, sauce, or most of the toppings they offer. Fast food is really awful, clocking in at about 1000-1500 (or more) calories for one of the combo meals.

It's really hard to find things that are both good for you and taste good when you're weaning yourself off of fatty foods. Sweet or sugary stuff is "easy enough" to replace with fruits, but greasy anything is hard to replicate, if not impossible.

If you're going for a health thing, and not just trying to shed pounds (and you probably should go for the health then too), you also want to keep track of more than just caloric intake. You want different kinds of calories: about 20% fat, 50% carbs, 30% protein (I don't have a source for that, so don't take my word for it, though that's what I was told).

I'd think of swapping food choices out like changing your gear up. One change I made was getting rid of potato chips in favor of the granola they sell in the bulk section, which ended up being both cheaper and better for me. Optimization go!

Also, more than about 30-45 minutes of medium/hard aerobic exercise a day really doesn't do much for you. That is, the benefit to work ratio is pretty low. You want resistance training as well as aerobic.

I've also noticed that it's remarkably easier to tell people how to make healthy choices than it is to do them myself.

Wesley Street · Post by **Wesley Street** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 12:24 pm

That would explain the chubby people I know who run all the time yet never seem to lose a pound. When I switched to a combination of weight resistance with moderate cardio and yoga I dropped 15 pounds pretty quickly. I probably could have lost the weight with just the yoga since it focuses on variations of the push-up.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 1:37 pm

Wesley Street wrote:I probably could have lost the weight with just the yoga since it focuses on variations of the push-up.

"Power yoga" is ridiculously hard.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 8:28 pm

Ravengm wrote:Yeah, restaurants are pretty bad that way. The biggest things that people don't realize before seriously dieting are portion size and additives (dressing, etc.). An actual serving of cereal, for example, is almost depressing--about 3/4 of a cup, not enough to fill your average bowl. People go to McDonald's and order a salad, not realizing the ranch dressing that goes on it is probably worse for you than a lot of other things on the menu. Subway sandwiches have that "6 grams of fat or less" deal going for them, but that's for 6" subs without cheese, sauce, or most of the toppings they offer. Fast food is really awful, clocking in at about 1000-1500 (or more) calories for one of the combo meals.

It's really hard to find things that are both good for you and taste good when you're weaning yourself off of fatty foods. Sweet or sugary stuff is "easy enough" to replace with fruits, but greasy anything is hard to replicate, if not impossible.

If you're going for a health thing, and not just trying to shed pounds (and you probably should go for the health then too), you also want to keep track of more than just caloric intake. You want different kinds of calories: about 20% fat, 50% carbs, 30% protein (I don't have a source for that, so don't take my word for it, though that's what I was told).

I'd think of swapping food choices out like changing your gear up. One change I made was getting rid of potato chips in favor of the granola they sell in the bulk section, which ended up being both cheaper and better for me. Optimization go!

Also, more than about 30-45 minutes of medium/hard aerobic exercise a day really doesn't do much for you. That is, the benefit to work ratio is pretty low. You want resistance training as well as aerobic.

I've also noticed that it's remarkably easier to tell people how to make healthy choices than it is to do them myself.

Well, the site I'm using actually tracks that stuff for me, though it is a pain to use for anything that's homemade... I haven't tried the recipe thing yet, but eventually I'll get around to that. I'm just using approximations and customizing amounts to what sounds about right.

I honestly don't care about my health, just appearance. I'm an american that way... and I almost never eat chips, when I do it's at work, and the chips we serve are like some uber healthy stuff.

Ravengm · Post by **Ravengm** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 8:37 pm

But if you keep track of all the vitamins you need, it's like different stats!

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 10:24 pm

The main benefit of exercise if all you want to do is lose weight is to make sure that the weight you lose is fat rather than muscle, because the latter is the preferred one to chunk. Besides, muscle is denser, so try to also keep track of your measurements as well. I have a friend that exercises about three hours a day (1hr exercise bike, 1hr yoga, 1hr hard dancing), and while she's been stable at ~180lbs for the last month, she's lost at least five inches from her waist alone. Come to think of it, make sure you get protein in your system if you follow this at all.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 6:29 am

Yeah, I walk a good bit, and have a job that has me running around for several hours three days a week. Summers kill my activity since I'm not walking to a bus stop to get to class and walking around campus and it's too bloody hot to do much, but maybe I'll take to midnight strolls for a cigarette or two and forty minutes of exercise.

Count Arioch the 28th · Wed Jun 15, 2011 5:02 pm

I find it ironic that it's a pain to track home-made stuff when that's a really good way to lose weight, lol.

Ravengm · Post by **Ravengm** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 5:07 pm

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:I find it ironic that it's a pain to track home-made stuff when that's a really good way to lose weight, lol.

Yeah, losing the convenience of "stat blocks" for food items (DRVs on the package) is... unfortunate.

Kind of makes me wish I could reverse engineer my food to see what its stats are.

Quantumboost · Post by **Quantumboost** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 5:20 pm

Ravengm wrote:Kind of makes me wish I could reverse engineer my food to see what its stats are.

To the gas chromatograph!

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jun 17, 2011 10:05 am

Apparently I should just start my day with two of these and then keep an eye on my sodium intake.

Sashi · Post by **Sashi** » Fri Jun 17, 2011 5:22 pm

Or you could start your day with two of These and wait for death.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jun 17, 2011 8:04 pm

Hm, I'm sure there are far more reasonable manners of committing suicide, like jumping off a building or taking two of these and waiting for death.

Wesley Street · Post by **Wesley Street** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 7:43 pm

Speaking from experience the Sugar Busters approach is a fairly effective and easy food plan to follow. I switched my meals to a whey protein shake in the morning followed by a low-carb lunch and dinner. If I needed a snack I ate an apple or something so incredibly whole wheat it cut my mouth accompanied by a piece of low-fat cheese.

Switching from soda to water is the easiest thing anyone can do to drop poundage. If that's too hard you can always migrate from soda to flavored carbonated water to regular water.

Pasta, white rice, bleached wheat products, carrots and potatoes were easy to drop but the biggest pain for me was giving up on cookies, cake and pie. Eventually I realized that if I was really craving something and I ate a reasonable portion rather than gorging it satiated my desire for a long time. Dark chocolate helped too.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 7:47 pm

Wesley Street wrote:low carb, less sugar stuff

...yeah, I'm of italian decent and work at a bakery. And I'm not a masochist.

tzor · Post by **tzor** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 8:37 pm

Prak_Anima wrote:...yeah, I'm of italian decent and work at a bakery. And I'm not a masochist.

Then I guess you are doomed.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 11:34 pm

My family is Italian, too, but not so much on the pasta. Our food is stuff like chicken saltimbocca, and really, when you're going low-carb, so long as you don't bread it, that's one hellaciously delicious way to eat.

The working for Panera is masochistic, though.