Lifehack #2 - That weight loss thing.
Feb. 26th, 2012 01:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
syredronningHusband and I lost a summed-up total of 35 kg since September. This is about our methods, told from my view. Your methods and preferences may vary :)
Count the calories
It's as easy as the clever books say. The overall calory intake rules. If you eat more than you need, you'll add weight. If you eat less, you'll lose weight.
I'm tracking calories in a food journal. It worked a little when I did it for two weeks on paper in 2009, but it works wonderfully now that I do it digitally on a website, 1637 entries so far (fddb.info for Germans; I'm sure there are similar English websites).
It also calculates my basic calory need based on my weight and gives carb/protein/fat details for all foods. The journal is a great way to survive the plateau phase, because you can look at it and check "yes, I'm still good".
EDIT: For the number crunching, it's important to know that a kg of fat is roughly 7000-8000 calories. So if you eat 700 cals less per day, that would be around 10 days. Absolutely check out the comment of my husband in lj about the number crunching.
Anything beyond the total calories per day is detail
Low carb, low fat, sports, no sports... it won't matter unless you take in less calories than you need.
Low carb might have other positive effects, but AFAIS it mostly works because it means less cake and sweets, so people reduce their calory intake nicely.
Sports makes me feel good, but my husband hates it and he still lost 21 kg by now by sitting on the couch and eating fabulous, self-cooked, low-calory food :) So while there are many good reasons for doing sports, it's often easier to eat less calories than to spend hours on working off of the superfluous ones.
Eats lots of things with a low energy density
A human needs around 1200-1500 grams a day to feel full. If that food had a density of one calory per 100 grams, you'd end with 1500 a day which would be a weight loss for most people.
I don't mind feeling a little (or a lot) hungry, but a) many people don't, like my husband, and b) your body might turn to energy-saving mode if you're too hungry all the time.
The German book that nicely tackles this aspect is Satt essen und abnehmen (Eat your fill and lose weight)
Eat what you want
Now that might sound counter-intuitive, but I eat everything that I REALLY want to eat. If I want sweets, I'll eat them. If I want to drink a coke in a restaurant, I'll drink it. If you forbid yourself something you crave, you'll usually make the craving just stronger.
But I bargain with myself a lot whether or not I'm willing to save less for that piece of cake or that glass of wine :) So I developed a lot of strategies to get a taste of what I want while still eating fewer calories:
* Buying small package sizes instead of large ones. For example, I buy apple puree in 4x100 ml packs from the baby food corner, instead of a large glass that I then would feel compelled to finish off over the next days. I also buy Mini Twix and Hanuta for the office, 20 g bars that won't kill my calory budget (yes, it's much like handling money).
* Regularly analyzing my habits. I went to the Japanese restaurant for lunch not really for the sushi, but mainly for those WONDERFUL sesam rice balls. So now I sometimes buy a couple of balls in the evening to take them home :)
* Hacking meals by substituting one kind of favorite thing with another. I love Maultaschen (German version of pasta squares) but they have 215 calories per 100 g. I also love Schupfnudeln (kind of potatoe dumplings) and they only have the same calories as noodles, 148 per 100 g. These two foods meet the same traditional-meal-craving so it's easy to eat the latter instead of the first. I really should add that my husband does all the cooking at home and he's become incredibly good at hacking our favorite recipes.
Most of all - be persistent
There's no shortcut - a large weight loss takes time.
More hacks soon...
Count the calories
It's as easy as the clever books say. The overall calory intake rules. If you eat more than you need, you'll add weight. If you eat less, you'll lose weight.
I'm tracking calories in a food journal. It worked a little when I did it for two weeks on paper in 2009, but it works wonderfully now that I do it digitally on a website, 1637 entries so far (fddb.info for Germans; I'm sure there are similar English websites).
It also calculates my basic calory need based on my weight and gives carb/protein/fat details for all foods. The journal is a great way to survive the plateau phase, because you can look at it and check "yes, I'm still good".
EDIT: For the number crunching, it's important to know that a kg of fat is roughly 7000-8000 calories. So if you eat 700 cals less per day, that would be around 10 days. Absolutely check out the comment of my husband in lj about the number crunching.
Anything beyond the total calories per day is detail
Low carb, low fat, sports, no sports... it won't matter unless you take in less calories than you need.
Low carb might have other positive effects, but AFAIS it mostly works because it means less cake and sweets, so people reduce their calory intake nicely.
Sports makes me feel good, but my husband hates it and he still lost 21 kg by now by sitting on the couch and eating fabulous, self-cooked, low-calory food :) So while there are many good reasons for doing sports, it's often easier to eat less calories than to spend hours on working off of the superfluous ones.
Eats lots of things with a low energy density
A human needs around 1200-1500 grams a day to feel full. If that food had a density of one calory per 100 grams, you'd end with 1500 a day which would be a weight loss for most people.
I don't mind feeling a little (or a lot) hungry, but a) many people don't, like my husband, and b) your body might turn to energy-saving mode if you're too hungry all the time.
The German book that nicely tackles this aspect is Satt essen und abnehmen (Eat your fill and lose weight)
Eat what you want
Now that might sound counter-intuitive, but I eat everything that I REALLY want to eat. If I want sweets, I'll eat them. If I want to drink a coke in a restaurant, I'll drink it. If you forbid yourself something you crave, you'll usually make the craving just stronger.
But I bargain with myself a lot whether or not I'm willing to save less for that piece of cake or that glass of wine :) So I developed a lot of strategies to get a taste of what I want while still eating fewer calories:
* Buying small package sizes instead of large ones. For example, I buy apple puree in 4x100 ml packs from the baby food corner, instead of a large glass that I then would feel compelled to finish off over the next days. I also buy Mini Twix and Hanuta for the office, 20 g bars that won't kill my calory budget (yes, it's much like handling money).
* Regularly analyzing my habits. I went to the Japanese restaurant for lunch not really for the sushi, but mainly for those WONDERFUL sesam rice balls. So now I sometimes buy a couple of balls in the evening to take them home :)
* Hacking meals by substituting one kind of favorite thing with another. I love Maultaschen (German version of pasta squares) but they have 215 calories per 100 g. I also love Schupfnudeln (kind of potatoe dumplings) and they only have the same calories as noodles, 148 per 100 g. These two foods meet the same traditional-meal-craving so it's easy to eat the latter instead of the first. I really should add that my husband does all the cooking at home and he's become incredibly good at hacking our favorite recipes.
Most of all - be persistent
There's no shortcut - a large weight loss takes time.
More hacks soon...
