What Does 100 lbs Look Like?

When I decided I was going to lose 100 lbs, I tried to Google something to compare it to. Some image of something (or a lot of somethings) that weighed 100 lbs, so I could grasp in my head exactly what I was aiming for.

But the pickings were pretty slim. The best I could find were the two images below (with their sources linked beneath):

MyPetFat

INetGiant

The thing is, I can't imagine holding that in my hand (whatever 'that' is), so it doesn't really help. It sure looks like a lot though!

So I decided to try and gather together 100 lbs of regular everyday stuff, so I would have at least a vague notion of what I was attempting to accomplish. And being a student, the heaviest, most numerous thing I have is, of course, textbooks!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, 100 lbs of books!

 It really doesn't seem so much stacked up like that, but believe me, this load was backbreaking. It was almost too much for me, and was definitely too much for my scales - they tried to tell me I weighed 35lbs WITH books! I ended up weighing them in shifts, and what you have above is 99.6 lbs, as close to 100 as I could get.

Try grabbing a few big books off the shelf now, and compare that weight to how many are above. I should have put something in to compare sizes, but most of those are big old hardback anatomy textbooks, and hefty even on their own. I can't believe I could even have that much weight to spare! Its horrifying.

Can't wait to drop it all though! I mean, I go for runs and can jog upstairs and am in no way incapacitated by my weight, so imagine what I'll be able to do when I'm not carrying that around too! I'll be a Hercules!

All the pics above can be enlarged with a click (and my one gives you an insight into the reading matter of a procrastinating med student!). Hopefully its useful to anyone else aiming for close to 100lbs!

Do Low Carb Diets Work?

As I mentioned previously, my topic of study at med school last week was diet and obesity. I thought I would quickly post up the results of a study carried out on the efficacy of different diets, as its quite interesting to anyone on a low carb diet.

Basically, in the graph below we see the results from two diets, both limited to 800 calories a day, and both lasting for 10 days. One was a 'balanced' diet, with a mix of carbs, proteins and fats, and the other was very low carb. Here are the results after 10 days (click to enlarge):

 To break it down quickly, if you look at the GREEN column, you can see that the low carb diet caused nearly twice the weight loss of the mixed diet. This is why they are so popular - you see good results fast. But if you look at the YELLOW column, you'll see that both diets led to exactly the same loss of fat. So where did the extra weight loss come from on the low carb diet?

A glance at the BLUE column will show you that nearly all the extra weight lost was just water, which can very quickly go back on when you start eating a balanced diet again. This means that people who start low carb diets often see their losses go right back on when they reintroduce carbs. Perhaps more worryingly, the RED column shows that more protein was lost in the low carb diet - and that is pretty much all coming from your muscles.

So there you have it - you DO lose fat on the low carb diet, but not any more than you would on a regular diet. You do, however, see weight drop off quickly, albeit with a lot of water and some muscle loss.

For myself, I've still restricted the amount of carbs I eat, as they are what I would always binge on in the past, and protein does make me feel fuller for longer. But I'm careful to get some fruit and veg in there, or to occasionally make a sandwich or something else with some carbs in, just to try and preserve as much muscle as I can (and prevent skewed results from water loss). I see building muscle as the second stage of the Idle To Idol project, after the loss of body fat, and don't want to burn up too much of what I already have!

 

How To Track Your Weight Loss

First of all, a big thank you for all the support after I posted my first month's results. It not only makes me feel good about the changes I've made so far, but keeps me motivated to make another big loss before next month's report, so thanks!

As with all the 'advice' I post, I can only speak from experience, and tell you what has worked for me. Below is the system I use to track my own weight loss, and if you think a similar system could work for you, then by all means, read on!

Here is a picture of the spreadsheet I use to chart my journey. Click on it for a bigger view!

The first column is just the date, and it really helped me to have a definite date by which I wanted to achieve my weight loss. It gives you goals, and a timescale, and helps you visualise yourself at the end of your journey - I can look at the chart and say "by my brother's wedding, I'll have lost 87lbs", rather than just "I will lose 87lbs eventually". If you're having trouble picking a suitable date, simply work out how much you want to lose in pounds, half it, and look that many weeks ahead on a calendar. This gives you a manageable 2lb loss a week until you're target weight is achieved, and if there are any holidays, birthdays, anniversaries etc within say 4 weeks of that date, use that as your target - even if you're off by a couple of pounds, you'll have seen such an improvement by then that you probably won't mind!

The second column is my target weight. I knew I wanted to lose 100lbs, and had 228 days before the date I set. That gave me how much weight I had to drop a day, so simply subtracting that amount every day and entering it into this column told me what the scales needed to show if I was to be on track. It gives you a sense of the progress you'll need to make, and can be used as a target to aim for.

Column C is my actual weight, which I check every day. I know I have to expect some fluctuations up and down, but recording every day, and making that weigh-in part of my normal routine, keeps my intention in the front of my mind. The first thing I do every morning is weigh, so the first thing I think about every day is eating well and exercising. Helps to keep me focussed!

Column D is simply how many pounds above or below my target weight I am. It changes a lot day in day out, as obviously weight fluctuates, but it gives some perspective to how well you're doing vs. how well you need to do, so you know if you have to up your exercise, or if you can afford to rest for a bit. It also helps, after having a couple of days gaining weight, to see that you are nonetheless still on track, and can afford to have a few blips without being thrown completely off the rails!

Column E is my daily loss or gain. I use this to micro-manage - if perhaps I overeat on a Tuesday, I can see how that caused me to gain weight on the Wednesday (or conversely, how going for a run on Thursday helped me drop weight on the Friday etc). It is prone to the occasional fluctuation, but on the whole it helps me see the consequences of my actions, both the good ones and the bad!

Column F I only fill in on Monday, to record my total loss over the previous 7 days. This is the figure I report on this blog every week! Its a handy at-a-glance way of seeing how you've done over the last couple of weeks.

Column G is my notes column, and this one I see as very important. Using my target weights in Column B as a guide, I write in here at every weight I will have dropped a BMI number, every time I will have passed another half-stone hurdle, or any weigh-ins I remember from the past. These are my mini-targets. For example, in the image above, you can see that when I passed the 294lbs mark, I was no longer 20+ stone, but now 19 something, and if I just dropped 2.6 more pounds, I would have a BMI below 37. These frequent mini-targets are much easier to aim for than a dreaded "100 lbs" figure, and you get a regular burst of satisfaction when you pass one.

Finally, I have my total weight loss to date automatically updating after every weigh, and I have it in a large font right at the top, so even if I'm coming in to log a gain, I can see how far I've already come, and it spurs me on. I've also put a little converter on there too, so I can plug in my weight in lbs every morning, and see how that translates into kgs, stone, or BMI.

So there you have it! It has worked wonders for me, and I often check it several times a day, just to look at how much I have already achieved, how far until my next mini-target, or to mess around with graphs or averages or what not. If you think this kind of system would work for you, then I strongly recommend it, as it has so far worked wonders for me.

The Ups and Downs of Weight Loss

A very quick post here, just to show off a graph I (finally) managed to make in Excel.

Whenever I'd tried to lose weight in the past, I'd only ever weighed once a week, usually Monday morning. Some weeks though, no matter how well I'd eaten or how much I'd exercised, the weight would have gone up. There was nothing so demotivating as that, and it scuppered me several times.

Now I knew in the back of my mind that weight is always going to fluctuate, so I decided that this time, I was going to weigh every day. Some might say this shows you even more fluctuations, and can be even more demotivating, but I decided to keep track of the ups and downs, to reassure myself if I had a bad couple of days.

Here is the graph of my first 20 days of dieting. Overall I have lost 17.1 lbs, which I am very happy with, but look how much the line jumps up and down! Had I only been weighing on the days when the weight was high, I might have been really disappointed, but now I can see the bigger picture!

So, if you've done everything right but the scales refuse to show it - DON'T DESPAIR!!