A Hacker on his first (and hopefully last) diet

ReverseEngineered
ReverseEngineered Posts: 15
in Introduce Yourself
Hi everybody,

I'm an engineer and programmer in Saskatchewan, Canada. I was a bit overweight through high school, but gained 10 lbs per year throughout college, leaving me at 5' 10" and 245 lbs, which I've kept consistent for 5 years. I had always considered diets to not be worth the trouble, though I longed to look and feel better. Things changed recently when my father died unexpectedly. His bad habit (smoking) lead to his early demise and I realized that my obesity was my bad habit. I decided to take a stand and started dieting one month ago. Since then I have lost 10 lbs.

For direction I read "The Hacker's Diet". As an engineer myself, I appreciated his no-nonsense approach and rigorous method for tracking and controlling my weight loss. I've been following the steps as described and have been consistently losing 2 lbs per week for the last 4 weeks. Just as he said, the first few days were difficult as I became used to eating less, but I quickly became accustomed and now feel entirely comfortable with my diet.

My initial goal is to reach the 190 lbs that I was when I graduated high school, though I plan to continue towards a healthy 160 lbs. I'm confident that, just like the last 5 years, I will be able to maintain my weight without excessive control once I return to a healthy weight.

I use MyFitnessPal as a convenient meal planner. It has a humongous database that covers nearly every meal I can buy in any grocery store or restaurant. Though I would change a few things about the Android app, it works well enough for me to use every day. I also use the Hacker's Diet website to track my weight daily and monitor my progress. It works much better than MFP's weight tracking; I don't fear a day when I show no loss or a small increase, as long as the trend continues downward. I highly recommend the combination. It has made it quick and easy to control my diet.

Wish me luck and persistence and I wish the same to you!

Replies

  • westerskov
    westerskov Posts: 4
    Hey --- what is the link the the hackers diet??..... There are so many links online... thanks!
  • ReverseEngineered
    ReverseEngineered Posts: 15
    http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/online/hdo.html. Just enter your weight measurements for at least a week and then it will start to show your trend and how quickly you are losing.
  • westerskov
    westerskov Posts: 4
    thanks!
  • greaseswabber
    greaseswabber Posts: 238 Member
    The MFP / Hacker's diet combo has worked for me as well. I am down 35 lbs. 50 is the goal. It has been a slower process than I would prefer, but only because my will power wanes occasionally and I get off track. I only have to start paying attention: weighing in every day, weighing all of my food, tracking everything I eat, and I start seeing results soon enough.

    MFP + Hacker's diet = 360 degree feedback loop

    For Android users, Libra is a good mobile version of the Hacker's Diet weight tracking method.
  • ReverseEngineered
    ReverseEngineered Posts: 15
    If you want to see my progress on the Hacker's Diet website, look up the results for the pseudonym "Kappa Harold".
  • ReverseEngineered
    ReverseEngineered Posts: 15
    Thanks for the tip. I find the website -- especially the handheld version -- is easy enough to use, but I initially tried to find an app and failed. I wish there were a better way to combine the two, but the separate apps/websites work well enough for me right now.
  • Wpbarr
    Wpbarr Posts: 142 Member
    I'm looking forward to the combo of using both MFP and Hacker's to break through my multi-month plateau.

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