In mid-March I got on the scale for the first time in a few weeks and saw a number that I had never seen before: 221. I think 218 was the highest I had seen prior to that, and the fact that 221 equates to 100 kilos made it seem extra significant.
I am 61 years old, 6 feet 2 inches tall, and I’m a software developer with a somewhat sedentary lifestyle. My diet was diverse but uncontrolled, at times immoderate. At 221 pounds, my BMI was around 28.4, in the overweight range, just 1.6 points south of obese.
I decided to do something about my weight by reducing input and increasing output. Brilliant and radical, I know. Since March 17, my weight has declined from 221.0 to 194.8, a change of 26.2 pounds. My goal is to stabilize at 190, so I am almost to the point of switching to a maintenance regimen.
An app called myfitnesspal has been the key to this. I use it to track my calories throughout the day. Using some basic facts about me and my goal, it provided me with an intake goal each day. As I add info about what I have eaten, it shows how many calories I have left to eat that day. The app has a staggering amount of data on packaged and chain restaurant food in it. In three months, there has been only one instance of a packaged food product that I searched for and didn’t find. For things it can’t find, there are generic comparable items from which to choose. The usefulness of all of this already-existing data is that when I search the app for Pepperidge Farm Seedless Rye Bread or a Longhorn Renegade Sirloin 8 ounce or Heritage Farm Thick Sliced Bologna Made with Chicken, it finds it. Someone has already input all of the nutrition info from the label or the restaurant website, and I just click it to add it to my diary.
The only food item that I have eliminated from my diet during this period has been cola. I used to have cola at restaurants, now I have water. I eat out about once a week, so this has not been significant. I still eat everything I used to eat: ice cream, potato chips, meat, fish and dairy. The app is helping me with portion control.
A few other pieces of technology are in the picture as well.
I bought a Withings scale. It claims to measure fat and heart rate, but all I care about is that is a pretty accurate scale that Bluetooths or Wifis my weight to myfitnesspal as soon as it gets a stable weight.
My company gives a health insurance discount for tracking steps, so I wear a fitbit Charge. This is a very accurate steps counter with an altimeter that tracks steps and stairs climbed and sends that info to myfitnesspal. If I take enough steps to exceed the average daily steps for my lifestyle, myfitnesspal adds some calories to my daily allowance of food.
Finally, when I go on an exercise walk, I use a GPS-driven app called runkeeper. This tracks my route, time, distance and pace and stores the info from each walk. It also allows me to post each walk on facebook to annoy my friends.
I have also been doing upper-body exercises at a local fitness center three times a week.
All of the apps are free. They have paid versions, but I am not using those.
The short description of what I have been doing is “portion control and walking”. If someone really presses me, I will tell them some or all of the above, but I really don’t want to be tedious about this stuff. I do get asked what’s going on frequently because it is really obvious that I have lost weight.
I realize the weight loss or control is easier for some than for others. I have posted this in the hope that someone in a similar situation to me might benefit from this approach, the apps and devices, whatever.
I can answer questions if there are any.
myfitnesspal is a killer app.
