Weigh-in Wednesday: Jan. 31, 2024

You guys are the wind beneath my wings

The Big Plateau/AI-generated image

I think some of you could sense I was frustrated last week. The Big Plateau is for real as I'm struggling to break through 180.

If I was not doing this newsletter, this would have been the week I quit.

But I did not quit.

I did not quit because three of you beautiful people emailed or commented and said things I needed to hear exactly when I needed to hear them.

This is the reason I’m doing this publicly — to fight through moments like this because I know I cannot do it alone.

The first was from a friend I've known for decades.

1. A diet I can get behind

“On the weight loss front: I did a week of fasting until dinner and eating only protein. Delicious steak mostly. No booze. Sucked for a few days. After that I felt great, not hungry at all throughout the day. I’m sticking to protein and vegetables. Limited booze except for the excessive booze on Sunday. Almost no carbs. I feel great. I’m down 10 pounds in a few weeks.”

This is basically the Atkins Diet, and I know it works because it has worked for me before. But I've never done it this hardcore – just the one meal a day. It's a good way to kick your body into ketosis, which is fat-burning mode, while eating foods you don't hate, like delicious steak. But that's not the part of his message that jumped out to me.

“Sucked for a few days” = he embraced discomfort, which I was just talking about.

Anything worth doing sucks for a few days.

I believe Teddy Roosevelt said that.¹

This message from my friend was a good reminder to fight through the sucking.

2. Thought-provoking truth bombs

If you read this newsletter often, you know Laura comments often. She is a loyal reader, and at this point I feel like we're both in this together.

“Well....you didn't gain, so that's positive. And you still feel great....another positive. I cannot claim to be an expert, I can only share my experience. About 14 years ago, when I turned 50, I lost 40 pounds in less than six months on Weight Watchers. It was great once I got in the groove and my food choices became automatic. I'm sure you can guess what happened.....I gained back every one of those pounds. I thought once I became a size 6, I could eat like a normal person and maintain that weight. Wrong. By that time bad choices became the new habit.

“I am now 14 pounds away from that lowest weight in my life, but it has taken me almost a year, and this time I am exercising too. I realize that as we age our metabolism slows and we need to eat a lot less and move a lot more. This is why I am so frustrated: I am moving more and eating less and it is taking for. ever.

“So what I have learned along the way is that we shouldn't 'diet.' We need to make new life choices. Whatever you are doing now to lose weight is what you need to do for the rest of your life and not stop when you reach your goal. That is why I like WW. To stay within the number of points you need to lose/maintain you eventually choose healthy foods to keep hunger away. You can eat a Big Mac if you like, but then you can't eat the rest of the day. You can eat pizza....nothing tells you not to do it, but you have to adjust the rest of your day, and you probably shouldn't do it all the time.

“Can you eat the way you are for the rest of your life? Would you be OK with that? Just something to think about.

“I finally broke through a round number and lost 1.3 pounds this week, so maybe I'm feeling a little giddy. Good luck this week.....I know you can do it!”

I want to spotlight this bit:

“We shouldn't 'diet.' We need to make new life choices. Whatever you are doing now to lose weight is what you need to do for the rest of your life and not stop when you reach your goal.”

This is so absolutely true.

I've lost before.

I always gain it back.

The key to not gaining it back, I suspect, is figuring out your why AND believing in your why – why do I want to make new life choices that are harder and less pleasurable? Without the why, I think we fall back into old habits.

What's that powerful motivator that will keep us disciplined?

I joke around about wanting to lose my love handles, which I do, but I think the real deal for me is I'm an older dad, and I want to enjoy the years I have with my family both in terms of quality (not feeling awful half the time because I feel run down) and length (being around for a long time to enjoy their company before The Final Weigh-In at the pearly gates).

I hadn't thought a whole lot about my why before your comment.

Thanks for being my partner on this journey, Laura!

3. New stuff I didn't know about

This one is from a great guy I met through my wife.

“First, I love Stoicism. I can't imagine that you're a Stoicism-loving writer and you don't know Ryan Holiday, but if not - you might like his stuff.

“I've done this up and down weight loss thing a bunch of times. I've tried it all. Making it up as I go, Keto, counting Macros, weight watchers, fasting, 4 hour body, etc. I've hired many health coaches over the years. I've done a lot of crazy things and I've gotten a lot of great results. Also not great results. I've read most of your emails about this, and here's some advice I could give you based on a lot of experience:

“1. Great news - weight is lost in the kitchen, not the gym. You can do this without exercise honestly. Should you? No. Could you? Absolutely. Watching what you eat is the king, exercise is the queen. You can't outrun shitty eating though. I've tried.

“2. Have you tried to figure out your basal metabolic rate in terms of what calories you need each day? And then stuck to that? Because that's where the magic is. My recommendation here is to get this number and then figure out 6 meals that get you there easily. And just rinse and repeat that for two weeks. You'll lose weight.

“3. Whenever I fast - I eat like a Sumo wrestler at night. I challenge you to stop fasting for two weeks and eat 30G of protein within 30 minutes of waking. Real food (eggs) is ideal. A protein drink or smoothie is ok in a pinch.

“I am losing about 1.5 lbs per week without a ton of discomfort right now. The discomfort comes from feelings - not real hunger. I eat the same 3-5 things every day. No thought.

“If you're really serious and want to move forward. Hire a coach. mybodytutor.com and macrosinc.net are two that I've done and would recommend. You'll need to send pictures of everything you eat. They'll keep you accountable. They'll help you make better choices. They'll help you change your life for good.

“Anyway, I hope something here helps.”

There is a lot of solid advice here.

I think it makes sense for me to start with this:

“Have you tried to figure out your basal metabolic rate in terms of what calories you need each day? And then stuck to that? Because that's where the magic is. My recommendation here is to get this number and then figure out 6 meals that get you there easily. And just rinse and repeat that for two weeks. You'll lose weight.”

I had no awareness of what basal metabolic rate was until I got this email and looked it up. BMR is the minimum number of calories your body needs to function.

Using a weight calculator, I learned my BMR is 2,197, a number that assumes I exercise 1-3 times a week, which is what I do. That's to maintain.

If I want to lose .5 pounds a week, it's 1,947 calories per day.

1 pound a week = 1,697

2 pounds a week = 1,197

I found all this info at Calculator.net, an easy-to-use website that reminds me of the glorious early days of the internet, when websites existed to be useful, not to serve you ads for shirts that hide your gut. (Me clicking the gut shirt ad would represent a tragic end of this journey.)

Shirt that hides your gut/AI

Starting today, I'm counting every calorie and aiming to keep them under 1,700. But I'm still going to stick with my fasting. For now. I'd rather divide two meals by 1,697 calories than three. If I don't see any progress this week, I'll take your two-week challenge.

This was a great email filled with lots of information!

Thank you.

Drum roll, please...

Starting weight: 187

Last week: 180

This week: 180 … again

Goal: 170

Feeling: Well-rested. I had a bad night of sleep the other night, and normally that would wreck me for days, but living right means a quicker recovery. This health loss journey has been like when you buy a house and dump money into it and all the improvements are stuff no one can see like the waterproofing and electrical. The ugly 1980s kitchen counter-tops mock you with their presence, but the infrastructure of the house is no longer a potential disaster. That's me right now.

1. Teddy Roosevelt did not say that.