damien stolarz blog

I recently went on a diet and lost 20 pounds in about 5 weeks (4I /22 to 5/29). I didn’t do a fad diet; I simply ate less. It turns out that it’s incredibly easy – and cheap – to lose weight. The trick is to eat a lot less than your currently eating, and a lot less than you are served by pretty much every restaurant in the US.

I’m 6′3″ tall. A few years back I went on Atkins and lost about 30 pounds, going down to I think 183. I then went on the “I’m in Europe” diet, ate whatever I wanted, and kept the weight off. Then I went back to the US and went on the “eat whatever seems yummy” diet, and my early 30’s metabolism resulted in my slowly gaining weight.

Since I’m a relatively inactive “information worker” executive, I wanted to figure out a new way of eating, not just “go on a diet”, because I didn’t want to stop eating things I liked. I like soda pop and ice cream a lot. I don’t want to eat lousy fake ice cream without fat and sugar, and I don’t want to drink too much aspartame-fueled zero calorie dyed flavor-water. So I decided to figure out how to

1) retrain my body so it wasn’t always asking for junk food
2) lose weight without some unsustainable weird diet fad
3) lose weight without becoming a marathon runner

Here’s the basics rules I learned:

1) bodies need so many calories a day. If you eat more than you need, you get fatter. Less, you get skinnier. the right amount, you stay the same
2) bodies my size burn about 3000 calories per day. Smaller female bodies might only need 2000 or 2500 calories per day.
3) One pound = 3500 calories.

So losing weight turns out to be really simple – eat less calories. If you burn 2500 calories a day, you need 17500 a week. So just eat 14000 that week, and you’ll lose a pound. Eat 10500 calories that week, and you’ll lose 2 pounds. The other end is exercising. It’s really slow, but if you start running or doing other aerobic stuff it would probably help too. I chose the ‘eat less’ route because it actually is relevant to my lifestyle; I play with my family, I run around and commute a bit using public transportation, so I get some walking in, but I’m no athlete.

The other rule I applied was simple – eat healthy. One could get very confused about “healthy” due to all the opinion and propaganda and marketing, but most of the basics are obvious. Respecting any allergic, religious, cultural, or other reasons to abstain from certain foods, healthy means good food prepared from good, fresh ingredients that isn’t over processed, isn’t filled with hard to pronounce chemicals, isn’t designed to last for days or years on a shelf. “Whole foods” market is an example of foods that are healthy. Cheaper alternatives can be found in local markets, ethnic markets. Fruits and vegetables in the Mexican “Vallarta” market chain in Los Angeles, for instance, have noticeable bruises. However, they taste more flavorful than the shiny-but-bland visual feasts at Ralphs “Fresh Fare”. But vegetables from either place are presumably better than weird synthetic low calorie chocolate bar concoctions.

You don’t want to drop calories by eating nothing but weird diet food. You’ll become malnourished. Common sense tells you the four food groups are a good idea, despite the potential government propaganda imbued in that message. Besides, most food comes in those varieties.

Here’s what I did:

0) I talked to my body and explained that this was not a punishment; that I was going to make it healthier, and to work with me. I tried not to set my self up for a battle of wills, knowing that my body would fight back if I didn’t get it’s basic agreement.
1) I kept track of my weight and counted my calories every day. I made a target of 1200-1500 calories. That meant that I could have a few 300-400 calorie meals, and a couple-hundred calorie treat.
2) I figured out some foods that fit in the 300-calorie meal range. For instance, Jared’s subway fetish made sense; bread, meat, good veggies. I could get a subway club with spinach, skip the mayo, eat it, be relatively full. I figured out that jack-in-the-box tacos (2 for $0.99) are about 320 calories. On stuff with no calories on the back I would simply google it “large caeser salad calories” or “pesto sandwich calories”, that sort of thing. I figured out that a can of coke was 140 calories, so I could have that sometimes.
3) I stopped eating desserts every day (duh). I drastically reduced sugar intake.
4) I started drinking as much water as I could stand. I bought caseloads of dasani cheaply at Fry’s electronics. I hear it’s the worst of the bottled waters and has sodium. I know that it’s far better than 2-3 sodas a day. I drank like a fish, or a human emulating a fish.
5) I stopped eating after 8-9pm. I heard that on a radio ad one time for some weight loss placebo, “take our junk and don’t eat after 9″ so I figured it was the “don’t eat after 9″ that actually worked.
6) I tried to integrate weightloss into my lifestyle. I didn’t make weird personal lunches; I tried to eat out, but eat less. I would order hamburger, like normal, but just not eat it all.
7) I ordered kids meals whenever possible. they’re usually bland and sauceless and lower portion size – and cheaper. Or buy two tacos, no beans and rice, lots of lettuce. Buy small portions. Buy individual items a la carte. Get a water as your drink.
8 ) I relied on nonfat frozen yogurt for my icecream fix- pinkberry and it’s many clones – which in the small cup has like 100-120 calories. Sometimes i’d even freak out and have a medium and get like 200 calories.
9) I ended my affair with whole milk. We still go out some times, but it’s not the same as it was. Some would argue that I’m a full grown mammal and don’t need it. I wont’ go that far, especially in light of chocolate desserts, but after calorie counting I understand how it’s especially good for growing babies and equally effective at fattening adults.
10) I did not try to escape a feeling of hunger. Here’s the deal: You’re eating less calories than you burned. Thus, your body is eating itself to get more energy. This means you’ll feel HUNGRY, or at least sensations strikingly similar to hungry:

• starving
• underfed
• “a feeling that you should eat”
• snacky
• craving
• etc.

If you try to “avoid hungry feelings” and yet you force your body to be hungry, it’s a bit of a challenge. Even filling your belly with various foods, you’re still going to want sugary foods and “naughty” foods and that full feeling. Deal.

So basically, I started around April 22. My weight had maxxed out at 217.5. I dropped to 197.5 after about 5 weeks. My birthday was June 1, so I had a bit of cake and brownie and some white russians and some ben & jerry’s ice cream, but as of June 2 I’m up between 198-199 depending on time of day. Birthday’s over, I want to get down to about 185, so I’ve still got 15 pounds to go. You can see a spreadsheet of my diet tracking below. I’m not counting calories precisely anymore because I know by now what overfed, underfed, and fed feel like, and I just eat sensibly. If I know I want some crazy fat food snack I just budget it in, like spending or any other budget activity.

A google spreadsheet showing my weight loss