HOW TO: Lose 10 Pounds In One Year
So you want to lose weight but you want to drink beer. You've been stepping up your gym game but all that wine is going straight to your ass. You're eating healthy but all that Baileys has got you down. Get the gist?
Enter: the scale.
Yes, that's basic premise of this post. You can stop reading here and go buy a scale or you can keep reading. Whatever.
Alright so you're reading. Sweet. Here's a little backstory:
One year ago (March 2014) I was drinking a lot of beer. I wasn't exercising, and I was eating out a lot. That basically ended up in more body weight than I preferred. That's the key here, I'm not talking to fat people or skinny people, I'm talking to people who just want to be more responsible with their body.
So I talked with a good friend (Lindsey whuddup) and she asked me if I had a scale. I didn't. I bought one.
Now you don't go buy just any old scale. You buy a digital scale.
Need a recommendation? This is the one I have. Just do it.
Why do you buy a digital scale?
What's gamification?
Basically it means turning something that's not a game into a game. The tech industry uses it a lot as a buzzword and trendy design strategy. Foursquare badges, Mint.com, anything that sends you a notification saying "congratulations!" - are really good examples of gamification.
So basically what you're going to do is keep a log (mentally, on paper, in excel) of your body stats over time. Your brain will eventually start to resent itself when you're crushing brews and pounding hamburgers, until finally it's learns some goddamn discipline and willpower.
See how fun this game is?
Seriously though. Buy the scale. It's $30. You'll weigh yourself once, forget about it, then come home drunk one night, get on the scale and say "holy shit, what the hell happened?"
You. You happened.
A few days later, you'll be crushing more brews and one of your friends will suggest you try the new ultra-super-hoppy-triple-120-minute-local-organic-microbrew-IPA. It's only the coolest thing.
But wait - your weight!
Maybe this time you'll just settle for a Dos Equis. It's lighter, cheaper, and you won't have to worry about your drive home. You go weigh yourself at home again, super proud that you made a decision.
Somehow you got heavier.
Yes that is how life works. Eventually though if you do this enough, you will see a difference.
This doesn't mean you have to stop drinking craft beers.
God forbid the millennials don't get to drink their craft beers.
It just means that you're gaining consciousness.
It's like remembering names. The first time you forget a name. The second time you promise yourself you're gonna remember the persons name, but you forget. The third time you remember it for a day and then it's gone. But the fourth time... you're getting the hang of it.
So naturally, being me, I tracked all the statistics from my scale for a year, and came back to report, exactly one year later (shown with trendlines):
Some notes:
- This scale isn't incredibly accurate. When I got a body fat reading at my gym I was around 1.5% lower than my scale readings. Regardless, the numbers don't matter, it's about more about how the current number compares to the previous.
- Last summer (June, July) I played a lot of soccer. I drank a ton of water and was running multiple miles a week. The graphs shows this.
- Last September I hurt my ankle pretty bad and couldn't work out much for a couple months. Also shown in the graphs.
- Recently I've been working out a lot, started playing soccer again, and have been eating Soylent. This has definitely helped my numbers.
- I only lift 1-2 times a week. Body muscle could definitely improve if I lifted more.
- All of these numbers depend on your gender, age, and body type. Google around for a body fat calculator and figure out where acceptable ranges are for you. Same for the other metrics.
The important thing here is for you to develop a healthy competition with yourself. Don't get weird and start freaking out if your numbers aren't great lately or be that person who can't eat fries with your friends anymore. Everything in moderation. Especially moderation. Learn where you are, understand how to influence your numbers, and establish a goal for where you want to be. Once that's done, the rest will fall into place.
As a necessary side note here, it's worth noting that diet and exercise are indeed the right way to lose weight, and getting a scale really just makes you conscious of each. "How to lose 10 pounds in one year" is kind of a joke title because better results are obviously achievable.
Also, make sure you weigh-in at the same time, same place, as often as possible. You're lighter in the morning and you're heavier after you just ate that bratwurst off of 6th street. For me it was around 10pm every night - once I had digested my meal, my body had recovered from my workout, and a time I was usually free. Also I suggest being naked.
If you're going to record your data, I strongly suggest setting up a spreadsheet of some kind. You're probably going to even if you do it mentally or on paper. For the record, I used Google Sheets instead of Excel to track my data because I could use the mobile app to record my stats while I was on the scale. The data entry was easy but the chart tools and options are still lacking. I guess you could use Office360 and the mobile app but lol who uses Office360?
Go forth and conquer yourself.