Ban Sidhe

Diet One Year Anniversary

Mathieu — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:45:17 +0000

I know, I know, I don’t update very often anymore. To mark the one year anniversary of my diet, and to celebrate the 70+ lbs lost and my BMI being in the ‘normal’ category for the first time since high school… Here are the two principal charts of data I collected over this period:

Weight and Calorie Deficit

Body Fat as a function of Weight

Calorie, Body Fat, Exercise and Weight Tracker

Mathieu — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:39:52 +0000

Here’s a screenshot of my Calorie, Body Fat, Exercise and Weight tracker:

Screenshot of my Calorie, Body Fat, Exercise and Weight Tracker

Among the recent changes, I switched to the visualization suggestion from The Hacker’s Diet. A running average with an exponential weighting factor of 0.9 is compared to the raw values. It not only lags the inputs, any single measurement under its current (lagging) value will drive it still lower, while a measurement above it will drive it higher. In other words, trend reversals are easy to see with the naked eye, while meaningless fluctuations are de-emphasized.

Weight Chart

This makes it very easy to see that you’re still on the right track, despite the ups and downs of your daily scale readings.

Body Fat Chart

Very motivating, no?

Body Water Chart

The dashed line is the model’s prediction based on food and exercise logs, subjected to the same moving average.

Calorie Deficit from Food and Exercise Log vs. Weight Loss, in Calories

Speaking of the model, you can see above that the agreement between the projected weight loss and the logged calorie deficit remains very good. Aside from the actual weight loss itself, I must say this is the most satisfying and motivating aspect of the whole exercise.

BMI vs. Body Fat

Mathieu — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:13:30 +0000

This is a plot of the Body Mass Index vs. the Body Fat percentage. It includes the actual measurements over the 11 weeks of my diet so far (the little red crosses), as well as some guesses about where this is going next.

Body Mass Index vs. Body Fat

Obviously, I started in the upper right-hand corner (with a BMI around 32.5 and a Body Fat percentage of over 32%!) and as the diet progresses, I’m moving down and left. You can see the measurements just hit the transition between Obese and Over-Weight as per BMI.

The most important parameter impacting the shape of the curve is the Fat Loss Ratio (FLR), i.e. the percentage of weight loss that is actual fat loss (as opposed to muscle loss).

The thick brown line is the model’s best guess as to where BMI and Body Fat are going next, based on my historical average FLR value (i.e. 63.06% as of today), while the dashed lines show where the curve would lie for other values of FLR.

For the record, I expect FLR to change as I continue to lose weight and/or make an impact on my muscle loss, but it’s interesting to see how wide a range of possible Body Fat ratios could potentially correspond to the various BMI threshold values.

Lastly, these BMI and Body Fat values are valid for me, right now. I doubt they have any predictive value for anyone else, especially if they are not a 35-year old male.

Water Retention during Business Trips

Mathieu — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:33:04 +0000

Graph of the difference between the theoretical and the actual values for total body water percentage. In other words, anything positive on this chart is water retention, and anything negative is dehydration.

Water Retention Graph

Note the biweekly cycle, corresponding exactly to my business travel schedule over this period… Correlation does not imply causation, I know, but there’s definitely something there!

Interim Report on Calorie Counting Model, Two Months In

Mathieu — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:11:03 +0000

Two months into the calorie-counting experiment, and not only is the weight coming off, but the agreement between the theoretical weight predicted by the calorie logging and the scale’s verdict remains very good.

Interim Report on Calorie Counting Model

Motivation is strong, and a Body Mass Index of 30 is just around the bend, now. I will no longer be officially obese, just overweight.

Calorie Deficit vs. Fat Loss

Mathieu — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:21:26 +0000

Five weeks of comparison between the calorie deficit as calculated from food intake and exercise, and the weight loss as weighed.

Calorie Deficit vs. Fat Loss

Weight loss is converted to calories of fat (3,500 per pound) for comparison purposes and both data series are smoothed with a 9-day moving average function to remove noise.

The agreement is uncanny, no?

Six Weeks In

Mathieu — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:31:36 +0000

Six weeks in, twelve pounds down and the calorie-count-based model is still in good agreement with the weight measurements. In particular, the regression on the measurements matches the model very well indeed, which confirms my initial estimate for my rest metabolism was essentially on the money.

Interim Report on Calorie Logging and Weight Modeling after six weeks.

My interim goal weight is 248 lbs, which corresponds to a BMI of 30, i.e. the transition between officially obese (which I don’t think I look like) and officially over-weight. Still on target to reach that sometime in mid March, before we recheck my cholesterol and evaluate these results with my doctor.

One of the things I intend to discuss with her is a safe, healthy long term goal weight after that.

Some Nutrition Facts About Me

Mathieu — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:40:18 +0000

Here is my average daily diet over the last four weeks, formatted like those Nutrition Facts labels on packaged foods. I must say, doing rather well on all fronts.

My average daily diet in Nutrition Facts format, last four weeks.

Saturated fat and cholesterol are below target, while protein and dietary fiber are above. Alcohol corresponds to two glasses of wine per day, and the B vitamins are thru the roof since I’m on a B-complex regimen.

Only sour note: sodium intake is rather high. Not sure where that’s from, but I’ll keep an eye on it from now on.

Interim Report on Calorie-Based Weight Model

Mathieu — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:54:15 +0000

I’ve been logging calorie intake and spending for almost a month now… and modeling how the predicted weight loss tracks my actual weight. I’m happy to say the agreement is excellent!

Interim Report after Three Weeks

If you want to do the same, I recommend fitday.com for the logging, but I can share the spreadsheet I use to graph the data.

Lazzzorcut Space Rocket Wooshes Thru the Intertubes

Mathieu — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 01:20:17 +0000

Bre cut the first copy of my space rocket design on Thingiverse and uploaded the picture.

There’s even a video, which is hilarious!

There is something deeply awesome about the whole thing. I designed this on a laptop one evening in Jersey, and by the next evening I can see a video of the first physical copy flying around Bre’s place, complete with sound effects.

I love living in our era. We are freaking lucky, my ducklings.