Monthly Archives: July 2006

Cruising the Diet Blogs


Posted by katiebird

What’s going on in the Dieting World? First of all there are 10 worthless sites for every 1 with something interesting.
At CalorieLab Calorie Counter News (Weight loss, diet, nutrition, and food news and information)
They’re talking about Setting Weight Loss Goals:

Keep your goals simple and realistic. If youire commitment phobic, it sometimes helps to set extremely short-term goals, to be accomplished within a matter of hours rather than within a day or a week.

And this scary (but not really surprising) news:

Outlook murky for the obese. Inlook even worse.The problem, quite simply, is that an increasing number of patients are literally too oversized to fit into scanners, and/or are so layered with fat that X-rays and sonograms can’t pass through it to inner tissues and organs.

The official term for this diagnostic roadblock among radiologists is “body habitus,” meaning “body build,” a phrase whose appearance in radiology reports doubled in frequency from 1989 to 2003 as a confounding factor in attempts to use X-rays, CT scans, MRI imaging or PET technology to spot tumors, blood clots, fractures and other ailments and injuries.

This last story was also reported at Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb, Airplane Seats, Restaurant Booths And X-Rays? Check out the UPDATEs to read correspondence with Dr. Raul Uppot, one of the authors of the study under discussion.

And there’s always a lot to read at Healthacker.com. It was their link to a story at Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb about the Weight Loss Buddy Site that brought me to the article I linked to above this.

This isn’t an easy cruise, there is a lot of hooey along the way . . .

The Road to Reduction – An Integrated Strategy for Sustainable Weight Loss. He’s got some links to sites for do-it-yourself dieters (a link to The Hacker’s Diet helped me find this one.). And I love his evaluation of a guy featured in this New York Times story. This The Road to Reduction appeals to me and I’ll come back.

This is it — 3 hours of hammering on the Internets and I’m out of here!


Weight Control: A Fierce Struggle


Posted by katiebird

Just today, I’m not going to eat between meals and I’m not going to take seconds. And I’m going to use the tools in The Hacker’s Diet to help me reach my goal.

I can see why this obesity thing is so hard to cure control. It seems like most days I struggle to stay on track — and my goal isn’t even that difficult. I’m just trying to cut back a few hundred calories a day. The problem is that a few hundred calories a day are so powerful. Eat a few hundred less and we can lose a pound a day. But absentmindedly eat a few hundred calories more and suddenly we’re gaining a pound a week.

I’m not there, but it’s a fierce struggle. Continue reading →


A certain comfort


Posted by katiebird

The author of The Hacker’s Diet, John Walker, has generously given me permission to discuss his diet in detail using some quotes, with links back to his site. (Earlier E4T articles on The Hacker’s Diet)

Early warning

Not only does the trend let you balance your calories, it’s a tireless sentry that notifies you of emerging weight problems while they’re still easy to correct. Suppose you just printed a trend chart like this one.

Clearly, a dramatic change in calorie balance occurred in the last three weeks of this month. This rapid climb, starting from the goal weight of 150 indicates an immediate need to reduce your calorie intake by about 350 calories a day (the 329 excess shown in the chart plus a tad more to cause a slow drift downward to 150 pounds). Since you were eating too many calories and gaining weight, cutting back to slightly fewer than what you’re burning should not leave you hungry, as your daily deficit will still be less than 100 calories as you return to the goal.

Those sinkers and floaters really work. Just seeing the sinkers getting closer to the trend line snaps a person into focus. This chart is available through both sets of The Hacker’s Diet tools, Microsoft Excel Tools and Palm Computing Tools. I’m using the Palm Tools. But I don’t think the Calorie tools are available in that set.

Even if you haven’t started following The Hacker’s Diet, the tools could help you monitor your weight control success.i After weighing yourself in the morning, plug the amount into the tool you’re using. Soon you’ll have a chart like the one displayed here.


Successful Losers


Posted by katiebird

From nutrition.gov:

Key Behaviors of Successful Losers*

  • Getting regular physical activity
  • Reducing calorie and fat intake
  • Eating regular meals, including breakfast
  • Weighing themselves regularly
  • Not letting small “slips” turn into large weight regain

*From The National Weight Control Registry. See “Long-term Weight Maintenance” in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 82, No. 1, 222S-225S, July 2005.

  • Staying On Track with Your Goals

    Setting realistic goals and tracking your progress are key to your success. In fact, research has shown that those who keep track of their behaviors are more likely to take off weight and keep it off. A reasonable rate of weight loss is 1 to 2 pounds per week.

    These resources can help you set goals and monitor your progress:

  • Eat Better: Goals
  • Get Active: Goals
  • Guide to Behavior Change
  • How Much Do You Eat? A Food Diary
  • Exercise Log|PDF

    • When I’m stuggling with my weight goals, I look for inspiration everywhere. I never know when I’ll stumble on something that will click for me (that’s how I stumbled onto The Hacker’s Diet.) Lately I’ve been looking through the federal government’s sites and they’ve put together some interesting lists.

    Buried a couple of links down from one of the above lists is a list of 119 small steps you can take to start losing weight today. Some I’m already doing (4, 9, 13, 27, 88!) others sound like good ideas (3, 11, 108) and still others are never going to happen (10, 39)

    Another link led to The Weight-Control Information Network. Here’s a link to their publications.n I’ve sent away for a lot of them to distribute at Eat4Today Live! All for free. Most of the government sites have a publications page.o And a lot of them are free. Also, a lot of them are available as PDFs and can be viewed online.

    The quality (especially the interest level) varies from site to site and from publication to publication.g But, you never know when you’ll find just the thing to keep you going for another week.