Newbie questions, but first-a website

[nonskanse]

This link: is to "the hacker's diet: how to lose weight and hair through stress and poor nutrition"
www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html

This isn't really about poor nutrition, although by taking in less calories than you use, you are technically depriving your body of something it wants, etc. The guy here has this laid out in internet technical manual format and there is a good tool for weighing in (same time every day, accurate scale, graphs, nifty stuff) and all. Although DDR will take care of making you burn more calories than you could probably even want to eat in a single day , this is a cool reference.
And I figure enough ddr players are a little geeky (I'm 22/f/CS major) to appreciate the hacker's diet, and although its unpleasant to eat less as recommended here (iron will!!!), the tools could be useful. And its more fun to weigh yourself everyday and see progress on a graph if you're a person who likes to see what's going on.

Anyway-
I have lost a couple pounds through diet alone, but we all know that only goes so far. Since I finally have time again for DDR, I want to be able to get up to a maintainable amount of playing time per day that I will be able to do once I'm back in college from my internship.

I'm only 150 (154 a few weeks ago), and at 5'6" this is an acceptable weight. But I would like to be about 130-135 by the time I (hopefully) go to Japan this coming June. This is partly because although i know I'm not "fat", I was previously on a slow but sure path, gaining 2-5 pounds per year since I was 16. If not to 130-135, I'd like to be a size 7/8 at the most (I am muscular and I realize that muscle weighs more per inch than fat). I am currently a 9/10

So I'd like to be 130 again, and 20 pounds in 6 months should be not-too-hard. A lot of you have bigger goals you would like to meet and may be thinking "20 pounds!? that's it?" but the less you need to lose to be at a very ideal weight for your height, the harder it gets. Losing the 4 pounds I have so far means that I'm hungry often (I make sure to eat 1800 a day so i'm not starving) and I have to ignore the call of the cookies.

Advice/motivation is welcome. I want to be able to maintain something through the rest of college (another year after this june) even with a hectic schedule, and not lose sleep.

-V

[abrannan]

The Hacker's Diet is a good reference for how the body works and what conditions cause weight fluctuations, but the diet portion, ugh! Contrary to what he says, you cannot get the nutrition you need solely from a daily multivitamin. Most multis don't even have 100%RDA of everything you need, and they lack a lot of other valuable nutrients, particularly fiber. It's a good set of companion tools to another diet though (The moving average weight tracking, etc).

1800 caloreis/day is probably not aggressive enough to get the pounds off in the time you'd like. I'm not a doctor or a nutritionist, so take my advice carefully, but I'd think you'd be better off targetting something in the 1300-1400 calorie range. Check a few different resources for what your BMR/RMR is, but I'll bet you find that most of them put it around 1800-1900 cal. It looks like you're eating the right amount for maintenance, but I think you'll find that by dropping another 400 calories/day from your diet, the weight comes off a little better. Don't drop below 1100/day though.

I'd also recommend you take alook at some of the other diets out there, particularly if you want something you can live with long term. The obsessive calorie tracking and weigh-ins that THD require become tedious after a while. Find a diet you can live with, with simple rules that don't require tracking anything, and you'll be more likely to make that a life change. Orangina could probably recommend a lot of good books, she's done the research. I'd also like to plug South Beach. Yes, it's trendy, and CS/CE geeks don't like to follow the popular trends (I was a CE major, btw), but the diet has worked for everyone I've seen try it.

[nonskanse]

Yeah i know the hacker's diet is a little too much, and some of the info is a little... WELL, this is the internet and you have to take it all with a grain of salt. Or a bottle of water. Or something.

As for 1400, I have an ok metabolism and i get hungry even after a huge meal (which i am not eating anymore!) quite quickly. I have taken to snacking on apples and dried apricots, but if I go below 1600 I have hunger pains for too much of the day (generally now I feel hungry about 4 hours total out of the day).

Hopefully I will be able to fit enough ddr into my schedule to be able to eat 1800, but not so much that my hunger increases too much.

As for south beach, it even worked for my grandparents. But I like the philosophy of eating less and healthier and exercising more. I have no problem with trendy things (I even have style... sometimes).

I eat a lot of veggies and fruit, and take a multivitamin with iron for safety's sake (i have had iron problems in the past, and I don't like meat very much. Leafy greens alone hardly provide enough for women.)

As for the data tracking on the hacker's diet... I'm a geek and I like to see data. Its not for everyone.
So thinking about it, 1800 probably won't do it for the last 10 pounds. Even with my slightly more active lifestlye (sans ddr for the moment), that's probably only a 500 deficiency on what I ate at 154 (and was maintaining that weight with), and as I get lighter I'll need a bit less, though hopefully the muscle mass i'm trying to keep will help.

Sorry for babbling out loud. Its a big change in small steps.

Thanks
-V

[this little piggy]

That website intrigued me for a bit.. but I realized it wasn't for me when he diminished the value of excercise.. but then again, I'm still a teenager and have time for hours of DDR a day ..so I guess that's the difference

Oh, and on an aside, I am at your goal weight, but am only 5'2 =) I'd like to lose around 20 pounds. Good luck!

[nonskanse]

I don't think the site diminishes the value of exercise... it just is a way to lose weight without thinking of the anti-benefits. Its definately not to be taken 100%, but the tools are still interesting.

Good news: the tv I currently have finally has an adapter (the tv wouldn't switch to video mode, so i had to get something to switch the a/v to coaxial...) for the ps2, so i can play again. Got about 40-45 minutes in today of DDR, and I think i lost a foot or 2 somewhere in the 6 months I couldn't play. I definately am having some tripping and yelling problems above 6 feet anymore... Hopefully I'll continue to have time, at least until college starts back up. (yay internships!)

And somehow I just can't get into DDR Max2. The first one might have better music, I don't know (addicted to "Candy", although I'll be sick of it soon).

Good luck with your 20, although if you lift some weights you might be able to do 15. Or just pushups and situps. A lot of folks ignore mid and upper body....

[abrannan]

Honestly, the way the Hacker's Diet views weight loss (Calories in:Calories out) Exercise is a less effective way to lose weight than dieting. The amount of exercise you have to do to burn 250 calories is a lot more difficult than just not drinking that 20oz bottle of coke. However, as we all know, there are so many more benefits to exercise that aren't instantly reflected in the calorie equation. Building muscle to burn more calories, improving cardiovascular health, managing cholesterol (regular exercise can and does improve HDL levels), etc.

[Laura Moncur]

Not to mention the mood-lifting effects of exercise...

[abrannan]

Laura said:

Not to mention the mood-lifting effects of exercise...

Amen! Exercise and spicy foods are my Prozac. Both lift Endorphin levels and have a noticable impact on my mood.