
Data Driven Weight Loss: Losing 66 pounds and gaining a six pack in 8 months - dd367
http://debarghyadas.com/writes/transformation/
======
vamerock
Don't let the fact that he was 24 deter you. Over at r/bodyweightfitness,
there are hundreds of people who started above 45 and are in better shapes
than 20 year olds.

Obesity is now a taboo topic in tech because you might unfortunately step on
the toes of a few sensitive people and be labelled a fat shamer. This is not
the case.Obesity in tech is a disease on it's own and it needs to be fought
with a sharp edged pitchfork. We need to help our colleagues who have lost
hope and given up on ever being fit again.

It is never too late to get healthy again. If you're overweight and believe
your work schedule cannot allow you to lose weight, give yourself a 6 - 8
month break. Step over to the r/bodyweightfitness Recommended beginner routine
and make a big change in your life. You don't need an expensive gym
membership. You can use the floor, parks, chairs, tables, doors, ledges, trees
etc.

Sustainable weight loss is achievable by everyone, whether you're 40 or 50
years or 400 pounds or 600 pounds.

Consistency over time is the key!

~~~
JamesBarney
"Sustainable weight loss is achievable by everyone, whether you're 40 or 50
years or 400 pounds or 600 pounds."

While I applaud those individuals that have kept off weight long term, the
science disagrees that is an achievable goal for everyone.(only about 5% of
people who successfully lose large amounts of weight will keep it off long
term)

For example here is what happened to the contestants on the biggest loser.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-
weig...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-
loss.html)

The body will fight very hard to get back up the heavier level. It play nasty
tricks such as increasing hunger, decreasing metabolism, and nastiest of all
physiologically sabotage the part of the brain that is responsible for
conscience regulation of food intake(it turns off willpower specifically for
food).

~~~
m00x
Do you have any sources for the 5%?

More often than not, the cause of the weight gain is because they fall back to
bad eating habits. If you can lose it, you can keep it off. Changing to long-
term good habits is extremely difficult though.

~~~
JamesBarney
[http://m.ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/222S.full](http://m.ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/222S.full)

Here's one that mentions 20%. But that's at a year. The % changes depending on
how long you follow up(drops all the way out to 5 years.). This is study uses
keeping off 10% of body weight as the definition of success which is far less
than the amount that it takes to move an individual from obese into the normal
healthy range.

If you can find a study where a majority of the individuals experienced
significant and long term(3 yrs+) weight loss I would be happy to see it.

------
cheald
If you're data-inclined, it's a powerful tool to drive health and fitness.
Extracting actionable meaning from your data isn't that hard, as long as you
understand the basic mechanics of what you're doing and can compute things
like percentages and moving averages.

I'm 34, spent the last ~15 years at sedentary desk jobs, and became quite out
of shape. I've lost 70lb over the last year doing little more than just
logging what I eat in MyFitnessPal, sticking to caloric and macro budgets, and
recomputing my TDEE based on moving averages of my caloric inputs and weight
readings. I lift for 45-60 minutes 4 times a week, no cardio.

In that same time period, I've started lifting and seen excellent progress
(bench 1RM ~260, squat 1RM ~320, deadlift 1RM ~465), again by thoroughly
logging my workout data and using that to identify where I'm weak and strong
(which lets me select exercises to improve my weaknesses), to help set and
adjust training maxes, and to help set achievable goals on a daily basis.
Symmetric Strength is a great tool here - it's incredibly gratifying to see my
progress presented in several ways, and it helps me understand my strengths
and weaknesses, as well as my progression relative to others, which can be
very motivating.

I attribute just about all of this to the fact that I adopted eating and
lifting plans which were based on data collection and specific goals and
targets to reach for and hit on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. I've tried
dieting and fitness regimes in the past that were basically coached as "just
do this and try really hard", without laying out why, or what I could expect
at a granular level, and those become really discouraging once the initial hit
of motivation wears off. By contrast, having a year's worth of data to analyze
any time I start to feel discouraged provides immediate reinforcement as to
what does and doesn't work, and helps keep me on track.

~~~
vikiomega9
+1 on having a lifting routine. Cardio by itself doesn't seem too sustainable
as compared to watching what you eat and building muscle.

~~~
cheald
Cardio works for some people, but I think a lot of people go run for 20
minutes and then decide they've earned a Big Mac with Behemoth Fries. Data has
completely freed me of that delusion - I've learned that I'm not willing to do
enough cardio to outrun my diet. I'd rather just not have cheese on my salad
than have to go hate the world for an hour on the treadmill. There are the
people who run 10 miles on a daily basis because they enjoy it - I am not one
of them! :)

Lifting for me is less about weight loss than it is just about personal
improvement, though. I want to be strong (and hey, if I'm losing this weight,
I want to look good!), and lifting moves the ball towards that goal. I've
found that I really enjoy it, too - it's not something that I tolerate as some
grueling price I have to pay to get the body I want, it's a hobby that I
genuinely enjoy and derive a lot of satisfaction from. The fact that it helps
me lose weight is a great bonus, but I've found that lifting lets me hack my
internal tendency to "try for a high score" by giving me a whole suite of
metrics that I can rate, rank, and compare myself on. I love it.

~~~
vikiomega9
I completely agree with the first paragraph. I should have made that clear in
my comment :)

------
noir_lord
I lost about that amount of weight in 7 months a couple of years ago (and kept
it off), there was very little data driving, I just wrote down what I ate and
ate the same thing 6 days a week, porridge made with water, cottage cheese and
salad for lunch and chicken and veg/beef and veg for tea.

Came out to about 1450 calories a day which is a deficit of 1050.

1050 * 7 * 4 * 7/3500 comes to 58.8lbs, I lost 62lbs (I slightly increased my
exercise rate), it was almost scary how accurate the 3500 calories to a pound
thing was in my case.

It wasn't that hard at the time either, just required a clear goal and keeping
at it.

I quite smoking on my 30th birthday (7 years and counting) by just stopping.

No messing with patches, therapy, my mum got ill from smoking related illness,
I realised how stupid it was (or more correctly woke up and truly realised) my
30th was a few weeks later so I made a note and stopped cold turkey.

You can do pretty cool things when you draw a line and just go for it.

As for keeping the weight off, I just run a mental tally of what I've eaten
and approximate calories, if I get close to 2500 I stop eating for the day, if
I go slightly over I go under the next day, 1 day a week I eat whatever I want
if I want it (rarely do, I've lost a lot of my cravings for junk over the last
couple of years, it always leaves me feeling shitty the next day).

------
AdmiralAsshat
You call this "data driven"? Look at his explanation of the supplements he
takes:

>Grenade Thermo Detonator: A scary name, but essentially a dosage of caffeine
from concentrated green tea extract that's meant to be a fat-burner/pre-
workout pill. It gives you some energy to focus, and suppresses your appetite.
It is not very different from simply taking a packet of coffee. I used these
for the first 4 months.

>Multivitamin: Just to ensure you get your vitamin requirements for the day,
_but there is evidence to show this might not really be necessary_.

>Fish Oil: I heard from many sources that omega-3s are good for you so I
thought I'd get some

>Whey Protein: If you don't consume enough protein a day and are on a weight
loss plan, you will lose muscle with your weight. 1 - 1.5g/lb of body weight
is the general recommendation. Because it's not always easy to make sure you
get that much pure protein, a protein shake is an easy way to quickly gulp
down 50g of protein regardless of how hungry/full you are.

So of the four he takes, one he takes may not be backed by any data, and
another he takes because he heard that it's good for you.

~~~
sridca
We do not really need as much protein as the supplements industry would have
us believe.

[https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/how-much-protein-
is-e...](https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/how-much-protein-is-
excessive/)

------
manmal
His advice reminds me a lot of things Mr Berkham has to say over at
leangains.com. IF, multivitamin, fish oil, cutting/bulking phases - those are
not all things exclusive to advice given by Berkham, but it's a quite similar
subset.

Here's a post from another software developer having similarly spectacular
success: [http://merowing.info/2014/02/fit-
geek/](http://merowing.info/2014/02/fit-geek/)

I lost ~20kg myself by following Leangains loosely over a period of 18 months,
but in the end I seem to have worn out something in my endocrine/metabolic
system, from which I've been slowly recovering for most of last year (having
regained a lot of the weight and suffering from fatigue). So.. just be
careful, your body might not like rapid weightloss, everybody is different.

Ah and one tip: If you cannot lose weight even if you try really really hard,
inflammation might be the culprit. Lots of fish oil, grape seed extract,
magnesium etc should improve this a lot, and as a side effect might also save
you from having a heart attack or cancer in your 50s. DHA (eg from fish oil)
has a lot to do with mitochondrial function in the body, thus affecting all
organs and energy production.

~~~
jjawssd
I don't buy into your endocrine/metabolic system theory whatsoever. Do you
have any evidence that this is even possible?

~~~
subcosmos
Hi. Neuroendocrinologist here. Body fat is regulated by specialized circuits
in the hypothalamus. We now know that inflammation of these central nuclei is
a key feature of weight gain in both animals and humans.

There are two sets of neurons: those that promote feeding and slow metabolic
rate, and those that suppress feeding and increase metabolic rate. The former
class of neurons is GABAergic (inhibitory in neuroscience) and the latter is
glutaminergic (stimulatory). Generally in animal experiments, the gabaergic
neurons that drive feeding and conserve stored energy outnumber the
glutaminergic neurons by a great deal, and over the lifespan of an organism,
they increase in number.

Its been noted in some animal models that weight loss interventions are not
permanent because they lead to alterations in this circuit to further promote
weight gain and energy conservation. This may be why most humans also regain
weight after losing it. If you think about it, it makes sense for most control
loops in the body to "fail safe", IE, its much preferrable to gain weight than
starve to death. This circuit thus fights to preserve fat mass.

Some "food for thought"

[https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2017/07/407571/brains-immune-
cells...](https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2017/07/407571/brains-immune-cells-may-
drive-overeating-and-weight-gain)

[https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2015/02/123466/ucsf-researchers-
re...](https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2015/02/123466/ucsf-researchers-redefine-
role-brains-hunger-circuit)

~~~
manmal
Thanks for the clarification! Do you think rapid weight loss could lead to HPA
axis dysfunction as a result, i.e. lowered corticosteroid output (what some
call adrenal fatigue, but is actually regulated by the hypothalamus)?

~~~
subcosmos
I don't focus on the whole HPA axis much, and in general the "adrenal fatigue"
phrase doesn't have a great reputation among most of my colleagues. I hesitate
to write it all off though.

From my diabetes work, its clear that corticosteroids definitely have a strong
role in the development of metabolic syndrome, but I'm not sure about its ties
to hypothalamic functioning. In the hypothalamus, the effects can be a lot
more direct. Eventually its decision-making feed into the
sympathetic/parasympathetic nervous systems which directly regulate metabolism
and fat release in peripheral tissues. IE, your fat and muscle cells take
direct neural firings from the autonomic nervous system as marching orders of
whether or not its time to store energy or burn it.

So if the central neurons in the hypothalamus adjust to promote a higher
setpoint body weight, that central point in control will direct weight gain
via many downstream factors, some of which may be hormonal. Right now a
central focus in research is figuring out why the hell the hypothalamus is
driving the setpoint higher and higher. It seems like inflammation there might
be a strong culprit.

Hopefully someday we will figure out what about our mass produced consumables
are gumming up the works there.

------
raarts
Coincidentally I am on the same diet: keto, plus IF. No supplements, no
workouts. Lost 10 kg (22 lbs) in 2.5 months. Expensive, 'cause new wardrobe.

For one week, I reverted to my old high carb diet because I was on a camp and
could not maintain it. My weight loss plateau'ed, but resumed after that.
Daily calorie max is set to 1250, (I live a sedentary life).

Keto works. Workouts not needed.

I'm struggling to take enough protein though.

------
masto
The canonical “engineer studies the problem of being fat and works on it like
any other problem” story is The Hacker’s Diet by John Walker. There’s no
secret formula necessary, just eat less. I found it very inspirational (and
effective).
[https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/](https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/)

------
balls187
Amazing transformation, both in the article and the comments.

When has rapid weight loss ever been sustainable?

I'd love to see follow up article w/ comments in 2 years.

~~~
T_D_K
It's easy to maintain your goal weight if you truly enjoy the lifestyle you've
created. Obviously, if you get up one day and say, 'Well I don't actually like
going to the gym / tracking calories / etc., so I'll skip today', you've
started to gain the weight already. The trick is finding a healthy lifestyle
activity that can keep you active and that you can stick with. Climbing,
running, hiking, kayaking / canoeing, cycling, tennis, etc etc are all great
options if going to the gym to lift weights isn't your thing.

------
cagenut
ah to be 24 again

~~~
throwaway2016a
I'm 32 and I found a free-weight system for upper body I've had success with.
It auto-adjusts the weight over time whether you want it to or not so you are
forced to continually improve. It also forces you to do repetitions every day
whether you want to or not. Sometimes I do extra reps and the system responds
with positive reinforcement. It gives extra positive reinforcement if I hold
it over my head and fly it around like an airplane.

It's not exclusive to older people (teenagers can do it too but it's not
recommended)

It's called "having a baby".

My daughter weights 28 Ibs now and I have to lift her a couple dozen times a
day. My upper body has definitely improved.

But seriously, I've found staying fit is MUCH harder than it was 5 years ago
but still possible. The hardest part is finding the time. I don't know many
30-somethings (especially in tech) that can work out for a half hour
uninterrupted, nevermind an hour.

~~~
munificent
> I don't know many 30-somethings (especially in tech) that can work out for a
> half hour uninterrupted, nevermind an hour.

I work full-time in tech, have a wife, two kids, two dogs, and work on my book
[1] writing every single day. I still definitely have 30 minutes of free
_time_ every day to work out.

What I don't have as much of is will-power/discipline/execute function
whatever you want to call it. I workout twice a week and run once a week and
with that on top of working and writing I really do feel like I'm at the limit
of what I'm able to motivate myself to do.

If I wasn't writing a book, exercising even more would be pretty easy.

Try tracking how much time you spend staring at your phone and/or the
Internet. Cut that and you'll be very surprised how much long the day gets.

[1]: [http://craftinginterpreters.com](http://craftinginterpreters.com)

~~~
throwaway2016a
Kudos on the book. I have two myself (one with Wrox and one with O'Reilly).
It's a lot of work and you should be proud.

I didn't say I couldn't find an hour just that most people in their 30s I know
in tech can't.

You also lowered the requirement from the hour the author and I said to a half
hour. Keep in mind too unless you want to sit in sweat all day that hour does
not include changing cloths and showering.

I also didn't say "ever" I said "reliably" and "uninterrupted" which are key
qualifiers. One work out day where you have to spend two hours at the doctor's
office and there goes you're whole routine.

Edit: autocorrect changed sweat to suite for some weird reason.

~~~
munificent
Yeah, I had all of your qualifiers in mind. I can definitely reliably find 30
minutes or even an hour of uninterrupted time. It's not always at the _same_
time, but I can find it if I gotta.

I think most people can. What's harder is summoning the willpower to use that
hour effectively.

~~~
sn9
Have you read _The Power of Habit_?

The focus on willpower is almost inherently demoralizing and absolutely not
the best strategy. You should focus on building habits, even one at a time, so
that you can let the habits take over without expending much in the way of
willpower.

The building of habits is what takes energy, but once they've been built, they
almost run on autopilot.

And on a different note, there's a difference between exercise and training.
Training for a goal can be a much more productive use of your time and will
probably get you better results in terms of fitness and body composition
depending on the goal chosen.

------
elchief
If you're lactose intolerant / milk protein intolerant like me, I've found
Vega Performance to be the best protein powder, though not cheap. I am not
affiliated with them.

~~~
harveywi
Vega is a good supplement for those who cannot digest the milky whey.

------
didgeoridoo
> I used an intermittent fasting and ketogenic diet approach, and several
> supplements.

Can't speak for the supplements, but I'm down 45 pounds in 6 months following
the same procedure. Going back to a sugar-based diet is frankly kind of
horrifying to me at this point.

------
onuralp
Another self-quantified in a similar spirit - machine learning and ketosis:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12279415](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12279415)

------
s3nnyy
Losing 30 kg (66 pounds) in 6 months is not normal and this guy definitely did
crazy stuff. I would say 3-4 years would be "the norm" to do this
transformation, so don't let yourself be discouraged.

~~~
sidlls
How is it not normal? His regimen apparently consisted of eating fewer
calories than he expended by exercise and exercising for 3-4 hours a week, and
as a result cut approximately 1.25kg per week for 6 months. That's definitely
a bit high (for reference, "rapid weight loss" is generally considered to be
losing more than 1kg per week), but it's not outlandish.

The weight loss by itself, with no additional work for the physique, shouldn't
take more than about 8-9 months (at a loss of ~0.8kg / week, well within the
bounds of gradual weight loss). It shouldn't take 27-39 months beyond that to
build lean muscle and lose fat to reduce that level of body fat percentage.

One wouldn't even need to follow the fad diets or take the supplements this
guy did.

------
notliketherest
Nice job and all but the sheer amount of shirtless photos at different angles
just shows how narcissistic you are.

~~~
T_D_K
He's proud of what he's accomplished, in a weightloss post-mortem. How does
that make him narcissistic?

~~~
notliketherest
Look at the number of photos and angles this guy has of himself on the page.
We've all seen before / after photos of people who've lost weight. I've never
seen this many photos of one dude. It's super narcissistic.

~~~
sridca
If he is super narcissistic, what does that make all the actresses and actors
strutting the stages of public shows with a buttload of face paint, hair dyes,
plastic surgeries and the like?

Or is it that you casually use the word 'narcissistic' only when disapproving
of something you don't like?

~~~
notliketherest
Whether actors and actresses are narcissistic or not has nothing to do with
the fact that this guy is super narcissistic. Look up "logical fallacy".

------
jjawssd
The real key to weight loss is a non-insulin-stimulating diet in conjunction
with strength and cardiovascular exercise. Even with minimal exercise I lost 7
kg since March. My weight loss hits a plateau when I am not exercising. It is
essential to move your ass or lift things if you want more gains. Weight loss
is not practical without some exercise.

A lot of Westerners are rediscovering amazing gains from the ketogenic diet, a
low-carb diet. Foods with a very high glycemic index are the most commonly
available foods in the Western world. These foods are largely responsible for
health problems in the Western world. One has to go out of his/her way to
avoid foods with a high glycemic index whereas it should be the default.

~~~
allover
> The real key to weight loss is a non-insulin-stimulating diet

That was debunked recently [1].

> Weight loss is not practical without some exercise.

Nonsense. Do you have any evidence for that?

[1] [https://www.vox.com/2016/7/6/12105660/do-low-carb-diets-
work](https://www.vox.com/2016/7/6/12105660/do-low-carb-diets-work)

~~~
tptacek
Anyone who clicks through to that link and reads is going to see that it
doesn't "debunk" anything, and is in fact careful not to claim that it does.

~~~
allover
Note the bit of GGP I quoted was around the the insulin hypothesis. That
supposed connection between insulin from high GI foods causing weight gain (or
reducing weight loss), that is what the studies referenced in the article
disprove.

 _" According to the insulin-carbohydrate model, we should have seen an
acceleration in the rate of body fat loss when we cut insulin by 50 percent,"
Hall said. But they didn’t, which he thinks suggests that the regulation of
fat tissue storage in the body has to do with more than just insulin levels
and their relationship with the carbs we eat._

 _The new results also echo a previous study of the insulin-carbohydrate
model, where Hall found that people who cut fat in their diets have equal or
greater body fat loss than those who cut carbs. (Here’s Hall’s new review of
the literature on the carb-insulin model of obesity.)_

 _" These studies represent the first rigorous scientific tests of the carb-
insulin model in humans," Hall added. "The public needs to understand that
this [insulin-carbohydrate] model now has pretty strong evidence against it."_

~~~
tptacek
You've conveniently stopped quoting right before the "Can pasta and bread
lovers now rejoice?" section detailing the limitations of the study.

~~~
allover
(Sorry, I edited my post to clarify. I'm specifically referring to the
'insulin hypothesis', so the rest of the article's ramblings aren't all that
relevant).

(And the so-called 'limitations of the study' according to the article, are
that it was a controlled, scientific study apparently, yay journalism).

------
milli1
If you're a pro, you take Deer Antler spray

------
tobltobs
I stopped reading when I saw this hilarious bad photoshopped first image.

~~~
sawmurai
Why would you say so?

~~~
tobltobs
The upper part of the door in the background doesn't fit to the lower part.

Addendum: I was wrong with my accusation.

~~~
greenshackle2
I don't see it.

~~~
unit91
Look at the first image (beforeafter.jpg), photo on the right (Dec 2016). The
corner of the door is over his right shoulder. If you go straight down, it
should come out behind him somewhere around the break between his first and
second fingers. But it doesn't. The door sticks out below his 3rd finger. If
you look below that, the break in the carpet doesn't line up either.

He probably photoshopped his abdomen to make himself appear skinnier, which is
a shame. He's made incredible progress, and dishonesty only detracts from the
hard work he's obviously put in.

