19 September 2011 (Monday) - Instant Weight Loss

Yesterday I mentioned that I’d signed up with myfitnesspal.com, the idea being that science has shown that people lose twice as much weight if they actually write down what they eat and what exercise they do.
I had a little look at the software today. I’d told it that I was UK-based: it took that to mean Welsh. I wasn’t standing for that (!)
I then mucked about adding a weight loss monitor gadget onto the top of the blog page. And after half an hour’s fiddling about I decided I didn’t like it and deleted it. That was a total waste of time. Instead I added a badge half way down on the right had side of this page which will record my weight loss. Or that is, it will record weight loss once I’ve told it that I’ve lost any weight.
I also found that if I exercise, it allows me to scoff more calories on the day when I do that exercise. I thought the idea of exercise was to lose weight, not to allow you to shove more food down your neck. But what do I know?

And then I looked at the food settings. The idea is that you put down absolutely everything you eat and drink. Absolutely everything – five per cent of yesterday’s allowable calorific intake went on two glasses of squash. I had no idea that there were calories on orange squash.
I was amazed to find that three pints of ale (which isn’t really a lot for me) is getting on for a third of my daily calorie requirement. And I was even more amazed to find that there are more calories in three chocolate digestive biscuits than in a pint of beer. I’ve found that I can get double the biccies for the same calories if I go for Rich Tea, so it’s Rich Tea all the way from here on in.
And would you believe that there were just as many calories in today’s lunch (peanut butter sandwich, apple, banana, bag of Doritos) as there was in yesterday’s roast dinner.

But after all is said and done, the device does give you a total of the day’s calories you’ve scoffed, and the day’s calories that you are allowed (adjusted for exercise). I suppose as long as input doesn’t match requirement, weight loss will follow. We shall see.

Meanwhile did you know that today is International Talk like a Pirate Day? No? I’d forgotten about it too. As had pretty much everyone, including the organiser, who would seem to have abandoned ship….


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