

Simple things like getting up the stairs, or standing up in the shower are now pleasant tasks, rather than arduous missions. And sure, I still have quite a ways to go, but it's a great feeling to have made this progress. I can't express how good it felt to be able to get on a plane without needing a belt extender for the first time in well over a decade. The intersection of social and genetic factors can make weight loss difficult to achieve for many, despite how debilitating it can be. Weight issues and overeating represent complex medical issues that governments and scientists around the world are fighting to understand. Obviously, everybody will have something unique that works for them. There's something about building your own plan that existing apps and services don't really account for - at least for me, and my unique mentality around food.
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Having to make those calculations somehow contributes to the sense of participation, though, in a way I'm not really sure how to explain, even to myself. packaging more often lists calories per portion, which is far more friendly to this kind of method. Calculating calories has been a bit harder in Germany, since their packaging often lists calories per 100 grams, forcing me to do annoying calculations and weigh food out. I am most definitely an Excel novice, but I feel like my setup gives me a level of involvement that I feel some apps remove from the process. There are no doubt technical methods I could use to improve my spreadsheet, like creating a database of food that will do calculations for me. Excel even has a more granular diet plan template you can use, but it didn't give me the flexibility nor the weekly average tally I wanted to account for social events and cheat days. I think Microsoft Excel works for me because it feels like I created the project, and am fulfilling the project, using my own system and my own data. Weirdly, none of these kinds of apps or services has ever worked for me. I've tried a lot of dieting apps like Noom, for example, which encourage you to build habits using psychology.
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Source: Jez Corden / Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Jez Corden / Windows Central) What may otherwise seem like small changes do add up, contributing to a big overall difference.Įxcel has seen me steadily and gradually lose weight over the course of a year, to a point where I'm almost below 300 pounds for the first time in decades. Simple tactics like switching from bread to low-calorie crackers, or swapping out cheese for tuna on pasta has also helped immensely.

It also helps me target calorie-sparse foods that are filling but contribute fewer calories overall to the average, such as lettuce and salad with a low-calorie dressing for flavor. This method allows me to account for "cheat days" like going out for a pizza and drinks with friends, because I can average out the extra calories by eating less the next few days, as I target around 1,200-1,500 daily average for the week. I've tried all of the restriction diets like keto and just found that none of them really worked for me. I could certainly do more exercise to increase the number of calories I can eat, sure, but this is what works for me, and has worked for me thus far. If I want to lose weight, I need to create a deficit that goes below 1,600 calories, which accounts for my relatively sedentary work-from-home lifestyle. I find that if I eat around 1,600 calories per day on a weekly rolling average, I will probably maintain my weight. Either way, actively counting and measuring helps you figure out where to create a deficit. Admittedly, for me, it has certainly been a bit more difficult to consistently lose weight without actively counting, so I may go back to counting again this week. Since Christmas, I've stopped tracking my food intake so aggressively because I'm trying to build up habits without having to log everything down. In the beginning, losing weight was incredibly easy, but as you can see from the chart, it dropped down a bit over time as my body got more used to the new diet plan, and the (fairly minimal) exercise I was doing.Įxcel has seen me steadily and gradually lose weight over the course of a year, to a point where I'm almost below 300 pounds for the first time in decades. The first time I was able to weigh myself was when I'd already dropped to 415 pounds (and when the scales stopped returning an error message for being too heavy). I also have a line graph at the top where I log my weight every Saturday for the past year, which offers an overview of my progress as soon as I open up the spreadsheet.
