I just finished my third full month of keeping a consumption and exercise log, and I feel like it has really been worth the time and trouble. For the first time in my life, I feel like I am in control of my weight. I weighed 191 on November 1st, down from 224.5 when I first started what I then called the FaceBook diet in April of this year.
I’m getting ready to analyze what I ate (and drank) during those 3 months, during which I lost 14 pounds. I will say this: I’m not very good at controlling what I eat. I find it much easier to get more exercise than to cut down on caloric intake. Also, I made sure I had room for alcohol. I drank bourbon every single day during the last three months. I did pretty much abandon beer – because I discovered bourbon gives you more bang for the buck.
Here is what I averaged per day in caloric intake the last 3 months:
August: 2,452
September: 2,617
October: 2,574
August was the month I set out to prove this would work. I set an ambitious goal of burning 35,000 calories more than my intake – which should result in a loss of 10 pounds. It turns out to be 1,130 calories per day, and I decided I had a shot at doing it if I could ride my bicycle 3 hours per day. My bike ride became my priority, and it worked. I came 2,000 calories shy of my goal, but still lost the 10 pounds. I found my actual weight varies from my “theoretical weight” by as much as 3 pounds, but usually they are close.
I felt I needed a rest from the diet in September, and set my goal at zero the first two days of the month, and then an excess of 500 calories per day for the rest of the month. I missed that goal by 4,000 calories, but still managed to lose 1.5 pounds.
I left the goal unchanged in October due to inertia, and performed even worse: I burned 5,575 excess calories vs. a goal of 15,500. I still lost 2.5 pounds, half due to luck.
So for November, I’ve decided to dial down the goal to 233 excess calories burned per day, which should result in 2 pounds per month of weight loss. It should be comfortable and easy to do – and will allow me to redirect some of the biking hours to work. The first day of the month I missed that meager goal by 300 calories, but made up for it today with an extended bike ride.
