Weight Loss 2024

09 Jan, 2024

Last year's weight loss progress did not go well. Actually, it went okay. Looking at my weigh charts, it appears I was closer to 245 pounds a year ago. At my last weigh-in (Monday Jan 8), I am at 242.3.¹

I am so very close to 240 pounds, that nice round number. So that's where I'm setting my bar, for now: 240 pounds. Losing more weight is ideal, but I'm not going to count my chickens before they hatch. Let me get to 240, and stay there consistently, and I'll see about aiming for a lower number.

Currently the plan is to lose 0.5 pounds per week; so that means I should reach 240 pounds in 4-6 weeks. With that in mind, I'd like to see my weight stay at 240 pounds for at least another 4-6 weeks. I guess that makes that my first 12-week plan for the year!

The Method

There's not so much change to this part: I'm primarily managing my calories using Cronometer. Instead of setting a target weight, I am able to set a target amount of pounds per week to lose. I have it set at 0.5, and Cronometer gives me a corresponding daily calorie goal to stay under (I'm going to say +/- 100 calories though). In theory, doing just this much should result in some weight loss.

Move more, eat less.

I am adding some different layers though. One of the more popular addages of weight loss is "Move more, eat less." In the winter months, I put my bicycle on a stand that essentially converts it to an indoor bike machine. This provides two benefits:

1. I don't need to buy a fancy exercise bike or similar equipment;
2. I don't have to put my bike into storage for the winter.

My plan for this winter is to get on the bike in the mornings that I work from home - normally, that is Monday and Friday. Usually I set a later alarm on those days to sleep in a little bit. Instead, I'm going to set the alarm for the same time, using this "extra" time to go downstairs to the bike.

Additionally my wife wants to get into some gym / personal training, and I'd like to join her. We have our eye on a personal training place with a few locations around the city; it's about $100 for 8 sessions to start, so we're going to take a stab at it.

Hopefully all of that will yield positive results! I'll provide an update in about 12 weeks (I think that would be around the week of March 25th). Maybe something in between, if there's something I'd really like to talk about before then.

#fitness #health