This is a plan I have devised and used for over 6 years. It involves:
- No calorie counting
- No special foods
- No special exercise regimen
I have studied at Cambridge, London, Caltech and Calgary. None of these studies were in Nutrition, but all were in Physics. If Al Gore can talk about Climate Change, I can talk about diet.
The Principles for the “Galactic Diet” are:
- Peter Drucker’s statement “You can’t manage what you don’t measure”.
- Losing weight is a simple energy balance – energy in is less than energy expended
- Reduce energy in by reducing quantities eaten/drunk
- Increase energy out by increased exercise
Note that what you eat/drink is irrelevant. How you exercise is irrelevant.
The diet consists of the following:
- Daily weighings
- Reduce amount of food you eat and how much you drink
- Increase your daily exercise
Daily Weighings.
Most Weight Loss Gurus advise against daily weighing. Weight Watchers have weekly weighings. However, weighing yourself daily has the advantage of providing more data and faster feedback (that Chinese buffet yesterday gave me an extra kilo!).
The weight has to be put in a spreadsheet. A seven-day rolling average plotted on a graph will show the weight trend very clearly. A linear regression on the data will quantify the average daily weight loss and can be extrapolated to our target weight and will tell you when you will reach that target.
Using a seven-day rolling average eliminates the daily fluctuations – beers on Friday, beers after soccer, family dinner on Sunday. A linear regression on the data will quantify the average daily weight loss and can be extrapolated to our target weight and will tell you when you will reach that target. In the graph above, the regression shows that the daily weight loss is 0.076 kg (0.17 lb). This doesn’t seem like much, 0.76 kg (1.7 lb) in 10 days, 7.6 kg (17lb) in 100 days
The weigh-in should be as close to the same time every day. Preferable with no clothes, but if not possible, in the same clothes/pyjamas every time. This is because a person’s weight varies significantly over the course of 24 hours.
Note some increases occur with no food intake – these are just a measure of the accuracy of your weigh scale. Similarly, at 21:00 there is a sudden drop – this was two measurements taken with the scale in a slightly different position. The seven-day running average should smooth all of these out.
How much do you need to do?
Simple – decrease food intake, increase exercise until weight starts dropping. This is usually when you feel slightly hungry much of the time.
How hungry is that? When you need to have a snack.
What type of snack? Doesn’t matter, all that matters is the amount.
How much of a snack? The amount is just enough to tide you over to the next mealtime.
Suggested snacks (my favourites):
- Potato crisps/chips – but only three, not the whole bag
- Cadbury’s milk chocolate – three squares, not a whole Mars bar
- Trail mix – one or two teaspoons, not half a bag.
Drawbacks to the Galactic Diet
The major drawback to this approach is that it is difficult to maintain for long enough due to events:
- Christmas (kills all weight loss approaches stone-cold dead!)
- Vacations
- Business travel
- Pregnancy
- Illness
- Injury
I am still doing research on how to counter these, but a solution has so far eluded me.
Summary
This is an OUTCOME monitoring approach.
Most diets are based on an INPUT monitoring approach:
- Calorie requirements based on age and sex, then complex calculations of the calories in each meal.
- Eating prepared diets (Weightwatchers, Jenny Craig) – basically reduced portion sizes