The number one New Year’s resolution is to lose weight. So it seems appropriate to write about the various technological aids for those of you making this important-but-difficult goal one of your 2010 resolutions.
Let me begin by saying that I, too, would love to lose some of those extra pounds this year. I was discussing this with friends over dinner just last night, as we (ironically) shared a terrific meal at Syrah Bistro in Santa Rosa. I opined that someone who could provide Americans with a guaranteed way to lose weight would be richer than Bill Gates.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 67 percent of noninstitutionalized adults over the age of 20 are either overweight or downright obese. And 99.9 percent of them struggle with losing that extra avoirdupois. Blame our caveman brains; we’re wired to store calories when food is abundant. But evolution never counted on the deep-fried Twinkie.
The fundamental truth about losing weight is simple: expend more calories than you consume. We can argue about the relative merits of eating 1,500 calories of dark chocolate (yum) vs. 1,500 calories of brussels sprouts (yuck), but in the end, if you eat more calories than you burn off, you’ll put on weight in the form of fat, regardless of what you eat. Conversely, if you burn more calories than you eat, you’ll lose weight. And the equation is very simple: One pound of fat represents 3,500 calories eaten or avoided.
The grandfather of technology-assisted weight loss is probably John Walker, the founder of Marin-based Autodesk and author of The Hacker’s Diet, an online book originally published in 1994, which “…treats dieting and weight control from an engineering and management standpoint, and provides the tools and an understanding of why they work and how to use them that permit the reader to gain control of their own weight. The book is intended primarily for busy, successful engineers, programmers and managers who have struggled unsuccessfully in the past to lose weight and avoid regaining it.”
Walker invented the (imaginary) “Eat Watch,” which displays when it’s OK for you to consume more calories and “Don’t Eat” when it’s time to stop. Sadly, it doesn’t yet exist.
Lacking such a watch, Walker proposed a simple, but effective, approach: measure caloric intake each day and watch the effect on a 20-day weighted average of your weight. Adjust your daily calorie intake up or down until you reach your goal weight (the weighted average avoids the fact your weight on any given day can be influenced by many factors). Excel, which was pretty cutting edge in 1994, made this calculation all pretty easy. Walker’s approach remains valid 15 years later, since it’s based on balancing caloric intake and outgo, and his writing is straightforward and engaging. Google “hacker diet” and you can read it for yourself for free (it was last updated in November 2005).
Meanwhile, though, technology has leaped forward. Here’s a sampling of technologies you can buy today to assist you in your pursuit of a slimmer, healthier you.
First, there’s the Bang-Bang Diet (www.bangbangdiet.com), a $1.99 application for the iPhone. It implements a diet strategy first proposed by Steve Ward of MIT in the 1980s. You enter your current weight, your goal weight and your goal dates. Each day you enter your weight, and the program tells you whether to eat normally or “lightly,” based on if you’re above or below a straight line between where you started and your goal.
At the other end of the expense spectrum is The WiFi Body Scale from Withings (www.withings.com). This $159 scale can connect to the Internet using its built-in WiFi wireless network adapter, which makes the data collection activity involved in a weight-loss program quite straightforward. In addition to your weight, the scale also calculates your body fat percentage using impedance (making the scale unsuitable if you have a pacemaker or other implanted electrical device). You can monitor your progress on the website or via a free iPhone app. If you need the additional motivation of guilt, you can set things up so the Body Scale posts your daily weigh-in to Twitter for all the world (or at least all your followers) to see.
For my money, though, the best value is Lose It! (www.fitnow.com) from FitNow, Inc. Like Bang-Bang Diet, it’s an iPhone application. You do the usual routine of setting a goal weight/date and entering your weight daily. But Lose It! differentiates itself beyond that. First, it calculates (based on 3,500 calories per pound of fat), how many calories per day you’re allowed if you want to reach your goal. Second, it lets you enter what you’ve eaten and how much you’ve exercised throughout the day, so you can see in real-time where you stand (and why that Double-Double at In-N-Out might have been a serious mistake). Third, and probably most important when it comes to tracking what you eat, the program contains an extremely complete food list, including brand-name grocery products and chain restaurant menu offerings. This application turns the daily regimen of record keeping into a game, and that’s what sets Lose It! apart from other applications. Astonishingly, Lose It! is free (at least as of this writing).
The big human fly in the weight-loss ointment, however, remains discipline. Even if we had The Hacker Diet’s magical Eat Watch, we still have the choice about whether to ignore its message. And friends, that’s where we really suck at dieting.
That’s why I’m offering the revolutionary Tech Talk Diet Program. If you sign up for my program, you’ll enjoy a comfortably appointed hotel room with a king-size bed and high thread count linens, containing a 1080p HD television, Internet-connected computer (PC or Mac) and a fitness-club-quality treadmill. Room service will bring you three healthful meals and two snacks each day, containing the correct caloric intake for you as determined by our dietary staff. Unfortunately, the TV and computer only work if you’re walking at least 2 mph on the treadmill. And you can’t bring your MP3 player or any books.
One last thing I ought to mention: The door is locked from the outside until you reach your goal weight. Hey, no one ever said losing weight was easy. If you’re interested in my program (or anything else in this column), drop me a line at mduffy@northbaybiz.com. And Happy New Year!
