Dan Nied's Fortress of Weight Loss: Day 28 - Page 2

The only thing that I should take away from that menu is that it wasn’t planned out. At this point, the food is getting sort of low in the house, which makes convenient options a little more scarce. At the same time, I am working both Wednesday and Thursday, so convenient options would be ideal. It’s a tiny problem, you see, so I should really have an idea of how the day is going to go before I hit my second meal. I think I’ll make that a goal on Thursday. Perhaps a trip to Subway is in order, since I haven’t been there in a while.

I’ll let you know how that goes.

The Real Reason I Brought You Here Today

I said yesterday that I have been rethinking my goals a little bit. Nothing drastic, mind you. The goal is still 240 pounds, or 59 total. I still don’t have a set timetable for that number, and I don’t plan on changing either of those things any time soon.

But my expectations have been way off on this diet. In the beginning, I was thinking like the 370 pound man I was two years ago. Back then, I could take off 10 pounds in a week, no problem. Life’s one gift to fat people is that they can lose weight remarkably quickly.

The Biggest Loser is proof of that. Those contestants are on a 100 day program (at least it was 100 days when I last watched), and they go absolutely nuts with diet and exercise while being pushed and prodded by a personal trainer. And the fattest always lose at least 100 pounds over that time.

And I didn’t come that far off of that back in the day. But now my body is playing with a different set of rules. I started at 299 pounds, a stark difference from 370. While I was expecting to lose at least 15 pounds in the first week, I was just setting myself up for disappointment. I never sat down to think about how long this would take, or how long I wanted it to take. I expected plateaus around 270 and 250, but not around 290. So I was ill-prepared for that first obstacle when it came.

Finally I sat down and figured it out. To lose a pound, you must burn 3,500 calories. Using an internet calorie per day calculator that I choose to trust, I burn about 3,400 calories per day as a 28-year old, 6-foot-3, 285 pound, lightly active male. (I chose lightly active instead of moderately active just to be on the safe side.) On this diet my usual caloric intake is between 1,500 and 2,000 per day.

Article Author: Dan Nied

Dan Nied is a journalist, of sorts, living near San Francisco. He is a college graduate, but you wouldn't know it by looking at his bank statement.

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