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I’m the kind of guy who likes numbers. In fact, I’m a little anal-retentive about them. In the past, I’ve found that tracking aspects of my life with stats helps me to make better decisions about where to go and what to do.
When I decided to take control of my finances, I began to track my spending. When I biked extensively from 1997-1999, I kept a complex spreadsheet containing all sorts of data. When I started running last spring, I logged my miles. And, in the past, I’ve managed to lose weight by counting calories.
I’ve steered clear of counting calories this year (though I’m not sure why — it hasn’t been a conscious decisions really), but recently I began logging my weight. Every morning when I get out of bed, I stop on the scales to check my weight and body fat.
I thought about constructing a spreadsheet with this data, but then I remembered several Get Fit Slowly readers have mentioned Physics Diet. I have no idea what the “diet” part of the site’s name means (perhaps I should look), but I do know that it does a great job of tracking stats for a geek like me.
Using the Physics Diet fitness log, users enter their daily weight and body fat percentage. Physics Diet then tabulates this info, adding some derived numbers like BMI (body mass index), RMR (resting metabolic rate, which estimates your base caloric needs), and TEE (total energy expenditure, an estimate of your caloric needs based on activity level). Here’s a look at my current log:
I like that Physics Diet computes moving averages for both weight and body fat. That’s the sort of thing I do in my spreadsheets because I feel like it provides more meaningful information than a single snapshot. In fact, Physics Diet provides graphs of this information, incorporating both the daily snapshots and the moving averages:
The above chart vividly reveals that which I already know: At the end of August, I was deep in my booze-swilling Warcraft-playing state of self-pity. My weight was rising — rapidly. On Septemeber 7th, I confessed everything to Kris, and promised myself to change direction. On September 8th, I returned to the gym. In the past two weeks, I’ve been exercising regularly and working to improve my diet. Those lovely spikes on the 14th and 21st come the mornings after my “free days”.
The good news is that — shocking — changing my habits has not only made me feel better about myself, but is leading to weight loss.
From what I can tell, there’s not much else to Physics Diet. For some people, it won’t be worth the time or effort to visit. But for me, it’s a simple tool that does one thing well: log and graph my weight.
Note: Check out the site creator’s mini-history in what should I eat?
Mac
11 responses so far ↓
1 Charles // Sep 23, 2008 at 11:19 am
I used that site to track my weight loss a couple of years ago. It is addictive, and competing with other users is quite an incentive.. perhaps TOO much of an incentive. I lost 65 pounds (out of 255), and got on the Top 10 List of weight loss by body percent. I deliberately stopped losing weight when I reached my goal, with my BMI just barely within the “normal” range. Results: I developed “Slimmer’s Paralysis” and temporarily lost my ability to walk and stand upright, and I had to have surgery to remove gallstones I developed from excessively rapid weight loss.
You can’t break the laws of physics, and that goes for your body’s biology too. The Physics Diet is based on the famous “Hacker’s Diet” which is based on physics, without paying attention to biology. Follow these systems ONLY with a large dose of medical supervision.
(BTW, JD, I might consider writing up my story for your site..)
2 J.D. // Sep 23, 2008 at 12:19 pm
3 J.D. // Sep 23, 2008 at 12:20 pm
4 Charles // Sep 23, 2008 at 12:59 pm
I tried to email you at your getrichslowly dotcom address but it bounced. I put a real address in this comment (I’m always hesitant to do that until I confirm it is hidden).
5 Chelsey // Sep 23, 2008 at 1:06 pm
This looks cool, and I want to try it, but how do I determine my body fat percentage? Is there some kind of tool I need? (Clearly, I’m a noob at this).
6 MN Scout // Sep 23, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Charles, if you do write a story please detail what your diet and exercise were like and the time frame and symptoms of “Slimmers Paralysis” that you had.. I’ve never heard of “Slimmer’s Paralysis”, but a quick google search turned up somethings on it. I’m interested to hear your story.
7 Charles // Sep 23, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Determining body fat is tricky. You can do it with some fancy electrical weight scales, but they’re not very accurate. To do it properly, you need a fancy immersion device (available at some health spas and clinics). But I did hear an interesting technique.
Go to a swimming pool, into the deep end, tread water for a minute. Now put your arms at your side, and “stand up” motionless. If you float, you’ve got more than 15% body fat. If you barely stay afloat (neutral buoyancy), you’re at 10%. If you sink, you’re below 10%. YMMV.
8 Peter // Sep 23, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I’ve been a Hacker’s Diet Tracker devotee for about 4 months now. The only thing I felt was missing, was fat percentage measurements, so I made a separate Excel spreadsheet to track those (without the moving averages though). But now with PhysicsDiet I can combine the good stuff from both worlds? That’s great news. I’ve already uploaded my data (took a while though for four months :P) It’s a public profile, so if anybody is interested, you can check it out (username = Flasheart). Progress has been slow (8.8 lbs in 4 months), but I actually like it that way. Get fit slowly right?
My experience is that when I lose weight faster, I tend to lose too much muscle mass and I start to feel really low energy, which causes me to take some rest and usually drop out. Lessons learned. This time, I’m taking things much slower and I feel stronger and more energetic than ever.
9 DR // Sep 24, 2008 at 3:47 am
Thanks for the link - fun stuff for a fitness geek
10 Andrew is getting fit // Sep 24, 2008 at 2:00 pm
I love physicsdiet but like you I only use it to track my weight. The graphs are a fantastic tool.
11 Ricky Buchanan // Oct 11, 2008 at 1:51 am
I’ve been tracking my weight at the Hacker’s Diet Online website for 2+ years now and I find it really helps. I’m a numbers-and-data type geek too, so I like having a datapoint of my weight for (nearly) every day. It’s also helped with realising the lack of relationship between one point on the graph and the overall trend line … I mean, obviously they are related but one “heavy weight” day doesn’t make me freak out, give up, throw up my hands in horror, or various other things it used to do. I deal much more realistically with it, which I am really pleased about.
Because I’m bedridden, my weight loss has been very slow (and dietician-monitored) but I’ve lost 25kg (55lbs) in 2 years. That’s certainly slow by most people’s standards but I’m so unbelievably proud of myself! It’s almost exactly 25kg right now so I still have “round number glee” in my system from getting there. My BMI has gone from 41 to 30.8 so that’s a HUGE difference in health-related risk factors and such. I’d be happy to share the Hacker’s Diet graphs with you but I think it’ll only show them to people with a login of their own? If anybody knows how to share it to somebody else, please tell me!
My goal weight is about another almost-10kg away, so I probably have another nearly-year of loosing before I move into the maintenance phase. I love reading here - knowing that everybody has good spots and bad spots is reassuring and helps remind me that my bad spots will end too. And although you talk a lot about exercise and that’s not possible for me, it’s the overall feeling and tone that I like. So thank you!
Ricky
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