How to lose two pounds per week, guaranteed.

Three weeks ago I noticed that I was overweight again, but I’m doing something about it again.

I’m not quite sure what did it.  Maybe it was the almost-nightly bowl of ice cream or maybe those french fries weren’t really counteracted by those side dishes of broccoli.  Whatever it was, three weeks ago I noticed that bad eating habits had kicked my weight more than 15 pounds over my usual weight.  Those 15 extra pounds I was carrying around weighed as much as a bowling ball.

I’ve had to lose weight before. Five years ago, I decided that I was tired of carrying around lots of extra weight.  Back then, I noticed how bad things had gotten after a friend showed me a photo of that 194 pound version of myself at the beach.  Back then, I decided to see if I could lose 10 or 15 pounds.  After doing a bit of research, I implemented a series of the eating and exercise strategies that worked well for me.  They worked extremely well.  I’m going to share them in this post.  I dropped more than 4 pounds per week, week after week, until my 194 pound carcass melted into 159 pounds, a swing of 35 pounds. After I got going with my program, it was almost painless.   I found myself feeling better and I looked better.  Based upon well-established statistics, I knew that I had substantially decreased my chance of being afflicted with heart disease, stroke and various kinds of cancer.  I was comfortable wearing my clothes again and I was no longer obsessed with food.  What was not to like?

I’m 5’ 11”.  For most of the past five years, I have carried about 163 pounds. When I recently noticed my scale rise to 178 three weeks ago, then, I declared war.  I’m fighting that war right now.  I calculated that my approach will take me back at my normal weight in about 5 more weeks, a steady weight loss of about 2 pounds per week. It’s working like clockwork. In three weeks, I’ve lost 6 pounds.  To give myself even more incentive, I’m making my weight loss ambitions public here!

This weight loss story is the sort of thing that has been told many times, of course.  But I’ll continue.

Over the past year, I fell into some bad habits about eating well and working out.  And to accelerate my weight gain, I haven’t exercised much.  I normally commute 10 miles/day by bicycle, but extremely cold winter has hindered that.  Also, I haven’t been getting enough sleep, a factor that is associated with weight gain. During the day, I work at desk job and I’ve been hovering over my computer several hours each night (much of it writing this blog).  Further, I take care of my two young children quite often; it is hard to work out vigorously when one is with them.  They just can’t keep up (although that is changing rapidly).

Now that we’ve had our winter thaw, I’m back on the bicycle almost every day.  I don’t belong to any health club.  My exercise program is virtually free. In addition to riding a bike to work (which saves 1/3 gallon of gas every day), I do floor exercises several times a week.  I do these floor exercises for only 10 minutes, in accordance with many of the suggestions of a pretty decent book, Eight Minutes in the Morning, by Jorge Cruise.

Here’s a short version of my “secrets” for losing weight: eat reasonable amounts of good food and exercise.  There’s no substitute.  Don’t tolerate excuses out of your own mouth.  Excuses are a dime a dozen and all of us have thought of all of them ready.  Here are a few of my favorites.   We live in a toxic society, nutritionally speaking.  It’s really tempting to eat all those sugary fatty salty foods.  It does take more effort to chop up some zucchini and stir fry at then to eat a big bowl of potato chips.  I could go on and on.  Tell your excuses to get lost.

When I try to determine a workable series of rules five years ago, I focused on several things.  My number one rule was that my approach to eating could not require any daily menus.  I wasn’t going to buy expensive concoctions or prepared foods.  My approach had to be an approach that I could use anywhere, whether at someone’s house or a restaurant.

Substituting nutritious food for bad food at home was a terrific jump start for dropping pounds.  In my case, I became sold that eating lots of whole grains (carbohydrates loaded with fiber) was a critically important basis for eating well.  I work whole grains into my breakfast, lunch and dinner (here’s why).  It’s really easy to swap out crappy cereal for cereal loaded with fiber.  There are many delicious whole grain breads available for purchase (look for bread that has at least 3 grams of fiber per slice).  I learned much about whole grains by reading Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating, by Walter Willett, of the Harvard School of Public Health.

When I decided that I needed to lose weight three weeks ago, I didn’t realize how many bad habits I had gotten into over the past year.  It’s really easy to overlook all of one’s own bad habits.  I started noticing that I was grabbing food for numerous reasons having nothing to do with hunger: anxiety, nervousness, stress and boredom.  Many times, I was eating food when I was really thirsty and I should have been drinking water instead of eating. 

What’s amazing though, especially this time, is how hard it is to turn around one’s habits.  When we get into old eating habits, they are really hard to break.  It’s like trying to turn around an ocean liner.  One’s habits, especially one’s food habits, are quite personal.  To change one’s food habits is to change one’s self; it is to reject one’s (own) self.  The problem is that we tend to get used to ourselves and make lots of excuses for ourselves.  We humans are capable of liking ourselves the way we are, no matter who we have become.

I’m three weeks into my better eating campaign, and I notice that I’m starting to rediscover the good habits that I initially learned five years ago.  I’m eating more nutritious foods and staying away from processed foods.  I’m staying more conscious of my food while I am eating it and I’m enjoying it more.  Because I am again focusing on eating nutritious food (again, avoiding refined and over-processed foods lacking fiber) my metabolism has settled down.  Before I decided to get with it again three weeks ago, I was finding myself looking forward to my lunch break even when I wasn’t really hungry.  Now, because I’m eating well, I often find myself working straight through lunch, forgetting to eat.  Sometimes I feel “fatigue” at one or two in the afternoon, and then I remind myself that I haven’t yet eaten.  It’s not really fatigue that I’m feeling, but real hunger, something that I haven’t often felt during my year of bad habits.

I’m not suggesting that eating can’t be fun while eating well.  I’m really enjoying those extra doses of vegetables (I usually stir fry them) and whole grains.  I’ll still have a small cup of ice cream several times a week.  Sometimes, when I crave sweets, I grab a small piece of good quality chocolate—I’ve found that a small piece of good chocolate (I use Dove chocolate bars these days) is much more satisfying that large amounts of waxy cheaper chocolate.  The point is not that people need chocolate to lose weight–everyone will have their own favorite foods.  The point is that a bite or two of highly craved foods often extinguishes the craving and, if one deprives oneself of those favorite foods entirely, one might “compensate” for the un-extinguished craving by eating huge amounts of food one doesn’t really want or need.

During my past 3 weeks improved exercise and better eating, I find that I’m sleeping better–when I’m working out, I feel refreshed after getting only 7 1/2 hours sleep each night, rather than eight.  I’m happier.  I think faster and remember more, it seems.  And I’m losing weight.

Imagine if someone came up to you and said that they had an amazing drug that would make you feel much better, sleep better, enjoy life better and provide immunity from many horrible diseases.  Imagine that the price of this proven life-lengthening drug was $10 per day, more than $3000 per year.  Imagine all the people nonetheless clamoring to get their hands on such a drug!  Well, there is no such drug, but there is a free way to get all of these same benefits.

As I’m writing this, I keep thinking that I’m saying nothing new at all.  People know all these things.  But maybe it’s worthwhile to share a story like this so that others who want to drop 15 or 30 or 50 pounds can be reminded that it can be done.  A long journey begins with the first step, but that first step is the hardest of all the steps one will take.

So, without further ado, here the tips that I’ve used and I am again using.  This is the list that hung on my refrigerator.  After about a week, though, I knew these tips well.  These are the same tips I’m now offering to anyone else who wants to drop some weight. I’m offering this program free of charge.  If you are overweight, just follow this advice and you will lose weight.  I guarantee it.  It happened for me five years ago and it’s happening again.

So here is the information that worked for me.  It starts with a declaration that reminded me that my quest was not so much about weight loss as much as attaining a state of health.  Being at a healthy weight is not about not eating. Rather, it’s about eating well.

DECLARATION OF HEALTH

When Health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot become manifest, strength cannot be exerted, wealth is useless, and reason is powerless.

Herophilies, 300 B.C.

How Much to Eat

  • A well-tuned body is potent mental medicine. Your mind will follow the body’s lead.
  • Articulate your specific reasons for committing yourself to an energized existence, now and for decades to come. For instance, become a savvy eater to show that you really care for loved ones.  Do you really want to be around for your children/grandchildren?
  • 65% of Americans are overweight. A healthy BMI is less than 25 and closer to 21 (at 23 we are still 3 times at risk for adult onset Diabetes). Think like a thin person. Become a believer that your body is well-tuned only when your BMI is in the low 20’s.
  • Eat only until you are “70% full” (the European approach, as to the American approach (eat until you’re full).
  • Consciously identify seductive marketing and incessant social pressures to eat poorly and to eat when you’re not hungry. Clocks and other people are incapable of telling you when you are hungry.
  • Eat only when you’re hungry, not when you’re thirsty, bored, frustrated or trying to be polite.
  • Put the fork down when you’re no longer hungry. Food is much better off in the Tupperware (or even the trash) than in your full stomach. Praise yourself for leaving unneeded food on the plate.
  • You would never tolerate it if someone else forced you to eat food you didn’t need.  Don’t do it to yourself.
  • Choose small portions & beware huge desserts.
  • When dining out, think seriously about splitting a single meal.  My wife and I do this sometimes, and I’m always surprised that I am perfectly satisfied eating only “half” a meal.
  • Spoil your appetite, so not to eat ravenously later.  If you’re really hungry an hour before a planned meal, have a snack.
  • Starving yourself slows metabolism and burns muscle tissue. Starving, then, is not a sustainable approach to losing weight.
  • Slow down and eat consciously. Enjoy each bite. Eating should be pleasurable. Overeaters are always thinking of food, except while eating.
  • Focus on eating well, not on avoiding bad eating.
  • Don’t beat yourself up for eating lapses. You’ll use bad judgment here and there.  Don’t make an enemy out of yourself.  That makes it much harder maintain your enthusiasm.
  • Get enough sleep, or else you’ll reduce your metabolism and affect your levels of leptin, the hormone that makes you feel full. When levels are low you crave sweets and starches. Sleep deprivation also reduces growth hormone, which affects your body’s proportion of fat to muscle and repairs muscles.
  • Beware eating too much on while traveling away from home.  Exposure to too many large restaurant portions, and the fatigue of traveling, encourage weight gain.  Also, I have an often-recurring thought that taunts me on the road:
  • Don’t eat a little extra just because you are not at home, where food is easily available.
  • Be good to your carcass. You are your body. Treating it poorly is self-mutilation.

Exercise

  • Strength training increases your metabolism by 7-12% for 15 or more hours. Do it each morning for 10 minutes to add a bit more muscle.  It is really effective, though it doesn’t sound possible.  A pound of muscle burns 50 cal/day more than a pound of fat.  Here’s a book I recommend on short daily sessions of exercise:    8 Minutes in the Morning: A Simple Way to Shed up to 2 Pounds a Week Guaranteed, by Jorge Cruise
  • Cardiovascular exercise increases metabolism for an hour after activity. This burns extra calories and is essential for your heart and lungs. Briskly walk or bike whenever possible.
  • Track your progress once per week by getting on a good scale.  Don’t weigh yourself every day.  You’re body is telling you how much food it really needs, if you’re eating good food and staying away from starches and refined foods.

What to Eat & Drink

  • Here is my “Bible” on how to eat:  Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating, by Walter Willett, of the Harvard School of Public Health.  Willett is an innovator, having argued way ahead of the crowd of the dangers of trans fats and of the need to drastically renovate the “food pyramid.”  The pyramid has been changed drastically, adopting many of Willett’s suggestions,  though many of Willett’s recommendations were ignored.
  • Substitute whole-grain carbohydrates for refined-grains (e.g., amaranth, barley, brown rice, bulgur, corn, millet, oats, rye, spelt, tritclale, wheat berries, and wild “rice”).
  • Beware the starches: white rice, potatoes, pasta and highly processed bread. These cause insulin to spike. Eating these is like eating pure processed sugar.
  • Replace saturated fats (e.g., meat & dairy) and trans fats (i.e., “hydrogenated” processed foods) with unsaturated fats (e.g., flax, canola, and olive oils).
    “Cholesterol free” does not mean lack of trans fats.
  • Do eat good oils, including omega-3 oil, and smaller amounts of omega 6 and 9. These oils suppress the appetite by activating brown fat (as opposed to white fat), responsible for 25% of the fat calories burned). For an easy source of omega 3 oil, grind up flax seeds and throw a tablespoon or two on your cereal.
  • Use liquid oils (flax, canola, olive) in lieu of butter or margarine.
  • Eat plenty of a wide variety of fruits and vegetables (lean toward the dark leafy lettuce).
  • Eat flax, fish, nuts, canola, and soy. Soy, however, acts as a phytoestrogen. Limit it to 4-6 servings/week.
  • For protein, eat a healthy mix of nuts, beans, chicken and fish.
  • Nuts contain fat, but it’s mostly good fat.  Eating fat doesn’t make you fat.  In fact, taking fat out of one’s diet can do much more damage.
  • There’s no privileged place for dairy products in a diet, many of which are linked to prostate cancer. Calcium can be found in many foods other than dairy. Consider soy milk.
  • Use alcohol in moderation.
  • I take half of a daily multivitamin.
  • Drink lots of WATER. Reduce caffeinated drinks;
  • For snacks consider nutritious food.  Don’t overlook the great taste of real fruit & fruit smoothies (but avoid fruit juice), whole grain cereal in soy milk, brown rice,  beans, seasoned whole grains, stir-fried veggies (e.g., spinach or bok choy), whole wheat breads, popcorn.
  • Have healthy food & water easily accessible (e.g., in kitchen & backpack) and avoid bringing home processed or refined food products, to maintain positive momentum.
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Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

This Post Has 154 Comments

  1. Avatar of Erika Price
    Erika Price

    Most people place emphasis solely on weight and not on health. Our culture tells us to strive for a certain weight at all costs- nutritional deficiency and metabolic harm or not. Eating healthfully might not make you a twig, but it will make you feel better, live longer, and probably lose weight anyway.

    I feel pretty strongly about this health-versus-weight ideology because I learned it the hard way. Going from a naturally skinny kid to a more curvaceous young adult seemed to me like I had suddenly screwed up and amassed many extra pounds. But kids have essentially asexual bodies, without curves, and most young women get hips, thighs, and breasts seemingly out of nowhere just like I did. Buying into the common notion of treasuring skinniness, I struggled with diet and exercise trying to get myself back to my old, undeveloped weight. It just wouldn't happen. I can see how anorexia forms in teenage girls, since I would have needed to literally starve myself to get back to the weight of my prepubescent self. I no longer had the body type for it.

    Many people do essentially the same thing to themselves that I did: they expect themselves to look the way that a person with a completely different body type does. We can't all have rib bones sticking out, razor-blade shoulders, and size 0 waists (thankfully!). But we can ALL take good care of our bodies and look and feel better for it.

  2. Avatar of tmol
    tmol

    e,

    isn't it the coolest when your clothes start to feel a little baggy?

    t

  3. Avatar of Erich Vieth
    Erich Vieth

    TMOL: I know that you, too, lost some weight and have experienced what I am experiencing. Yes, it is cool “when your clothes start to feel a little baggy.” I don’t feel like a “sausage” anymore. Even though I am losing the rather modest amount of 15 pounds, I need to remind myself that such a “modest” amount is the equivalent of the weight of a bowling ball. What would it be like to carry around a bowling ball everywhere I go?

    Throughout my healthy eating “program,” I’ve been exercising about the same amount as I exercised when I gained the weight (I commute to work on a bicycle on most days (10 miles round trip) and I do 15-minutes of floor exercises two or three times per week). I’ve noticed that I seem to be waking up refreshed with 15 or 20 minutes less sleep. Just imagine—if that is true, it’s as though someone just handed me the equivalent (15 min. x 365 days) of 2 weeks of vacation per year. Really, the more you think about being a healthy weight and living a healthy lifestyle, the more reasons you’ll recognize for doing it.

    I’ve been gently reminding myself to eat healthy amounts and types of food rather than telling myself to stop eating. I have not engaged in starvation tactics. I have not consciously skipped any meals. Because I am eating lots of whole grains and minimizing processed/refined foods, though, I find that I often forget to eat lunch until I start feeling “tired” at about 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Then I eat some food.

    I do think that the gentle reminders work better in the long run. Yes, I sometimes have an ice cream cone, but I enjoy it even though it isn’t piled to towering heights with ice cream. I’m often leaving some food on the plate at restaurants because I’m no longer hungry (give me one other good excuse for eating). I am enjoying getting up from the table without that “full” sensation that I had begun to associate with normalcy. Yeah, I don’t like “wasting” food, but putting it in my body when I don’t need it is also wasting it, as well as hurting my body. When we eat more than we need, we are hurting our bodies, making it harder accomplish chores during the day, making ourselves more susceptible to disease and hurting our joints.

    The thing you mention, though, is icing on the cake, so to speak. When those clothes get comfortable again (which mine have), it’s the absence of a distraction and that’s very nice, indeed. This is the best time to notice that change, because my too-heavy condition and my current condition are both vivid in my memory, so that I can make the A-B comparison. One of my suits is actually a little too big now. I’ve also noticed a difference in my face, which seems narrower and more angular.

    BTW, I had lunch at the “Cheesecake Factory” this week. I ordered a salad, and the waitress asked whether I wanted the lunch version or the full version. I hesitated, then went with the lunch version. It was enough salad for two people. This episode reminded me that eating out can be especially bad for health. When eating out, one needs to keep one’s guard up and not let the restaurant guide you regarding the amounts of food that is appropriate. Lots of restaurants are serving entrees which contain enough food to serve two people.

    TMOL, thanks so much for your encouragement over the past few weeks.

    Note to Ben: Anorexia! Funny you mention that. When I weighed 194, I couldn’t have imagined weighing 30 pounds less. But I did weigh in the low 160’s for several years, and I felt really good, quite healthy (I’m allllmost 5’ 11”). FYI, the charts http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/primry/life15.htm say that men with medium frames (no one has ever accused me of having a large frame) should weigh somewhere between 154 to 166. My target weight is 163. Ergo, no anorexia. If I start bragging about weighing less than 150, though, I expect a prompt intervention.

    Note to Erika: your point is a critically important one. Lots of people lose weight to be smaller, rather than to be healthier. I’ve met many unhealthy looking people who are clearly within the guidelines of height/weight charts.

  4. Avatar of Erich Vieth
    Erich Vieth

    I celebrated a birthday this week . . . too much cake . . . Therefore a fell off the plan a bit. Today's weigh-in is 165.3

  5. Avatar of tmol
    tmol

    "I celebrated a birthday this week . . . too much cake . . . Therefore a fell off the plan a bit"

    As Sargeant Friday said, "just the facts, ma'am."

  6. Avatar of Erich Vieth
    Erich Vieth

    "Ma'am"? I'm starting to feel like JD on Scrubs.

    I'm giving the facts and a bit of context so that anyone reading this knows that the problem is with my bad decision-making rather than the plan I am promoting.

    OK, Sarge?

  7. Avatar of tmol
    tmol

    " a bit of context" = excuses.

    As Nike say, "JUST DO IT." (Speaking of which, I went from 223 to 158 over five years. Still at 158 a year+ later. Gave away my 38" jeans and wearing 29" Levis as we speak.)

  8. Avatar of projektleiterin
    projektleiterin

    "I do these floor exercises for only 10 minutes, in accordance with many of the suggestions of a pretty decent book, Eight Minutes in the Morning, by Jorge Cruise."

    Are his exercises really that good? And are 10 minutes every day really enough to gain some strength?

    I don't need to lose weight, I weigh 106 pounds at 5' 1.5" (every half inch counts someone once told me 😀 ), but I'm out of shape. I'd be extremely happy to find exercises that only require 10 minutes a day. 😀

  9. Avatar of Erich Vieth
    Erich Vieth

    To respond to projektleiterin: I know that doing these exercises regularly (I do them every two or two days) gives me some benefit, because they are easier to do if done regularly. I can't comment on strength gain. I assume I'm stronger for doing some strength exercises rather than the aerobic exercise (bike riding) I do almost every day.

    BTW – Consumer Reports has just released a new report evaluating popular diets: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18496858/

  10. Avatar of Ben
    Ben

    "I do them every two or two days"

    Yes, it is good to keep a consistent routine. 🙂

    I do a weekly run which includes an exercise trail. There are stretching and strengthening and BALANCE placed periodically along the trail. It is fun, and I am strong like bull/ox. I like to push the envelope with the strength exercises like pull-ups, sometimes I stretch more, and other times I go for endurance by adding a few laps jogging around the field. I can do about 5 pull-ups or 15 push ups, at the drop of a hat, or I can sprint like a gazelle for 200 yards, also tumbling, spinning, flipping, and jumping. In my opinion, being "in shape" includes being athletic, coordinated, limber, balanced and confident, not just having low body fat. Incidentally, I am struggling with fat, still tipping the scales at about 180lbs, mostly the "dangerous" stubborn fat around my gut. My biggest roadblock is over-eating, I often eat like it is a sport…

    http://www.ifoce.com/ http://www.ifoce.com/video/ifoce_promo_2006.mov http://www.competitiveeaters.com/worldrecords.htm

  11. Avatar of tmol
    tmol

    isn't today weigh-in day?

    what's the deal?

    did you have another birthday this week?

  12. Avatar of Ben
    Ben

    Tmol is a fundamentalist weight coach. He does not go for wishy-washy weight loss techniques. Banish thy gut!

  13. Avatar of projektleiterin
    projektleiterin

    Thanks, Erich! I got the book and will take a look at the exercises. 8 Minutes a day does not seem as much, but it's still better than nothing, I guess.

  14. Avatar of tmol
    tmol

    today is wednesday.

  15. Avatar of Erich Vieth
    Erich Vieth

    164.5 I don't want to rush things. TMOL apparently doesn't have much else to do than watch me fail to finish this off quickly. Oh, yeah. No excuses. But hey, I'm getting there, and it has been painless.

  16. Avatar of tmol
    tmol

    e,

    good start.

    t

  17. Avatar of Ben
    Ben

    I was scared to look, but it seems that I am down to 175 (from 180). Gonna shoot for 170 now. Actually I guess I will shoot for 165 and that way 170 might actually arrive someday!

  18. Avatar of Ben
    Ben

    Eh, on second thought (dinner) make that 178.

  19. Avatar of Erich Vieth
    Erich Vieth

    162.9 – My goal was 163, so now I'm going to have to eat a bit extra today, to gain .1 pounds. Unless anyone objects, I'll report for a few more months because this is good incentive for me to maintain. Special thanks to TMOL for all of that tough love.

  20. Avatar of tmol
    tmol

    hey, way to go friend.

  21. Avatar of tmol
    tmol

    now comes the hard part.

    avoiding relapse.

  22. Avatar of tmol
    tmol

    so much for weekly wednesday updates.

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