Comments on: On Losing Weight: Comparing Physical Fitness And Financial Fitness

By: wayne

wayne — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:56:18 +0000

To quote Steven Tyler, “No food tastes as good as being thin feels”.

By: Trent

Trent — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 11:45:39 +0000

Part of the reason for the rapid weight loss right now is that I moved right as I started this. There were a few days when I got a disturbing amount of exercise, sweating like crazy and waking up incredibly sore in the morning. That definitely helped, as did the elimination of Snickers bars. I’m not worried about it, and I also don’t expect the loss to continue to be this rapid.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 23:16:34 +0000

Two words: Glycemic index! : )

By: !wanda

!wanda — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 22:12:51 +0000

Congratulations on your weight loss! I’ve found, though, that weight loss is far trickier than saving money. You can use the same techniques for both, but calories are far more opaque than dollars are. Depending on their gut bacterial composition, for example, two people can get different amounts of nourishment- calories- from the same food. Also, weight loss is nonlinear, because at some point your metabolism adjusts to use less energy. Science is only beginning to understand how the body regulates weight, and it’s fascinating stuff.

By: Lazy Man and Health

Lazy Man and Health — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 22:01:34 +0000

This is exactly why I started health blog after a finance blog. I realize that there were many things that were the same.

Unfortunately if you are trying to lose weight, you may find that things aren’t exactly the same. It’s easy to measure a dollar saved, but hard to measure a calorie. Your body tends to adjust for a diet at some point and you plateau unless you work even harder. I don’t see financial institutions adjusting to make it harder for you get out of debt.

By: Sean

Sean — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:59:41 +0000

Matt,

Michael Pollan (author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma) recently wrote a great article in the NY Times magazine, exploring why “the most reliable predictor of obesity in America today is a person’s wealth”. For example, “a dollar could buy 1,200 calories of cookies or potato chips but only 250 calories of carrots”. Look it up, it’s fascinating stuff.

I agree that I’ve had to increase my grocery budget as I’ve strived to eat healthier. It really is a shame. Exercising on the cheap, however, is really quite easy. Cardio or resistance, no problem, you just have to get creative.

By: Dean McDonald

Dean McDonald — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:49:53 +0000

I too am trying to lose weight. I gave up diet pop, I drink 2 32oz glasses of ice water per day and I am reducing the portion size of the foods I eat. I have lost 12 lbs. in 45 days. Not huge weight loss but it has been pretty easy. I am starting to add exercise so I hope the weight keeps coming off.

For tracking I use the “The Google 15 Weight Tracker” on my iGoogle home page. You can weight yourself daily or every couple of days and it tracks your moving average fore lost weight. I am on the computer all day so it is a constant reminder for me

You can add the “The Google 15 Weight Tracker” from here if you have an iGoogle home page:
http://www.google.com/ig/directory?root=%2Fig&dpos=top&num=24&url=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/google15.xml

By: s

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:20:14 +0000

@Matt,

There ARE cheap healthy options out there, you just have to search a little harder. And of course it’s still not quite as cheap as the $.30/day top ramen diet.

Not sure if you have one in your area, but Trader Joe’s is a great place to buy fairly cheap healthy food. You can easily eat a nutrition balanced diet for under $5 a day there. You just will have limited variety ;).

Even at regular grocery stores, if you keep your eyes open, you should be able to find deals on healthy food. Just avoid the reduced fat cookies and things packaged as “diet food” .. expensive and often times still bad for you!

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:01:16 +0000

What about the financial impact of the weight loss? Long-term medical bills? Cost of the program, food, possibly gym membership or exercise equipment. Due to recent decrease in income I’ve discovered that cheap food is often incredibly unhealthy.

By: Mitch

Mitch — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 20:20:16 +0000

I can hardly think of anything more weight-bearing than moving, and I believe Trent has alluded to being slightly big-and-tall... wait and see, I suppose. On progress bars: There was a couple years back a study that simply weighing in daily can help an adult lose more weight. (Abstract @ Pubmed, see related articles. Not a good sign if an adolescent is weighing daily, though.) I recently read that after reading YMOYL, Elaine St. James started keeping her daily weight on a graph similar to the financial freedom graphs in the book, for people who like that format. Google 15 (adapting the Hacker's Diet) uses a moving average instead of a daily weight.

By: guinness416

guinness416 — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:59:50 +0000

Guys can lose weight quickly when they start out – one of my colleagues lost 9lb in 3 weeks just by taking up kickboxing! Besides, our host has ditched a 2-snickers a day habit, that alone is worth say 30 x 350 calories = 10,500 calories = 3lb!

By: paidtwice

paidtwice — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:48:39 +0000

mmmm americone dream ice cream

mmmm

By: margo

margo — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:46:21 +0000

The 1-2 pound a week rule is a long-term average. Many people lose more weight than that safely, in the beginning. Besides just “water weight” there is (sorry to be gross) “intestinal weight” that some people lose that can be considerable, due to lower volume of food intake and/or a healthier diet with more roughage and fiber.

And, men tend to lose weight faster than women, and that 1-2 pounds rule is a general rule of thumb for both genders. If I were Trent, I’d be concerned only if my weight loss continued at that rate past the first month, truly.

By: Amelia

Amelia — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:38:42 +0000

Trent, like the above commenter said, 1-2 lbs is ideal per week weight loss. However, the first few weeks of weight loss when making a big change in your eating/exercise habits is often atypically large. A lot of it is often water, really (not to discount the fat you’ve probably lost!) I wouldn’t worry about losing muscle quite yet – especially if exercise is involved in the process. Keep up the great work and don’t get discouraged when the per week pounds lost goes down to a more “normal” range.

I am working on person finance and weight loss at the same time, too, and I do see a lot of similarities. I look forward to reading about your progress in this realm as well. Thank you!

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:34:33 +0000

Congratulations on your progress! Just be reasonable with your weight loss rate. Good health is priceless and your family will appreciate it.

By: Jon @ The Money Mythos

Jon @ The Money Mythos — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:26:08 +0000

Congratulations … but 12 pounds in three weeks? That’s extremely unhealthy, no? The average recommended weight loss is about 1-2 pounds per week. If you go much beyond that you’re probably losing more water and muscle than anything else. Be careful!

I’m just a bit surprised that someone who practices somewhat conservative financial habits would be pursuing such a rapid weight loss plan.

By: Sean

Sean — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 18:54:23 +0000

Aren’t you afraid of losing a lot of lean body mass if you’re losing weight that quickly?