Hi. I'm Paul Nixon, a designer living in Mountain View California. My days (and some nights) are spent designing websites for a little company in Cupertino. The rest of my time is spent with my beautiful wife and friends, road cycing and reading your blogs.

Calories, Weight and Exercise

Saturday, February 7, 2004 10: 55 PM

  • Americans are consuming more calories than ever.
  • We are familiar with the basics: If we consume more calories than we burn we gain weight. If we burn more calories than we consume than we lose weight. If we maintain a balance, so does our weight.
  • I decided about three weeks ago it was time to lean up to help me be more competitive with my road cycling. My goal: Go from 176 lbs. (18% body fat) to 166 lbs. (11-12% body fat) in a span of about 12 weeks (4 months).
  • I needed a tracking tool and found a great online web service called Fatburn.com to track caloric intake and workouts. With something like 25,000 foods and a hundred or so exercises in it's database, it is pretty convenient.
  • Quick observations from tracking religiously for three weeks:
    • Junk food has an incredible amount of calories (Dr. Pepper, candy, etc). I knew this, but never really cared before.
    • I was eating a lot of junk food. It was weird seeing this as it was tracked. Actually caused me to eat less of it.
    • Intense excercise kept my weight balanced (countering the effects of the junk food) up until the time I started the program.
    • Now I'm eating smarter and not really missing the junk food.
    • Intense exercise, together with longer fat burning (moderate) workouts are now bringing consistant weight loss.
    • A Chipotle burrito can have anywhere from 1000-1300 calories or more. Solution: Chipotle burrito bowl.
    • Starbucks packs in the calories big time (nutritional info). Especially my Chocolate Malt Frappuccino with a whopping 610 calories for a grande.
  • Results thus far:
    • Started three weeks ago at 176 lbs. The past few mornings I've weighed in at 171-172 lbs.
    • My cycling has improved.
    • I am eating a much more balanced diet with less caloric intake than before.
  • But I'm chopped liver compared to this guy (John Stone)! Check out his transformation through monthly and daily photos. Amazing to see a human body change form so dramatically. (src: kottke)