A Lesson in Personal Analytics
Using Data and Personal Observation as a Tool for Self-Improvement
A big thank you to everyone who reached out to me after my post last week about How I Lost 100 Pounds. It was incredibly hard to hit “Publish” on something that in my mind amounts to an odd mixture of gratification, embarrassment, and victory.
When discussing the subject of weight loss, I’m always mindful to note that I don’t think I’ve figured everything out (I most certainly have not). Along the way there have been significant plateaus (which sometimes feel even more discouraging than weight gains) and even steps backward. I’m still learning. I’m still trying to get better.
The biggest reason I am healthy today is because of my wife, who helped model good eating habits for me and our family, has put in the time on her own health journey, and never gave up on finding vegetables that I would happily eat (I even eat turnips now, which brings back fond memories of playing Super Mario Bros. 2, though I still have an unsettled score with King Wart.)
But for all the help my wife offered, unless I was willing to put in the work (and by work, I mean stopping eating Del Taco), it wasn’t going to happen. And unless I could find a way to make it fun, I wasn’t going to reach my goal.
And to do that, I turned to my interest in analytics.
In 2004, I was introduced to the concept of analytics for the first time, or the idea that data could be used to help make better decisions. I learned about analytics the same way that many people did in 2004. From a book. About baseball.
Michael Lewis’ book Moneyball was published in 2004 which (very briefly) is about how the Oakland A’s used data analysis to build a competitive baseball team despite having far less money to spend on building their roster. By using advanced data and statistics, the A’s were able to build a formula to discover marketplace inefficiencies to roster a perennially competitive team.
A formula.
What if I could build a formula for my health?
Prior to this thought, I had largely used this type of “analysis” for trying to beat my friends at fantasy baseball (to some small degree of success) and for my full-time job in TV. I’ve previously written about structure within Reality TV and I’ve long used my own personal strategies to make sure the creative process (one that can be ripe with inefficiencies) is organized in a way that promotes creativity and originality, but not at the expense of a business running effectively.
The creative process, in my mind, amounts to a complicated math problem, where my goal to always answer the question: How can we make the best creative environment possible while also being as efficient as possible?
So while I had looked at data for both my hobbies and work, I had never looked at using data to improve myself. How was I going to (after decades of failure) actually find a way to succeed this time around?
For me, it was math. A formula.
1900 calories x 7 days per week = 13,300 calories consumed
2800 calories burned per day (on average) x 7 days per week = 19,600 calories burned per week (on 4-5 days of exercise)
The calories are tracked via the Lose It! app (free) and I use a fitness tracker to track my approximate calories burned.
That’s my formula. That’s how I solve my own personal inefficiency. I start at the end. (I didn’t say it was a complicated formula. I’m not that good at Google Sheets.) This is my way of taking a personal struggle and making it fun. By tracking my own “stats” I’m able to essentially gamify health.
In order to reach my goal of losing weight (and holding steady at 160 pounds), I need to eat approximately 1,900 calories per day, ideally with 1/3 or more of those calories coming from protein (around 135-160 grams). This allows me to operate at enough of a deficit that I’ll lose weight (typically less than a pound per week), gain some muscle, and take in enough food that I’m not starving myself (which is definitely not part of the plan).
Once I understood what my endgame was (1,900 calories), I was able to build a meal plan that fit that number. To build a meal plan, I learned all the calories counts of my favorite foods. Once I had the calorie counts, I was able to build what an optimal week should look like.
It’s a bit boring, right?
For me, it needed to be.
Remember that whole identity thing I talked about last time? That my brain wouldn’t allow me to make progress?
A personal observation I have made along my journey is that I needed to change my relationship with food. Food, amongst many things, was a source of comfort and an outlet for stress. In order for me to reach my goals, I needed to change how I looked at food, not just what I consumed. By eliminating the time I spent thinking about food, I eliminated the chances of making bad decisions. By eliminating the bad decisions, I was able to make progress. By making progress, I was happier with how I looked, how I felt, and how I thought.
The goal was to lose weight, but those unexpected benefits that came along with it are the ones that have benefitted me even more and will last a lifetime.
A Final Thought (not the Jerry Springer kind)
One of the plot twists of learning my calories is that losing weight turned out to largely not be about counting calories, but more about moderation. There isn’t a single food that I’ve had to give up in full. For all the veggies and proteins that make up 80% of my diet, I’ve learned how to make the plan work for nearly any scenario.
Ice cream and a movie? Covered! (Plant-based versions run anywhere from 30-50% less calories. I don’t eat the movie.)
Drinks with friends? It still works! (OK fine it’s those low carb ones that taste like water but we’re trying to make progress people!)
And burritos?
Still on the menu, 12 inch tortilla and all.