I crunched some numbers for my weight loss to see how and why I stalled over the last 5 weeks, the data is interesting.

Alright, so I'm 33M, 5'11, and 238lb right now. In Feb 2022, I was losing at a rate of 2.2lbs a week, or roughly 1kg/wk. I was making quick progress and things were good, and then on Mar 12, I quit smoking, upped my drinking and my calories and it felt like everything went to shit, and it still feels like I'm struggling all around.

But I'm a data nerd, and wanted to find out the real reason why I was struggling, I thought it was due to alcohol and eating way too much for dinner, which was partly right. I started with days where I was over by 1000 calories(then between 500-1000 and then the rest), and I entered my calories for my five "meals"(breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner) and then if I drank and how much I drank. Then I started color coding everything to see where the patterns lay on my charts. For Feb though, I went with 300 over my daily calories, anything above my goal, and everything under my goal.

I tracked all my calories with Lose It! and I keep track of my drinking with the Drink Log for The Sinclair Method app, so my drink totals are very accurate as well.

Here is the first bit, which is my 500+ for May 1st through June 8th, and then here is my data for all the "target" days, which is just less than 500 over my goal.

Next, here is my weight data for the past 5 weeks.

For comparison, here is my data for all of February followed by, my weight changes for all of February.

Now, for what I found out.

1. Limiting my alcohol to under 4 units a session, and less than two sessions a week really helps.

2. My ideal max calories for a single meal of the day is 850, but that is only if the other meals are small.

3. If I keep my average "meal" amount of calories under 450-410 calories for the day, then I lose weight faster.

4. My weight spikes hard if I drink a lot in one day, and higher for more consecutive days.

5. The more often I stick to a routine of eating, the easier it is to fit everything into one day and be good with it.

6. If I maintain a better average for my meals in the daytime(where I eat roughly 300cal), then I can have a larger dinner.

For point 5, you can see all the days in Feb where I had a grilled cheese for breakfast(427cal) and then had my metamucil and a fiber one brownie for first snack(150cal).

Having actual data, of how my patterns change around when I drink, on days I drink, and how much I drink; it's very reassuring that I can better meet my goals if I cut back some more. Also, seeing it visually makes it much clearer as well. This was a fascinating way to spend a day, and I believe that I can maintain a better rate of loss over the summer. These are also relatively minor changes to make, like eating 100-150 calories less in a meal, or making sure I take my metamucil and fiber one brownie at the same time, compared to how I was thinking that I had to make some serious and large changes.

submitted by /u/LivingAgency8
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