So what does this have to do with tech?
Very little, actually. But in the same way I’m bettering myself with cleaner and more open source computing, It became time to do something about my thick bones.

I started my weightloss journey together with my family, as we believed to have a non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. This is mostly caused by bad eating habits, obesity, diabetes…

Weight Counseling

In September 2022, my family started attending weight counseling sessions. Mostly because our extended family has a history with disease and obesity (not that obesity is not a disease).

I logged my weight there (first data point in the chart). And we were told to commit to a 2 week liver detox. That entailed drinking a specific protein drink with milk instead of normal Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Absolutely no sugary or factory made foods and as many vegetables as possible.

Man that first day sucked. I felt hungry a lot of the time, and nights were no fun. But holding out till the end was very nice. I made it! And as a reward I’m feeling significantly better. In these 2 weeks I lost a total of 3.8kg / 8.4lbs. That is about 1.9kg/week or 4.2lbs/week The CDC recommends a rate of about 1-2lbs/week for weightloss. oops.

Now that sounds insane. Because it is. This kind of weightloss long term is completely unsustainable. There are a lot of follow-up steps to think about. I don’t just want to balloon back up to 114.2kg / 251lbs.

Following the Lead

The following month and a half I lost the ~same amount of weight: 4.2kg / 9.3lbs. My rate has slowed down, we are at about 1kg/week or ~2lbs/week.

There are a couple of things that worked for me:

• I quit drinking sugary drinks and alcohol
• I no longer snack outside of meal times
• less eating out / fast food

When I say I quit or no longer do something, I mean I do snack sometimes right after a meal. But that’s one to three gummy bears instead of a full bag in front of my computer.

Starting with December 1st 2022, I began to log my weight every day, right after waking up, naked, without drinking before, to establish a good baseline.

The data of trying to log my weight every day for a year and one month is now here. It is amazing what kind of patterns you can extract out of this data.

Meta weight data

1 year and 1 month should equate to 396 days logged (365+31). The first 3 data points in the chart are from the weight counseling. For obvious reasons, I could not log my weight every day. I managed to log 344 out of 396 days. That’s a success rate of 87%.

The Data - chronologically

I started daily logging at around 105.5kg / 233lbs.

Most blue dots represent some kind of dinner with friends or family. They are always logged the day after those dinners of course. I’m also excluding the multiple Christmas days of maximum indulgent binging. No surprises then that they often log above the running average of 14 days (orange line).

Most red dots represent University exams or something employment related. For most of them, I’m surprised they log below the running average.

One of the biggest chunks of time when I did not log my weight was in February 2023. I got sick with covid (not fun) for 2 weeks, and I actually don’t know why I stopped logging.

There is one insane dinner at the start of March. All you can eat sushi. I gained 1.3kg / 2.9lbs on the next day and immediately dropped 1.4kg / 3.1lbs the day after that.

Occasionally eating out big is not a problem, as long as you do not fall down the downward spiral and binge. For me, binging has so far been a non-issue.

Starting Mid-April (1st green dot), my family took part in a gym trial membership. It quickly became apparent that we all liked it, and I signed a 1-year contract. I was at first very focused on losing weight, which I think shows nicely in the graph.

Summer was pretty uneventful. I just kept going and losing weight at a healthy rate. Nothing really happened except a couple big spiked here and there, but they went as fast as they came.

The 2nd green dot shows a regular fitness checkup.

I reached my lowest weight so far, 93.1kg / 205lbs at the start of September.

Afterward I fell into maintenance mode. Slightly before my last exam and landing a position where I can write my thesis!

I’m currently keeping my weight at around 95kg / 210lbs. But I am planning on dropping off some more weight.

The 3rd fitness checkup went ok. It appears I became a little slow (better than regaining weight). But I set my goal: gain more muscle.

I’d personally consider the last ~3 months the grand experiment: the question, whether I am able to keep my new weight.

Conclusion and future goals

So far I am really happy. I get told that I look good! That is something 2021 Roman could only dream about. Hitting the gym was a good call, and it significantly improved my mental health. It’s a great outlet for extra caloric energy, frustration, or motivation.

My original goal was to reach something between 80 and 90 kg / 176 and 198 lbs. Looking back on this goal now, I think it is a pretty reasonable goal still, while also wanting to grow muscle. Like, a lot of muscle.

I think I’ll increase the rate of these little retrospectives, at least for me personally. I’m not going to write an article every month about my weight. (not even an article per month in general…) These charts are pretty helpful for me, seeing where things went well, and where I can improve.

I logged my weight using ruduce, my own weight logging CLI tool. Now supports making charts from your weight!

Footnotes

There are lots of different ways to skin this cat, lots of diets that promise the world. Just get started. Do NOT set unrealistic goals or follow insane diets. Follow proven methods.

But the most important thing: allow yourself to retrospect and just have fun.

Here are some good pointers:

Beginner’s Health and Fitness Guide
The Best Fat Loss Article on the Motherf***ing Internet