An Update on the Quantified Diet

It’s been a year since I started the quantified diet project and the results have been amazing to say the least. The numbers speak for themselves:

• Weight today: 79 kg (173.8 lbs.), last year: 89 kg (195.8 lbs.)
• Weight lost 10 kg (22 lbs.)
• Lowest weight during the past 12 months: 77.2 kg (169.8 lbs.)

So how did I do it? The original version of this blog post was going to go into detail of what worked and what didn’t, but then I realized that would have been a waste. Over the past year, I have met many people that have asked how I did it and I would start to explain the process. Usually, within 20 seconds their eyes would glaze over in boredom. The phrase that really sums it up is “people hear what they want to hear”. If I started to explain the magic pill or the one thing I did, people would be all in…but that’s just not the case.

It was a year of giving up many things and learning to let go of food and thinking about the long term benefits of being healthier. Yeah, I can’t tell you how many f***king times I wanted to eat 5 pieces of chocolate cake or inhale an entire pizza by myself. But, I had to really control that urge and bury it deep down and not think about that instant gratification but instead focus on the long term effects.

However, the biggest surprise was the social pressure. Many times in the past I would stop drinking for several months while I would train for the Mumbai Marathon and people would understand if you were at a party. But, with food it’s a whole nother level of pressure. It got so bad that I would eat at home and then meet friends for dinner and I would end up getting a cafe latte and maybe a couple spoons of dessert. If we had to attend a wedding and/or reception it was a given that I would eat at home and then come. For some reason, if you are not eating and drinking like everyone else then you are deemed anti-social.

The other social pressure was from people that didn’t seem to be happy that I had lost the weight. One of my neighbors stopped me during one of my running sessions and said “what have you done, you looked better before.” You mean, when I was 10kg heavier and felt lethargic, wore baggy cloths and depressed from time to time…no thanks. She was not the only person, I must have had at least 20-25 people tell me something along similar lines. An interesting pattern developed, if they said I looked better before there was almost a 95% chance they themselves were large.

If after reading all this and you are still interested in going through the quantified diet process, I suggest you read my first blog post on it. Then read Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss. It’s eye opening to see how the food we eat is optimized and created by big food companies. Also, watch these two movies about food – That Sugar Film and Fed Up by journalist Katie Couric. I’ve come to my own conclusion that sugar is the root cause of what ails most people.