Here We Go Again

Ok, I've blogged about my weight loss before, and it was pretty successful. Now that I've put back on 15kg, I'm finally motivated to start taking it off again. It took a while. I'd been eating Super-Size fast food and entire-pizza-at-a-sitting meals for a while now. I have to admit I've been unhappy doing this. Let's just say I fell off my healthy track because of another obsessive interest.

Today, my obsession is aimed back at weight loss. My other obsession is a website that's up and running, so I have the time again to get back in shape. The last time I was very unhealthy was April 2000, when I weighed 106kg (BMI = 34.6). This time, I'm starting off at 90kg (BMI = 29.4, or just under 'obese'). Last time, I got down to 75kg (BMI = 24.5, high end of 'normal'), by working out hard 5 times a day, weighing food, and counting calories. I lost 31kg in about 6 months.

So, what's going to be new about this blog? Is it just another diet and exercise log? Hardly! This time, I'm going to be much more scientific in my methods, as I'll elaborate on in upcoming posts. In fact, I'm going to make this blog an experiment in minimizing caloric intake. I want to see how close to the basal metabolic rate (BMR) you can get over the long term, especially while taking in very high nutritional quality food. Probably, I'll just confirm what thousands of man-hours of nutrition reasearch already knows -- you can't get under the BMR long-term. But, we'll see. Also, I'll blog about what it feels like to push the limits, if it is uncomfortable, etc.

Another way to phrase this experiment is: Can you survive off 2000 calories a day, if you work out vigorously 5 days a week? Intuitively, I'd say 'yes', but the scientific answer is you'd probably starve to death.