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View Full Version : I went on the "Hacker's diet" today



ZankerH
November 10th, 2009, 01:07 PM
Any other overweight/obese people on here? I'm 23 years old, 173cm tall and weigh 88 kilos (that's 23 winters, 5 feet 8 inches, 194 pounds for the non-metrically inclined, basically right on the border between overweight and obese), and I thought I'd give it a go. I'm starting it off with a week of semi-feasting, eating a quarter of kilocalories my body burns naturally - around 500 kcal of daily food input, which translates to one McDonald's big mac per day (which isn't what my diet will consist of, just using it for illustration). My goal? To look like my avatar :D (or, baring that, to resemble a human being) within a year. Losing around 20 kilos and performing the daily exercise regimen will decrease my heart disease susceptibility by 73% and theoretically extend my mean remaining lifetime by around 20 years.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/

I've tried countless diets and exercise regimes in the last five years, and this one has me by far the most motivated. One particular advantage I've noticed is that it actually explains why you're eating and exercising the amount you are in simple terms understandable to anyone with a very basic mathematics/CS background. Also, exercise is minimal, and only serves the purpose of keeping you in shape and slightly increasing the metabolic rate - not to actually burn calories. You do that by simply eating less than your body burns.

If anyone else has tried or is trying this, offer advise and encouragement. Any other tips are also welcome.

Past losing the weight, I'm looking to get started on Raymond Kurzweil's "TRANSCEND: Nine steps to living well forever", which focuses more exclusively on the life extension.

I may be biased here, so if anyone can answer this question, feel free: Is it just me or are the two health books, written by what can only be defined as "CS geeks", entirely superior to any other diet book by "professional" nutritionists you've ever read, which mostly amount to selling whatever happens to be the popular way to live "healthy" at the time? That's how I feel, and if anyone can find any obvious flaws, by all means, point them out.

Dayofswords
November 10th, 2009, 01:15 PM
I read the title and thought

"...you drank Java and ate RSS feeds? maybe you took a byte of of a lan card...something is wrong with you, login into root while digesting the data... at least you'll get your iron"

END THOUGHT

I'm not very helpful here, am I?

nothingspecial
November 10th, 2009, 01:18 PM
I found it incredibly easy to loose weight.

I gave up coke (the fizzy liquid kind). I used to have 7 or 8 a day.

I gave up crisps (potato chips) 1 or 2 bags a day.

No milk in the coffee.

20 mins cardio 2-4 times a week

I`ve gone from 16 stone to 12.5 in a few months.

dox_drum
November 10th, 2009, 01:26 PM
Nice!

Swagman
November 10th, 2009, 01:33 PM
Why do people say 194 pounds ?

That's akin to saying a car costs 100,000 cents.

Stoopid ennit ?

btw.. I'm 5 feet 2" and weigh 81 kgs (there's a mix !!)

nothingspecial
November 10th, 2009, 01:44 PM
Stoopid ennit ?



Aye

benj1
November 10th, 2009, 01:44 PM
I read the title and thought

"...you drank Java and ate RSS feeds? maybe you took a byte of of a lan card...something is wrong with you, login into root while digesting the data... at least you'll get your iron"

END THOUGHT

I'm not very helpful here, am I?

what would you use for networking? Ryvita?

anyway, personally i would just head straight for the grub menu :p

Ichtyandr
November 10th, 2009, 01:46 PM
No milk in the coffee.


just curious whats wrong with milk in the coffee? it is a tiny amount

benj1
November 10th, 2009, 01:51 PM
just curious whats wrong with milk in the coffee? it is a tiny amount

yes but real hackers have 50 cups a day.

50*a tiny amount = a lot

chucky chuckaluck
November 10th, 2009, 02:35 PM
when losing weight on a restricted calorie diet, not all the weight you lose is fat. in fact, it is thought that only around 50% is fat loss. you also lose muscle and water. you'll need to do some kind of resistance training if you want to spare muscle and lose fat (jogging would not be useful or that purpose).

this is a pretty interesting lecture on how we get fat, including some thoughts on the simplistic view of the body that energy deficit diets seem to have. http://www.dhslides.org/mgr/mgr060509f/f.htm

ColdFFF
November 10th, 2009, 02:36 PM
I gave up coke (the fizzy liquid kind)

Just thought I would point out the obvious, but giving up coke (the white powdery kind) might also benefit your health :p

ZankerH
November 10th, 2009, 03:10 PM
One of the things I resent most is the so-called "healthy diet" - the definition of which changes about every other month, based on which "health" foods are popular at the time. I will never restrict myself to eating that crap in stead of real food. The only thing I'm changing is quantity. I'm not on a diet to torture myself by removing everything I like to eat, I'm doing this to lose fat mass while influencing my daily life as little as possible.


when losing weight on a restricted calorie diet, not all the weight you lose is fat. in fact, it is thought that only around 50% is fat loss. you also lose muscle and water. you'll need to do some kind of resistance training if you want to spare muscle and lose fat (jogging would not be useful or that purpose).

That's not how the body works. Muscles hold a negligible amount of energy compared to fat tissue, and water can be accounted for by calculating the moving average and standard deviation of your body mass as opposed to just weighing yourself.

nothingspecial
November 10th, 2009, 08:31 PM
Just thought I would point out the obvious, but giving up coke (the white powdery kind) might also benefit your health :p

I ain`t giving that up ;)

Seriously......


just curious whats wrong with milk in the coffee? it is a tiny amount

I`m a caffine addict (not a cocaine addict :p)

When I gave up coke, my coffee intake went through the roof, up to 20 cups a day. That`d be a lot of milk..... a lot of fat.

1111peoy
November 10th, 2009, 08:35 PM
im around 183cm and weight around 81-82 kilos ;)

EDIT 21 years old

kyuubi777
November 10th, 2009, 08:39 PM
while it's true your body wil eat both muscle and fat on a low cal diet, it is not a 1:1... the body will eat about 96: 4 fat: muscle

tjwoosta
November 10th, 2009, 08:46 PM
When I gave up coke, my coffee intake went through the roof, up to 20 cups a day. That`d be a lot of milk..... a lot of fat.

lol, one would think the 20 cups of coffee per day would be worse for your health then the fat from the milk. I hope it wasn't 20 cans of coke per day before you gave it up.

Bodsda
November 10th, 2009, 08:48 PM
I'm 18 years old, 6 feet tall and weigh 12 stone. I used to weigh 14 stone, most of it being fat. I managed to cut most of that down and build muscle by doing the following

Breakfast: Nutrigrain bar/Fruit/Skip all together
Lunch: Nutrigrain bar/Fruit/Skip all together
Dinner: Nice BIG 'average' meal

Snacking is not permitted.

Drinking coffee is mandatory and any less then 8 cups a day will earn you a disciplinary.

In the mornings I do 20 Press ups. I started with 5 a day and worked my way up gradually. The trick is to get to the point were you feel like collapsing, then do 2 or 3 more.

I would do ((Press ups) * 2) sit ups straight after (or with a shower break) and as before, when you get to the stage when you feel like collapsing, do ((Press ups after collapse feeling) * 2) more.

I then have a lazy day sat on my backside being an IT Technician. When you get home, give yourself a 1 hour grace period then repeat the morning work out.

This has worked brilliantly for me. I have lost a lot of fat and gained a lot of muscle. The only thing this workout does not help at all is your leg muscles, but walking and running helps there so it doesn't really matter as much

Regards,
Bodsda

The Real Dave
November 10th, 2009, 09:34 PM
Im lucky, an extremely high matabolic rate means that I am ALWAYS hungry, but burn off what I eat very quickly, I could eat now, and be hungry in 30mins, but I'm quite skinny :)

Hallvor
November 10th, 2009, 09:49 PM
I'm starting it off with a week of semi-feasting, eating a quarter of kilocalories my body burns naturally - around 500 kcal of daily food input, which translates to one McDonald's big mac per day (which isn't what my diet will consist of, just using it for illustration). [...] Losing around 20 kilos and performing the daily exercise regimen will decrease my heart disease susceptibility by 73% and theoretically extend my mean remaining lifetime by around 20 years.

[...] Also, exercise is minimal, and only serves the purpose of keeping you in shape and slightly increasing the metabolic rate - not to actually burn calories. You do that by simply eating less than your body burns.


Hello!

This whole semi-fasting sounds like a bad idea to me. You`ll probably lose a lot of weight the first week, but a lot of it will be caused by loss of muscle mass. Your metabolism will also drop, and you don`t want that. Secondly, losing weight rapidly is not good for your health.

*Eat a little less than your body burns.
*Try to avoid fat, sugar and alcohol.
*Eat small meals every third hour to keep your metabolism up.
*Lift a little weights to keep muscle mass.
*Do a lot of cardio training.

And finally, taking care of your health is not a short diet, it is a change in lifestyle.

Good luck to you. :)

Warpnow
November 10th, 2009, 11:52 PM
I'm 5'!0". In the last 3 months I've lost 30 pounds, down from 220. At 190 right now, trying to get to 170 by Christmas.

I do the following:

Less than 3 sodas a week.
No chips.
No deserts.
No snacks whatsoever.
But I generally eat whatever I want for meals.

An hour and a half to two hours of cardio, 3-4 times a week.

koleoptero
November 11th, 2009, 12:00 AM
Im lucky, an extremely high matabolic rate means that I am ALWAYS hungry, but burn off what I eat very quickly, I could eat now, and be hungry in 30mins, but I'm quite skinny :)
I hate you. :lolflag:

Barrucadu
November 11th, 2009, 12:25 AM
I hate you. :lolflag:
I currently have that, too :p
I'm hoping my metabolism won't slow as I age, but I know it will…

Dharmachakra
November 11th, 2009, 12:59 AM
****... I have trouble GAINING weight! I'll take some of that from ya. :o

The Real Dave
November 11th, 2009, 01:18 AM
I currently have that, too :p
I'm hoping my metabolism won't slow as I age, but I know it will…

Ya, its great for now, but I'm only 17.....heres to a flabby forty :) :lolflag:

Paqman
November 11th, 2009, 01:40 AM
I'm 18 years old

<snip>

I have lost a lot of fat and gained a lot of muscle.

Good on you. However to be honest, at your age you'd expect to still be filling out a fair bit. Most guys aren't really up to full strength until their early twenties.

kostkon
November 11th, 2009, 02:22 AM
Im lucky, an extremely high matabolic rate means that I am ALWAYS hungry, but burn off what I eat very quickly, I could eat now, and be hungry in 30mins, but I'm quite skinny :)
I also have high metabolism and I can eat as much as I want, generally. 9.5 stone (60kg), 5.8 feet (1.77cm).

I currently have that, too :p
I'm hoping my metabolism won't slow as I age, but I know it will…
It will certainly slow down. I used to be 8 stone (50kg) but now, 8 years older, my weight has stabilised at 9.5 stone.

Hallvor
November 11th, 2009, 08:01 AM
****... I have trouble GAINING weight! I'll take some of that from ya. :o

So have I, but it isn`t that hard if you want to. Just make sure you get plenty of carbohydrates and proteins (weight gain and protein powder in addition to a normal diet will give you a lot of extra calories), lift a lot of heavy weights and cut down on cardio training. I increased my weight from 80 to 92 kilos in a year. (I am 190 cm tall.) Then I grew tired of it, and went back to 80 kilos.

ndefontenay
November 11th, 2009, 08:28 AM
I'm not fat but I've looked into how to eat best recently.
Apparently the key to becoming overweight is by mixing glucides with lipids. Read: Sugar with fat. Fat from any meat, oil etc... sugar from any sources including fruit.

So the key to stay slim while eating whatever you want is to:

1) 3 meals a day
2) No snacks of any kind between meals
3) Avoid meals mixing up sugar and fat, such as... a burger (the patty is fat, mayo is fat, whatever sauce there is, is fat, the bun is sugar), with a lot of coke (sugar) and maybe an ice cream (sugar AND fat horrible)
4) learn really hard about your ingredient because if you eat say rice with a pork chop, rice or pasta are parts of lipides. It does not look sweet yet it is. If you want to eat a fruit after your fat meal, do it 2 hours later.

The reasons behind the non mixing is: our body burns sugar before fat. It will stock the fat and then it's even harder to loose it. By eating a fat only meal, we will burn only fat and not store it. Likewise for the sugar.

In the end, a diet is not just a meal, it's a way of life.

A good example of a sweet meal is: vegetarian pasta with pureed tomato, dark olives, zucchinis, red pepper. I do sprinkle a little bit of parmesan cheese for a deeper taste.

A good example of a fat meal is: bbq chicken with mushroom (mushroom is a bit sweet (4) but not as bad as banana (20) or white bread (55). NO ketchup as it's really sweet.

http://www.obesity-diet.com/table-of-calories-L2-D113-N63.html

LookTJ
November 11th, 2009, 09:49 AM
Im lucky, an extremely high matabolic rate means that I am ALWAYS hungry, but burn off what I eat very quickly, I could eat now, and be hungry in 30mins, but I'm quite skinny :)
I am the same way.

An 18 year man who is 5'9"(~175cm), 132 lbs(59kg). :P

I can be of a little help.

But keep moderate in sugar, not too much.(1-2 cups of coffee daily is good enough) drink of water instead of coffee. Coffee is just water with sugar(depending on where it came from and how it is made determines how much sugar per cup)

And also choose food with the right fat with the right amount(some are good, some are bad;)).

anaconda
November 11th, 2009, 10:06 AM
One of the things I resent most is the so-called "healthy diet" - the definition of which changes about every other month, based on which "health" foods are popular at the time. I will never restrict myself to eating that crap in stead of real food. The only thing I'm changing is quantity. I'm not on a diet to torture myself by removing everything I like to eat,.

Hmm.. No good.
The healthy foods would have been the easiest, healthiest and best way to go.

hobo14
November 11th, 2009, 11:38 AM
I'm not fat but I've looked into how to eat best recently.
Apparently the key to becoming overweight is by mixing glucides with lipids. Read: Sugar with fat. Fat from any meat, oil etc... sugar from any sources including fruit.
What a load of BS!

Try replacing all the fat in a sugar and fat diet that makes you overweight with more sugar (equivalent kilojoules), and guess how much difference it will make: none.
(same if you changed to a fat-no-sugar diet of same kj)

Weight loss/gain is so simple, uncomplicated and basic that it always amazes me to see people subscribing to fad diets and methods:
kj in > kj out: gain weight
kj out > kj in: lose weight

handy
November 11th, 2009, 12:44 PM
I learned from what they eat on the "Let's get our cat back" thread, that Hacker's obviously eat pussies...

The reason that their thread was so titled was due to their ravenous hunger for the poor little furry creatures.

I'm still recovering from the shock, frightening as it was.

I had only heard as a youth, (& it was probably a chauvinistically bases cultural aberration) that certain cultural minorities were the only people who ate felines, & then, only in certain parts of the country & times of the day.

The night time, being the more likely time when the soft furry little creatures were likely to be gobbled up.

Thankfully I'm not a cat.

ukripper
November 11th, 2009, 01:04 PM
I always believed in balance diet and regular exercise.

As everyone's Metabolism is different. Mine is medium metabolic rate.Depending upon your metabolic rate, I would suggest you start with eating balance diet reducing your calory intake daily for 1 month and stop around reaching 1500 calories daily intake and don't go any further down. Prepare your body for the regular exercise after that month.

Start gym, I would suggest to do combo training - lite weight training with cardio leads to ultimate weight loss with muscles coming into play to tone you up.

I train for stamina and strength which involves heavy weight lifting and when I combine my weight training with immediate cardio workout straight after - I can see the result with my energy level shooting up. I train in the morning which makes my body prepare well enough for day to day grinding at work and i never feel tired/exhausted. i don't eat too many carbs before sleeping, carbs makes me sleepy in the morning.

Always take some protein which helps in your muscles to recover after the workout.

nothingspecial
November 11th, 2009, 01:25 PM
I learned from what they eat on the "Let's get our cat back" thread, that Hacker's obviously eat pussies...

The reason that their thread was so titled was due to their ravenous hunger for the poor little furry creatures.

I'm still recovering from the shock, frightening as it was.

I had only heard as a youth, (& it was probably a chauvinistically bases cultural aberration) that certain cultural minorities were the only people who ate felines, & then, only in certain parts of the country & times of the day.

The night time, being the more likely time when the soft furry little creatures were likely to be gobbled up.

Thankfully I'm not a cat.

That`s got to be the dodgiest post of the day.:-\"

chucky chuckaluck
November 11th, 2009, 01:51 PM
That's not how the body works. Muscles hold a negligible amount of energy compared to fat tissue, and water can be accounted for by calculating the moving average and standard deviation of your body mass as opposed to just weighing yourself.

how is this a response to what i said?

"when losing weight on a restricted calorie diet, not all the weight you lose is fat. in fact, it is thought that only around 50% is fat loss. you also lose muscle and water. you'll need to do some kind of resistance training if you want to spare muscle and lose fat (jogging would not be useful or that purpose)."

The Real Dave
November 11th, 2009, 10:21 PM
I also have high metabolism and I can eat as much as I want, generally. 9.5 stone (60kg), 5.8 feet (1.77cm).

It will certainly slow down. I used to be 8 stone (50kg) but now, 8 years older, my weight has stabilised at 9.5 stone.

Hmmm, I'm 5'11" and 9 stone, though, that can change +/-.5 stone every three weeks or so. Used do that every week....so ya, stabilised a bit I suppose.

I should work more on building muscle, but I've hardly time to sleep at the moment, nevermind exercise.

EDIT - I always thought a hacker's diet was Redbull and alot of electricity by the way......

tinker123
October 1st, 2012, 10:07 PM
Hey mods/admins,

I would like to revive this thread by posting each day that I keep to my goal of using the Hacker's Diet for at least 31 days ( 2012 October 1 - 31 ).

I realize this isn't quite about Unbuntu or anything tech related so I thought I would ask permission first.

Steve

overdrank
October 1st, 2012, 10:09 PM
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