{"id":1002,"date":"2011-08-23T04:43:05","date_gmt":"2011-08-23T04:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/08\/23\/weight-loss-for-geeks\/"},"modified":"2011-08-23T04:43:05","modified_gmt":"2011-08-23T04:43:05","slug":"weight-loss-for-geeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/08\/23\/weight-loss-for-geeks\/","title":{"rendered":"Weight Loss For Geeks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last time I talked about my recovery from my knee surgery<\/a> I mentioned I thought I\u2019d gained about a stone in weight.<\/p>\n

Losing weight is never something I\u2019ve really had to worry about before. Despite having a predominantly desk based job for most of my working life my weight has always stayed pretty constant. <\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Growing up I\u2019d always figured I was one of those lucky ones that could eat whatever they wanted without fear of gaining a pound or two. Turns out this was very naive of me. It\u2019s mostly down to exercise. <\/p>\n

In basic terms we all pretty much know if we consume more calories than the body needs it will store the excess as fat. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret I love to play football and up until my mid-twenties this was two or three times a week as a minimum. As I\u2019ve gotten older there have been various factors that have reduced the amount of times I play in any given week (children, work, etc) and over the years my weight had gone up some but nothing to worry about. Once that stopped altogether because of my injury the pounds have piled on at a faster rate. Turns out all that football was what kept my weight in check!<\/p>\n

So in preparation for the new football season and the on-going recovery of my knee I\u2019ve been running and cycling to get my fitness levels ready for pre-season. Pre-season training is hard enough at the best of times so I wanted to give myself a head start!<\/p>\n

I hadn\u2019t given any thought to losing the weight I\u2019d gained. My initial expectations were that all the extra exercise I\u2019d be doing would take care of it by the time the season started. However, after a conversion with some friends on Twitter I was inspired to put a little more thought into it.<\/p>\n

Considering the stereotype of people who work in IT (see the image above!) it\u2019s amazing how much technology can help with fitness and weight loss so I thought I\u2019d list some of things I\u2019ve been using.<\/p>\n

Tracking<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Myfitnesspal is where I started. There are lots of similar websites but this is the one I was pointed at and it works just fine for me. The idea is simple. Enter your height, weight, age and a goal (i.e lose one pound a week) and the website gives you a calorie goal for the day. You then track all the food you eat and the exercise you do. This is basically calorie counting. If you stay under your calorie goal you\u2019ll lose weight! Adding some exercise will give you some more calories to work with. I actually added an extra mile to a run as in the mood for pizza!<\/p>\n

The site has a massive database of food which in my experience matches up with the nutritional information you get on most food packaging. The site is of a Facebook style in that you have a profile and you can update your status with thoughts that other friends can comment on. Activity on the site also updates your status and friends can offer words of encouragement. \"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This has been really great for motivation as it helps to keep you from feeling isolated. There is a very strong community around the site and there are various forums where people can ask for advice or share success stories.<\/p>\n

Finally there are also mobile phone apps to help with tracking food and exercise. This particular site has support for Windows Phone which has been great for me!<\/p>\n

Running and Cycling Routes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gmap \u2013 Pedometer.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

I love this site as it\u2019s so simple. It\u2019s a Google Maps mashup that allows you to plot running and cycling routes. Once you create a route it creates a unique URL so you can refer back to it as needed.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Again there are lots of other websites that do similar things. Some of them come with companion apps that use the GPS in your phone to track the distance you cover and how quickly you complete the route as well as sharing with friends. Runkeeper<\/a> is an example and I\u2019ll be taking a look at that more closely as I\u2019ve recently purchased a sports armband for my phone. If you have an iPhone\/iPod and are willing to invest some money the Nike+<\/a> system is very slick. <\/p>\n

That said gmap was the first mapping tool I found and it\u2019s really simple and quick to use hence why I\u2019m mentioning it here. <\/p>\n

Heart Rate monitor. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The only thing about using a tracking website such as myfitnesspal is that it can only guess at how many calories you burn during a particular exercise. Everyone is different and perform certain exercises at different intensities so any figures you use are only a best guess. You can get around this by using a heart rate monitor. I managed to get a cheap chest strap and watch in a sale in a local sports shop. I\u2019m still getting to grips with it but the two work in tandem and give you various stats such as your average\/max heart rate and calories expended. As you\u2019d expect there is a very wide range of these!<\/p>\n

Apps<\/strong><\/p>\n

There lots of apps that will work with your smartphone to help with exercise and weight loss. Other than myfitnesspal and runkeeper I\u2019m not using any at the moment but I wanted to mention and give an example of how your phone can help exercise. <\/p>\n

One thing that people always worry about when starting to exercise is actually starting! If you want to start running but haven\u2019t done any for years the thought of trying to run even a small distance is very daunting. <\/p>\n

There are tons of apps for just about every platform around for the \u201ccouch to five k\u201d concept. The idea here is that you follow a set program where you start at short distances and gradually build up to five kilometres. The apps help as they will tell you when to run, jog or walk via voice prompts or making your phone vibrate. <\/p>\n

While I didn\u2019t use an app I followed my own informal method and I built up from running one mile to three miles and I recently completed a five mile route and I can certainly see how having a virtual jogging mate can help!<\/p>\n

The Internet<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ok this is a little broad but like most geeks I want to know as much as possible about something I\u2019m interested in and the Internet provides a vast amount of resources on exercise and nutrition. I\u2019ve learnt more about BRM, BMI, VO2MAX and the like than I really need to know! You can find fitness pharmacy-no-rx.net<\/font><\/a> programs, workout videos and as much detail about how the human body works than you can handle! <\/p>\n

The only downside is sometimes there is too much information and there is so much conflicting information about what does and doesn\u2019t work it can be difficult trying to figure out what you should believe.<\/p>\n

In Summary <\/strong><\/p>\n

There are lots of gadgets and tools available to help get fit or lose weight. You can even buy a set of scales that automatically tracks your weight via wi-fi! I can report using the things I\u2019ve mentioned above has worked for me and other than the heart rate monitor, which is a luxury \u2013 I would have been fine without it, the whole thing has cost me nothing.  <\/p>\n

MyFitnessPal reports that I\u2019ve been using the site for 70 days and in that time I\u2019ve lost 16 pounds. That\u2019s also taking into account a two week break I had for a holiday where I put some of that back on I\u2019m so pretty pleased with it.  <\/p>\n

So what did I actually do?<\/p>\n

Diet<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 I didn\u2019t make any drastic changes in terms of what I eat but did change the amount. It was only though tracking the calories that I realised how much I eat and how certain foods can have an effect. At the moment breakfast from a well known fast food chain is pretty much half of my calorie goal for the day! <\/p>\n

Exercise <\/em>\u2013 I started off with a bit of cycling to get me back into the exercise habit but since then my exercise has pretty much consisted of running. <\/p>\n

I run pretty much every day where possible as I can do a couple of miles in 12-15 minutes. This means it\u2019s easy to fit it in before or after work. On days where I\u2019ve got a little more time I\u2019ll stretch it out to three miles (and more recently I\u2019ve completed that five mile run which I\u2019ll start to throw into the mix)<\/p>\n

Motivation <\/em>\u2013 Unfortunately all this talk of technology can\u2019t escape the fact you have to actually execute this yourself<\/u>. This isn\u2019t <\/strong>easy and no-one else can do it for you but the things I\u2019ve mentioned are really good support tools to keep you on track.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be honest and say I still hate running. This obviously becomes much easier if you enjoy the exercise you\u2019re doing and lots of people do get the \u201cfitness bug\u201d once they start to see results. Luckily I do get this with football. I love doing that so coming back from training or a game totally shattered is fine \u2013 I just can\u2019t do that every day!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve only touched on some of the things that are available if you\u2019re serious about changing your body. Do you have any tips or tools you\u2019ve used yourself? Comment welcome below \"Smile\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last time I talked about my recovery from my knee surgery I mentioned I thought I\u2019d gained about a stone in weight. Losing weight is never something I\u2019ve really had to worry about before. Despite having a predominantly desk based job for most of my working life my weight has always stayed pretty constant. Growing<\/p>\n

<\/span>Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"yoast_head":"\nWeight Loss For Geeks - Andy's Techie Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/08\/23\/weight-loss-for-geeks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Weight Loss For Geeks - Andy's Techie Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last time I talked about my recovery from my knee surgery I mentioned I thought I\u2019d gained about a stone in weight. Losing weight is never something I\u2019ve really had to worry about before. Despite having a predominantly desk based job for most of my working life my weight has always stayed pretty constant. GrowingRead More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/08\/23\/weight-loss-for-geeks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Andy's Techie Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-23T04:43:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/image_thumb2.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andy Parkes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andy Parkes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/08\/23\/weight-loss-for-geeks\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/08\/23\/weight-loss-for-geeks\/\",\"name\":\"Weight Loss For Geeks - Andy's Techie Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-23T04:43:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-08-23T04:43:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3534e8ac6b1bec765cd061feff56679d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/08\/23\/weight-loss-for-geeks\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/08\/23\/weight-loss-for-geeks\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/08\/23\/weight-loss-for-geeks\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Weight Loss For Geeks\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Andy's Techie Blog\",\"description\":\"Professional Geek\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3534e8ac6b1bec765cd061feff56679d\",\"name\":\"Andy Parkes\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3824cbf53df51d7ca5cf809b6ad81a157fbfff2292e36ab8666f04ddad06bfcc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3824cbf53df51d7ca5cf809b6ad81a157fbfff2292e36ab8666f04ddad06bfcc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Andy Parkes\"},\"description\":\"Andy Parkes is Technical Director at Coventry based IT support company IBIT Solutions. Formerly, coordinator of AMITPRO and Microsoft Partner Area Lead for 2012-2013. He also isn't a fan of describing himself in the third person.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/author\/andyparkes\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Weight Loss For Geeks - Andy's Techie Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/08\/23\/weight-loss-for-geeks\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Weight Loss For Geeks - Andy's Techie Blog","og_description":"Last time I talked about my recovery from my knee surgery I mentioned I thought I\u2019d gained about a stone in weight. Losing weight is never something I\u2019ve really had to worry about before. Despite having a predominantly desk based job for most of my working life my weight has always stayed pretty constant. GrowingRead More","og_url":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/08\/23\/weight-loss-for-geeks\/","og_site_name":"Andy's Techie Blog","article_published_time":"2011-08-23T04:43:05+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/image_thumb2.png"}],"author":"Andy Parkes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Andy Parkes","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/08\/23\/weight-loss-for-geeks\/","url":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/08\/23\/weight-loss-for-geeks\/","name":"Weight Loss For Geeks - Andy's Techie Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-08-23T04:43:05+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-23T04:43:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3534e8ac6b1bec765cd061feff56679d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/08\/23\/weight-loss-for-geeks\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/08\/23\/weight-loss-for-geeks\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/08\/23\/weight-loss-for-geeks\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Weight Loss For Geeks"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/","name":"Andy's Techie Blog","description":"Professional Geek","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3534e8ac6b1bec765cd061feff56679d","name":"Andy Parkes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3824cbf53df51d7ca5cf809b6ad81a157fbfff2292e36ab8666f04ddad06bfcc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3824cbf53df51d7ca5cf809b6ad81a157fbfff2292e36ab8666f04ddad06bfcc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Andy Parkes"},"description":"Andy Parkes is Technical Director at Coventry based IT support company IBIT Solutions. Formerly, coordinator of AMITPRO and Microsoft Partner Area Lead for 2012-2013. He also isn't a fan of describing himself in the third person.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.andyparkes.co.uk\/blog"],"url":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/author\/andyparkes\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pmvJ6-ga","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}