Near the summer of 2004, my wife and I resolved to try to improve our health. We had both tried various tactics before, with varying degrees of success, usually followed by gaining the weight back after some illness or other stressful event made us fall off of our diet/exercise plan. But we were both dissatisfied with
our extra pounds, and we had become increasingly concerned about our long-term health. After some research, we decided to try the Six-Week Body Makeover. This system provides a meal plan tailored to your gender and metabolism type. It attempts to give you a selection of protein, vegetables, fruit, and complex carbs balanced in a way to maximize your metabolism. The 6WBM plan also suggests walking and a light cardio/resistance exercise program to accellerate fat burning and build muscle tone.
At the time of this writing (September 13, 2004), things are looking pretty good. In the first week, I have lost 9.5 pounds, and Susan has lost 7.5. And we even fell off of the program one evening, when we didn’t have any leftovers that fit the plan, didn’t have time to get groceries and cook, and wound up taking the kids out for pizza. We also went out to a Chinese restaurant (where we behaved a little better) on another evening, and we had salads at O’Charley’s for lunch yesterday.
In addition to our reinforcing each other’s resolve, I am making my weight loss progress public here on my web site. This is similar to the self-discipline tactic I used about 10 years ago when I quit smoking. I told all my friends that I was quitting. The idea being that if they caught me cheating, they would taunt me about my weakness. And I was determined not to give them the chance. 
The chart at the top of this page is a graph of my weight loss program from my initial weighing on September 6, 2004 (272 pounds, or 123.4kg), to my most recent weight check. I try to weigh myself every morning, but if I go out of town, or just plain forget, I’ll interpolate the missing values after I get another reading.
The thicker, blue “weight” line is the raw scale reading. The thinner, red curve is a calculated “trend” weight. This is a technique I borrowed from The Hacker’s Diet. The trend weight is calculated something like this:
Tn = Tn-1 + ( ( Wn - Tn-1 ) × 25% )
In other words, take 25% of the difference between the current scale weight and yesterday’s trend weight, and add that to yesterday’s trend weight. This helps to smooth out the occasional bumps that can occur (sometimes just due to how much water your body is holding onto) by letting the previous readings contribute. As long as your scale reading is below your trend reading, you’re really still losing weight, even if it’s higher than what the scale said yesterday. This is similar (though simplified) to the statistical techniques that many experts use to
analyze trends in stock prices.
In case you’re wondering, no, we are not trying to “advertise” the 6WBM plan. We chose it because after researching reviews from several consumer review magazines and web sites, we could not find any negative reviews. For anyone who is curious, we definitely don’t feel like we’re starving. Quite the opposite, really. This plan has us eating six times a day, we’re just eating much healthier and more balanced meals. Yes, there are some foods we miss, but we’ll get back to those (albeit more moderately) after we’ve reached our goals. We are viewing this as a long-term lifestyle change, not just a quick-fix diet.
