Everyone has an ideal weight - a weight they would like to be. For me, it is 83-85kg, which is what I weighed in my early thirties and is also a healthy weight:height ratio for me.
In my early thirties there were a number of factors contributing to my ideal weight:
- Exercise - I used to cycle, run and swim a lot
- I didn’t have kids, so free time could be devoted to exercise
- I had just spent 6 months doing building work, rather than my usual desk-bound job
- My metabolism was probably faster than it is now
I started thinking about how I could get back to my ideal weight, or at least get close to it, without resorting to crash dieting or becoming a gym junkie (not that that would ever be like to happen). Losing weight would need to be a slow and steady process; it would need to fit in with my lifestyle and moreover, it would need to be sustainable in the long term.
Creating a Calorie Deficit
I read a number of books and articles, including one on the 5:2 Diet. While intermittent fasting piqued my interest, the thought of only eating 600 calories twice a week and not being able to eat meals with my family was not that appealing.
Then I happened across an article on skipping breakfast - although perhaps not entirely scientific, it struck a chord with me. The premise was to create a calorie deficit, allowing the body to use up excess stores of energy. Here was a way that could maybe
- Reduce calorie intake, without fasting
- Get my body to use up excess stores of fat
- Was slow and steady
- Was sustainable long term (it’s a meal I can go without as I’m rarely that hungry in the morning)
The goal was to create about a 3,500 calorie deficit each week, so I worked out what my typical breakfast intake was:
| Item | Calories |
|---|---|
| 2 Shredded Wheat | 306 |
| 1 cup full-fat milk | 149 |
| 1 banana | 89 |
| Total | 544 |
Weekly, this would be 3,808 calories - enough to create the deficit I needed.
I decided to keep a record of my weight, plus any exercise I did each day.
Month 1
Going into the first month, I did not have high expectations. Initially, I wanted to see what the diet alone would do, so the plan was not to increase my exercise. If my body needed a bit of a push, I would increase my exercise later on.
I never felt particularly hungry at breakfast anyway, so about a week into not eating that meal, my body began to adjust and I started to feel hungry coming up to lunchtime at about 11:30am.
Weighing myself each day, I found there was a variance of about 1kg depending on the time of day I took the measurement, so I resolved to always weigh myself in the morning when I got up to eliminate the variance.
My weight over the first month
At the end of the month I was pleasantly surprised - following the first week where there was little change, my weight slowly started to creep down over the course of the next 3 weeks. By the end of the month I had lost 4.4kg!
I had continued to eat my regular lunch and dinner each day; I drank coffee and even had the occasional beer without impacting my calorie deficit.
Month 2
At the start of the second month I suffered a setback - the first day into the month my weight started to creep back up again, continuing to do so over 4 days and wiping out the gains over the past 2 weeks.
On these days I had been out for dinner, with perhaps just a little overindulgence. By the fourth day, I had realised that there was a very small difference between calorie deficit and calorie surplus, so I resolved to trim any future excesses and by day 5 of the month I was back on track again.
Month 2 weight chart
Slower progress was made in the second month. Though the downward trend continued, I only lost 2kg, or less than half what I lost the previous month, bringing my total loss to 6.6kg since I started.
Still, there were some positive signs such as my jeans starting to feel loose around the waist. I did not have expectations of any rapid weight loss - this needed to be a slow and sustainable process - so I was very pleased with my continued progress.
Month 3
The third month was disappointing as I only lost 0.2kg over the course of the month. Half way through the month I had made some good progress, losing 0.7kg. This was slower than the previous 2 months of my diet, but nonetheless it was progress.
Then Easter came, along with chocolate and a holiday which cancelled out the gains I had made over that month. It took till the end of the month to get things back to what I weighed at the end of month 2.
Month 3 weight chart
I resolved to try a fourth month with diet alone to see if I could lose further weight before I try increasing my exercise.
Month 4
I started the fourth month determined to make some better progress than in the previous month. Half way through the month I had reached my best weight loss yet, at 93.3kg, and though I did not make further gains over the month, I still felt a sense of achievement having lost a total of 2.8kg over the course of the month.
Month 4 weight chart
Four Month Review
After 4 months, I felt it was a good idea to look over what I’d achieved and what I still need to do.
At the 4 month mark, I had lost 8.1kg, or about half of the total goal I had set myself (measured at the top end of the 83-85kg range). This is not a bad result for relatively little effort. But how much longer would it take to reach my goal? And what would I do once I’d achieved it? Would I start eating breakfast again, or slightly increase my calorie intake some other way?
The bumpy path to weight loss over 4 months
I extrapolated the linear trend line (the black line called Linear (Weight kg) in the graphs) to see where it would intersect with my ideal weight of 83-85kg. Based on my current rate of weight loss, I would reach 85kg in about 4 and a half months.
Extrapolating to find my ideal weight
Taking the line out further to 12 months since I started, if my body continued to lose weight at the same rate, I would weigh about 78kg at that point. Although still within the ideal range for my height, it is more likely that I would increase my calorie intake slightly to remove any deficit, or maybe my body would reach a natural point where it stops losing weight. Time will tell, I guess.
Month 5
Month 5 was largely flat until the last week. Overall, my weight remained fairly static in the first 3 weeks of the month, but in the last week I missed lunch after already skipping breakfast, resulting in a sharp drop. This happened by accident - I hadn’t intended to skip lunch - but the result was an immediate 2.1kg drop, most of which I’d put back on by the end of the month, unfortunately. I managed a 0.9kg loss by the end of the month.
Month 5 weight chart
Month 6
In month 6, I lost another 1.6kg, reaching a 10kg milestone since I started 6 months ago. This was a little behind where I predicted I’d be after 6 months, but still a great result.
Month 6 weight chart
At the end of the month I decided to try on some clothes which had been sitting in the back of the wardrobe for a few years, waiting for a time when I could fit into them again. They all fit - so, in addition to going down one notch on my belt over the 6 months, gave me even more of a sense of achievement (as well as adding to my wardrobe a bit).
Month 7
In the seventh month I lost a respectable 1.7kg and hit (albeit only marginally) the sub 90kg barrier.
Month 7 weight chart
I took a look at my overall progress and whether I was still on track to reach my 83-85kg goal in 2 and a half months’ time, as I predicted in month 4. Unfortunately, it appeared as though it would be an additional 2 months for me to reach my goal.
Month 7 revised projection to reach goal
Month 8
I spent half of month 8 on holiday, so I was both unable to weigh myself on most days, but also indulged more than I probably should have. I did not make any inroads into my goal over the month.
Month 8 weight chart
While on holiday, I watched a YouTube video from Today I Found Out that explored the history of breakfast. It seems that breakfast is a relatively recent addition to mealtimes, having only gained popularity in the past 200 years.
Activity and Weight Loss
I had noticed a pattern in the data that I’d collected over the past 8 months that I tended to put on weight at the weekend and on about half of Fridays, and lose weight on weekdays (as can be seen in the table below), even though my daily food intake remained largely the same each day.
| Day of the Week | Times Weight went Down | Times Weight went Up |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 14 | 11 |
| Tuesday | 22 | 7 |
| Wednesday | 24 | 4 |
| Thursday | 18 | 12 |
| Friday | 16 | 13 |
| Saturday | 14 | 15 |
| Sunday | 9 | 17 |
At the start of August (month 7) I got myself an Apple Watch, which allowed me to track my activity. Now, with 2 months worth of data, I took a look at my activity as recorded by the watch and cross-referenced it with my daily record of my weight to understand if completing my activity goals also played a part in helping to reduce my weight, in addition to limiting my calorie intake.
In the Apple Watch, the red circle denotes movement each day (tailored to factors like weight, height and age), the middle green circle denotes exercise (30 minutes completes the circle) and the inner blue ring denotes standing time, a full circle being 12 hours standing).
As can be seen in the image below (ignoring the last 2 weeks of September when I was on holiday), I completed my 3 movement, exercise and standing circles on all bar 2 of Monday-Thursdays, on half of Fridays, but only on 2 weekend days. This matches the overall pattern I had observed, where my weight up more than down at weekends, it went down 50% of the time on Fridays, and it largely went down on other weekdays.
Activity over months 7 and 8
I concluded that in addition to creating a calorie deficit, I also needed to perform at least 30 minutes of exercise each day in order to stay on track with my weight loss goal.
Month 9
I lost a respectable 1.6kg in month 9, and kept up my daily exercise of at least 30 minutes per day, only failing to achieve it in 6 days out of the month.
Month 9 weight chart
More satisfying achievement, however, was consistently breaking the 88kg mark, bringing me one step closer to my goal.
Month 10
Month 10 was a bit disappointing because, despite being diligent in performing 30 of exercise each day, I only managed to lose 0.3kg. I did manage to break into the 87kg range a few times over the course of the month, at least.
Month 10 weight chart
Month 11
At the start of month 11 I had made some good progress, but that and more was all regained by the end of the month, given it was Christmas. This was the first month since starting that I had actually put on weight, gaining 0.9kg over that time.
Month 11 weight chart
Putting on a few pounds at Christmas is not uncommon; gyms the world over rely on this to get people signed up for the year as part of their New Years resolutions to lose weight and get fit.
I decided to see how long it would take me to lose the extra weight I’d put on over Christmas following the same regime I’d been doing for the last 11 months.
Month 12
It turns out that it did not take very long to lose the weight that I put on over Christmas - 2 weeks to be exact - and that was doing nothing other than sticking to the same regime I had been following over the past 11 months.
Month 12 weight chart
I lost 1.8kg during the month, all of which was done in the first half of the month. Over the course of 12 month I had lost 14.3kg with relative easy and without changing my lifestyle other than giving up breakfast.
Although my 2 previous projections in months 4 and 7 were incorrect (I had now passed the goal date from month 7), I decided to take another look at when I was projected to hit my 85kg goal. This time it seemed tantalising close - 1 and a half months away.
Month 12 revised projection to reach goal
Month 13
I continued to make good inroads over the month, even breaking into the 85kg range on one occasion, but on the extra day from the leap year, I gained some weight meaning I ended up losing a net zero kg over the month.
Month 13 weight chart
Still, the overall trend was downwards and I am hopeful of still reaching my goal next month as I projected.
Month 14
Half way into month 14 was when I had predicted I would hit my goal. After failing to make any gains over the previous month I was not hopeful this would happen, but exactly half way through I did finally reach my goal clocking in at 84.6kg! By the end of the month I had done a final clock in at 85.0kg and with it, a fantastic sense of achievement.
Month 14 weight chart
Over the course of 14 months I had lost 17kg, doing nothing more than giving up breakfast. I hadn’t changed the amount of exercise I did (although I did become a lot more aware of how much exercise I did each day) or made any other lifestyle changes.
The Future
Now that I haven’t eaten breakfast for over a year, I won’t be starting again any time soon. And while I won’t be meticulously weighing myself each day, I will keep a check on whether my weight continues to decrease, or whether it settles after a certain point. My hope is that it settles within my ideal weight range.
We’ll see…
