particular capture method for a diet .. ?

particular capture method for a diet .. ?

[Stinky Wizzleteet]

Hi all,

I am too fat.

And I found in the past that the best way for me to loose weight is to
log my eating habit every day and make sure that I eat between 1800 and
2200 kcal/day, no more, but also not less.

I want to figure out a way how to create a custom capture template to
keep track of my daily intake.

The result should be a diary-style org file were every day would be
filled with a table that features an updated total and an item list:

TOTAL:  1965 kcal
|apple          |       80|
|orange         |       65|
|energy drink   |       300|
... etc
                
(gnus: y u no tables ?)               

capturing would consist of two entries, item and specific caloric
value, and these values would be inserted into a table that would
automagically update its daily total.
Every day a new table should be started.

Is this possible ? And how ?
Pointers, tips and snippets are greatly appreciated.

Best,
wzzl

-- 
Stinky Wizzleteet thinks: 
Next Friday will not be your lucky day.  As a matter of fact, you don't
have a lucky day this year.

Re: particular capture method for a diet .. ?

[Christopher Allan Webber]

So I've been meaning to put something up on this in worg for a while.

I've been dieting using orgmode, basic calorie tracking, and something
resembling the ideas out of "The Hacker's Diet" for the last year
(actually 2.5 years with a 1.5 year "break" in which I continued to
weigh in mostly but didn't follow my calorie goals ;)) and have lost >
60 pounds so far (originally was 275, not all that's recorded in my
files during the first few weeks of dieting, anyway at 210 now), going
from morbidly obese to just overweight, and I'm still losing weight
(soon enough, being a fat guy will be far behind me).  Here's the
org-babel generated gnuplot graphs to show it (regenerated and pushed to
my site every morning):

http://dustycloud.org/tmp/weight.png
http://dustycloud.org/tmp/weight_month.png

Here's a screenshot:
http://dustycloud.org/tmp/org-diet2.png

Roughly in the terrible amount of hacks that compose "org-diet" I've
wrapped together these ideas/tools:
 - calorie tracking
 - recipe calorie calculation
 - weigh-in via org-capture
 - calorie "clocking" (clock out at the end of the day to verify you've
   got accurate numbers for that day)
 - habit tracking of whether you've met your calorie goals
 - weight graphing with 10 day moving averaging to remove some of the
   "noise" from a daily weigh in/out
 - bmi calculation
 - a really shitty calories-per-day-to-lose-to-meet-your-goals estimator

It's really nothing complex, and mostly it's not software, just a
methedology with a *slight* amount of poorly written software in elisp
and org-babel, but the system works great.

I planned after meeting my diet goals (hitting normal weight) that I'd
release the whole thing (including my present diet file for reference)
under GPLv3, document it in worg, and put my own diet file out there
under CC0, but maybe I should do it sooner... problem is I don't have
time presently while trying to work on http://mediagoblin.org on
weekends to make a "proper" release, but I could at least bundle
together everything you need to have a full system using my hacks for
now if you want, with really terrible but usable documentation, without
taking up too much time. :)

Interested?  I could probably throw together a terrible tarball this
weekend if you want to use it and post it to the list.

One thing that's clear from the diet I've collected: whenever I've
followed the system, without fail, I've lost weight.  When I've deviated
I've stayed level or I've gained weight (the no-movement middle of the
diet graph I linked to).  Follow the system, use habit tracking and
stuff, stick to your calorie goals (I shoot for a lower occasional-goal
of 1300 calories and an absolute minimum goal of 1600 calories), and it
*fucking works* without any support of the bullshit diet industry.

I've heard a few people saying they have interest in the stuff I have so
maybe I should just do that crappy release for now; better than nothing?

Hopefully being useful while making embarassing admissions about my
body,
 - cwebb

Stinky Wizzleteet <wizzleteet@hotmail.com> writes:

> Hi all,
>
> I am too fat.
>
> And I found in the past that the best way for me to loose weight is to
> log my eating habit every day and make sure that I eat between 1800 and
> 2200 kcal/day, no more, but also not less.
>
> I want to figure out a way how to create a custom capture template to
> keep track of my daily intake.
>
> The result should be a diary-style org file were every day would be
> filled with a table that features an updated total and an item list:
>
> TOTAL:  1965 kcal
> |apple          |       80|
> |orange         |       65|
> |energy drink   |       300|
> ... etc
>                 
> (gnus: y u no tables ?)               
>
> capturing would consist of two entries, item and specific caloric
> value, and these values would be inserted into a table that would
> automagically update its daily total.
> Every day a new table should be started.
>
> Is this possible ? And how ?
> Pointers, tips and snippets are greatly appreciated.
>
> Best,
> wzzl

-- 
𝓒𝓱𝓻𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓹𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓐𝓵𝓵𝓪𝓷 𝓦𝓮𝓫𝓫𝓮𝓻

Re: particular capture method for a diet .. ?

[Jason Earl]

On Fri, Apr 22 2011, Christopher Allan Webber wrote:

> So I've been meaning to put something up on this in worg for a while.
>
> I've been dieting using orgmode, basic calorie tracking, and something
> resembling the ideas out of "The Hacker's Diet" for the last year
> (actually 2.5 years with a 1.5 year "break" in which I continued to
> weigh in mostly but didn't follow my calorie goals ;)) and have lost >
> 60 pounds so far (originally was 275, not all that's recorded in my
> files during the first few weeks of dieting, anyway at 210 now), going
> from morbidly obese to just overweight, and I'm still losing weight
> (soon enough, being a fat guy will be far behind me).  Here's the
> org-babel generated gnuplot graphs to show it (regenerated and pushed to
> my site every morning):
>
> http://dustycloud.org/tmp/weight.png
> http://dustycloud.org/tmp/weight_month.png

Congratulations!  I have been doing something similar for just over a
year.  Unfortunately, I made the mistake of using Simple Emacs
Spreadsheets for my spreadsheets (I didn't really know about org-mode
when I started).  This means my spreadsheets can hold about a month's
worth of data before they become too big to be usable.

I switched my weight spreadsheet into org a while back so that I could
use gnuplot to make graphs, but my food log is still in SES.

> Here's a screenshot:
> http://dustycloud.org/tmp/org-diet2.png
>
> Roughly in the terrible amount of hacks that compose "org-diet" I've
> wrapped together these ideas/tools:
>  - calorie tracking
>  - recipe calorie calculation
>  - weigh-in via org-capture
>  - calorie "clocking" (clock out at the end of the day to verify you've
>    got accurate numbers for that day)
>  - habit tracking of whether you've met your calorie goals
>  - weight graphing with 10 day moving averaging to remove some of the
>    "noise" from a daily weigh in/out
>  - bmi calculation
>  - a really shitty calories-per-day-to-lose-to-meet-your-goals estimator
>
> It's really nothing complex, and mostly it's not software, just a
> methedology with a *slight* amount of poorly written software in elisp
> and org-babel, but the system works great.

It sounds more feature complete than what I am currently using, and I
actually *like* what I am using.

> I planned after meeting my diet goals (hitting normal weight) that I'd
> release the whole thing (including my present diet file for reference)
> under GPLv3, document it in worg, and put my own diet file out there
> under CC0, but maybe I should do it sooner... problem is I don't have
> time presently while trying to work on http://mediagoblin.org on
> weekends to make a "proper" release, but I could at least bundle
> together everything you need to have a full system using my hacks for
> now if you want, with really terrible but usable documentation,
> without taking up too much time. :)
>
> Interested?  I could probably throw together a terrible tarball this
> weekend if you want to use it and post it to the list.
>
> One thing that's clear from the diet I've collected: whenever I've
> followed the system, without fail, I've lost weight.  When I've
> deviated I've stayed level or I've gained weight (the no-movement
> middle of the diet graph I linked to).  Follow the system, use habit
> tracking and stuff, stick to your calorie goals (I shoot for a lower
> occasional-goal of 1300 calories and an absolute minimum goal of 1600
> calories), and it *fucking works* without any support of the bullshit
> diet industry.
>
> I've heard a few people saying they have interest in the stuff I have
> so maybe I should just do that crappy release for now; better than
> nothing?

I would at least be interested in taking a look at it.  No promises, of
course, but if I ended up using it, I would at least be willing to help
you package (and possibly document) what you have.

> Hopefully being useful while making embarassing admissions about my
> body,
>  - cwebb

There is nothing embarrassing about losing over 60 pounds.  The
mediagoblin.org thing looks interesting as well.

Jason

Re: particular capture method for a diet .. ?

[Stinky Wizzleteet]

Christopher Allan Webber <cwebber@dustycloud.org> writes:

Wow, really, that's awesome and inspring.
Congratulations !

I think the hacker's diet is the most useful thing to come out of autodesk.
The first time I lost some serious weight was when I followed the
hacker's diet in 2001, I used his palm III app for that.
I've gained weight since the birth of my son and the start of my company
and I want to curb it before it gets out of hand.
I cap the caloric deficit at a 500 kcal deficit per day, because for me 
and my genetic background of overweight family this is probably
not a diet but a lifestyle and I understood that at higher deficits ones
metabolism is trying to adapt, trying to defeat the dieting
purpose. (citation needed) -I cannot provide proof nor reference to this statement-  

Your approach is *exactly* what I was meaning to eventually throw together.
I would love to take a look at your code, as a total noob I may be able
to hack a workable system for myself -eventually, but help maintaining will be
possible only on the long term. Once I've mastered lisp and org.

However, as I am not the only one interested in your system you might
want to consider dumping it loosely unorganized on github. but mailing
us a tar package would be cool too.


thx !
wzzl



> So I've been meaning to put something up on this in worg for a while.
>
> I've been dieting using orgmode, basic calorie tracking, and something
> resembling the ideas out of "The Hacker's Diet" for the last year
> (actually 2.5 years with a 1.5 year "break" in which I continued to
> weigh in mostly but didn't follow my calorie goals ;)) and have lost >
> 60 pounds so far (originally was 275, not all that's recorded in my
> files during the first few weeks of dieting, anyway at 210 now), going
> from morbidly obese to just overweight, and I'm still losing weight
> (soon enough, being a fat guy will be far behind me).  Here's the
> org-babel generated gnuplot graphs to show it (regenerated and pushed to
> my site every morning):
>
> http://dustycloud.org/tmp/weight.png
> http://dustycloud.org/tmp/weight_month.png
>
> Here's a screenshot:
> http://dustycloud.org/tmp/org-diet2.png
>
> Roughly in the terrible amount of hacks that compose "org-diet" I've
> wrapped together these ideas/tools:
>  - calorie tracking
>  - recipe calorie calculation
>  - weigh-in via org-capture
>  - calorie "clocking" (clock out at the end of the day to verify you've
>    got accurate numbers for that day)
>  - habit tracking of whether you've met your calorie goals
>  - weight graphing with 10 day moving averaging to remove some of the
>    "noise" from a daily weigh in/out
>  - bmi calculation
>  - a really shitty calories-per-day-to-lose-to-meet-your-goals estimator
>
> It's really nothing complex, and mostly it's not software, just a
> methedology with a *slight* amount of poorly written software in elisp
> and org-babel, but the system works great.
>
> I planned after meeting my diet goals (hitting normal weight) that I'd
> release the whole thing (including my present diet file for reference)
> under GPLv3, document it in worg, and put my own diet file out there
> under CC0, but maybe I should do it sooner... problem is I don't have
> time presently while trying to work on http://mediagoblin.org on
> weekends to make a "proper" release, but I could at least bundle
> together everything you need to have a full system using my hacks for
> now if you want, with really terrible but usable documentation, without
> taking up too much time. :)
>
> Interested?  I could probably throw together a terrible tarball this
> weekend if you want to use it and post it to the list.
>
> One thing that's clear from the diet I've collected: whenever I've
> followed the system, without fail, I've lost weight.  When I've deviated
> I've stayed level or I've gained weight (the no-movement middle of the
> diet graph I linked to).  Follow the system, use habit tracking and
> stuff, stick to your calorie goals (I shoot for a lower occasional-goal
> of 1300 calories and an absolute minimum goal of 1600 calories), and it
> *fucking works* without any support of the bullshit diet industry.
>
> I've heard a few people saying they have interest in the stuff I have so
> maybe I should just do that crappy release for now; better than nothing?
>
> Hopefully being useful while making embarassing admissions about my
> body,
>  - cwebb
>
> Stinky Wizzleteet <wizzleteet@hotmail.com> writes:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I am too fat.
>>
>> And I found in the past that the best way for me to loose weight is to
>> log my eating habit every day and make sure that I eat between 1800 and
>> 2200 kcal/day, no more, but also not less.
>>
>> I want to figure out a way how to create a custom capture template to
>> keep track of my daily intake.
>>
>> The result should be a diary-style org file were every day would be
>> filled with a table that features an updated total and an item list:
>>
>> TOTAL:  1965 kcal
>> |apple          |       80|
>> |orange         |       65|
>> |energy drink   |       300|
>> ... etc
>>                 
>> (gnus: y u no tables ?)               
>>
>> capturing would consist of two entries, item and specific caloric
>> value, and these values would be inserted into a table that would
>> automagically update its daily total.
>> Every day a new table should be started.
>>
>> Is this possible ? And how ?
>> Pointers, tips and snippets are greatly appreciated.
>>
>> Best,
>> wzzl

-- 
Stinky Wizzleteet thinks: 
After your lover has gone you will still have PEANUT BUTTER!

Re: particular capture method for a diet .. ?

[Christopher Allan Webber]

Stinky Wizzleteet <wizzleteet@hotmail.com> writes:

> I cap the caloric deficit at a 500 kcal deficit per day, because for me 
> and my genetic background of overweight family this is probably
> not a diet but a lifestyle and I understood that at higher deficits ones
> metabolism is trying to adapt, trying to defeat the dieting
> purpose. (citation needed) -I cannot provide proof nor reference to this statement-  

I've heard a lot about this, and when I started my diet I was at about
2600 calories on metabolism and set myself to approximately 1250
calories / day.  A bunch of people told me that my body would go into
starvation mode and it would count against me and it simply didn't
happen.  Advice: just don't overworry about it.

I think if you're at approximately 45% of your metabolism or more for
your daily caloric needs, it'll be fine.  I wouldn't recommend anyone
going lower than 1200 calories per day though.

Anyway, I'm at 1300-1600 calories / day now, it's not quite as super
fast of weight loss (about 7 pounds / month, still not bad!), but still
quite a bit of weight loss.  I think if you have a lot of weight to lose
you probably don't need to worry about it too much.

Also note that I barely exercised at all during my diet... when I did
exercise, I lost weight a little bit faster, but I simply don't believe
it's necessary for weight loss.  If you want to do it, great, but it's
simply easier to figure out how to eat the right amount of foods to feel
satisfied while having a serious calorie deficit.

> Your approach is *exactly* what I was meaning to eventually throw together.
> I would love to take a look at your code, as a total noob I may be able
> to hack a workable system for myself -eventually, but help maintaining will be
> possible only on the long term. Once I've mastered lisp and org.
>
> However, as I am not the only one interested in your system you might
> want to consider dumping it loosely unorganized on github. but mailing
> us a tar package would be cool too.

https://gitorious.org/org-diet/org-diet

I've gone and done it.  I haven't finished writing README.org but I've
added a base org-diet file to start with, the capture template in the
orgmode file, etc.

I've even checked in my whole embarassing diet.org file for you to see.
You'll notice that a few months into the thing I became a vegetarian,
but that was for ethical, not dietary reasons. :)

Once I am completely not a fat guy, I will upload the final diet.org.

As for how to find out how many calories things are I usually took three
approaches:

 - I used the program Food File, to which I made a couple of patches to
   make it run on GNU/Linux... I guess I should make those available
   soon.  It *was* released as free software under the GPL, not sure if
   the version online is still released as such.
 - Reading the back of packages
 - Looking at pre-existing data in my orgmode file.  Usually I'd split
   the file vertically and in one pane have my current daily diet table
   at point, in the other I'd be isearching for things I've already
   eaten... usually while dieting I tend to eat the same types of things
   a lot, but I've collected a vast amount of caloric information in
   there... maybe you can find how to eat a satisfying daily amount of
   calories by looking at some of my example days with successful
   CAL-OUT "clocking"
 - I just googled for things I didn't know.

Hope this is helpful to people!  I'll add more docs later.

(PS: the elisp is hacky, don't say I didn't warn you.)

-- 
𝓒𝓱𝓻𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓹𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓐𝓵𝓵𝓪𝓷 𝓦𝓮𝓫𝓫𝓮𝓻

Re: particular capture method for a diet .. ?

[Stinky Wizzleteet]

Christopher Allan Webber <cwebber@dustycloud.org> writes:

> Stinky Wizzleteet <wizzleteet@hotmail.com> writes:
>
-snip-
>
> I think if you're at approximately 45% of your metabolism or more for
> your daily caloric needs, it'll be fine.  I wouldn't recommend anyone
> going lower than 1200 calories per day though.
>
> Anyway, I'm at 1300-1600 calories / day now, it's not quite as super
> fast of weight loss (about 7 pounds / month, still not bad!), but still
> quite a bit of weight loss.  I think if you have a lot of weight to lose
> you probably don't need to worry about it too much.
>
> Also note that I barely exercised at all during my diet... when I did
> exercise, I lost weight a little bit faster, but I simply don't believe
> it's necessary for weight loss.  If you want to do it, great, but it's
> simply easier to figure out how to eat the right amount of foods to feel
> satisfied while having a serious calorie deficit.

OK, I'll remember this.
I *should* exercise though, but that is definitely not for weightloss,
more for stress management and keeping the rsi at bay.


>
-snip-
>
> https://gitorious.org/org-diet/org-diet
>
> I've gone and done it.  I haven't finished writing README.org but I've
> added a base org-diet file to start with, the capture template in the
> orgmode file, etc.
>
Hey cool !
checked out already. will use it asap.

> I've even checked in my whole embarassing diet.org file for you to see.
> You'll notice that a few months into the thing I became a vegetarian,
> but that was for ethical, not dietary reasons. :)
>
me vega too, welcome !

> Once I am completely not a fat guy, I will upload the final diet.org.
>
> As for how to find out how many calories things are I usually took three
> approaches:
>
>  - I used the program Food File, to which I made a couple of patches to
>    make it run on GNU/Linux... I guess I should make those available
>    soon.  It *was* released as free software under the GPL, not sure if
>    the version online is still released as such.
>  - Reading the back of packages
>  - Looking at pre-existing data in my orgmode file.  Usually I'd split
>    the file vertically and in one pane have my current daily diet table
>    at point, in the other I'd be isearching for things I've already
>    eaten... usually while dieting I tend to eat the same types of things
>    a lot, but I've collected a vast amount of caloric information in
>    there... maybe you can find how to eat a satisfying daily amount of
>    calories by looking at some of my example days with successful
>    CAL-OUT "clocking"
>  - I just googled for things I didn't know.
>
> Hope this is helpful to people!  I'll add more docs later.
>
> (PS: the elisp is hacky, don't say I didn't warn you.)
Myself, I created a little list with most of my regular foods,
googled/backs of packcages and such and I kept them as a kcal/gram list.
I also maintained a list of my usual servings, measured the mugs and
cups I regularly used, some with a counter intuitive result.

I'm sure these two lists could be maintained in an org or even a bbdb,
But many pains must be suffered for this functionality and I found that my
personal lists never exceeded more than 50 items. Hardly database
material, so not a priority for my case.

thanks, wzzl
 
-- 
Stinky Wizzleteet thinks: 
What happened last night can happen again.