Trend Line Dieting

What we see above is an example of my weight trend for the past five days.  As explained in the previous post (here).

Trend line dieting is one of the simplest but also a surprisingly effective form of dieting.  Basically the idea is that all you track is your weight and using a trend line all you have to do is ensure that the line is moving the direction that you want.  For example, I want to lose weight, so it is my goal to make sure that the pictured trend line keeps decreasing, and as long as it does I do not need to worry.

In The Four Hour Body (1) by Tim Ferriss he describes an example that is applicable to this type of dieting.  He describes a man named Phil Libin who was able to lose 28 pounds in six months well intentionally trying  not to change his behaviors.  All he did was set up an excel spreadsheet where he lost 0.1% of his bodyweight per day. He then set a maximum and minimum allowable and all he had to do was stay between the lines.  Solely with this awareness he never got close to the maximum allowable and often fell below the minimum allowable where he allowed himself to binge.  If you want to experiment with something like this Tim Ferriss hosts a blank copy at here.

The benefit of a system like this is it takes away so much of the pressure and difficulty common to dieting.  We are seeing measurable health changes, without the corresponding motivational and will power difficulties common to dieting.