223 Pounds. Chili Day.

So Calacanis posted my fat pic on his blog yesterday. Nice. I hope he’ll follow up a few months from now when I have a nicer pic to show off.

Calacanis seems to be on a toned down version of the Atkins diet. He’s trying to replace bread and other sugars with protein and fish. I think it’s a healthy way to go. But when it comes to losing weight, I believe it’s just the calories that matter.

I hear that most of the weight loss associated with a low carb diet actually comes from a reduction in calories. However, a low carb (or rather high fat) diet supposedly makes you feel full on fewer calories. So that’s good I suppose. Studies suggest that Atkins dieters can eat more calories and still lose more weight. Thermodynamics buffs say this is impossible, but people are fighting it. If there is any truth to the “more calories, less weight” proposals, I’ll say it has something to do with the fact that eating carbs puts me to sleep (where I burn fewer calories). Here are a couple interesting reads on the subject:

In any case, my goal as stated is to lose weight without having to change the quality of the food I eat. Just the quantity. I really enjoy food, and think this is the way to go for me without burning out on this diet.

Yesterday was rough. So I wanted to start the day off right. I skipped breakfast and got right to work. I was at the gym from about 12-1… some bball again, curls, and some jogging.

Kim made the most incredible chili I’ve ever tasted today. It was made with ground turkey meat, black beans, onions, tomatoes, some other super special stuff. We also topped it off with a little bit of cheese and some avocado slices. Avocado is really awesome with chili. If you take anything away from this blog, it should be to try avocado with chili.

So after the gym I had a couple bowls of Kim’s chili. I think I’m over-estimating things a bit, but at 300Cal per 1cup of chili I’d say it’s about 900Cal there. Add 100Cal for the cheese, 200Cal for the Avocado, and another 300 for some bread and butter, and I’m at 1500 Calories for lunch. Wow.

For dinner, I toyed with the idea of eating the left over pizza from yesterday, but it wouldn’t heat up well anyway. So I passed on pizza and instead had another, slightly smaller, bowl of chili. With cheese, I’d say 400Cal there and another slice of bread at 100Cal. That’s 2000 for me, and I stop there.

Kim’s out to dinner after a networking event. I hope she’s not in the mood for wine when she gets home cause I’ve got no room for the calories. I’m planning on writing a piece about wine calories at WineLog soon. (Actually, I think one of our bloggers already did… nope, couldn’t find it. So I’ll have to write it.)

One of the easiest things one can do to cut calories is to stop drinking high-calorie, low-nutrition drinks… so-called empty calories. I only drink diet soda. I drink diet green tea from Wawa (great stuff). And I drink water during the day. The only drinks I typically have with calories in them are milk, wine, or the occasional glass of OJ. I find myself drinking quite a bit of wine “for work”, and it’s calories I wish I could pass up on.

That’s it for today. I’m going to put my full attention on American Idol now and then get back to work on some exciting stuff for WineLog. Cheers.