It's been said many times before, but getting exercise while doing a startup is a must. It's like saying you should use LESS/SASS instead of coding CSS. You just won't believe how much better it is until you actually try it for a while.
For the last three months I've forced myself to go for a jog every morning, no excuses, even if it means I'll get started on stuff a little later, so be it. It's an amazing complement to the uncertainty and mental challenges of a startup.
I completely agree. Exercising every day has made such a difference to me that I even made an app[1] to help me maintain the habit.
Daily exercise makes me feel less tired and helps me think more clearly. For me changing my diet has been more difficult. I am going to start by changing breakfast (the meal I always eat alone), and then working from there.
Do yourself an additional favor and don't use less - it nowhere near as powerful as alternatives. go with sass or stylus and I absolutely promise you it will pay off. gem install sass then run sass --watch /path/to/sass_file.sass and you're good to go.
Just setup LESS when you start the project. Though if you are having a hard time using it that means you aren't getting much value from it. Using more, better mixins will make a huge difference. Checkout Bootstrap's mixins.less file for a starting point.
SCSS, being a superset of CSS, is an easier transition. If its valid CSS, it's valid SCSS, so you can upgrade incrementally. LESS is totally out for me, since it sometimes chokes on obscure, but valid CSS declarations (e.g. some browser prefixes and hacks).
1 hour of intense exercise (minimal breaks) >>> 3 hours of exercise with a ton of breaks and loitering around.
There's a lot of literature that workouts beyond an hour-hour and a half don't add much benefits and the shorter and more intense they are, the better. (of course this does not apply to athletes)
You can even cut that hour down to 30 minutes of high intensity, 'bursty' exercise with no breaks. Art de Vany talks about this in Evolutionary Fitness.
thats what I do. Wake up 7, gym till 8:30, then work with break for food once every 2 hours for 5 minutes (plus bigger dish at evening) then from 10 to 11 cardio, sleep before 12. I do not exercise over the weekends, let body sleep longer, rest, be lazy. If I manage my time properly, I still easily get 10 hours of work a day! I just noticed how much detracting certain things are: talking 5 times about the same thing over the phone with friend, watching TV "only" for couple minutes, browsing web, reading emails that I know I will come back to again later on, etc. It all adds up substantially. The only spoil other than energy drink with 30g of sugar (my daily rate) I let myself to do is to "waste" time here and there on reading HN :)
Exercise definitely. I've found that many of my best ideas come to me while exercising. I don't listen to music or anything so it is the most (sometimes only) distraction free time of my day.
I've also found that, by bike commuting, I can integrate exercise into my day in a way that doesn't really take much additional time.
It looks like no cardio to speak of in your routine. So many people kill themselves doing an hour a day of running or riding a stationary bike and then wonder why they don't get better results. It's really 80% or more about diet and lifting weights. The more muscle you have the more calories you will burn throughout the day. You just don't need that much cardio if you train intensely enough when lifting weights.
Yeah, it is refreshing to see people posting results from these predominantly weight lifting programs. Helps keep me motivated on what I'm doing.
If anyone is interested in starting, but lacks the money for a personal trainer, I've found Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe (http://www.amazon.com/By-Mark-Rippetoe-Lon-Kilgore/dp/B005PI...) to be a huge help in learning all the lifts. The first chapter is almost 60 pages just on squats going over everything from foot position to hand position, along with an explanation of why.
Yeah, I'm actually doing the stronglifts 5x5 program. The Starting Strength book is still really useful for learning the lifts and getting all of the detail. With stronglifts you're going to get high in weight quick - so knowing form well is kind of important.
Starting Strength is such a great book. Simple no nonsense. The diagrams are extremely helpful. I never knew you could fill that many pages on performing a proper squat.
If you want to be a bodybuilder and look big, go ahead and skip cardio. On the other hand, if you do any sports that last more than about 30 seconds, you might want to spend a little time working your heart (which is also a muscle).
Skipping cardio certainly won't turn you into a body builder nor make you look "big"... It takes significantly more than just lifting weights, 90% is your diet, caloric intake and macronutrient composition, which together play the biggest role here.
Compare two genetically similar individuals, both lift weights 3x / week, one regularly consumes a 1000 caloric surplus, and the other consumes their daily caloric requirement. The outcome will be quite different.
If you play sports that last more than about 30 seconds, they can provide you with the adequate amounts of cardio you seek. If you play competitively, adding cardio may be a good idea.
Cardio is for health and endurance, if you want to run marathons or cycle, then yes, you should include more cardio. Otherwise, weightlifting adequately stresses your heart. Go deadlift 300lbs and tell me your heart isn't going nuts.
If you want to get in shape, regular exercise with an emphasis on weight lifting and proper nutrition will get you where you'd like to go.
At rest, muscle burns significantly more calories than fat, you don't need to cake on lean muscle to benefit from this, either. You only exercise for an hour or so, I'd rather work to build something in that hour that burns calories for the other 23.
Now with all that said, I personally try to do both, my cardio comes in the form of Squash on days I do not lift weights. I despise the treadmill zombie.
Go deadlift 300lbs and tell me your heart isn't going nuts.
Your heart will certainly go nuts. But deadlifting won't enable your heart to keep going at 80% for 5 minutes straight unless you do some 1x100@100lb crossfit style deadlifting.
I strongly recomment weight lifting for most people. I'm only suggesting that out of 5 days, do 3 weight and 2 cardio days. And yes, the cardio days should probably be squash, heavy bag or football rather than the treadmill.
>And yes, the cardio days should probably be squash, heavy bag or football rather than the treadmill.
I'd rephrase this and say cardio days should be something you enjoy doing. Some people enjoy running on a treadmill. I don't understand how that's possible, but if you like running on the treadmill, more power to you.
On the other hand, if you hate running on the treadmill, don't force yourself to do it! Exercise is a lifelong commitment and doing something you dislike isn't sustainable. Find something fun and do it regularly.
I've found that sports are the best way to get cardio as well; a high-intensity game of squash burns 816 calories/hour and is a lot more fun than an hour on the treadmill.
One of the reasons some sports work so well is that the stop and go/variable intensity nature is much better for you then spending the same amount of time logging low intensity cardio. See studies on "interval training" etc. I bike commute and try to mimic this by sprinting between intersections etc.
Burst workouts, whether 30 minutes of lifting weights, or 30 minutes of sprinting, interval swim training, etc. strengthen your heart more than long cardio marathons.
Cardio workouts can burn a lot of calories. Today I rode my bike for an hour and a half and burnt about 1200 Calories. That said, I'm a bit fitter than the average unfit person, and can therefore sustain a considerably higher power output and use more energy. Oh, and there's a big difference between pushing yourself on hilly roads and sitting on a bike in the gym reading a magazine.
Weights are good too, and they're much better at making one look fit (upper body especially).
Oh, and good on you Ryan. I've seen some around here talk about how it's worth sacrificing one's health for a startup. It's good to see not everybody shares that belief.
To stay fit I would look into a team or group sport. Unless you want to do body building or competitive weight lifting, you're going from rapidly improving to maintaining your fitness. Sports are so much more multifaceted, that you'll see improvement and reaching goals over a long time.
Please stop spreading the muscles burn more calories lie. Look up how many calories are burned by muscle cells and fat cells, then do the math and calculate how many extra baby carrots you can eat as a result of turning 20 pounds of fat into muscle.
It goes on to say that having more muscle helps burn calories when active even more so. I agree with your assertion that extra muscle burns off extra calories 'at rest' may be imply more than its actual results, but I don't see that it makes it a flat out myth.
More muscular people who exercise burn more calories than less muscular people who exercise the same amount, and burn more calories at rest than less muscular people at rest. That statement evaluates to True. That it isn't to the degree you like doesn't make it False.
May as well say you burn more calories drinking cold water because your body has to heat it up. This is a little meta, but I think if you say something that, while technically true, causes people to behave/believe in a certain manner unwarranted by the facts, you're functionally equivalent to lying. Anyway, point taken, "lie" was not the most tactful choice.
I get where you're coming from. I just always notice that when I'm in shape, it's much easier to keep in shape. Whenever I allow myself to fall out of shape, it's much harder to get back in. Perhaps it has nothing to do with the argument at hand, but that probably contributes to my bias.
Of course you're right to debunk the argument on its face, but I do wonder how much more caloric burn you get from the muscles you have during exercise, and whether that doesn't make up for it.
One other factor to keep in mind is that the less fit you are, the less mechanical work you are able to do. For example, an untrained cyclist might be able to ride at 150W for an hour, whereas a more serious cyclist might be able to sustain 300W for an hour. The first cyclist would burn about 550 Calories, while the second would burn 1100 Calories if they both did a hard one hour ride. (More energy is burnt in recovery, but that's a lot harder to measure.)
I think its great that you accomplished this, and I guess seeing as its hit the front page of HN you may inspire a few tech folk to believe they can too. But I still find nothing new to take from this that you can't find on just about any Paleo, low carb, excercise site (i.e Mark's Daily Apple).
You changed to Paleo. You worked out 3 times a week. You took some supplements. You saw some results. You did this with a day job (albeit 4 day a week job) and a family.
What new obstacle did you overcome ? what breakthrough did you achieve ?
I think your achievement is commendable, just not sure what its doing on the front page of HN.
Good on you, dude - thought you were looking rather more trim the last time I spied you in town. Did the same, and dropped from 18.5 stone to 13 over 9 months. Eat food, not too much, mostly leaves. Run. Done. Oh, and withings scales. Can't be without them.
That said, I still need to lose the final, irksome bit of gut. pulls finger out, decides to get some new running shoes
It's valuable because his example proves to everyone that such change is possible. Simply knowing someone busy who managed to get fit is motivating. It gives me (and others, I'm sure) the confidence that I could get fit with a very reasonable amount of effort.
This may get a down voted because I'm new to commenting, but I figured adding a comment was better than starting a "Show HN" thread.
My buddy and I created a web/iPhone app that is great for people trying to get fit but struggle doing it because they can't find the motivation. So for those who are motivated by Ryan's story and are looking for additional tools, maybe give it a try.
http://1upfit.com allows you to compete against friends in simple workout challenges. Pushups, pull-ups, running, swimming, etc. We are actually in beta testing right now for tracking a weight loss challenge similar to what Ryan did above. (We both recently completed a slow carb diet, which is very similar.)
Training by yourself or changing dietary habits by yourself can be hard and sometimes you don't have the people around to properly motivate you. My brother is an Ironman but lives in Colorado (I'm in Portland) so it's hard to say "Hey let's go for a run". By using the app though, I can see every time he runs and it motivates me to go out and do it too, for fear of losing a competition to my brother.
I signed up for a marathon right before founding a startup last summer. Having a training plan and something to train for was great because it forced me to stop working and exercise on a routine basis. The running itself was great stress relief, gave me "big picture" think time and actually made me more productive when I worked.
This is inspiring Ryan. I was specifically looking for examples of busy dads that have successfully launched their own business when I came across your post. Too bad you're in the UK, I'd love to take you out for a pint.
Very inspiring story of losing 10% body fat - gaining muscle and losing fat. I've read elsewhere of this 3-day per week workout plan focusing on muscle mass. It seems like it gets great results. Also, working with a personal trainer makes a lot of sense.
The only thing I'm skeptical about is all the meat in your diet. If you watch Forks Over Knives and read the China Study, it talks about meat and animal products directly leading to the growth of cancer cells. Have you heard about that and what's your take?
Given that a big part of the dietary changes is getting rid of as many carbs as possible, does anyone have any advice for eating out at lunch on this kind of diet?
Going out and grabbing some food is a rewarding part of my day, but I'm struggling to think of any options for low carb, almost everywhere seems to focus on bread, pasta or rice.
Mexican, even Chipotle will work. Get a burrito bowl. Substitute the rice for more veggies. No tortilla. Beans, veggies, meat, and fresh salsa. It's right in line with most of the diets. Pretty low carbs. I just completed a month of the Slow Carb diet by doing this. Lost 20 lbs.
Places that focus on bread, pasta and rice are usually chain-food places (Panera, Chipotle, etc). Find a deli that will give you a chicken breast + veggies -- there are at least 4 near my New Jersey suburban office building that do this.
This might be true in the US, but in London privately-owned sandwich shops are VERY common, there's like 6 of them within 30 seconds walk of my office. They'll typically serve mainly sandwich and wraps (made to order), or alternatively potato, pasta or rice-based meals.
There are some places that specialise in salad/veg rather than sandwiches, but they tend to be vegetarian with the only calories coming from cous cous or potato.
Interesting. However, if they serve sandwiches, perhaps they also have "grilled chicken cutlet sandwich". If they do, no harm in just asking for the chicken and whatever other toppings you like (cheese, lettuce, tomato, etc.)
> All day: Three litres of water, two coffees (with soy milk)
Some research has shown that soy decreases testosterone in men. It does not seem to be a decided question, though a nutritional epidemiologist I trust believes it is. You might replace with rice milk to be on the safe side.
Congrats on the change! I'm on the middle of something similar myself. One question: you say your work out sessions were 60 minutes and for Tuesday you write "Tuesday - Shoulders: Military press, side-arm raises". You did only that for 60 minutes? How many series and reps?
I thought the same. It makes more sense to me to split up back and chest to different days and do shoulders on the chest day. I believe the 3 largest muscle groups are legs, back and chest and I split my workouts into a day for each of those.
Is there really no other way than going Paelo? As a former vegetarian, I find that hard to stomach.
Also I was slim for 16 years as a vegetarian, and vegetarian diets used to be considered healthy. Gained weight in the last three years, though - but I eat lots of sweets...
Sure there's other ways. Calories are what control your weight gain or weight loss, so eat anything while counting the calories and making sure they're low enough and you will naturally lose weight. But then you'll be a skinny, slightly flabby guy with no muscle tone, and still not happy with your body.
Vegetarians don't have it easy when it comes to losing weight, since some of the most common vegetarian foods can be high in natural sugars and carbs and low in fats and protein. But you certainly can lose weight this way. I usually have a mix of fruits, vegetables, starches, fats and proteins in the meals I cook for myself, or if i'm lazy go for a reduced-fat peanut butter & jelly sandwich on wheat (substitute banana for jelly for a healthier alternative).
It's getting trite at this point but you really should include a steadily-increasing weight lifting regimen to shed fat and gain lean muscle, in combination with the healthy eating. It doesn't even have to be as expensive or hard as the OP describes. My gym has a set of machines that target specific muscle groups, and a numbering system that lets you go down the line using each one in sequence. They also have small instructions for the number of reps and how to change up each rep. This is not the same thing as "lifting" weights, but combined with some actual lifts like the deadlift and squats, can be very effective at growing specific muscle. Which will help you lose fat quicker :)
The "nice" thing about pre-fab diets like Paleo is that you'll find lots of like-minded people sharing recipes and generally giving each other support - just like every "moment". There are certainly other diets that are effective, and paleo doesn't even seem to have a solid scientific foundation…
Basically pick anything that reduces your caloric intake. Yes, some diets might get you more rapid results, but in the end most people fare better with something they can actually live with, especially if it's not just sprinting towards a goal, but keeping that dietary change for a long time (permanently, even). I'd be wary of picking any extreme as your first stop, in any endeavor.
For me, just training yourself of snacks and sweets worked out quite well (I've got one hell of a sweet tooth). I did this mainly by picking 24 consecutive hours in a week where I didn't eat anything (and neither made up for it before or after that). That alone saves you some calories, but for me the main benefit wasn't this fasting, but teaching yourself that you don't have to eat all the time.
I'd be more interested if people outside the community -- people who don't have a stake in it -- would work on it, but for this discussion, whether it's bro science or not doesn't really matter, as long as it works for people. (Until someone discovers long-time ill effects, of course, but I'm not aware of that right now)
Although I do guess that the "sole true human diet" factor is contributing to the effectiveness, as people who accept that are more likely to stick with it.
There are people who do low-carb vegetarian diets but it's difficult. Eggs, cheese, and nuts should comprise a huge part of your diet.
If you're vegetarian for health reasons it might be time to reevaluate. If it's for ethical reasons it just means you really need to sit down and look at the macronutrient composition of the foods you eat. Not eating meat isn't a license to eat starch and sugar.
It's very difficult to get enough protein with a strict vegetarian diet, but not impossible (there's an entire chapter on this in http://www.amazon.com/Power-Eating-2nd-Edition-Susan-Kleiner...). Paleo isn't the only way to get results. Traditional bodybuilding diets have a ton of carbs that get used to fuel intense workouts. Check out http://swole.me/.
There are other ways. Grains are a mainstay in my diet, and I'm sexy and I know it. On the other hand I do crazy amounts of cardio (~12 hours/week) and virtually no strength work. And I'm sexy and I know it. It's probably not suited to the general case, but you certainly don't have to go paleo.
He is just sharing what worked for him. Any diet where you consume fewer calories will allow you to lose weight, it is just a question of choosing one you will stick with.
You absolutely don't need to do the paleo/keto nonsense at all. I eat meat twice a week and barely eat any dairy (just a little cheese once in a while). I eat pasta, white rice and potatoes all the time. I've lost 68 pounds so far as of this morning. No matter how much people want to pretend there is magic involved, or point to hilariously bad books like Taubes' junk, it really does come down to "burn more calories than you consume".
I can't tolerate low carb diets, I feel hungry and tired all the time and end up going nuts after a couple weeks and breaking down and eating a ton of pasta. So I didn't go low-fat or low-carb, I just eat reasonable portions, make sure the food I eat is always satisfying, and exercise. I find it much easier for me to increase the calories I am burning than to decrease the calories I am consuming too far.
And contrary to what spking says, it is not hard at all to get enough protein as a vegetarian. You only need ~55g a day, which I get easily on days where I don't eat meat. On meat days I end up around 90g. If you are doing heavy lifting you'll need maybe 20g a day more than average, and if you do endurance sports you could need up to double the average. But if you aren't doing either of those things, you should easily get enough protein without making any special effort or using supplements.
Yeah, lots of broscience nonsense like that stems from the "bob did it and he is ripped so you must need to do it" line of thinking. Sedentary people need 0.69 g of protein per kg of lean body mass. Strength athletes need 1.41 g/kg (which is only 0.64 g/lb, way below the crazy numbers broscience likes to repeat). People who lift weights casually 3 times a week are going to be somewhere in the middle obviously.
Shame you didn't talk more about your diet in the regards that what you actually did was cut out all the carbohydrates! This to me would appear to be the #1 reason to your success, a low carb diet.
Macronutrients are secondary to cutting calories. Once you get enough protein to maintain or build muscle and enough fat to fit dietary requirements you can eat as many carbs as you want so long as your calories come in lower than what you burn.
That said, many people find it easier to control their food intake by eliminating simple carbs. Swings in blood sugar can create cravings and eliminating or reducing carbs will reducing or eliminate such cravings.
Low-carb diets can be unsustainable depending on individual preferences too. Cutting calories and portion control generally makes it easier to maintain weight when your target weight is met.
No, it's just dropping carbs. You're a sample size of 1.
All the people on loseit are a much bigger sample and low carbs works, just not quite as fast as the more extreme keto or paleo.
All the dairy you could have kept. I lost 25lbs while still drinking 7 cups of tea a day for example by moving to a very similar diet to yours. Cheese was one of my snacks in fact.
The problem is that for actually both dairy and nuts it's very easy to overeat them as they are calorie laden.
It sounds like his diet is probably similar to mine. Last summer I dropped about 20lbs from ~155 at my highest to ~135 at my lowest. I've been less strict about it since then but the general idea was to keep my carbohydrate intake between 20 and 30 grams a day. It's actually not that hard at all and you get to eat a lot of really great foods. The best part is that it's non-restrictive. Low carb foods are very filling so for the most part if you're eating the right things you just don't have to count calories at all, your body does it for you.
For breakfast I eat eggs almost every day. Hard boiled eggs are a good breakfast because you can keep them in the fridge at work but however you like them is fine.
Lunch is usually either a breadless sandwich (a plate of cold cuts and cheese) or a salad with a lot of meat in it with a tasty, high-fat dressing (because I can). In a pinch you can grab a fast food burger and eat around the bun, but I don't recommend it because the bun is there to mask how bad the meat is.
Dinner is pretty easy, just increase your meat and vegetable portion and remove the starch component. I end up eating a lot of what I affectionately refer to as "slop bowls" which is just the ingredients of something like a fajita but without the wrap.
For snacks I eat nuts (almonds are my favourite, pistachios are great too but a bit higher in carbs), cheese, cold cuts, cut up veggies with high-fat dip (because I can), dark chocolate, and more cheese.
For drinks, anything low-carb is fine. I like black coffee or green tea during the day and whisky at night. Dry wines are also fairly low carb, and a few brands of beer as well. Oh, and water!
The best thing about this diet (and I hesitate to call it that, I'm never going to stop) is that you can eat really good food every day. I used to be like most people and try to restrict fat when I was trying to eat well. I would end up eating stuff like rice cakes or salad with very little dressing. Now my diet food is bacon, steak, rich cheese, butter, sausage, salami, and so on. I can practically gorge myself on this stuff and the weight still comes off.
I highly recommend going low-carb for anyone that's had problems sticking to traditional diets. And I also recommend watching this video if you're wondering why the hell people think we need so much starch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vr-c8GeT34
> "The best thing about this diet (and I hesitate to call it that, I'm never going to stop)"
A minor nit pick: that's exactly what a diet is. Your diet is what you eat every day. What pop culture refers to as 'dieting' is more like a selective fast: a temporary change or reduction in diet.
And that's why 'dieting' doesn't produce lasting results for most people. Most of those diets do work. But people fail because they stop doing them. They don't recognize paleo or south beach or atkins as a lifelong change. They try them, get results, get comfortable then fall back into old habits and thus their old shape.
That's why it's key to approach changes in diet and exercise on the basis of what you will maintain. And ultimately why talking about relative benefits of various diets and exercises is silly.
The 'best' diet and exercise is the one that keeps you healthy and that you maintain.
This is true. I hesitate to call it a diet simply because then people ask what I think is going to happen when I stop, and because saying that you're on a diet has certain connotations that I don't identify with and don't feel like explaining.
Plus then I don't feel like I've "blown my diet" when I eat pizza or drink beer.
Yep, pretty much this. I do exactly the same thing with the fajita.
You pretty much can keep making the same meals, you just get rid of the filler stuff. The essence for me was to just stop eating so much bread, potatoes, rice or pasta. Before I would graze all day, switching to low carb got rid of my need to eat all the time almost overnight.
Try the South Beach Diet. It's pretty much focused on lowering carb intake, especially at the beginning. I tried it a few years back and lost around 25 pounds too. I had to cut out all of my carbs (at least initially), but you can eat all the dairy you like.
The diet very much sounds like the one Mike Geary has been advocating for years now, e.g. in his book One Truth About Abs. E.g., I remember reading about celery w/ almond butter in his newsletter.
For the last three months I've forced myself to go for a jog every morning, no excuses, even if it means I'll get started on stuff a little later, so be it. It's an amazing complement to the uncertainty and mental challenges of a startup.