Greg's Weight Loss Blog

That’s a whole lot of numbers for a blog entry title but I thought it was fitting to kind of compress the state of my progress into a tiny little one liner. So let’s look at the numbers one by one.

200 Miles. That is the number of miles I had run since the first time I have started running again. Well it’s actually 215 miles and it’s from the time I started tracking my running which wasn’t until three days after my first run. It has been a great experience so far with the running and I am extremely happy that my runner self has finally broken out of the fat guy prison and runs free. Running empowers and invigorates me and makes me feel great! I can’t really describe the feeling I get on a run and how I feel the urge to go and run more the next day. There is no denying it, I’m hooked! It just feels totally fantastic.

200,000 calories. This one’s explaining requires some basic math. As we all know from the nutritional information label that is posted on every single food item we buy 1 gram of fat contains 9 calories. One pound equals 453 grams so 1 lbs of fat contains 453 x 9 = 4077 calories. But to lose 1 lbs of body fat you only have to burn 3,500 calories because there are other factors that come into play such as ATP reactions turning body fat into actual energy, but I’m sure someone with an organic chemistry degree could answer this question better. Bottom line is that to lose 1 lbs of body fat you have to burn an excess or consume a deficit of 3,500 calories or a combination of the two. Based on the 3,500 calories into a pound of body fat math 200,000 calories equals 57.14 lbs. And this is the exact amount of weight I have lost so far from my starting weight of 237 lbs down to today’s 179.7 lbs. I have generated a 200,000 calorie deficit in the past 145 days. Let’s put that 200,000 calorie number into some digestible numbers. 200,000 calories equal:

• 370 Big Mac sandwiches
• Or 3,636 Oreo Cookies
• Or 1,700 large apples weighin 847 lbs (384 kg)
• Or 576 8 oz Filet Mignon Steaks

Bottom line, it’s a TON of food and a TON of calories. And I no longer carry it on my body. I’m just so glad I have made it this far. I know I can make it all the way to the end now and maintain it with my new found running and lifestyle.

The last number is just a more realistic representation of the 200,000 calories. I am officially under 180 lbs (81.6 kg). The metric celebration of 80 kg will have to wait another week and a half.