How I lost 30 pounds in 12 weeks
We used to joke that you could lose 30 pounds in a day if you had your leg amputated. But here I did the old-fashioned way: I dieted. And it wasn’t hard. Last week I saw the scale show up with a 1 as the first digit. 199. Woo hoo!
I started in mid-July. Here it is mid-October and I’m actually 30 pounds slimmer. I don’t don’t know what I expected when I started, but it was pretty easy overall. I’ve had a few slides backwards; this week I’m at a conference and food is plentiful, so I’m probably up a few pounds.
“I should exercise more, but not for weight loss.” That’s been my mantra. Exercise for health; diet for weight loss. Dieting has made me drop 2 pounds per week, which coincidentally, is what most people seem to agree is the healthy loss rate.
Most of my exercise comes from climbing stairs at my office and at home. It’s not so much exercise anymore, because I feel like I stopped carrying 30 pounds of luggage with me everywhere. And I did!
I really did it just by eating less. Specifically, I ate about 1,250 calories less per day. 8,750 calories per week X 12 weeks = 105,000 calories. 105,000 / 3,500 calories per pound = 30 pounds. Dieting through algebra.