The Big 180

In January 2018, I decided to start a little weight-loss experiment - I work most of the day at a computer, and often use work as an excuse not to exercise, so I thought to myself, “what if I could exercise while I work?” I did some research and bought a standing desk/walking treadmill combo. Great! But wait - I need to watch my caloric intake as well if I’m going to lose weight, but I love food. I wonder if I could keep a close eye on how much I’m eating but, when I eat, eat something I love. Like pizzas from the Compass.

I talked to Matt Hutson, the owner of The Compass, who, unsurprisingly, said he’d be cool with me eating a ton of his pizzas. 100 pizzas, in fact (over about 17 weeks - one for every day they’re open).

I got a metabolic panel and lipid panel done, as well as some body composition measurements, so I could have an updated baseline of some general “overall health” measurements. I walked a few days on my new treadmill desk to make sure I wasn’t going to absolutely hate it (I’m not). We were all ready to go.

Then Matt and his wife Necia found out that their daughter Olivia has a brain tumor.

During a precautionary MRI, doctors found a tumor on Olivia’s cerebellum. Her surgery, initially scheduled very quickly, has been postponed because she caught the flu and the anesthesiologist wanted to make sure she was totally over it before the operation. They won’t know much else until after the surgery and pathology reports, but even in the best case scenario, they’re going to have a lot of expenses associated with this diagnosis and treatment.

I’ve decided that hey - since I’m already planning to eat a bunch of Compass pizza and lose some weight anyway, why not use my experiment to raise some money to help this family with these unforeseen, unwanted medical costs?

So here’s how it’s gonna work:

I’m starting at 220 lbs, and I’d like to get down to 180 by AUGUST 1ST, 2018.

I’m a 28-year-old 5’11” obese* male with derpy muscle mass. If you use various methods to determine my “ideal body weight”, you get:

Robinson: 160.7 lbs Miller: 158.1 lbs Devine: 166.0 lbs Hamwi: 171.3 lbs BMI top end: 179.2 <- my favorite, based on a BMI of 25

*I feel pretty good but the WHO says I’m obese. What do they know?

I’m going to walk. A lot.

I’m looking at walking 2mph for 3-4 hours a day at least 5 days a week (while working). That’s a minimum of 30-40 miles walked a week (without adding any extra time to my day, ey-oh!) Taking bets on how many pairs of shoes I go through.

I’m going to reduce my caloric intake by about 500 calories/day and follow a 16 hr / 8 hr intermittent fasting schedule.

I’ve roughly pegged my maintenance intake at around 2500 calories/day, and am going to try and stick to about 2000. I’ll be having coffee in the mornings, a large, delicious lunch described below, and then a dinner where I either try to balance out my macronutrients for the day or just have wine and cheese, we’ll see.

I’m gonna eat a Compass pizza every day for 100 days.*

This is the part all my nutrition-ey friends and most humans in general seem to be skeptical about. I’m going to get 65% - 70% of my calories from pizza. Yummy, yummy pizza.

*every day The Compass is open, which is normally 6 days a week. So we’re looking at about 17 weeks of ‘za. After that, we’ll see what the rest of the 6 month challenge looks like.

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So, where do you come in?

You have the opportunity to be a voyeur on my strange, pizzalicious journey AND help out a wonderful local family with the medical costs associated with their daughter’s brain tumor diagnosis.

You get to pledge per pound - $1, $2, $5, or $10 per pound - for every pound I lose by August 1st. I’m aiming for 40 lbs lost, so your commitment at the end of approximately 6 months could amount to $40, $80, $200, or $400.

But wait, there’s more!

I’m building in some bonuses, because weight loss does not equal health. Improvements in my lipid panel results at the end of July will be calculated as such:

Total Cholesterol: currently 215 - if this is reduced to at least 200, I’m adding 5% to my recorded total weight lost (up to 2 bonus lbs)

HDL Cholesterol: currently 37 - if this is raised to at least 40, I’m adding 5% to my recorded total weight lost (up to 2 bonus lbs)

Triglycerides: currently 160 - if this is reduced to at least 150, I’m adding 5% to my recorded total weight lost (up to 2 bonus lbs)

CHOL/HDLC Ratio: currently 5.8 - if this is reduced to at least 5, I’m adding 5% to my recorded total weight lost (up to 2 bonus lbs)

Non-HDL Cholesterol: currently 178 - if this is reduced to at least 130, I’m adding 5% to my recorded total weight lost (up to 2 bonus lbs)