The Cheap Man's Weight Loss Plan

It's funny how we've grown so accustomed to having modern conveniences do things for us that doing things the old way becomes an unheard of, revolutionary act. We get so wrapped up in the ways the health industry has told us how to live healthfully - usually involving big cash outlays for gym memberships, expensive in-home exercise equipment or premium health foods that we develop a tunnel vision to their self-serving fitness paradigm and cannot understand why it barely works or not at all. We keep blasting away at the square peg in the round hole because brute force is how you achieve your goals. "Hey, no pain, no gain, man" - or so they tell us. And, I say this as someone who currently owns 3 workout machines and who once bought an ab-roller. Now, don't get me wrong: like any activity, workout machines and gym memberships can be great supplements to the Cheapo lifestyle if you apply all the other blocking and tackling principles of nutrition management that th...

I ended up selling the PowerWatch on Ebay. It was a nice experiment, but ultimately, there's enough of a margin of error built into calorie counting that having a wildly inaccurate step count just wasn't going to cut it. Fitbit has a really slick, comprehensive system, and if I'm going to abandon it for anything, it'd better be good. If you're going to use anything other than your phone as a step-tracker, it's hard to go wrong with a Fitbit. There's something to be said about having a simple dashboard of all your body's input/output environmentals without having to sync between different fitness and nutrition apps. I really love my Fitbit One since I wear it on my hip, it lasts the better part of a week and it leaves my watch wrist free to experiment with different watches and watch styles without screwing up my fitness tracking system. Now that the weather is just back to just regular cold instead of bitter Arctic cold, I'm back on my bike commu...

Cutting my own hair is one of the things I've always wanted to do but never could work up the nerve to actually try until recently. I know many bald guys have been doing it for a while - one of the few perks of losing your hair, I'd imagine. Just buzz what's left as tight as you want, and you're done. But, for those of us who've managed to hold onto our hair on top of our head a little longer, cutting your hair seems like a very risky proposition. I work an office job, so keeping a low profile for a week or two after royally screwing up isn't really an option. This made the economics of trying it more trouble than it was worth, or so I thought. After all, if it was so easy, why do no one other than bald guys cut their own hair? I didn't know of any. $20 after tip every couple of months seemed like a pretty pointless amount of money to worry about, even for a cheapo. Part of the problem, however, was that I'd either have to hurry over after work ...

For the first time, I've hit consecutive weeks where my weight hasn't budged, hovering around 158. This isn't a bad thing as I don't have that much extra body fat left to lose. It's been a brutally cold winter, so I haven't been able to ride my bike into work as much or walk my dogs as long. So, my natural weight is probably a couple of pounds less than what it is now on a 2000 calorie a day budget. I also had a gut buster of a guys weekend the weekend before last , so that skewed my numbers a little. But, it's clear that my weight loss is slowing down. The reduced activity has me constantly bumping up against my calorie consumption rate throughout the day in my Fitbit dashboard and makes me jealous of those who live in warmer climates. I'd imagine they'd probably tell me to try going for a walk in July when it's 90 degrees at night. Speaking of the Fitbit, my new human powered, thermoelectric replacement - the Matrix Powerwatch, has str...

I started working on the pantry and freezer at our vacation home. Because we're not out here all the time, we lose a lot of food to spoilage. It's also tough to keep track of which essentials we have and what we're missing. I'm debating over whether I should try to keep an inventory list, but it might be kind of tough. We entertain a lot, so we get a lot of unusual leftovers. So, maybe I'll just stick to inventorying condiments and freezer items. When you shop in bulk, it's easy to overbuy condiments which have a relatively limited shelf life, and freezer items occupy premium space. Somehow after organizing the freezer, I ended up with less space than when I started even though I threw out a handful of freezer burned items. I guess I shouldn't be surprised though as we had it packed to the gills in a disorganized mess. Fish on the same shelf as fries, fruit and cheese - what? Putting away stuff in our freezer was like a Tetris game - whatever way ...

...or random sundry items left by the last Airbnb guests. Sometimes money just falls into the cheap man's hands. While none of this is particularly healthy or filling, there are enough calories here to sustain a human being for perhaps another week or more. As we've discussed, breaded, deep fried gristle can be healthy if served in the right quantities, so it's always good to have some of these things on hand if you live with or ever happen to entertain those not on the cheapo plan. The money you spend on those things still come out of the same pocket as your power foods, so you might as well keep some stocked. Besides, if North Korea launches or there's a meteor strike or something, it's all calories on deck anyway, so it's always good to hoard up.

You know how I've been saying that your activity tracker should become a permanent extension of your body? Well, this one truly is. I have no idea how this thing is going to work out, but out of the box it has one big advantage over my Fitbit: it charges off my body heat. That's right, it'll run until I'm dead and then another several years after I'm in the box. It basically takes the differences between your skin temperature and ambient temperature to generate power. That means if I go out for a walk in the freezing January temperatures, it should charge super fast - inside, less so. It's also waterproof to 50m, so I'll never need to take it off. First impressions: out of the box, the app menu is simple enough to operate. I had it up and syncing with my phone in no time: It comes in a few different trims - a silver, an all black and then a "Black Ops" one that I think kind of looks like a Casio G-Shock. The silver bezel was the cheap...

The Perfect Storm: Wings, Beer, Ribs, Bacon, Baked Beans, Donuts, Chips, Dips. If there was a more efficient way to consume that many calories in one weekend, I don't know what it'd be. If I ate any vegetables all weekend, they could have fit on a tea saucer. I barely cracked 10,000 steps the first day, 8,000 the next. Fortunately, these weekends are extremely rare, or I'd probably weigh 400 pounds. Of course, I'm just estimating on the calorie count. It could be a little more or less, but it would have been about impossible to calculate. Some of the guys were joking about how it's like taking the max stroke penalty on a hole in golf. "Let's just be gentlemen and assign you a somewhat respectable approximation of how much you stuffed your face and move onto the next hole." The Cheapo Rules require that I step on the scale every morning, and so step on the scale I did. I had crept up a little heading into the weekend, almost as if my body was pr...

I'm not sure that this plan works for anyone who makes a lot of calls or isn't usually in Wifi range, but otherwise, this plan is pretty solid. My personal phone is with a company called FreedomPop . They sell lots of phones that are locked to Sprint's network, but they also sell SIM cards for unlocked phones that operate on AT&T's superior network. You don't get a whole lot with your SIM card - 1GB of data (500Mb free plus another 500Mb once you load up your "friends" bucket - more on that later) and 200 minutes and 500 texts, which I suggest you don't use. Instead, you can port your existing phone number over to Google Voice for a one-time fee of $20. You can use Google Hangouts to place and receive VoIP calls, and you can also link all your other phones - work, home, work mobile, etc. as forwarding numbers. So, when someone calls your cell, you just pick up whatever phone is in your closest reach. Any combination of them will ring or not base...

Your refrigerator is your single most important weight management appliance. It is your in-home mini grocery store. However, if used improperly, it can be a huge money pit. Where the average person sees a fridge full of food, every single thing in there represents a dollar value. People tend to forget that - even me, from time to time. There's something about grocery shopping that puts me into a weird state of mind where I forget how much I'm spending because I figure it's money that needs to be spent. Not eating is not an option, so I tend to forget about the dollar value attached to it - at least while grocery shopping. Sure, I bring my coupons with me, but I don't even really think about my total bill. I'm trying to break this habit. Practically everything you end up putting in your fridge is perishable, some things more so than others. So, it's a good idea to get organized before your money starts wilting away. Your freezer is less of a problem, but ...

If you have a hard time thinking of good reasons for losing weight, how about you try carrying a Thanksgiving turkey around in a backpack everywhere, every day and see how you feel. I'll spare you the trouble: you'll feel horrible. Granted, carrying all the weight you need to lose (give or take) in the form of a Butterball suspended from your back is much more uncomfortable than having it spread over your body throughout your face and all the way down to your toes, but it'll give you some idea of all the extra work your body has to do every day in getting you from point A to B. I remember dismissing all the chatter about how being overweight makes you excessively fatigued as fitness freak happy talk, but it's true. I used to be tired all the time and just chalked it up to the way a normal person feels after a full day's work. And, when I initially started this plan, I felt even worse because I was not only fat and tired but now hungry and grouchy too. But, as the ...

Loss is a loaded word. At least in terms of weight loss, it implies a rapid reduction in weight, even though it really shouldn't. I think this is because the word is usually used as part of an effusive, exclamatory statement when the first time someone that you haven't seen in a while notices something's up. They never say, "Wow, it looks like you've been gradually reducing your weight since I last saw you!" Also, it doesn't help with gyms and different diet plans promising enormous and mostly unrealistic weight losses in a month or two. "Steady" and "gradual" aren't in their marketing lexicon. These days, if you're not selling instant gratification, you're not selling. This isn't to say that you won't or can't lose weight quickly on the Cheapo Plan. There are weeks that you won't drop much at all or maybe even gain slightly, often due to routine disruptors or for whatever reason, but there are we...

Every dollar you put into your mouth is another dollar that you could have applied toward more enjoyable and longer-lasting discretionary purchases rather than the fleeting satisfaction of expensive food. Moreover, a lot of these food dollars are spent on spur-of-the moment purchases that could be easily be saved with a little extra discipline and preparation. It isn't always the rule, but generally speaking, the less you spend on food, the fewer calories you ingest and the more weight you lose. If you can talk yourself into not eating out as much, trimming your tab when you do , staggering out your portions and avoiding convenience store purchases, you'll save yourself a lot of money and calories. And, it doesn't necessarily have to be healthy food: This is normally not the snack jar of a healthy person. However, it is proof that you can enjoy fried lard and lose weight if you manage your portions properly. The contents of this jar cost me $0 - practically all...

Try to find me a cheaper, healthier breakfast than this. It won't be easy. Here's how the numbers break down, all shopping done at BJ's: Eggs $8.99/5 dozen pack 5 Dozen = 60 eggs 15c per egg or 30c per day Milk $2.09/Gal Makes 32, 1/2 cups 7c per 1/2 cup   Cheerios $5.79/2-box pack 2 pack box = 40 cups 14c per cup Bananas $1.39/3 pound bag 8 bananas per 3 pound bag 17c per banana Eggs: 30c Milk: 7c Cheerios: 14c Banana: 17c Grand total = 68c per day

A lot of diet plans will instruct you to avoid salt. It's not great for your heart and blood pressure, but I suspect that they also tell you this because it'll create some weird distortions in your weight and they want you to stick with their plan. Here at Cheapo, we take a different approach. Feel free to use salt if it's replacing a topping high in calories and/or sugar, but otherwise, don't go crazy with it every day or you'll get some wild weight swings, even if you're hitting your calorie targets. Water weighs a lot - 8 pounds per gallon, and the more sodium you intake the more water you'll retain. Ultimately, calories are what count and weekly weight averages are your performance metric, but the statistical noise created by sodium can be a bummer if it catches you off guard. The water you retain from a high sodium day will flush out in the next day or two, provided you also normalize your salt intake. Also, be advised that restaurants use a lot of s...

Hmm...what can we do with this? There we go

So what does the cheap man think about cheese and other delicious high calorie per ounce toppings? Well, that depends on a couple of things: 1) how much room do you have in your calorie budget?, and 2) are you paying extra for them? I could easily cut out 115 calories from my usual power sandwich by eliminating cheese and light mayo, but if you don't leave yourself any indulgences, this plan is going to suck and probably going to ultimately fail. Plus, I find it about impossible to eat any kind of sandwich without a high-calorie dressing. I can get by with mustard in a pinch, but light mayo is only 35 calories and tastes every bit as good as full fat mayo which has almost 3x the calories. Cheese is great - just don't go crazy with it, or you'll be racking up calories fast. One slice will run you about 70-80 calories per ounce. I usually go with Meunster or Provolone which are 80 each. Some are more, like Swiss, which will set you back 105 calories. (Side note: I...

So, you've rung every last dime out of your food budget. You're wanted in 6 states for thieving all the freebies from Wendy's condiment stands. You've started bringing a metal detector on your walks just in case you hit the motherlode. What else can a guy do to sock away some extra cash? Well, you've come to the right place, my friends, as my PhD in frugality is not merely limited to realm of the knife and fork. Behold, the Cheapo 10 Commandments: 1) Thou shalt not carry any revolving credit card or automotive debts 2) Thou shalt cancel thy gym membership immediately (may require a baseball bat if you belong to Gold's) 3) Thou shalt eliminate thy cable bill today (keep the internet, obviously) 4) Thou shalt switch your cell service to an MVNO 5) Thou shalt not covet new cars 6) Thou shalt not covet more expensive modes of transportation to work 7) Thou shalt not covet thy barista's coffee 8) Honour your wallet by not buying bottled water 9) Thou s...

Hey Cheapo! What's that in your cart? A 10 pound box of disgusting, 25% fat hamburger patties for $30? Why, yes. Yes, it is. Actually, friends, this is what cash looks like before it gets processed through your body and into your bank account. You see, the wife is at Bunco tonight, so I'm on my own for dinner. And, damn if I didn't have a hankering for a Five Guys burger. Since I had the time, I decided to go to BJ's and make my own burgers instead. One of my favorite slim fast food hacks, when I'm short on time and willing to dig into my wallet for more cash than the McDonalds dollar menu requires that is, is a Five Guys regular size burger (2 patties - 220 calories each). I ditch the bun for a lettuce wrap, hold the cheese (sorry) and the ketchup (you'll get used to it) but load it up with every other vegetable topping available. Instead of ketchup, I have them put on steak sauce and hot sauce. I don't order any fries or soda, and I'm out of the...

I finally, officially hit my target loss of 40 pounds today. I've been kind of bouncing around in the 158-point-something to 160 range over the Christmas and New Year's holidays - proof that if you can sort of contain the damage over unavoidable high-calorie events, you can hit your target weight. It just might take a little longer. I realistically have 5-10 more pounds that I could lose, though I've noticed that if I mention that to people they start looking concerned as if I'm starting to develop an eating disorder, which I'm not sure that being a cheap-ass really qualifies as. If I run my stats through the US Navy body fat calculator , it says my body fat percentage is 19% and "Acceptable" - still not quite "fit". I'd like to finally have a six-pack for the first time in my life, but I'm in a comfortable weight range now. My goal was to be able to say I've lost 40 pounds by my 40th birthday, so I can officially check that of...

This is kind of a back of the napkin calculation. Assuming that my at food at work expenses been reduced by 85%, I'm saving about $5000 per year on that alone. I had previously estimated that I was spending about $20-25 per day on lunch and snacks. The reality is it probably was a little lower than that. Let's say it was $20/day, and I'm now spending about $3/day. The old math is: $20x5x50=$5000/yr The new math is: $3x5x50=$750/yr This accounts for 5 day work weeks with 2 weeks vacation where I'm probably eating out at restaurants for most of that time. This ignores new nightly dinner costs which have also been reduced probably by about 70%, but that's a little more unpredictable since I usually eat dinner with my wife who is, how shall I say, slightly less fanatical about the dollar per calorie economics of eating than I've become. It also doesn't factor in a practical elimination of alcohol from my restaurant bills and foregone taxi/ride sharing exp...

Why do you want to lose weight? I compiled a list of reasons when I first started. Saving money is great, but it's just a side benefit to many of my reasons. After all, your body is the most important thing that you own, it's irreplaceable and you cannot do anything without it. It's #1 thing you think about if you're having a health crisis. My list is list of bullet points contained within these reasons below. For purposes of helping your formulate your own list, I've provided some additional context: Better Overall Health I'll be turning 40 this year and knew that if it was going to be anything like my 30th birthday, I was prepared for a huge psychological gut-punch. At least I saw it coming this time and resolved to turn my body back into the shape I was when I was in my mid 20's. I'm already there. Also, the best healthcare system in the world is no match for diseases that you avoided because you curtailed your obesity problem early. Watching a cl...

I've talked a lot about the criticality of calorie counting, and the pointless waste of money that was your former gym membership. However, you'll want to have some level of activity every day to give yourself some calorie headroom over your basal metabolic rate (your body's minimum calorie daily burn rate), or you'll have an increasingly difficult time losing weight. Fortunately, this is less important as you start out since your BMR is so far elevated with your body working extra hard just keeping your fat ass alive that only a mere diet adjustment will do the trick, at least at first. However, as your weight drops, your BMR also drops, and activity becomes increasingly important for continued weight loss. If you don't have a lot of weight to lose or you want to really lose at an accelerated rate, you'll need to add in some activity. You really don't need to do much but just keep yourself busy with something - anything. Outdoor chores are best because yo...

Happy New Year! If you're considering starting the cheap man's plan, there's often no better day than today. All the major calorie buster holidays are behind you, and you'll have fewer interruptions in your new routine of counting calories and walking off pounds. The keys to success with any plan are really motivation, consistency and perseverance. If you have those, you will succeed. If you aren't really motivated, you should work on that first by creating your list of benefits of losing weight and find a motivational quote to keep telling yourself. They both help a great deal. However, there is really no better motivator than success and no bigger discourager than failure. That's why I really recommend starting when you have the fewest upcoming interruptions in your new routine. This way, you'll set yourself up for success early by putting a pound or two on the scoreboard by week's end and use that as a motivational springboard into week two. If you...