The Hacker Diet
A computerized approach to food journals.
BACKGROUND
Created by an overweight tech guru, the Hacker Diet by John Walker uses computer programs like Excel to monitor calorie intake and calorie expenditure. The program, which is outlined in an ebook is a fairly straightforward approach to losing weight: Burn more calories than you consume and lose weight.
Using Microsoft Excel to monitor food intake and track energy consumption and expenditure, The Hacker's Diet allows you to see just how many calories you need to lose, maintain or gain weight.
Viewing the body as a simple control system, The Hacker's Diet prevents you from getting discouraged over small weight fluctuations through its unique engineering principles. Day-to-day water retention and hormone changes are corrected for allowing you to keep your eyes set on the long-term goal and your overall progress. The Hacker's Diet also alerts you to any relapse potential once your goal weight has been met.
PRO
- Teaches the importance of calorie intake versus calorie expenditure
- Personalized to your own body, metabolic rate and food intake
- Very number-friendly
- Food-journaling is a successful way to lose weight and keep weight off
- Specialized engineering principles keep you alert to your weight loss goal
CON
- Does not outline a clear diet plan
- Requires dieter constantly input their health data
- Computerized program may not appeal to some dieters
- Requires a computer and Microsoft Excel
DIET and NUTRITION
The Hacker's Diet is a computerized program that allows you to track your own weight loss progress. Although it does not promote a specific diet plan, it does require that you log what you eat and how much you ate so that you can see how many calories you are consuming every day.
As you also keep track of your weight, you can determine whether you need alter how much you eat in order to keep with your weight loss goals.
EXERCISE
Exercise is logged on the Hacker's Diet Excel spreadsheet in order to determine how your calorie expenditures balance with your calorie consumption.
Exercise is strongly encouraged as a way to not just support weight loss, but to feel better. Walker proposes a fitness program similar to the Royal Canadian Air Force, a kind of intense form of fitness that combines cardiovascular exercise with strength and resistance training.
CONCLUSION
The Hacker's Diet is a calorie-counting computerized program that features some very unique characteristics that single it out among other electronic diets. Built on a simple model that views the body as control system where food consumed is compared to calories burned and with special features that correct for day-to-day minor fluctuations in weight and alerts to let you know when you are at risk of gaining back lost weight, the Hacker's Diet is an impressive and accurate weight loss and maintenance tool for those who love numbers and don't mind keeping daily accounts of their food and exercise behaviors.
Common Misspellings
hacker diet, hakcer diet, haker diet, hakker diet, hacker deit
Related Diets: Calorie Balance Diet, Calorie Count, Calorie King, Geek Diet, FitDay
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This is not a diet. It is a weight control system. If you follow it, it works.
Even though I'm on computers most of the day, it sounds like for me this approach would break down when I'm traveling or out doing things in the evening or on weekends, which are actually the times I probably need to pay the most attention to what I'm doing--so I keep track of what I eat, what exercise I get, etc. on a pad of paper.
On the other hand, this kind of system really sounds powerful in terms of giving a very clear view of exactly how you're doing; the feedback process (an important part of maintaining motivation for most people) is almost built-in.
If anyone has tried this, I'd be curious how it worked for you in terms of motivation. I write a site called The Willpower Engine and am always interested in hearing about people's personal experiences with willpower and motivation.
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