OrphanWilde comments on Minimum viable workout routine - Less Wrong

12 Post author: RomeoStevens 21 June 2012 04:19AM

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Comment author: OrphanWilde 21 June 2012 07:37:16PM 4 points [-]

3.) It is painfully and obviously wrong. We don't burn food, our metabolic processes are vastly different than the measuring techniques used in the lab.

But that doesn't mean that it can't also be right.

I put together a spreadsheet because I thought that calories were clearly stupid; I went around online and found formulas for calculating my caloric requirements. I put in my initial weight, and created two columns; one for my measured weight, and one for my predicted weight. And then I tracked everything I ate, over a three month period, as well as my body weight, and (using an electronic scale), my fat percentage.

And, much to my surprise, calorie consumption predicted body weight.

So, even if the assumptions behind calories have some clear holes in them, they nonetheless (for this sample size of one extremely skeptical individual) have at least -some- predictive value.

Comment author: [deleted] 21 June 2012 08:11:30PM -1 points [-]

Even if everything you say is true (and, e.g., you weren't recording completely bogus fat percentage numbers, you measured your weight consistently, the internet didn't mislead you on calorie counts, etc. etc.), this gives you extremely weak evidence to expect that other people would benefit from doing the same.

Not that this argument hasn't been tried before.

Comment author: OrphanWilde 21 June 2012 08:39:36PM 3 points [-]

It is weak evidence, bordering on if not outright in anecdotal, which is why I was careful to indicate that the predictive value is limited. And my body fat percentages probably were not precise - it's an electronic scale - but they were at least consistent, which was enough for my accuracy purposes. And yes, I measured my weight consistently; I measured once in the morning when I got up for work, once in the evening while preparing for bed, and averaged these values.

I will also add that I follow a relatively well-balanced diet, and wouldn't expect the results to hold as well if, for example, I consumed significantly fewer carbohydrates.

I started out an extreme skeptic. But I tested the theory instead of rejecting it. Well, to be completely accurate, I rejected it, and mocked some people who held to calories, and then later decided I should test my hypothesis instead of relying strictly on my intuition on how food works, and was entirely taken aback by the results.

As for your link, I'm not arguing for a position I think is a good one; if anything, my bias going into the experiment was expecting it to fail miserable. I'm defending one which I initially opposed, and still think is probably bad, but nonetheless works at least some of the time.