Group Rationality Diary, November 1-15

therufs

This is the public group rationality diary for November 1-15.

It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like:

Established a useful new habit

Obtained new evidence that made you change your mind about some belief

Decided to behave in a different way in some set of situations

Optimized some part of a common routine or cached behavior

Consciously changed your emotions or affect with respect to something

Consciously pursued new valuable information about something that could make a big difference in your life

Learned something new about your beliefs, behavior, or life that surprised you

Tried doing any of the above and failed

Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other's experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn't tend to work out.

Thanks to cata for starting the Group Rationality Diary posts, and to commenters for participating.

Previous diary: October 16-31

Next diary: November 16-30

Rationality diaries archive

This is the public group rationality diary for November 1-15.

It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like:

Established a useful new habit

Obtained new evidence that made you change your mind about some belief

Decided to behave in a different way in some set of situations

Optimized some part of a common routine or cached behavior

Consciously changed your emotions or affect with respect to something

Consciously pursued new valuable information about something that could make a big difference in your life

Learned something new about your beliefs, behavior, or life that surprised you

Tried doing any of the above and failed

Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other's experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn't tend to work out.

Thanks to cata for starting the Group Rationality Diary posts, and to commenters for participating.

Previous diary: October 16-31

Next diary: November 16-30

Rationality diaries archive

For a frame-of-reference adjustment consider reports that the Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps consumed 8-10,000 calories per day while training. He didn't get fat :-)

Is that a result of his metabolism adjusting upward, as opposed to simply burning lots of energy on activity and maybe having an unusually high metabolism in general?

Given that you don't know the output side of the calorie balance, I am not a big fan of counting calories to start with. I would suggest setting a reasonable rate of weigh loss (say, 1-2 lbs/week -- if you can measure body fat % it would be even better) and eating at the level which sustains this weight loss regardless of how many calories it takes. If the weight loss stalls, eat a bit less. If it accelerates, eat a bit more.

I'm not sure how to actually apply this. Eating consistently at a certain level without somehow tracking calorie intake seems exceptionally tricky, unless I could standardize my meals to a degree that I don't think I can realistically do.

Is that a result of his metabolism adjusting upward, as opposed to simply burning lots of energy on activity and probably having an unusually high metabolism in general?

With Michael Phelps it's tricky. There are actually three parts here. Part of his energy balance goes just to do the physical movements of swimming, part goes to increased heat production as he spends hours per day in a cold-water pool, and part is just high resting metabolism.

Eating consistently at a certain level without somehow tracking calorie intake seems exceptionally tricky

Dep... (read more)

7

Group Rationality Diary, November 1-15

7

This is the public group rationality diary for November 1-15.

7

7

Group Rationality Diary, November 1-15

7

This is the public group rationality diary for November 1-15.

7