Interesting alternative to counting calories - daily weighing with adjustments

[Blackjack200]

If you guys are familiar with the Starting Strength universe, there are two SSCs (Jordan Feigenbaum and Austin Baraki) that are also doctors and have started putting out their own material under their "Barbell Medicine" brand.

Both of these guys are lean as hell, and in their latest podcast, Dr. Baraki mentioned that he doesn't count calories. Instead he just weighs himself very frequently, and makes adjustments according to what his bodyweight does. He said that he weighs himself every day, and he knows that he loses about 3 lbs. between going to bed and waking up.

The example that he gave was that if he weighs himself in the evening and it's more than what he wants, he will adjust his eating the next day to compensate. If it's a little low, he'll actually go eat something immediately.

As someone that's been counting calories off and on for the last 6 months, this all sounds really appealing. Counting calories is tedious as hell. You're constantly measuring food, reading nutrition labels, calculating, meal prepping, etc. and for all that effort, what do you do when someone else cooks food? You have no idea what the calories are. Most restaurants also won't tell you and you're left making a wild ass guess.

I'd always thought that bodyweight fluctuated too much to really do something like this, but it seems like by weighing yourself frequently, you can get in tune with the fluctuations and measure changes precisely enough to make adjustments on a daily basis. Has anyone had success with this?

 

[ArchAngel777]

The reality is being lean as hell can be genetics, PEDs or a result of dietary manipulation. Each person has their own method as to what works for them... In the end it is energy in and energy out.

Can their method work? Yes... Is the best way to go? No, I don't think so, but that is my opinion.

 

[deadlyapp]

This is a difficult method to use - I do both, but you have to be cognizant of the fact your body can fluctuate significantly day to day. If you were to react every day basis your weight that morning, you'd be constantly adjusting.

The better thing to do is to look at your average weight at the end of each week and see how it compares to the week before. If you haven't reacted in the way you want, modify your eating. I wouldn't recommend trying to gain or lose more than 2lb a week, otherwise you're affecting your muscle.

Edit: when I say average weight, I mean you weigh yourself every day (at the same time!) and then average it all up together.

 

[ArchAngel777]

As someone that's been counting calories off and on for the last 6 months, this all sounds really appealing. Counting calories is tedious as hell. You're constantly measuring food, reading nutrition labels, calculating, meal prepping, etc. and for all that effort, what do you do when someone else cooks food? You have no idea what the calories are. Most restaurants also won't tell you and you're left making a wild ass guess.

Some thoughts here...

Q: What if someone else cooks your food?
A: Use your best honest opinion and add 25% to it (arbitrary, yes, but I do this when cutting)

Q: Constantly measuring food.
A: You can minimize this by keep your diet consistent and simple during your cut. Once you get your your desired weight you can start eye balling things and using that scale to guide you. Some foods I use during my cuts are pretty easy to weight, only take a few minutes at most for my day.

I eat:

Lean Meats - Chicken, Turkey, Pork, Top Sirloin, Fish
Potatoes (White, Red, Gold)
Carrots
Green Beans
Peppers
Peas
Broccoli
Onions
Eggs (whole eggs)
Mozzarella Cheese (better protein to fat ratio than most other cheese)
Jello (Gelatin sugar free + knox packet - for joints - it helps)
Watermelon (My absolute favorite fruit)
Protein Drinks mixed with Coffee
Spices - These are needed to keep dishes interesting and fun. I have a few specific go to spices that I use frequently.
Condiments: I use these sparingly if at all during a cut. Mustard can be used liberally, but almost everything else can dramatically increase caloric count without adding much satiation.

My Crutch: Diet A&W Soda. Used for weak moments.

The above is probably 90% of my diet while cutting. I found my cuts have gone far far better when using veggies liberally... Even that evil 'tater'. I boil most of them and with spices they are very satisfying. I work out pretty hard everyday, so that way I see it, the potatoes will fill muscle glycogen, and the fruit will fill both liver and muscle glycogen.

 

[Pantlegz]

My issue with increasing food intake based on a single scale reading is I can easily drop 3-5lbs of water in a training session and if I increased my intake based on my nightly weight I would never lose weight. I do, however, weigh myself daily and average that weight for the week and while I'm cutting I use that as my ruler for how much I need to restrict/increase caloric intake. This takes out a lot of those random variables and since my weight changes a lot +/- 2lbs any given day isn't out of the question, this method has really helped me dial my diet in.

As far as counting calories being tedious, I have found that https://renaissanceperiodization.com/ has the best/easiest to use diet templates that work. I do still weigh my foods but it's much more generic, basically, they account for incidental macros in their list of approved foods so you're not looking up how much fat/carbs are in that 6oz chick breast to add it all in - you eat 6oz of chicken breast and don't worry about the rest as those numbers are figured into their weekly average caloric intake. It's also great for me because I don't mind eating chicken/rice/sweet potatoes 6-7 days a week but they actually have a fair bit of variety in the approved foods along with a cookbook that aligns very well with their templates (obviously why they're selling it). I'm down 27lbs in 14 weeks (aiming for 31lbs at 15 weeks then going on maintenance which they also include with the weight loss template) with a fair amount of not sticking to the plan 100%, there have been a solid 17 days that I've labelled as 'cheat days' just meaning I ate more than I was supposed to not necessarily going all out eating crap but just not diligent with the plan.

 

[Blackjack200]

The reality is being lean as hell can be genetics, PEDs or a result of dietary manipulation. Each person has their own method as to what works for them... In the end it is energy in and energy out.

Can their method work? Yes... Is the best way to go? No, I don't think so, but that is my opinion.

That's fair. It was probably wrong for me to say "lean as hell". Dr. Baraki estimated his BF% at 15. I think that's great for a guy that squats 600 lbs., but obviously that's not bodybuilder stage-ready territory.

I can't say for certain that he doesn't use PEDs, but it doesn't look like he has the kind of physique I would expect from that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOQzC69QtsI

This is a difficult method to use - I do both, but you have to be cognizant of the fact your body can fluctuate significantly day to day. If you were to react every day basis your weight that morning, you'd be constantly adjusting.

The better thing to do is to look at your average weight at the end of each week and see how it compares to the week before. If you haven't reacted in the way you want, modify your eating. I wouldn't recommend trying to gain or lose more than 2lb a week, otherwise you're affecting your muscle.

Edit: when I say average weight, I mean you weigh yourself every day (at the same time!) and then average it all up together.

Yeah, I think you have to be aware of that. I actually think reacting is good, it's just that you don't want to overreact. Maybe I should mention that for my last diet I was eating ~2100 calories per day. I think that was too low and I ended up binging fairly frequently, which I don't think is healthy at all. The advantage I see to this method is that I can say "I'll try to lose 0.2 lbs./day", and if the weight loss exceeds that, I know to eat a little more before I become so hungry that I'm binging.

Some thoughts here...

Q: What if someone else cooks your food?
A: Use your best honest opinion and add 25% to it (arbitrary, yes, but I do this when cutting)

Q: Constantly measuring food.
A: You can minimize this by keep your diet consistent and simple during your cut. Once you get your your desired weight you can start eye balling things and using that scale to guide you. Some foods I use during my cuts are pretty easy to weight, only take a few minutes at most for my day.

I eat:

Lean Meats - Chicken, Turkey, Pork, Top Sirloin, Fish
Potatoes (White, Red, Gold)
Carrots
Green Beans
Peppers
Peas
Broccoli
Onions
Eggs (whole eggs)
Mozzarella Cheese (better protein to fat ratio than most other cheese)
Jello (Gelatin sugar free + knox packet - for joints - it helps)
Watermelon (My absolute favorite fruit)
Protein Drinks mixed with Coffee
Spices - These are needed to keep dishes interesting and fun. I have a few specific go to spices that I use frequently.
Condiments: I use these sparingly if at all during a cut. Mustard can be used liberally, but almost everything else can dramatically increase caloric count without adding much satiation.

My Crutch: Diet A&W Soda. Used for weak moments.

The above is probably 90% of my diet while cutting. I found my cuts have gone far far better when using veggies liberally... Even that evil 'tater'. I boil most of them and with spices they are very satisfying. I work out pretty hard everyday, so that way I see it, the potatoes will fill muscle glycogen, and the fruit will fill both liver and muscle glycogen.

Yeah, I had good success on my last diet with similar methods. I bought a lot of stuff that I could easily measure or portion. But again, I had an issue with binging, I'm wondering if this could help with that, and also if it could help me maintain once I hit my target weight.

 

[Carson Dyle]

That sounds bizarre, given how everyone's weight fluctuates through the day. I can't see what good the information would do anyone in determining the next day's food intake.

I used to weigh myself daily and found that for myself, it became a psychological burden. "Oh, damn, I gained a pound." More often than not, a transgression would just have me avoiding the scale and telling myself I'd start all over again "next Monday" or "first of the month". Now, I just do weekly weigh ins. Ultimately controlling your weight has to be about the long-term.

 

[skyking]

My diet experiences with daily weighing is that it varies far too much to do a daily adjustment. Just a few extra Mg of sodium can add pounds of water hour by hour.
I was given a scale by one of the programs and did a daily weigh, which it texted to the mothership and then sent me summary emails. I have 7 months of that data to look at.