A couple of years ago, I decided to lose some weight. Because I'm a big ol' nerd, this involved keeping a more-or-less daily record of my weight, and inevitably, I made a graph of it. Here's the latest version-- the blue points are from 2006, the green from 2007:
(It's not science without graphs.)
The precipitous drop in early 2006 corresponds to my miserable heartburn/ acid reflux problem. That's not entirely gone, but it's at least under control these days (thanks to the healing power of beer), and my weight has crept back up since I've been able to eat again.
I've gained back almost half of what I lost since 2006 (though I'm pretty sure I was over 300 at some point before I started keeping records), so I'm going to start making a conscious effort to shed a few pounds. This may be a terrible idea, given that the last time I did this kicked off the Great Stomach Unpleasaneness of 2006, but I guess we'll find out...
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Gah.
Your graph shows roughly the same one pound per month upward drift that mine would if I actually had graphs. And yes, something must be done.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/
Dt ngnrng nd mngmnt; n-ln cntns nlss; fr.
Did (and still do) the same thing, just keeping in mind how neurotic that must look for normal person. Most peope would at least stop once they reached their weight, I guess.
Nerds and physicists seem to be the same around the world.
Hah, looking at your plot I can't help thinking that there is a universality of the weight vs time curve. Mine is so similar to yours (despite a different scale on the Y axis) that I venture to predict your weight in a couple of years: you will gain back two thirds of what you've lost, getting to 265-270 pounds. Btw, I heard a dietologist claim that a real weight loss cannot be established until five years have passed since the diet. That sucks!
For reference, my (now outdated, but that's irrelevant) weight chart is at http://qd.typepad.com/6/2005/04/successful_diet.html
Cheers,
T.
... and looking in detail at the drop, I can't help finding small-scale similarities too. My drop was also punctuated with sudden jumps up (when I could not help getting revenge for a day or two). Typically, the trend was a 6-day drop and a single upward discontinuity. I see the same thing on the blue points...
Cheers,
T.
"That's not entirely gone, but it's at least under control these days (thanks to the healing power of beer), and my weight has crept back up since I've been able to eat again."
I'm wondering if you're joking about this. When I looked for the relationship between drinking and heartburn using google all the evidence I found was that drinking was bad.
But after years of drinking very little, I discovered that my night-time heartburn problem (which makes me not eat after 3PM) went away with a shot of vodka or scotch a half hour before bedtime.
I'm wondering if you're joking about this. When I looked for the relationship between drinking and heartburn using google all the evidence I found was that drinking was bad.
I'm not joking.
I don't know if it's alcohol in general-- I don't drink much other than beer-- but beer is one of two things that consistently makes my stomach feel better (the other is hard physical exercise-- bike riding or playing basketball or soccer). If my stomach is acting up, drinking a couple of beers makes me feel better, and I feel better the next day, as well.
I have no idea why this is, and every medical professional I've mentioned it to has said "Huh. That's weird. You shouldn't drink, it's bad for you."
The Great Stomach Unpleasantness did not do anything to raise my opinion of the medical profession.
Huh. I wonder if your stomach flora could be causing the problem.
Hard liquor in undiluted form is bad on ulcers. Sufficiently watered-down solution of alcohol is not. And beer has lots of antioxidants and hop terpenes, too.
I think you should systematically re-investigate curative powers of various beer styles, brands in a thorough dose-effect relation. For example, is there a celing effect of beer intake-induced goodness? One has to make sacrifices for the sake of science.
Whatever Chad's got isn't usual acid reflux--I've got that and both carbonation and alcohol immediately make things worse, and there are a number of differences in our symptoms.
An endoscopy did rule out an ulcer, at least.
one can go to an online brewing supply store and buy hop (the whole hop flowers, not the granulated concentrate) and make tea from it. The tea tastes pretty bitter and has strong sleep-inducing properties - especially when the hop is more than six months old - so it is best taken before going to bed.
This hop tea drinking experiment would help to eluciate what component does it - if is it the alcohol, the malt or the hop.
But then again, the commercial mix of all three components tastes a lot better, and makes girls look more beautiful
Chad, did you ever have a gastric emptying study?
I have (what I think are) similar symptoms, and a similar reaction to beer -which mystifies my girlfriend, an actual medical professional, as well as others of her profession - and what they discovered was that my stomach empties insanely quickly, which is probably why I gag all the time.
James, my problem is almost certainly that my stomach empties way too slowly.
I have little doubt that beer would have the same effect as hard alcohol on improving my stomach. What it feels like is that my whole tract starts operating 10 minutes after drinking.
I read that alcohol has a bad effect on heart burn because it relaxes the valve between esophagus and stomach. I believe it has a similar effect on the rest of the tract so my theory is that it gets stuff moving along better.
As far as the medical profession knowing the difference between up and down, it's clear to me that far more than 50% of things published in peer reviewed journals are just wrong and this applies to medicine as much as physics.
Talking with my mother, I found that her parents ended each day with one stiff drink each and I suspect that for some people, that level of mild drinking is healthy. But for the population as a whole, drinking is very much a bad idea as it is wildly addictive etc.
Somewhere in the multiverse we are skinny........
Clearly, my stomach issues are caused by too much acidity and not enough protection from the acidity. According to the doctors, mucus protects from acidity.
Translating this into the vernacular (with the assistance of wikipedia), the problem is due to an imbalance in the ratios of bile to phlegm. Alcohol, a mixture of fire and water, solves this problem by adding these missing elements to the mixture in the stomach. This improves the motility of the earth in the stomach, which eases digestion. Naturally a small amount of air is released.
According to this theory, if one were a teetotaler, an alternative treatment would be a shot glass of vinegar, and sure enough, I've tried this and it works too. Just doesn't taste as good.
Sometimes you don't realize how obvious things are until you've had your medicinal vodka an hour before bed. Such is the case tonight.
Have you considered a tapeworm to help you lose weight?
Since the last medical problem you had helped you lose weight...