A small effect is infinitely times greater than no effect.

The easy first step (by itself) produces no useful knowledge.

The last step is pretty much required (especially since the typical thing is to assume it's much larger than it is in reality).

Not really in engineering (which balances the cost of something with the benefit).

A) The first step starts the path to useful knowledge and the post to which I was responding got it wrong. B) What's stopping you from taking the second?
Now you're adding additional concerns not present in the original discussion. At any rate, it's impossible to calculate a cost benefit ratio, if one doesn't acknowledge a benefit exists.

You're getting sucked into the vortex, [MENTION=54365]asgelle[/MENTION].

Your response was useless.

I did the second step. See post 69.

What does this useless statement add?
It's impossible to calculate a cost/benefit ration without any knowledge of the magnitude of the benefit.

if you cut down a tree in a forest and it falls on you, do you hear it hit?

If BF posters met in real life and acted like they do on this forum .... there would soon be only one, as the rest would have died in personal combat.

Weight is only important if you are a serious cyclist. If you are a serious cyclist, then you will most likely always be "too fat for this sport."

So.. you can't handle the hills at the gear ratio you have, yet you are considering getting heavier gear ratio so you don't spin out on the downhills....
Sounds to me like the problem is just that the fixed gear doesn't work for the terrain you ride.

I live in Atlanta, very hilly, and it baffles me I see people on fixed gear or single speed bikes, struggling.

I know, I know, all your hipster friends have single speeds as well, and that's what's cool. But there's nothing cool about walking your bike up a hill buddy.

I actually downloaded this the other day, and used it religiously yesterday. Ended up with over a 1000 calorie deficit for the day...and wasn't really consciously trying to eat less. I certainly wasn't starving myself. It really does seem like if you're constantly tracking what you're doing...you're less likely to do something stupid, or negligent in regards to your health/fitness. I suppose this should be obvious lol. But it doesn't really seem to be in practice.

What if you rode fixed gear without shoes on? Then you could be hard and cool when walking your bike up the hill too! :)

Were you eating differently because you're tracking? (The quantum problem.)

That's a pretty big deficit.

Pro tip: When you're on the "what I ate in my meals" page, there's a button at the top with an icon like a pie chart. Click it to get a list of your nutrients for the day, how much protein and carbs and fat you ate In here, you can change from viewing "today" to "this week" and get a better idea of how things stand overall.

Some days you wind up with an unsustainably large deficit, and averaging it across a week is kind of like smoothing your power output on the bike.

Well yes and no. My diet wasn't fundamentally different. But I definitely did not grab the random things throughout the day that I normally do. Snacks we've got at work, midnight snack at home just because, 2nd beer.

And yea a 1000 calorie deficit is at the upper end of anything I think I would like to sustain.

Hrmm but wait. I think it is likely more than that. I've got the app set up to schedule a 1lb per week loss...so I assume a deficit is already accounted for at zero calories remaining for the day on the app?

edit: yea i did notice the pie chart yesterday. I think that HAS made me change my diet a bit. I've been pacing 150 grams of protein yesterday and today...I KNOW that is far more than I normally eat.

[MENTION=445996]Abe_Froman[/MENTION]

To clarify the math.

If you hit your goal exactly, with 0 calories left over, that means you have a 500 calorie deficit for the day. It's already built into your 1 pound per week goal. 1 pound per week = 7 days * 500 calorie deficit per day = 3,500 kcal weekly deficit, the amount of calories in a pound of fat.

Yea. I figured (today) that's how it's working. And explains why I'm starting to feel a bit lightheaded and weak. It appears junkfood was keeping me alive lol :o . I gotta find some more food I think lol.

I would have suggested just tracking what you eat normally for a few days first, before you try to make changes based on the data.

I was "blessed" with a hungry temperament. Eating to satisfy boredom, or "addiction to sugar" aren't my problems. One of my coworkers lost half his belly by buying smaller bags of chips, he said he'd open a bag and eat until he finished it. That doesn't work for me, I need to eat a good volume of food to feel satisfied. So I do a yogurt for breakfast every morning, I get a lot of food for not that many calories, and there's lots of protein and fat in it to promote a feeling of satiety. Because my problem is hunger, so I do things to make me feel not hungry.

I'm sure you'll notice a pattern, too, and find some little tricks to help address it.

Yup. that's really all that happened yesterday and today is that I definitely noticed a pattern of supplimenting an overall healthy diet with a certain amount of junk food, or at least random, easily accessible food. I don't think I realized how much of my diet this made up until I cut it out.

You do know that there are singlespeed/fixed, and fitness subforums, right? There's no need to tangle yourself up with us clipping in, diaper wearing, shifting nerds. Good luck with your beard and PBR.

MFT grossly over estimates calories burned by cycling. It says my 45 mile commute burns 750+ calories, where a power meter actually measures 375.

So your deficit may be wayyyy less than you think.

Truth. If you have a PM and are on Strava, you can synch MFP to use the calorie number from Strava.

I think the exercise total is pretty close for me. I've got a 40 minute commute that covers 7.5 miles through the city. Strava pretty consistently logs ~350 calories for it. A bit more or less depending on how fast I take it. I'm a shade over 190lbs; The calories seem about right.

Their exercise database is worthless.

I have my stuff sync to MFP from Garmin Connect. I use a power meter, and Garmin sends the correct info* to MFP.

You can have Strava feed MFP your calories, too/instead. I don't know exactly where to find it, but there's an "apps and devices" link somewhere, that's how you set it up.

* Note: I think using a power meter gives you a slightly bigger deficit than you expect, because MFP's system expects BMR calories to be part of the total. But a PM only measures the energy you put into the bike; if you stayed on the couch it would say zero.

Either way...one day of this has sort of made me realize actually that I'm under eating during the day, and then attacking whatever happens to be in the fridge when I get home from work and say goodnight to my kid. It's often well after 9 by that time.