I created my own MMO and lost 100 pounds
polygon.com
polygon.com
What I found was that I could lose weight without effort, improve every health marker, and enjoy the foods my body really seemed to desire (as opposed to foods engineered to cause cravings). The 70 pounds disappeared without any tracking of anything[1]. More importantly, that 70 pounds was gone a year ago, and maintaining the loss has been just as straightforward.
I applaud anybody who finds the method that works for them. It's pretty clear our bodies are striving to be healthy and get what they need; once you find that, the rest comes relatively easy.[2]
1. There was some early tracking as I learned about different foods and how they interacted with me and my goals.
2. Unfortunately, some people lost the genetic lottery (less than you might think) or are so metabolically disturbed (becoming more and more) that it isn't always easy. I have a huge amount of respect for those who persevere through that and work towards a healthier life.
* Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and LEARN Diets for Change in Weight and Related Risk Factors Among Overweight Premenopausal Women[1]
* Effects of Dietary Composition on Energy Expenditure During Weight-Loss Maintenance[2]
* The ketogenic diet as a treatment paradigm for diverse neurological disorders[3]
* The ketogenic diet reverses gene expression patterns and reduces reactive oxygen species levels when used as an adjuvant therapy for glioma[4]
* A Systematic Review of the Evidence Supporting a Causal Link Between Dietary Factors and Coronary Heart Disease[5]
At the time, I wrote a wikia article[6] that tried to distil all of my thoughts and what I had learned. It is mostly correct, but I'm sure I got some things wrong. I haven't gone back over it in some time.
More recently, I think this article (Dietary Carbohydrate restriction as the first approach in diabetes management. Critical review and evidence base)[7] gives a good overview of the metabolic benefits.
All of this does not imply that I think a ketogenic diet is the One and True Path(tm); it is far more nuanced than that, but that's not a bad place to start for a lot of people.
1. http://www.mwc.com.br/files/Gardner_-_Standford_A_to_Z.pdf
2. http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1199154
3. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3321471/pdf/fpha...
4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2949862/
5. http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=11084...
6. http://fat-head.wikia.com/wiki/Health_Benefits_of_a_Low_Carb...
7. http://www.nutritionjrnl.com/article/S0899-9007(14)00332-3/f...
* carbohydrate intake should really depend on your activity level. I'm guessing the majority of the people in these studies were sedentary so a ketogenic diet is a pretty good option. People who are more active should consume some carbohydrates because glycogen depletion tends to mess with energy levels.
* A higher dietary protein intake has been shown to increase satiety and lead to weight loss by itself. Regardless of your diet you should increase your intake of high protein foods; beans and low fat cultured dairy are good sources.
Nobody needs carbohydrate. That doesn't mean carbs are necessarily bad, but the long-time trope that you have to have them if you want to move further than your couch is just silly and has long been disproven (if, by nobody else, hunter-gatherers who had gone days without food while running down a kill).
Phinney and Volek have found interesting things about fat and high-intensity exercise:
* Fat utilization in keto-adapted individuals that is, literally, re-writing textbooks. Levels of fat mobilization that have never been seen in laboratories is being recorded. This likely has a genetic component, what I would consider the opposite of the multiple copies of the amylase gene that highly carb-tolerant people seem to have.
* Fat requires less oxygen to utilize, leading to less lactic acid, less muscle tissue damage, and faster recovery.
* Keto-adapted athletes are much more efficient in their use of their glycogen stores, using less when passing 70% VO2-max and replenishing supplies faster. They do not store as much glycogen as carb-burners, so the net effect winds up being about the same amount of power from glycogen between carb and fat burners.
That doesn't mean there are no athletes who would see benefits of carbs, but, in a fat-adapted state, those carbs can be much, much more strategic in nature (the cyclist sprinting over the hill, the olympic lifter in competition, etc). Peter Attia talks a lot about his strategic use of carbs while exercising[3].
Personally, I see beans as a food to be very cautious with. The phytates, lectins, and saponins in them are there to protect the seed, since plants can't run away to protect their offspring. They use chemical warfare, and are quite good at it, leading to poor absorption of nutrients[4]. Properly preparing them (soaking and fermenting) can address this problem, something done in all societies previous to the 20th century, but rarely done now.
I also can't see any reason to use low fat, well, anything. Fat is a perfectly healthy macronutrient, and, when going for low fat, you are typically getting a lot of sugar and additives put in to replace the taste and texture of the lost fat. On the other hand, live-cultured dairy products, for those who can tolerate lactose, are an amazing food.
1. http://www.artandscienceoflowcarb.com/the-art-and-science-of...
2. http://www.meandmydiabetes.com/2012/08/11/western-states-100...
I would certainly worry about 20 lbs gain, carbs or no carbs.
After switching to keto, glycogen is used up gradually, due to no carbs entering the body. And the water is also lost. Therefore, the "signing bonus" of the keto diet - a significant weight loss in the beginning, but due to water lost, not fat burned.
BUT. That only accounts for about 4 kilos, maybe just a bit more. You can't really blame water for a gain of 20 pounds.
Am I missing something?
(wouldn't mind a brief summary here...)
For a lighter-weight dive, you can also take a look at https://www.dropbox.com/s/n4attj5gmxe9cou/InANutshell.md (hopefully that link works :).
A question I have is what would happen if I cut down carbohydrates, but not increase fat either! I discovered through accidental self-experimentation that cutting down on sugar is helping me, while my diet barely included rice, potatoes, etc. anyways. I used to consume some pasta, but will reduce that too now.
What is the purpose behind increasing fat in diet when doing this? Is it to just compensate for calorie loss? Is it to control cravings? One one hand, it is saying that ketogenic diet will help burn body fat, and on the second it says go increase fat consumption!
I'll need to do some research to understand how to get carbohydrates to just 20-25 grams per day like you have mentioned. A "Pure Protein" bar I just consumed by itself had 17g! Would it work out if I can get to within 50g of carbs (which is still much lower than 300g you mention for an average American), together with cut down fat too? Or that defeats the whole purpose?!
Since I started cutting down on sugar drastically, I have noticed though my craving for sugar has increased (though I am still able to control). Diet soda seems to be helping with these cravings significantly though I am not sure what are the side effects. (I have come across many conflicting studies against soda, so have never been sure!)
I am moderately exercising too, gradually increasing.
Eggs seem to be recommended in these diets. As someone with borderline cholesterol, would eggs still be recommended?
Thanks!
* The original panic about dietary cholesterol came from feeding rabbits high cholesterol diets. It turns out that herbivorous rabbits are particularly poorly suited for a diet high in animal fat. Go figure.
* Your body has a cholesterol "set point": an amount of cholesterol it wants for daily activities like building cell walls, repairing tissue, making hormones, etc. If you do not eat it, your body will make it. If you eat it, your body won't make it. Regardless of your diet, the end result is the same.
* There has never been a causal relationship shown between cholesterol in the blood (much less diet) and coronary disease. Since cholesterol is part of the immune response, it is, quite literally, like saying we need to remove fire fighters because wherever we find them, we find fires.
Don't be afraid of the cholesterol. Now, there are some numbers that have some correlation with heart disease, but every single one of those numbers are improved by a low carb, high fat diet. See several of this points in this[1].
On getting carbs down, there are a few things to recognize:
* There are gradual improvements. For people who are "carb intolerant", every carb removed from the diet comes with an improvement in general health. If you can't get to 25g to start, try 75g (note: I had serious issues with carb cravings, so I could not do this; it had to be all or nothing).
* There is a step, going from "sugar burning" to nutritional ketosis (generally defined as >=0.5mmol blood ketones), that, for most people, causes a significant increase in energy, clarity of thought, etc. Some people don't experience that and may do better with slightly higher carbs. Experimenting is good.
* It takes a few weeks to get the body fully converted to burning fat (keto adapted). During that period, it is not uncommon to feel sluggish, have headaches, have strong sugar cravings, etc. This can and does pass (many of the older papers showing how "bad" keto diets are ended after 2-4 weeks, right in the middle of keto-adaptation).
There is a strong reddit community[2] that is worth checking out, with a lot of good "how-tos".
On calories, my advice is to always start eating to satiety. During the first few weeks, as craving hit, feed them with fat (bacon is particularly good). Don't worry about calories at all for the first two months as you become keto adapted.
After 6-8 weeks, start really paying attention to your body. Eat when hungry, stop eating when you get full. Your body's satiety signals will usually start working correctly again when the insulin levels are lowered.
Most people will find that their appetite self-regulates into a pattern that causes fairly consistent loss (there may be some plateaus, but that is normal). If you are in this category, just keep going. Worry about your carbs and nothing else.
If you find that you aren't losing "automatically", don't automatically assume you need to force reduce what you eat. Look for other things like too much stress, too little sleep, food intolerances (wheat and dairy impact a lot of people), etc. before trying to will-power your way to loss. Your body wants to be healthy, so find what is keeping it from being there (some people have a really unhealthy relationship with food, so fix the relationship rather than just axing the food).
You are welcome to email me any questions as well. My email is in my profile.
1. http://www.nutritionjrnl.com/article/S0899-9007(14)00332-3/f...
It is both. Firstly, for an average person, carbs are a significant part of calorie intake. If you just drop them, and drop fat at the same time, where will you get your calorie intake from? You'll only be left with protein, and it's not so easy to get all your calories from protein. Besides, there is no benefit in reducing fat further than required to achieve some caloric deficit. And also, many people find the combination of fat+protein in meals satiating.
One one hand, it is saying that ketogenic diet will help burn body fat, and on the second it says go increase fat consumption!
You don't get fat from eating fat. You also don't get fat from eating carbs. You get fat from eating too much calories. The goal is to reduce the amount of calories in a sustainable way. Some do it by eating many small meals, some by 1-2 large meals. Some do it by reducing carbs, and some by reducing fat. Try and see what is the easiest for you.
A "Pure Protein" bar I just consumed by itself had 17g!
Try to stick to fresh, unprocessed foods, if you can - it's healthier, but also easier to avoid "carb creep" by added sugar and other sources of carb. Fresh vegetables, meats, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, cheese, cream are very compatible with keto.
Eggs seem to be recommended in these diets. As someone with borderline cholesterol, would eggs still be recommended?
This is a very controversial subject, and there are multiple books written, and they contradict each other. Ask me for a book recommendation if you wish. :) In short, there are two separate issues: 1. Does dietary cholesterol raise blood cholesterol, and 2. Does blood cholesterol cause heart disease? Overall, it appears that there is still no proof that cholesterol causes heart diseas - most, almost all evidence is just correlation. Eggs appear to be safe regardless of some studies that demonize them. And, just for fun, the following link (it's not a proof of anything as it is n=1 anecdote)
Normal Plasma Cholesterol in an 88-Year-Old Man Who Eats 25 Eggs a Day — Mechanisms of Adaptation
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199103283241306
Feel free to ask me for more references on specific subjects ...
I, personally, would recommend against doing this, especially if those meals contain carbohydrate or protein. The problem (and I realize Evgeny probably knows this) is that eating many small meals keeps insulin levels consistently high (both carbs and protein cause insulin to be secreted). While we don't have the direct evidence of it yet, most biological system, when exposed to a cellular input constantly, down-regulate the receptors for that input. Down-regulating insulin receptors is the definition of insulin resistance and insulin resistance is the first step towards diabetes.
This is a sweeping generalisation that I'd like to see evidence for.
However, there are multiple cases where the introduction of "Western foods" to people who were eating traditional diets caused significant increase in "diseases of civilisation". I personally started from reading "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration" by Weston A. Price - it is available for free online.
(Of course, one can eat processed food and add fibre from another source. Nevertheless, the advice to eat unprocessed food is reasonable as a generalisation).
So feel free to eat as many eggs as you wish (but as with all things diet, moderation is generally a good idea, 2 dozen eggs a day is probably not going to do great things for your health).
Etc. :-) enjoy!
Somebody needs to create an MMO for language learning. Instead of "go kill 12 dragons" the questgiver would say "matar a 12 dragones" or "matar a 12 dragones verdes" or "matar al dragón en la cima de la montaña". The immersion and addiction would have hardcore players speaking 10 languages, I guarantee it.
And I think this could be extended to quantifiable human-necessary tasks, too. Like a mechanical turk, but fun.
I've met programmers that don't touch type, but I've never met a PC gamer that doesn't.
And yes, your idea would be awesome. That would actually be a sick WoW add-on. I doubt you can pull different localizations through the API though.
Characters would greet each other and converse in their native language, and the bilingual characters would help smooth this out. For example you could ask a bilingual shopkeeper "What does <word> mean?". If you say "Hi" to somebody and they say "Bonjour" back, it's not hard to figure out what they mean, and conversations would escalate in complexity as you progress through the game.
I got this project as far as the very early design stage. I've always been sorry I couldn't convince the execs to let us finish it.
Going the other way around, English - > Japanese or English -> Russian for example, would require additional guidance to explain the new characters.
I've thought first person games could be useful for self improvement in lots of other ways too. Such as getting comfortable with public speaking, or social anxiety in general.
For language learning, this might sound silly, but I've also thought a first person role playing game where you're a baby and everyone speaks to you like they do to babies in the language you're trying to learn. (My pet theory is that children aren't necessarily way better at learning language, but it's more how people interact with them: speaking slowly, using small words, telling them what they're doing, etc.
I do like the baby sim idea. I know some language learning systems go with a very gradual immersion in a similar way, and work in children's books and television as part of it, but I don't know how effective it was. Sounds like it should work well.
https://www.sparx.org.nz/index.html
Currently has an unuseful page about restrictions for anyone outside NZ.
Back to the topic, I do this thing called biking to and from work. It's more pleasant than taking the subway, and when you don't have an unlimited subway card, it's easy to keep up the habit. It may not be as fun as creating an MMO, but it's pretty low threshold.
I also bike to and from work and I've seen it have really positive effects on my friends who want to build muscle and lose some weight.
I actually try to structure my life similar to how this guy did his "MMO", with rules and systems that make it easy to live well. When you bike and walk everywhere, it's hard not to be in decent shape.
This doesn't seem too off-topic, we're just discussing alternatives to the topic in question. : )
I've heard a lot of stories of children learning english from playing multi-player xbox games. The quality of their english I'm not sure about though.
Consequently, I had some pretty massive incentives to try out these RPGs and muddle through the language (play the game months before my friends!). Unfortuantely most of the kanji was beyond my ability to divine, and I didn't know how to use a kanji dictionary effectively back then...so I often didn't really know what I was doing, and wound up getting the English versions too.
Still, if I had a bit more support (slash knew how to use a kanji dictionary), I could have imagined it really working to improve my Japanese ability. Now that the lag doesn't exist for game releases there's not as much incentive, but it would be interesting to see someone design a game with these sorts of things in mind.
I've got about 1000 images for my next release. I'll try to do some animations in the following release to clarify some of the verbs. Then hopefully make a SpriteKit game from there... Make Oscar 'pick up', 'carry' , 'pour'...
I put up 3 pictures on my FB page: https://www.facebook.com/h4labs
Duolingo is a language-learning website where you can gain experience points.
Unless you were trying to learn Japanese though, that's as far as you got -- you couldn't have the seamless "mata a 12 [green dragons]" unless you knew your hiragana/katakana.
On my walk home between posting my initial comment above and this one, I started thinking about how to make it happen as a side project and the conclusion I came to was writing the entire script/story out first as that would be the hardest part.
I'm getting flashbacks to learning Latin from "Lingua Latina - Familia Romana". Here's a book in Latin with a couple pictures. A pity you can't read Latin, not yet. There's a couple footnotes in English. Also there's enough Latin borrowed into English that you can figure some of it out. If you can puzzle out what the heck is going on, you'll learn Latin. Or you'll get very frustrated. Likely both.
Every couple years I put in an effort until I get annoyed and quit.
All I really remember is the first chapter was a discourse on the geography of the classical era Mediterranean world, so if you know anything about history and/or geography it was pretty easy to puzzle out, and the second (or so) chapter introduced you to your large host family. Later chapters discussed the concepts of time and money, if I recall correctly.
It doesn't really ebook well because of a lot of annotation to "help".
A modern analogy completely in the English language would be the "Diary of a wimpy kid" series. My son read those, and I occasionally wondered if the author of those books knew about or was inspired by "Familia Romana". I'm not implying Familia Romana was a comedy, the funniest part was probably some sibling rivalry in the host family. But it was a mix of pictures and words I haven't seen in a book since early grade school.
Also, Latin just has too many weird tenses and stuff to pick up that way, I would imagine. At least English to French or Spanish, there's shared grammar.
Hi, I see you guys are interested in making an MMORPG language learning game. It's a great idea. In fact, it's an idea that my brother, myself and a few other guys have been working on the past four years, ever since I graduated from Ohio State with my Master's in Foreign Language Education. We have already seen it work in our very alpha, alpha testing of some rough prototypes with high school Spanish students in our area.
To test the concept, we focused on just a few language concepts (teaching personal, descriptive adjective pairs, e.g. "tall/short; old/young", etc.) and set up an ambush scenario of the player by some orcs fitting the description. Then, we paired the player with a helper avatar. The avatar and the player each shot a different orc in every attacking pair. The avatar told the player which to target.
Second, we set up a castle maze, through which the player has to navigate as a spy, picking up needed ingredients for a weaponized spell along the way. The avatar helper already knows the lay of the castle. He instructs the player where he has to go to avoid detection.
We tested these two and a third game in a few area high schools last spring just before school let out. The response was overwhelmingly positive. The kids dubbed our one game the "Spanish flappy bird", because of how addictive it was.
While we'd like to develop more apps, eventually putting together an entire year's worth of curriculum for teachers, we need to redirect our focus to building an extensible framework and community to step up the development from what only a handful of people could otherwise produce.
I'm a teacher. I know state standards, which do work. I also know that a lot of the textbooks, etc. we use in schools to teach are not effective and, quite frankly, boring. Standards are good for accountability. Games are good for engagement.
So we're linking the two. We are building a framework which tracks a language learner's (not just high school; anyone's) progress through a given game and determines where he is in mastering all of the standards and, by extension, the language. The framework plots out his game experience, directing him to this or that "mission"/app targeting the concomitant standard based on his strengths and weaknesses.
The framework itself is open-sourced and built by a community of developers. This is where we need your help. Once it's fully operational, we open up the game development to both for and not-for-profit groups who are willing to create their games in accordance with state standards. That way our framework acts as a kind of clearinghouse. Teachers and the general public know that what is published in our community actually educates in addition to entertaining. Developers can work on a project as small-scale as just a particular vocabulary set or grammar concept. Or they can go whole hog and make a full-scale, MMORPG for an entire, say, year's worth of language instruction. Or anywhere in between. What unifies them is a common set of standards and a common performance database so that users, regardless of where they start or what they do, know a.) where they are in acquiring the language and b.) what games/missions, etc. will take them to the next level.
Another way of thinking about this framework from the user's experience is like Marvel's comics universe of characters and worlds.
We would like to kick this off with a forum and see where to go from there, who wants to develop what. You can find us at http://www.parthalan.com/forums/forum/parthalan-development-...
- The fat MMO guy
I recently added 3 rules to my life.
1.) No pop 2.) Track calorie intake via loseit 3.) Exercise everyday (even if it's just a 10 minute walk or some pushups)
Two weeks in and I feel way better. I find that I'm trying to control my calorie intake and get it where it needs to be without exerting as much effort as I would be if I was simply counting calories to lose weight. I find that I'm doing more than the minimum in terms of exercise too just because I'm already doing some exercise.
At least I found having rules helped me not push off weight loss until next week forever.
It is HIGHLY regional. The Northeast and parts of the West mostly say "soda."
The South is "coke."
The things people forget: -your body is unable to calculate liquid calories (pop, juices etc) - so even after drinking 2K calories in Cola you can be still hungry
-fasting for 1 day a week (200-300 intake in sugars calories like sugar tea) or 2 days a week (500 calories in fruit sugars a day) is extremely healthy as for first 24 hours since eating your body will use gathered sugars in your body to maintain itself burning all the nasty stuff logging your veins and stomach. This also helps you to say no to food - next day after fasting you wont feel like extremaly hungry and even very small meals through the day will be enough to you
-track calories - but be honest, always round it up DOWN to full 50s and 100s.
-calculate calories weekly, not daily. Make sure on the end of the week you are good. Start Monday with fasting - you will have 1,500-2,000 calories deficit already so basically you can eat most of stuff through the week.
I have lost already 10 pounds in 4 weeks, I can run easily and I feel much better. 2 more months and I am done!
This attitude is typically a very bad one to have when dieting. Ingesting fewer calories should be sustainable after you've reached your target weight.
Anyways, good luck to you in your efforts. If this is a way for you to start, then there's nothing wrong with it at all.
Fasting is popular in many cultures for religious reasons and so far only theoreticians can prove its bad. You see people from fasting oriented cultures live long and healthy till their 80s even with worse healthcare. I have read a lot about it - but cannot find links now - just look it up and make your mind. For me it was finally first step to force me to diet - extremely successfully as well after all the attempts.
Still awesome.
Perhaps it doesn't matter. The world seems mostly not interested in (or openly hostile to) what I know about such things.
The key component turned out to be the scale for me. Automatic tracking works much better for me than manually keeping track of it. (I also got a Withings scale, but I don’t think the brand matters. As long as the scale automatically logs everything without you having to do anything or even look how much you weigh in the morning it’s great.) Seeing your whole progress in one graph really helps me keep on track.
A week without progress even though you did all the exercise you always do and ate like you always do? With the trend-line and the chart going all the way back you can easily see that it’s just a statistical anomaly, most likely random noise (probably mostly dependent on when you drank your water and when you went to the toilet). It doesn’t mean progress has stopped.
That 2lb setback, probably because I wasn’t careful about what I eat? Now I look back all the way I have come and those 2lbs seem harmless. That’s a ridiculously tiny amount of weight to lose. It’s so easy. Just some extra care to what I eat and how active I am and I’m all set.
With manual tracking (mostly memorising what I weighed and remembering it the next day) I would at these points just get afraid of the scale and eventually stop weighing myself. The whole process was less transparent with manual tracking and the automatically logging scale demystified it for me. During my previous attempts weeks without any progress just doomed me and got me to this really dark place. No I’m not even bothered by them. The trend-line is going down. Always.
Now, step counters may not be accurate or even a good way to track how active you are (and walking or cardio may not the best ways to aid weight loss) but the built-in step counter in my iPhone that I have always with me (plus my podcast addiction and the beautiful weather this summer) actually lead me to automatically want to beat those 10,000 steps per day. And at some point I just started doing it. I think there isn’t one day during the last two months where I didn’t walk at least 9,000 steps per day, without even consciously deciding to do that. I just wanted to beat those 10,000 steps. I want to see the bar turn green and the 10,000 to light up. That has helped me tremendously to stay active (and not just move less when I started eating less).
I also started driving the ergometer for 30 minutes every day and while I don’t really track that I’m seeing my progress (I can drive with more and more resistance and without any breaks in-between) – also with my scale. The heart rate measurement doesn’t work so well (it fails two times out of three) but it also shows steady downward progress. From a resting heart rate in the high 80s I’m now down to a healthy one in the low 60s. I also feel much better and sleep much better. (This would certainly be beneficial for me, even without any weight loss.)
All this progress also motivates me to constantly optimise. Next step: Buy good shoes and convert some of that walking distance into running distance. (70 minutes of walking per day are a bit long, but doable. However, with some running I can bring that time down.)
(The eating story is similar. I don’t particularly care about what I eat, but when you restrict how much you eat you will automatically tend to prefer food that makes you feel fuller. That’s at least how it was for me so far. I don’t want to eat pasta every day because then I wouldn’t ever feel full. And when I do eat pasta I would rather make the portion a bit smaller and add a salad for the saved calories to feel fuller.)
Will it work? Ask me in three years. I hope so. I think keeping up my weighing routine forever will be the key. If I can do that I see no reason why I can’t keep at it and at least hold my weight (but most likely lose some more and hold the weight I want to have). I’m cautiously optimistic. This is the most weight I have ever lost in my life and the longest I have been at it and I don’t even feel constantly starving or demotivated or crushed (something that was common during previous attempts). I actually feel great most of the time.
Get tracking! It helped me.
I just assume that I can never stop tracking my weight and never really stop counting calories. These changes that I’m making now are constant. This is not a temporary thing. That’s just how it is. I will see how it turns out in a year or so.
Most people fail to keep their weight down because they do something until they lose the weight, then forget about it. The real strategy is to do something sustainable, which you don't mind, and which you plan to keep up forever.
I highly recommend going to a running shop and getting fitted. They'll watch how you run and give you the correct sort of shoe. If it's a quality shop, they really aren't trying to up-sell you or anything (most high-quality running shoes are about the same price anyways).
If you have the money, you can buy the shoes there too (I would feel guilty if I didn't, but that's just me). Otherwise they're typically 10-30 dollars cheaper online.
Look into buying a 3rd party HRM (heart rate monitor). There's a fair chance that a chest strap will broadcast to your device and that you won't need a watch.
In my case, my treadmill's metal pads wouldn't read my HR consistently.
The strap that came with the Polar FT7* (I think it might be an HR1?) broadcasts to my treadmill, which solves the problem for me, and lets me track even if I forego the watch.
The watch (more or less a display unit for the chest strap) is handy for resistance training or exercising outside, though.
*Wirecutter has an article covering what are probably better alternatives: http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-fitness-tracker/.
Or look into barefoot running. It might be better for your joints. (It anecdotally works that way for me and some friends.)
Another factor for me personally was that I really love all these tech toys. That was the catalyst to me starting to weigh myself. I really wanted to try this cool scale and play around with it. That definitely helped overcome my fear. Your mileage may vary if you aren’t really that much into tech toys.
If and auto updating scale means you remember to weight yourself regulary then that is very good investment.
I was mostly writing for those who would hesitate to purchase such an expensive scale especially since I believe owning and using a scale is so fucking important. Not knowing the number means you are too likely to let your mind play games with you and end up having to lose a ton (hopefully not literally) instead of being warned in time.
One way I judo'd my own eating habits was to force myself to eat two servings of decently healthy tasty things before being allowed a serving of junk. eg. some fruit, some nuts, then cookies. It didn't need willpower to enforce because I could always eat my way to a delicious cookie if I really wanted it.
I think about this every time I run.
Wouldn't it just be easier to weigh yourself once a week, and if your weight goes up, eat less calories the following week and/or do more exercise? Unless your memory is that bad, or your eating patterns that random, it should not be hard to cut out things you know are high calorie and you can do without.
Small, manageable, tangible goals are the key to weight loss, and tracking ones weight and intake meticulously allows you to set such goals.
For example, let's say I'm trying to gain 15 lbs this year. That's 0.28 lbs per week, or 1.25 lbs per month. My weight might go up and down a couple of pounds throughout the day, depending on the amount of water in my system, when I use the washroom, etc.
So, I weigh myself today, and let's say I had a little extra water in my system. Now, I weigh myself in a month, and I'm slightly dehydrated that day without realizing it. I might have reached my goal and gained 1.25 lbs that month, but the scale is showing I weigh 1 lbs less than when I started.
That's a problem, because I stuck to my goals, my routine, and I get slapped in the face with results that say I'm going in the opposite direction. I might incorrectly make changes to my calorie count, that don't need to be made.
This is why tracking is useful. You step on the scale on a regular basis, and you can see the overall trend over time. In the above scenario, I can see although the scale shows 1 lbs less, it's an off day, and looking at the forecast, I'm on target and did average a gain 1.25 lbs that month.
Now, I don't even have a scale, but that's why I'd like to get one, so I can step on it throughout the day, and see a graph to better summarize what's happening.
(Rice/pasta/potatoes are basically "free" as long as they are not cooked in oil; a third of each meal should be fresh fruit/veg, to discourage you from overloading on the free carbs; bread is very bad on the points system; you get one free calcium-containing product and one free fibre-containing product from an approved list every day, which has bizarrely led to me eating more cheese than ever before. I mainly picked SW over WW because of when the sessions were, rather than because I liked their way of doing it; in fact, to be honest I wasn't sure it would work at all, but so far it is.)
Anyway, I agree there are definitely "gamification" aspects which are true for these weight loss group sessions too. The point scoring; every week people get applauded for their weight loss and shiny stickers are handed out for the best that week or for reaching various milestones; and just turning up to group every week (which you have to to keep your membership current) means you can't chicken out of weighing yourself on a bad week, and sitting in a group provides your "encouragers" and "challengers" too, although possibly not as effectively as selecting one of each from your everyday friends.