My Plan
A plan must have an objective, a goal, an aiming point. So what is mine?
I decided that it wasn't 20lbs or get below 200 or get to where I was before I gave up smoking. I went and found out what I should weight for my height and build. Basically there is a wide range for a given height and I chose the middle of the range, here is a link to an online calculator. I am 5'10", male and medium build, middle of the range for me was 155lbs (it sounds so little!)
So 215-155 = 60lbs to lose.
I'm originally from Ireland and my parents and whole family still live there. I go home to visit every Christmas, so seeing as I was starting at the beginning of June, I decided that I wanted to be done before I went home (I figured the new me would be a pretty good surprise for the family as they only see me once a year). So that is about seven months and is actually pretty close to 200 days which is a nice round number. So 60lbs in 200 days - I've got a goal.
Well 1lb of fat contains 3500 calories, so 60 lbs of fat contains 60*3500. To lose that over 200 days means I have to have a deficit of (60*3500)/200 calories per day. That number works out to be 1050 calories. So every day for the next 200 days I have to eat 1050 calories less than my body needs in order to lose 60lbs. But how many calories does my body need? Well everyone is different, but you can get a rough idea based on your weight, height and age and that is all you need to get started. The number of calories you need per day is called the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), here is a link to a good BMR calculator.
That told me that my BMR was 2545 calories/day. So a 1050 calorie deficit meant I could eat about 1500 calories/day.
Now before anybody in the cheap seats starts giggling about that guy with his facts and figures is trying to plan out a 60lb weight loss like a poorly run military campaign let me say this. It is a PLAN, and the only thing we can be sure of is that it will need to change over time. You did read The Hackers Diet, didn't you. Well we will monitor results daily (a weight-in) and adjust calorie intake as needed. The plan just gets us started in the right direction knowing approximately what we need to do.