The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5) - how many pounds have you gained as a programmer?

how many pounds have you gained as a programmer?

Hi, to change the subject from offshoring, morphic resonance, and .NET for a bit, I thought I'd query the readers of JoS on the amount of weight they have gained since they entered the programming profession. I'll start.

At age 21, I weighed 167 lbs (I'm 6 1). I kept this up until about age 25, and between 25-27, I somehow ballooned up to 205. I'm 28 now, and trying to figure out how to get back down to around 180 before the end of the year.

rz
Thursday, October 23, 2003

Running, No seriously.

I lost all my 'coder-fat' when running, plus the hour or so on the road every second day is a great way to mull over that difficult bug you've been assigned. Just be sure to buy good shoes and get any pains checked out.

Michael Koziarski
Thursday, October 23, 2003

Start by checking whether you only eat three times a day (personnaly, it's more like once), what you do eat (no junk food), and whether you snack between meals :-)

Couldn't believe what kind of "food" kids where offered at the caf when I spent a year as an exchange student in the US...

Frederic Faure
Thursday, October 23, 2003

http://www.bodyforlife.com/

name not available
Thursday, October 23, 2003

Hmmm, I dread to think, however I put the majority of them down to giving up smoking 17 years ago, I put a stone on in a month (a stone is 14 pounds) and haven't looked back since.

Intel courses have such good food in Swindon, well at least they did 17 years ago.

Simon Lucy
Thursday, October 23, 2003

I have gained nothing since my first day of work for the simple reason that it was predicted that I'd bulge out, so I made a point of not bulging out.

I've even been lighter than my first day of work. Lately, I balooned out again, but I'm going back down again.

Weight gain / loss is mostly a matter of calories and blood sugar. Many folks have an easier time with weight maintenence if they have more than 3 meals per day, but with each one correspondingly smaller so as to not go overboard. This prevents you from being ravenously hungry at any point during the day.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html is always a good choice for engineers.

Flamebait Sr.
Thursday, October 23, 2003

I put on 30. Gave up smoking at the same time I started programming.

Thursday, October 23, 2003

I'm 33, 5'8" and was about 155 lbs when I picked up K&R ten years ago. This morning the scale read 203 lbs.

I've lost ten pounds since mid-august on the aforementioned "Hacker's Diet". John Walker's "Eat Watch" software, while poorly named (it tracks weight, not intake), is really excellent.

On losing 20 lbs by the end of the year: it takes enough discipline to lose about a pound a week. I do notice that I think more slowly and have less energy at even that rate. And the holidays are coming up and so on, too. Take it easy on yourself and dial back your expectations.

Brent
Thursday, October 23, 2003

I was 155 when I started 9 years ago, and I'm 155 now. I have fast food almost every day for lunch, and my wife cooks something lite for dinner every night. So I guess that balances it out.

Joe Blandy
Thursday, October 23, 2003

180lbs 6' at 20.
got married, went pro, had 2 kids, went up to 245 at 23. Alot more muscle than at 20 though, but still fat.

(unknowingly) aquired diabetes at some point. Diabetes becomes uncontrolled at 24. Lose 60lbs in 3 months (didn't know about my diabetes still). Eventually going down to 160 at 25.

I'm 27 now and I'm back at 225. Gaining about 1/2lb a month. It's hard to lose weight when you're an insulin-dependant diabetic because there are just times when you have to eat. Nothing tastes quite as good as eating a chocolate brownie when your blood sugar is at 45mg/dL :O

Richard Ponton
Thursday, October 23, 2003

185 6'2" at 20

- up to 220 by 24
- jogged for a year got back down to 190
- stopped jogging and started programing went up to 240 by 31
- got married had kids and slowly lost weight
- now steady at 210 - 220 for the last 7 years - still could be in better shape - not necessarily less weight.

DJ
Thursday, October 23, 2003

I've always taken care to do lots of walking, and my weight now is the same as it was 20 years ago.

analyst
Thursday, October 23, 2003

I'm 200 pounds at 5'10" and that's overweight.

Idealy I'd like to be at 150. I've gained steadily since I was 19 from 120 pounds (yeah, I was skinny) to what I am now. Metabolism changes, a family, and a very "sit at a desk and code all day" lifestyle are all to blame.

I'm kinda at the point now where I have to do something!

Almost Anonymous
Thursday, October 23, 2003

6' - 205 at 21
5'11.5 - 255 at 41

I can bench press my family but it's little consolation... I'm too frickin' flabby. <g>

B#
Thursday, October 23, 2003

Weren't we just talking about internationalisation?

I couldn't understand a word of that. I have no idea what a pound is, except that it is a lot less then a kilo so someone can weigh alot more in Pounds and still not be fat.

I weigh 65kg, I ran a half-marathon last year, and then I got married and put on 5kg which is just sitting their. I took to walking to work but I always ended up sweaty when I got there, which meant carrying a 'work' shirt and wearing a sport shirt, plus keeping soaps and stuff in the office bathroom....I will prevail, I am about to spend $2k on a good treadmill. I used one at the gym everyday while training last year, and as a chick I really can't just going running outside by myself at any our of the day.

Plus I am a huge stat freak so I can know how many cals. I am buring, how fast I am going ,how much better I am doing.....

Aussie Chick
Thursday, October 23, 2003

5'10
145 @18
160 @ 23
150 @ 29

I eat when I am hungry not because it's time to eat or there is food around. I also compete in sports not watch them.

Thursday, October 23, 2003

I weigh the same asI did 10 years ago. I can notice an extra 5 lbs descrepancy a mile away.

Eat less. It will suck for 2 weeks, then the suffering goes away, and a litlte goes a lot furthur. You will be fine until you start to gorge again,,,,and then you will need to repeat the cycle.

Bella
Thursday, October 23, 2003

Right, I lost 15 lbs/6.8kg in two months by just not eating (1,200 calories a day). Didn't exercise, and drank a lot of ice water when I was hungry... like he said, after the first couple weeks you get used to it.

Bob
Thursday, October 23, 2003

I run marathons and am fit enough to usually beat youngish 20 somethings that take me on when I'm out running. (They make a mistake in judgement when they see my grey hair.)

.
Thursday, October 23, 2003

I bet you a skinny and wirey too.

I will tell you something, when I see these guys out running I know that they have some reason to still be out here, and I know I will see there backs for one brief moment before they take of far out os site!

Aussie Chick
Thursday, October 23, 2003

I weigh 300 pounds. I wash myself with a rag on a stick.

Friday, October 24, 2003

I weight 130 Kgs (286 lbs) now.

About 2 months ago, I started exercising whenever the code compiles, vmWare boots, etc.

I have weights near my desk, I pick them up, and exercise.

Since I started exercise I feel much better.

I have dieted in the past and lost weight, and I decided that I am NEVER going to diet again, even if I gain another 100 Kgs. Dieting causes a LOT of bad effects, and one of them is slow thinking.

Jaxxon
Friday, October 24, 2003

Started out at 72 kg at the first first. At that company we had our own cook for 25 people (back in the glory internet days). I gained 10 kg in 8 months before starting to do regular training (running, boxing).
After 6 months of training all the extra fat was turned into muscle and being 190 cm heigh I started looking great for the first time in my life.
Then my wife and I bought a old house and got a kid; no time for training but many evenings spend restoring the house, sleep went down from 7 hours to 4-5. Result: Lost 15 kg in one year and now I've stabilized on 72 kg as in my youth. A bit to skinny if you ask my wife.

Glenn. B. Hansen
Friday, October 24, 2003

1 Internationisation:

1kg = 2.2lb (approx)
1 stone (st.) = 14 lb = the weight of a lump of rock in Scotland (apparently)
1m = 3' 3" = 36"

2 Personal

I'm 37, 5' 8" and 13st. down from 13st. 9lb. after the nurse said "Lose 6lb in the next month, or we'll have to put you on blood pressure pills".

I'll leave the conversions as an exercise...

A cynic writes
Friday, October 24, 2003

i'm 6'3"...

started at 212 lbs in 1995.
got up to 280 in 2001.
got down to 240 in 2002.
got married, now i'm back to 270 lbs.

nathan
Friday, October 24, 2003

... Internationisation ...

sometimes abbrevs are better

... i18n ...

name not available
Friday, October 24, 2003

too much...

6'2"

230 lbs in 1995

now

258 lbs....

some is muscle mass, play "BB" league volley ball 3 times a week.

apw
Friday, October 24, 2003

This Rag on a Stick thing... got any specs?

B#
Friday, October 24, 2003

+1 for the principles in the Body for Life book. It seems a little over-the-top, but it works. The main ideas:

- eat 5-6 times a day
- count portions, not calories
- eat natural foods
- work out 3x/week weights (45 minutes)
- work out 3x/week cardio (20 minutes)

the emphasis is on health (lower fat), more than muscle growth, and it works great!

Scot
Friday, October 24, 2003

I am 5ft8, started university at about 190lbs, finsihed university (after 2 degrees, 5 years later) at about 225lbs. 'Went pro', after about 2-2.5 years of that I had managed to get all the way up to 248lbs or so and about 25-27% body fat (professionally measured). Started actually looking in the mirror and decided that this was no good.

Got back into Triathlons (swim, bike, run) a little more seriously (I started doing tri's the summer before I started university, did only one race the year that I started working full time and then took a year off) and dropped about 10lbs in the first year of that. Held that weight for about a year while continuing training, then last year dropped another 10lbs and in preparation for the season that just ended dropped another 7-10lbs or so. I am now hovering around the 220 lbs mark and would like to drop another 10 lbs by the new year and maybe another 5-10 by the spring so I can be racing next year as close to 200lbs as possible. Dropping the weight does wonders for the run times. :) My body fat percentage is in the 20% range now as measured by one of those body fat scales, which I don't totally trust. So the goal is to cut my bf% in half by the spring.

Ray
Friday, October 24, 2003

184cm; weighed ~80kg during my early 20s, but had ballooned to ~115kg at age 34.

When my beautiful baby girl was born I started to turn it around so I can keep up with her while she's growing up. Been heading downward ever since. Lots of walking, running and cycling. Less eating.

Andrew Lighten
Friday, October 24, 2003

I graduated college at 6' and about 180 lbs. I went up to about 210 or so. I dropped to around 195 when I lost my arm, then crept back up to 205. Went on a diet and got to 185. I've crept back up to 190 again now. I figure one-armed I should probably be 175-180. I play basketball twice a week, swim at least once, and sign up to play soccer once a week for a couple of months occasionally. Still, I love food and beer too much to get the weight down.

One-Armed Bandit
Friday, October 24, 2003

Stay away from the office candy bowl. It has to be the most dangerous thing in the room. Although, you could get some good excercise in if the bowl is on the other side of the office.

Anon
Monday, October 27, 2003

a few pounds

ganya singya
Tuesday, March 16, 2004