Here’s how technology helped me lose 50 lbs in 3 months...

By Zach Epstein,

America has never been as fat as it is right now. And I had never been as fat as I was seven months ago.

I don’t usually discuss personal matters here on the site, but weight is a serious issue that hundreds of millions of people around the world struggle with constantly. According to a report released earlier this month by the World Health Organization, more than 600 million adults across the globe were obese in 2014, and almost 2 billion were categorized as overweight. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that more than one-third of all adults in America — 78.6 million people — are obese.

In early July, I was one of those 78.6 million obese Americans. At 6 feet tall and 235 pounds, my Body Mass Index (BMI) was 31.9, just north of the CDC’s obesity threshold of 30.

Today, at 172 pounds, my BMI is 23.3, which falls within the CDC’s “normal” range of 18.5-24.9.

I worked hard to get where I am right now, and I still have work left to do. It took a lot of exercise and discipline, but technology also played a big role in my efforts, and in this post I’ll explain how I did it.

First, a few preliminary notes:

I am not a doctor. I am not a nutritionist or a dietitian. I am not a personal trainer, a coach or a fitness expert of any kind. Please do not consider anything you read here to be advice from an expert. My methods are based on information gathered from dozens of different sources, and I made adjustments to suit my personal needs as I pieced things together.

I do not recommend you take the same path I took. Instead, my goals are merely to relay information about the realizations I made and to discuss the tools I used, because bits and pieces here and there might be helpful to some readers.

Please consult your physician and seek the advice of other experts before making any major changes to your diet or exercise regimen.

And now, a bit about me.

I have been at least somewhat overweight for most of my life. Even when I was an all-star athlete for years in school, I was overweight. It never really bothered me much, and not once in my life had I actively tried to lose weight until this past summer.

When I left “corporate America” six or seven years ago and began writing about the consumer electronics industry professionally, my lifestyle changed fairly dramatically. Days that had been filled with commuting, meetings, travel and so on, were now filled with sitting. Hours and hours of sitting at a desk typing. I was also not a healthy eater by any stretch of the imagination.

At that point, I began to gain weight at a pace that was barely noticeable.

I have never been big on fast food or even junk food, but I would always skip breakfast, eat something like a sandwich and chips every day for lunch, and then order from a local restaurant or go out to eat dinner each night. I would literally go for months without cooking a single meal myself.

Couple that diet with 12 to 14-hour days at a desk in front of a computer, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

Then, on July 16th, 2010, I smoked my last cigarette. I certainly don’t regret quitting, but my weight gain accelerated a bit at that point, and it continued until I pumped the brakes this past summer.

I wasn’t sick and I thankfully didn’t get a harsh wake-up call of any kind. I just decided enough was enough. I spent a week or two researching, but ultimately a single realization proved to be the most important catalyst for me:

Weight loss is math.

This might seem painfully obvious — it is painfully obvious — but it hadn’t been to me. Never in my life had I counted calories or even paused for a moment to consider how many calories I might be consuming in a meal. I just didn’t care.

But now I had to care, because this was the simplest and most obvious way to approach weight loss.

If you regularly consume fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight.

Again, it seems so obvious. But many people don’t really think about the reality of that statement, and I had been one of them. Barring certain ailments, this is a universal truth.

And so here is the first area where technology really came into play for me. Apart from just eating healthier in general, I had to figure out how many calories were in everything I ate, I had to keep track of them, and I had to at least get a rough idea of how many calories I was burning each day.


I went through a bunch of different solutions for calorie and workout tracking, including one particularly nifty app called Noom Coach. I have since stopped using it, but it definitely taught me a great deal before I did.

Ultimately, I landed on Jawbone’s UP app once the aforementioned functionality was added. I was already an UP24 user and Jawbone’s UP app is wonderfully designed, so it made sense to track everything in one place. With the UP app, I can track steps, sleep, workouts, calorie intake and even my weight.

But how was I going to start?

I am generally a person of extremes and I also knew I was going to have to see some results almost immediately if this was something I was going to stick with. So, I began with the most extreme solution I could find: A Blueprint cleanse.

On July 7th, 2014, I began a five-day juice fast, during which I also exercised vigorously for about an hour at least once each day. I weighed 235 pounds.

On July 12th, before I finally started eating solid food again, I weighed myself. I had lost 16 pounds.

In hindsight, it’s fairly obvious that this was not at all a healthy way to begin. I’m sure there is a laundry list of reasons, but the simplest is common sense. Shocking one’s system and losing 16 pounds in a week, even if some amount of that was water weight, is not healthy. But I needed to see immediate results to motivate myself, and I saw them.

I was definitely motivated.

In the weeks that followed, I stuck to an extreme low-calorie diet that was very low in carbs as well. I also exercised religiously. During the week, I would use a treadmill or stationary bike for between 30 and 45 minutes each day and I would do various basic bodyweight exercises or light weight training several days each week as well.

Then on the weekends, I had more free time so I would step things up. I would go out each morning and walk briskly for anywhere between 1.5 and 2.5 hours, averaging between 7 and 9 miles a walk. Some days, I would even spend a little more time exercising later in the day, either doing bodyweight exercises or riding a stationary bike.

Finally, I got a lot of use out of my two Moov bands. Moov, which I have covered before here on BGR, is a great early representation of the future of wearable technology. It is an interactive, intelligent virtual coach spread across several different activities, and I spent most of my time in the “Cardio Punch” boxing app.


Everything I did was focused on diet and low-impact exercise. There were no fad diets and no CrossFit, Flywheel or other ultra high-intensity workouts that often lead to injury or fatigue unless you’re already in great shape.

On October 12th, three months after I had embarked on this new journey, I weighed 186 pounds. I had lost 49 pounds.

At that point I made another realization that was just as important as my first one. I had lost a lot of weight in a short period of time, but I really didn’t feel that much better.

Again, this will be obvious to many people and it is to me as well in hindsight, but I was doing too much. I wasn’t taking in enough calories each day, and I was exercising too much. After some more research and some fine tuning, I adjusted my diet and exercise regimen to slow my weight loss to a much healthier pace.

In the six and a half months since I began, I have lost 63 pounds. Since I have also been building lean muscle, I have likely lost even more than 63 pounds of fat. I feel better, I look better, and I am healthier than I have ever been in my life. And apart from finding the motivation and taking the first steps, the tracking I have been doing on my smartphone was the single most important tool for me.

Since software on my iPhone made it so easy to track everything, I was able to keep my eye on the ball the entire time. When I ate too many calories, I knew it immediately and could adjust my workout that day or the following day. If my weight went up one morning, I could see that instantly as well, and it would motivate me to work harder over the next few days.

For those seeking help with weight loss, here are a few things I learned along the way — some from reading, some from speaking with my doctor, and some simply from my personal experience.

The most important realization: weight loss is math and you can’t cheat math. If you regularly burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight. Track calorie intake and calorie burn, and don’t cheat by omitting things you eat. Every calorie counts and if you’re going to do it, do it right.
Calorie density is a hugely important consideration if you have an issue with portion control. Divide the number of calories per serving by the number of grams per serving to determine calorie density. The best foods have a calorie density around 1 — you can eat more and therefore feel more full.

Drink a large glass of water about 20 minutes before each meal. It takes 20-30 minutes to feel “full” while eating and this helps that feeling hit before you eat too much.
Never skip breakfast; it gets your metabolism going. Eat a healthy breakfast that is low-calorie and has a good amount of protein.

Don’t overdo it. Be smart with your workouts and avoid fads or high-intensity workouts until you’re in good shape.
Most people know this in this day and age, but spot reduction is a myth. Doing sit-ups will not burn belly fat, though it will strengthen and tone abdominal muscles. Cardio is the most important thing for burning fat — get your heart rate up, and watch your heart rate closely so you don’t overdo it. Here is a link to the AHA’s page on target heart rates.

Weigh yourself every single morning immediately after you use the bathroom (this will help keep somewhat consistent conditions when you weigh yourself, since weight fluctuates throughout the day). Nothing gets you back on track faster than seeing your weight jump up after a stretch of a few lazy days.

Last but not least, it’s not worth it. If you’re at home snacking, don’t eat that last cookie. If you’re out to dinner at a restaurant, don’t order dessert. The joy you’ll get from losing more weight far outweighs any pleasure you might get momentarily from eating that junk.

Finally, it couldn’t possibly be more important to realize and accept the fact that everyone is different. What worked for me might not work for you. Try new things, experiment with different foods and exercises, and don’t stop until you find things that work. Also, use the technology at your disposal to help you along the way. Sometimes the simplest things — like tracking everything you do in a well-made app — can have a dramatic, lasting impact.

Jerry Lawson, a self-taught engineer, gave us video game cartridges

By Devindra Hardawar,

To celebrate Black History Month, Engadget is running a series of profiles honoring African-American pioneers in the world of science and technology. Today we take a look at the life and work of Jerry Lawson.

If you've got fond memories of blowing into video game cartridges, you've got Gerald "Jerry" Lawson to thank. As the head of engineering and marketing for Fairchild Semiconductor's gaming outfit in the mid-'70s, Lawson developed the first home gaming console that utilized interchangeable cartridges, the Fairchild Channel F. That system never saw the heights of popularity of consoles from Atari, Nintendoand Sega, but it was a significant step forward for the entire gaming industry. Prior to the Channel F, games like Pong were built directly into their hardware -- there was no swapping them out to play something else -- and few believed that you could even give a console a microprocessor of its own. Lawson, who passed away at 70from diabetes complications in 2011, was the first major African-American figure in the game industry. And, just like the tech world today, it still isn't as diverse as it should be.

Only 2 percent of game developers in 2005 were African-American, according to a study by the International Game Developer Association (who also honored Lawson as a game pioneer a month before his death). But things were even worse during Lawson's time: For his first five years at Fairchild, the company and its executives actually thought he was Indian. He was also one of two black members of the Homebrew Computing Club, a group that famously included Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniakand other Silicon Valley pioneers.

Born on December 1, 1940, Lawson grew up in a Queens, New York, housing project, where his predilection for engineering was on display early on. His father, a longshoreman with a fondness for science, gave him unique gifts like an Irish mail, a handcar typically used by railroad workers. More often than not, Lawson ended up being the only kid that knew how to use them. His mother arranged it so that he could attend a well-regarded elementary school in another part of the city (i.e., one that was predominantly white), and she stayed actively involved in his education throughout his childhood (so much so that she became the president of the PTA). Lawson also credits his first grade teacher as a major inspiration.

"I had a picture of George Washington Carver [a black inventor who was born into slavery] on the wall next to my desk," he told Vintage Computing in an interview. "And she said, 'This could be you.' I mean, I can still remember that picture, still remember where it was."

It's hard to deny Lawson's geek cred: He ran an amateur radio station out of his housing project after building a ham radio on his own (complete with an antenna hanging out of his window and a radio license). He also spent his teenage years repairing electronics all over the city. Most impressively, he taught himself most of what he knew about engineering. Lawson attended Queens College and the City College of New York before working at several firms, including Grumman Electric and Federal Aircraft. After scoring a job with Kaiser Electronics, which focused on military technology, Lawson moved to Silicon Valley.

It's hard to fathom today, but trying to make removable game cartridges was an incredibly new concept in the '70s. Lawson and his team at Fairchild had no clue how the cartridges would fare after being plugged in and out multiple times -- remember, nobody had ever done it before. The company also caught the attention of the FCC, as it was aiming to deliver the first consumer device with its own microprocessor. Lawson's description of meeting the agency's grueling requirements reads like engineering comedy: Fairchild had to encase the console's motherboard in aluminum; it put a metal chute over the cartridge adapter to keep in radiation; and every cartridge it produced had to be approved by the FCC. He was also justifiably apoplectic when, years later, Texas Instruments successfully lobbied to change the laws that determined the FCC's harsh requirements.

As for how race affected his job prospects during the '60s and '70s, Lawson told Vintage Computing it "could be both a plus and a minus." If he did well, it seemed as if he did twice as well, since any accomplishment received instant notoriety. But the idea of a 6-foot-6-inch black man working as an engineer was still surprising to many people. Lawson noted that some people reacted with "total shock" when they saw him for the first time.

Lawson also had plenty of insightful advice for young black men and women who were interested in science and engineering careers:

First of all, get them to consider it [technical careers] in the first place. That's key. Even considering the thing. They need to understand that they're in a land by themselves. Don't look for your buddies to be helpful, because they won't be. You've gotta step away from the crowd and go do your own thing. You find a ground; cover it; it's brand-new; you're on your own -- you're an explorer. That's about what it's going to be like. Explore new vistas, new avenues, new ways -- not relying on everyone else's way to tell you which way to go, and how to go, and what you should be doing.

"The whole reason I did games was because people said, 'You can't do it,'" Lawson told the San Jose Mercury News in an interview. "I'm one of the guys, if you tell me I can't do something, I'll turn around and do it."

Humans 3.0 Paints Our Techno-Future As Very Bright

By Darrell Etherington,

Are we hurtling towards technological dystopia, or a futuristic fantasy world in which our hardware and software innovations provide a human experience that excels in almost every way compared to that which we know today? That’s the basic question at the heart of Peter Nowak’s Humans 3.0 , a survey of our technical development, which incorporates some futurism peering forward along the path leading to a potential Kurzweilean Singularity. Nowak deftly guides us to a complex, credible and positive conclusion throughout his book-length inquiry, but I still can’t help but wonder if some of the answers he provides along the journey come too readily.

Nowak, a Canadian technology journalist with a decades-long career and impressive publishing history, has created in Humans 3.0 something akin to an anti-venom for the kind of fear-mongering technophobic portrayals of robot-controlled, despotic human futures that tend to pervade a lot of sci-fi texts, and that all too-often find their way into news media accounts of developments in AI, robotics and general computing. The book presents a view of tech’s progress that is much more in keeping with what you might find on blogs like this one, where the audience is more inclined to take for granted that innovation and technological advancement are by definition positive outcomes. But it specifically doesn’t take that for granted, and instead sets about building a case, supported by interviews from subject matter experts around the world, as well as information gleaned from a strong collection of studies.

Towards the end of the book, Nowak acknowledges that he set out with an overall optimism about technology and its overall beneficial effects on human progress, but ultimately the positivity of the book’s message surprises even the author, by his own admission. And as was his goal, Nowak has indeed made a case that supports that message, and one that indeed proves useful for the book’s apparent audience, which struck me as likely a more general reader with an interest in consumer tech, but lacking a deep and pervasive knowledge. The historical survey and scene-setting Nowak offers is interesting and useful even if you’re already familiar with much of what he’s discussing, but it’s structured such that readers lacking deep context shouldn’t ever find themselves lost.

Optimism, in a book that tackles this subject matter that isn’t already aimed at the tech faithful comes across as refreshing, genuine and convincing in Humans 3.0 . That convincing bit, though, at times owes more to Nowak’s skill with prose than to the facts on hand. In these instances, the book can feel a little like the musings of a technofuturistic Dr. Paingloss: All is for the best, after all, in this, the best of all possible evolutions of human scientific and technological progress.

Consider, for instance, Nowak’s answer to the valid concern regarding what humans will do as robots assume responsibility for more of the labor that once provided them jobs. In lieu of numbers to offer reassurances of newly created roles and opportunities, Nowak indeed points to the fact that while The Great Recession has resulted in what qualifies as a recovery according to many economic measures, it still hasn’t seen employment rates rise along the lines we’ve seen with previous recoveries. Nowak concludes that this is in part because companies are doubling productivity without resorting to traditional producers, embracing technological solutions in stead.

Humans will eventually get over this setback, which Nowak characterizes as temporary, simply by coming up with new things for people to do. There’s a lack of jobs mostly because we aren’t yet creative enough to come up with new ones. Entrepreneurship as a blanket human enterprise then gets the nod as the eventual source of new, rewarding gigs for those who’ve seen their old ones disappear.

For me, this point is less well-made than the others Nowak brings up. It seems more like hand-waving, especially given the rigor of the rest of the argument made in Humans 3.0 . Which isn’t to say it’s not a valid theory: Rather, it just seems much more like educated guesswork than anything else presented. Likewise, when social media is used toward the end of the book as an example of how we might come to think of humanity as a universal extended family, I couldn’t help but want for at least a discussion of how its use can also result in extreme alienation, such as in the most aggressive forms of online trolling and cyber-bullying.

These criticisms don’t undermine Nowak’s larger argument, however, even if I am left more skeptical of the conclusions of Humans 3.0 than Nowak himself. The book has a clear bent, but it doesn’t make that a secret, nor does it feel as though it’s purposefully obfuscating anything in order to make its points. It’s also an extremely easy and pleasant read, which has clearly been thoroughly researched and which expertly weaves in a good number of well-chosen first-hand sources.

If you’re at all interested in Kurzweil, the Singularity, initiatives like Google’s Calico or visionary technologists like Elon Musk, Humans 3.0 provides an accessible, enjoyable starting point that avoids some of the fawning and complexity of other futurist texts. I’m still not convinced about the certainty of the coming techno utopia, but I’m far less sure I’ll wind up enslaved to unfeeling robotic overlords.