bah, I wanna play with robots at work.

@JohnP This is a really beautiful bit of research: pbrc.edu/research-and-faculty/calculators/weight-loss-predictor

hrm. interesting, actually. Do they plan to add an exercise component, or is it just strictly a calorie reduction thing? Also, do they keep reducing the 500 as you lose weight? Because the baseline that you need to maintain will reduce as weight reduces, so if they don't reduce the baseline as you go, eventually you will reach your steady state.

I don't know all of the details. The FAQ is pretty interesting too. I plugged in some numbers with a 500kcal deficit, and it predicted 2.7 lbs lost in the first month, instead of the expected 4+. I think the model is fit on real clinical data, rather than theoretical.

I saw the research paper for that one. It takes a more theoretical viewpoint, which I'm not sure is born out in practice.

I've been reading a lot of research on it lately, and I'm waffling a bit. I still think that 3500 = 1 lb of fat, but that 3500 may not translate directly to lost energy in the body, which is where the discrepancy is coming in.

3500kcal certainly = 1 lbs of fat in a bomb calorimeter. It's the advice that that same reduction of calories will cause a lbs of weight loss that is the problem. It might even turn out that the math will add up correctly if you are really able to measure metabolism. But, it is the practical component that people are interested in.

@michael agreed. There's waaaaay too many other factors going on to make calorie -> body weight calculations

Does fitness.se want this question? bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/10688/…

@freiheit sure, I think it's a good fit

@freiheit - Yes, I think it's a good fit here. It'll give the OP a chance to hear why VO2 max isn't really all that great a number to know, other than academic interest.

@NathanWheeler @JohnP But now it's got two pretty good-looking answers on bicycles, so I think I'll leave it alone where it is. Feel free to come over and answer, comment, etc... :)