Monday, November 26, 2007

Jason eats an apple--day 1

Announcing the sure-to-be-short-lived Apple Project. This is inspired by Christian Bale's preparation in The Machinist, where he became positively skeletal by eating no more than an apple and a can of tuna a day. It's also inspired by the fact that I need to lose some freakin' weight. And it's inspired by the fact that I don't really care for canned tuna.

Anyway, here are the rules:
  1. I may drink as much water as I like
  2. I may also drink tea, but I can't put any sweetener in it
  3. I may eat one apple a day
  4. I may not eat anything else
  5. It started last night (Sunday, 11/25/07) at sundown
  6. It ends Friday night at sundown (ummm...because I have a Friday night party to go to--food is too damn social!)

I will try to remember to track my weight during this. At the start, this morning, my weight was 222 lbs. If nothing else, I will report my weight at the end. But I should stress this isn't really about losing weight, it's about testing my endurance in a really stupid way. An epic battle of man vs. his own dumb-ass idea.

In any case, it's day 1 and the apple of the day is the Granny Smith. Really a staple of my childhood and my diet today. Tart, crisp, and hard. Many people consider this a baking apple, too sour to eat directly. I disagree, and if you have a taste for Granny Smith, all other apples are too sweet and cloying. That won't keep me from sampling other apples over the week, but I wanted to start with the one I love.


Hey, if I hold the apple like this, it's bigger than my friend Gerry's head. There's no way I'll be able to eat that!

Ahhh...the first juicy bite. And so it begins:

7 comments:

Dadmaniac said...

Jason...you're a nut. Having said that, if it works, maybe I'll try it too. Good luck. Wonder how much weight you can lose in one week?

Here are my calcs:
1 apple = 80 calories
1 can tuna = 245 calories (oil packed)
Total calories per day = 325

Amount to maintain BMR for 222lb male 6'0" lightly active 33 y.o.= 2780/day

Calorie deficit per day = 2455

2455 x 7 = 17185.

17185/3500 = 4.91 pounds/wk.

Of course this doesn't take into consideration that your body might go into "survival mode" and reduce its needs.

Once a geek, always a geek.

puppymeat said...

Well, a couple of comments about your calculation:

1. Although I keep it as an option, so far I'm not eating tuna, just an apple.
2. I believe Christain Bale actually ate water packed tuna, no oil. So if I choose to include tuna, I'll do the same.
3. I'm actually only doing this for 5 days, not 7. But I suppose the calculation of 4.91 lbs/wk still applies.

Does this mean if I lose a lot more weight than expected, it's not actually fat but just clearing out the ol' GI track? I.e., if I lose way more than 5 lbs, then I'm just full of shit?

Dan said...

Why limit yourself to Christian Bale's weight loss regimen? Tom Hanks in "Philadelphia Story" and Matt Damon in "Courage Under Fire" are just two other extreme weight loss examples.

Eureka moment - spend 2008 blogging about celebrity diets. Each month, follow the diet of an actor that had to lose a large amount of weight.

puppymeat said...

Dan,

First of all, Tom Hanks was in "Philadelphia", not "Philadelphia Story" (which was made 16 years before Tom Hanks was born). Second of all, his weight loss in "Castaway" was even more impressive.

Basically I chose Christian Bale in "The Machinist" because it's the one weight loss story where his actual diet was regularly featured in interviews. At least, it's the only one that's been burned into my mind.

I do like the idea of following celebrity diets, but how about the celebrity yo-yo diet? First Bale in "The Machinist", then DeNiro in "Raging Bull", then Hanks in "Castaway", then Stallone in "Copland", etc.

Anonymous said...

i'm just a random guy Googling to find Bale's diet because i had the same dumb ass idea in mind...only i want to go for 20 days! i'll be checking back to see how you fare.

a co worker who loves Bale told me it was apples/coffee/cigarettes. being that i'm not a fan of the latter 2 i was glad to see tuna on this list.

Anonymous said...

hi, I was just interested - what was the outcome of your experiment? thanks

puppymeat said...

If you read ahead, you'll see that I lost 10 lbs. in 5 days. What I haven't revealed is since then, I've gained it all back and a few lbs. more. Hooray for ineffective, unhealthy crash diets!

--Jason