Habana Competition Month 1 — My lowest weight since college!

My friend Chris and I just finished Month 1 of a 3 month fat loss competition based on behavioral economics. The results are in… and they are good.

Chris won, dropping 2% body fat according to a DEXA scan! This is a fantastic result for one month’s work. Body Spec (the company who runs the DEXA) does not even recommend doing DEXA scans more often than once every 3 months because it’s hard to make that big of an impact so quickly. The DEXA people were so impressed, started asking Chris about his methods***.

Our actual metric for competition was Percent of Body Fat Percent lost (PoP), and Chris dominated that with a 7% drop with respect to his first weigh-in.

Per the competition, the winner must spend their reward within 24 hours of the weigh-in. This is to force the winner to spend the money on a memorable experience, rather than letting it disappear into a bank account. Also, the winner cannot spend money on the other participants because that would undermine the competitive incentives in the future.

Chris treated himself to a Thai massage, presumably to help his rowing muscles recover.

Unfortunately, my DEXA results were NOT impressive. My weight didn’t change, dropping a half-pound of fat and putting on a half-pound of muscle for a measly 0.2% body fat change.

How could this be? I had been eating well (per the slow carb diet) and getting lots of exercise. At the moment, I was very disappointed.

Thankfully, the DEXA does not tell the whole story. I had been tracking my weight using a bathroom scale as well, and it told a different story. I had been seeing consistent progress downwards on morning weigh-ins.

I also have the habit of weighing myself after playing basketball. Yes, I know it’s a dehydrated weight, but I find it motivating. Typically, it correlates with my morning weigh-ins, so it’s an indicator. So the day before the DEXA scan, I hit my lowest weight since college! I was so excited about my progress, and relaxed too much before the DEXA competition weigh-in. I overate (albeit slow carb compliantly) leading to the poor DEXA results the next day!

My end game needs to improve next time for the DEXA weigh-in! That being said, I do not think I would have won. No overeating the night before a weigh-in.

The Habana Competition has worked. I hit my lowest weight since college in the first month, and I didn’t even win.

How did Chris do it?

Chris restricted carbs and tightly controlled his diet only eating the following:

Breakfast protein shake Freshly delivery for lunch Chipotle burrito bowl for dinner

On Saturdays, he had a cheat day and indulged in ice cream, burgers, milkshakes.

He also did Orange Theory workouts on the weekend.

Moving forward

Now, we’re on to Month 2, which will present new challenges. Not only will the pounds be harder to shed, but we each have vacation plans to places famous for beer and donuts (Berlin & Portland, OR). Mega cheat days coming up.