He found success in his weight loss journey.
Michael HicksThe senior editor at Android Central shares the tech tools that helped him lose weight from 225 pounds to 192 pounds in the last year.
“I lost 30 pounds by walking an extra two miles per day, using technology like a smart scale and smartwatch to track my activity and weight trends, controlling reasonable portion sizes of food and drink, prioritizing monthly goals over daily activity rings, and recording my progress in a Google Doc.” Hicks wrote on androidcentral.com this week:.
Body composition data weighing scale
Hicks gave himself an edge by weighing himself twice a week, on Wednesdays or Thursdays and Saturdays or Sundays.
By weighing yourself twice a week, you can keep track of your body fat, muscle and water mass without getting too discouraged by natural fluctuations, he said.
“When you weigh yourself every day, you become overly obsessed with everything you do that day,” Hicks explains, “but when you weigh yourself once a week, you lose the ability to tell if the data is accurate or just a fluke.”
Hicks said she uses the Withings Body Smart ($99.95 on Amazon), a scale that has a “closed eyes” feature that allows her to hide her measurements when she weighs herself.
Three Withings products, including the Body Smart, were named to The Post’s list of the eight best smart scales.
Smartwatch that tracks steps
Hicks said he gained weight despite running 674 miles in 2023. The first month he started to lose weight was last August, when he was averaging more than 10,000 steps a day.
“My daily walks freed up about 1.5 to 2 hours a day for walking, showering, and hydrating, instead of the time I would normally spend sitting and snacking,” Hicks wrote in Android Central.
“For people who lead a sedentary lifestyle and carry heavy loads, a long walk provides a mental distraction from appetite and is also a low-impact form of physical activity that won’t tire you out too much to exercise the next day,” he added.
Hicks noted that since he began his weight loss journey in July 2023, he has only averaged 7,829 steps per day.
Research is mixed on how many steps you need to take to maintain optimal health. 10,000 steps a day (about five miles) has long been the gold standard, but studies have found that much fewer steps can be sufficient.
No matter how far you walk, Hicks recommends wearing the Fitbit Charge 6 ($159.95 at Amazon), which connects to YouTube Music, Google Maps, and Google Wallet and offers stress management and a sleep score.
Google Docs for Tracking Progress
Hicks says she tracks the distance she runs, walks and hikes, the exercises she does, and her progress toward other goals in a Google doc called “2024 Resolutions.”
He thinks documentation is preferable to an app, which could languish if users don’t want to be scolded for skipping workouts.
“When the cold weather prevented me from completing my walking goal in February, I jammed that lazy month into a single orange ‘failed’ box, then bounced back and completed my goal in March,” Hicks details. “My Google Doc lets me know how many chances I have left to achieve my goal this year, so setbacks don’t discourage me or stop me from giving up completely.”
Hicks also said she lost the weight by switching from high-calorie snacks like crackers and chips to denser snacks like bagels and protein bars to feel full, cutting down on the number of days she drank alcohol and ordering takeout.
