You may remember that from May 1st to August 1st of this year I participated in friendly weight-loss contest with several co-workers. During that three month period I lost a total of 46 pounds. (And yes, I won the contest.) From August 1st through today (roughly three months after the end of the contest), I have maintained the weight that I’ve lost. I’ve done this through a combination of diet and mild exercise. Obviously I haven’t been dieting and exercising as much as I did during the initial contest, or I would have continued to lose weight. But that’s okay — my goal was to maintain. And now, I’m setting a new goal.

By January 1st, I plan on losing 40 pounds.

Some of you are saying, “how do you plan on doing that?” (Others of you are saying, “it’s about time, fat ass!”) My plan is essentially do what I did last time — walk twice a day, and eat between 1,000 and 1,500 calories per day. The first month of our initial contest I hurt my back jogging, so a lot of that time was spent not exercising. And during the second month I was only walking 1 mile a day — now I walk between 1.5 and 2 miles when I go. The third month of our contest (when I lost the most weight) I was walking twice a day (1 mile in the morning and 1.5 miles at night) and eating well. For the next two months, starting November 1st, I plan on following that same plan.

40 pounds in two months comes out to losing 5 pounds a week eight weeks in a row. Scientifically speaking, a person must burn 3,500 calories to lost a pound. Your body also burns 10 times your weight in calories just by being alive. If you weigh 100 pounds (and by the way, damn you if you do) then your body burns 1,000 calories a day. Mine burns closer to 3,000. If I eat 1,000 calories a day, that puts me at -2,000. Minus 2,000 calories times seven days a week is a 14,000 calorie loss; divide that by 3,500 calories per pound, and we’re looking at a 4 pound per week weight loss.

1,000 calories a day is pretty tough to do (an Egg McMuffin is 300 — that’s a bad start). 1,500 is closer to reality, but that still figures out to losing 3 pounds a week by diet alone, before figuring in exercise. One advantage to being fat (there is one?) is that you burn more calories when walking. According to the websites I’ve found, my proposed walking plan should burn around 400 calories a day.

And so, as of November 1st, that’s the goal. Lose 40 pounds by the end of the year, maintain for a while, rinse, repeat.