Soylent Day 0 - Starting the Soylent Weight Loss Journey

My name is John Huynh. I'm a 23 year software engineer, break dancer, and I want to be at 7% body fat. This post marks the beginning of a series of blog posts chronicling my weight loss experience using Soylent. If you aren't familiar with Soylent, it is ,essentially, liquid meals that provide all of the nutrients a human body needs.

I'll cover things like how I feel, how is my physical performance while consuming Soylent, and include daily physique images and scale readings. I will try to consume only Soylent until I reach my goal of 7% body fat. There will days where I will cheat because of social requirements (e.g. birthday events, dates, special occasions).

Why 7% Body Fat?

Whenever I tell people that I am trying to achieve 7% body fat, their first reaction is to ask "why?". This is usually followed up with the statement "you look slim and healthy".

Growing up, I wasn't physically active. I enjoyed reading, messing around on the computer, and playing video games. When I entered highschool, I reached my peak height of 5 feet 2 inches and weighed around 100 pounds. I was a complete shrimp. I didn't want to be scrawny. I wanted to have the strength to do whatever physical activity I wanted. I wanted to look good shirtless. With those thoughts in mind, I started lifting weights.

I'm still 5 feet 2 inches tall. However, I now weigh, roughly, 130 pounds and hover around 12% body fat. I used to lift weights, but now the bulk of my exercise comes from break dancing. I also follow the Twenty Pull-ups Challenge. I am definitely not scrawny anymore and I have good baseline strength that I can cultivate as needed. The only thing left is to look good shirtless. Perhaps my stint as a gym rat has cultivated this internal desire to look ripped or maybe I drank too much of the 6-pack koolaide. Either way, 7% body fat is where I'd like my body to be at. At this point, I'd like to stress that I want to get ripped for my own sake. I am not trying to impress anyone. I view having a ripped physique as a lifetime achievement.

Why Soylent?

I love cooking food, having conversations over food, and eating good food. Sometimes, I love food too much and overconsume. I am also terrible at counting calories. I want a simple, price and time effective calories restricting solution. Soylent is relatively cheap at $300 a month, provides the nutrients I need, and is easy to count calories with. All I have to do is mix the powder with water and drink only enough of it to meet my caloric intake goals.

The Process

My BMR is roughly 1450 calories a day. As long as I consume less than that, my body will use my fat reserves for energy. Initially, I am going to shoot for 1200 calories a day. I'll keep up with my usual activities and adjust the caloric intake depending on how my body reacts. At 1200 calories a day, I guaranteed at least 250 calories deficit. Assuming 3500 calories to a pount, I will lose 7000 calories or 2 pounds in one month. I will probably lose more than that since I break dance and work.

Goal

This blog will be my way of holding myself accountable. It will log my journey to a 7% body fat and maybe inspire or motivate others who are on their own journey.

Cheers.