My Interview With the Founder of The Alfred Energy App

I answered some questions on The Alfred Energy App, weight loss, fitness, and Health.

I was asked by the founder of Alfred Energy to answer a few questions about my experience with weight loss and health. I fuckin’ love The Alfred App. It’s the simplest and quickest way to track calories I have ever seen. It’s brilliant for someone like me who tends to overthink things.

The best thing about it though… It just works.

As someone with low self-esteem and someone who has battled with his weight, it’s difficult for me to share pictures like the ones below. Because I was once fat, it’s hard to view myself as anything but fat. I’m aware of the risks associated with low self-esteem and body image and I’m not saying this so people say to me “oohhh don’t be silly, you’re not fat“. I get all that, Just know that no matter how fit or lean I get, I’ll never feel completely comfortable sharing these kinds of things, however, I try to live by the idea that we don’t grow inside our comfort zone. Doing uncomfortable things is how we get better, each time we do them, they get easier.

Mostly though, I am sharing because I am a regular fucking bloke. I have a full-time job in construction. I am a dad, and a partner, I like watching sports and growing veggies. I just want people like me to see that it is possible to lose weight, eat more mindfully, have more energy, and generally improve how they feel each and every day. I think these things play a major role in our mental health too. Which to me is as important if not more than our physical health. So I want to share what has worked for me.

If sharing this helps one person decide to make a positive change in their life, I wouldn’t be living up to my core values if I didn’t share it.

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Tell us a bit about yourself

My name is Sam Wilson. I’m a plant-eating new dad who was born and raised in Ngunnawal Country, Canberra, ACT. I’m a construction supervisor who’s recently relocated back to Yuin Country, on NSW’s South Coast. I’m a wannabe runner and a wannabe veggie farmer. I love my family, Rugby League, Cricket, and Writing. I’ve recently clocked over 7 months of sobriety after spiraling to my own version of rock bottom at a later time. You can read about my journey through sobriety here.

From your heaviest, how much have weight you lost?

I’m not entirely sure. I have gained and lost 25 or more kilograms on three separate occasions over the last 16 years. I think the heaviest I have ever been being around 115kg probably around eight years ago.

Early last year I started working with a legendary nutritionist and childhood friend James Kuhn. he was brilliant and helped me drop a lot of weight. At the time I had a couple of frustrating shoulder injuries which prevented me from training in the gym, so all I could do was run. I ended up getting a bit obsessed with stupid metrics like body weight and weekly kilometers ran. I average 100k per week for the whole second half of last year and was only eating 2100 calories a day. I got right down to 78kg. Too small. I felt like shit. I had no energy. I think my body just didn’t like being that small. It’s hard to describe, but I just didn’t feel good.

After running so much last year and getting Covid in March this year, I ran the Canberra Marathon in early April and then kinda just gave up on running. I was over it. I put on a bit of weight and wasn’t exercising as much as I should have been. I certainly wasn’t being mindful of what I was eating.

I decided to try to get back into the gym and was pleased to discover my shoulders had finally come good after struggling with bursitis forever 12 months. So I started weight training most days around Easter when I got sober. I wasn’t being mindful of what I was eating at all but I was exercising a lot and thought I was sweet. I ended up back up close to triple figures.

I was putting on weight and getting stronger, but I was putting on a bit of body fat too. So a few months ago I decided to give Alfred a crack. I had used My Fitness Pal before, particularly when I was working with James. I didn’t want to use something as involved as MFP and Alfred was and has been perfect for what I wanted. Quick, simple, easy. I’m now back down to around 92kg and I think I have finally found the right balance between strength and endurance training. I feel really good. I am running close to PBs but also stronger than I have ever been in my life. For someone who has always bounced from one extreme to the other, it’s really nice to feel like I have finally found the balance that suits me most.

I’m not too concerned with being big or ripped, skinny, or whatever. I just want to feel strong and fit. I just want to feel healthy. Like at any given time I can trot alongside my son when he starts riding a bike but also be able to pick him up and throw him around a swimming pool or whatever. Just enough of both to get the most out of life.

Why did you want to lose weight?

I’ve always wanted to be fit. I have been for most of my life. My weight gain has always correlated with my mental health. In hindsight, it’s easy to know when I’m struggling, because I will get fat. This is because I use food and alcohol as coping mechanisms. Each time I’d get so depressed that I truly didn’t care how unfit or fat I was until I did. Once I’d had enough I would go on stupid diets and implement overzealous exercise routines. I would either go too far the other way and be way too strict or do something unsustainable and ultimately, after short-term results, wind up back where I was or worse.

The last time I lost a lot of weight was around the time I got diagnosed with and medicated for ADHD. I can’t say I have kept it all off in that time but I have certainly fluctuated less in this time. I don’t think I’ve hit triple figures in the last seven years. I’ve been close, real close, but not quite hit it, I don’t think?

Anyway, this last time I did it I was starting to get worried that if I didn’t do it soon I would end up too old to have the energy to do it. I had heard that the older you get the harder it is to lose weight, which may be bullshit, but it worked for me. I remember being at work, this was back when I worked in the field full time, and some days I would struggle to walk up a hill, or get a shovel full of asphalt or whatever and just think, “fuck me, Sam. This isn’t who you are. You need to sort this shit out. This is embarrassing”. When I realised my weight was affecting my ability to do simple tasks at work I kind of realised that my life would be better and easier if I was in better shape.

Was there anything holding you back from losing weight in the past?

Apart from myself and my sporadic losses of willpower usually, due to my self-destructive behaviour and my declining mental health correlating so perfectly, it was my lack of nutrition knowledge.

I never really sought out nutrition advice. Naively, I just kind of read stuff online, and got sucked into a few fads and trends. Whilst I had found ways to lose weight in the past, I was always the guy trying to out-train bad diets. I used to lie to myself and "say “I’ll never count calories, I never want to live like that, I want to enjoy my life and not worry about stuff like that”. In reality, I was just too lazy, and maybe tracking calories or researching nutrition would have told me something that I didn’t want to hear.

It wasn’t until I started working with James last year that I really started to get it. James is brilliant. He doesn’t want to work with people forever. He wants to work with people until he has given them enough tools to manage their nutrition by themselves. I don’t need his help anymore. Knowing what I now know, Alfred Energy is perfect for me.

Other than eating mindfully and tracking calories, what other tools have you found are most effective in terms of weight loss?

This will come as no surprise to anyone that has ever listened to anything I have ever said but without a doubt Zone, 2 Training has been the most effective form of training for weight loss for me. Because I’m a plant-smashing vegan I listen to a lot of Rich Roll Podcasts. I stumbled across an episode about this thing called Zone 2 Training that featured Chris Hauth, the guru in Zone 2 Training, and thought I’d give it a go.

Click here to see Rich's podcasts on Zone 2 Training.

Anyway, my understanding is that you find your max heart rate (220 minus your age) then subtract your resting heart rate (use 60) if you don’t know it. This is your heart rate threshold. Zone 2 is 50-75% of your heart rate threshold. So to make the math easy, let’s take a 40-year-old with a resting HR of 60. Their max HR will be 180. So their HR threshold is between 60 and 180. They will want to do the bulk of their training with their HR between 120 and 150.

Initially, it feels painfully slow. I remember I would have to walk up even the slightest hills, but after I built a bit of a base, it felt like I was running with a cheat code. I just felt like I could run forever as long as my HR was below 150. I feel like I could run at an HR of 150 for twice as long as I could at an HR of 170.

Apparently, this is because when you go higher than that, your body starts to stress. Body fat is an inefficient fuel for that level of output, so once you’re above 150 you start to burn through all your other energy stores and when they run out you start to burn muscle. It was hard for me to get my head around, but if you keep your HR below 150, you can run for longer which burns more calories, but also you burn more body fat. So the easier you run, the more fat you burn. It’s just not as quick.

It’s just such an easy way to burn a high volume of calories by doing something that doesn’t feel like you’re exerting all that much effort.

One of the things we’re trying to do at Alfred is to help people take control of their health. What’s been the biggest change to your health you’ve noticed from losing weight?

Energy and sleep. When I’m fit and healthy, I feel like I’m ready at any given time to take something on. I don’t need to mentally psych myself up to do something. Training and stuff are great for your mental health and physical health, but I love having the energy to mow the lawn and then spend a couple of hours in the garden after and not even feel like I am doing anything hard.

As someone who lives with ADHD, I’ve always struggled with sleep, getting to sleep, staying asleep, and getting deep sleep. I just don’t have a good relationship with sleep. But the fitter and healthier I am, the better and more consistently I sleep. Which is amazing for my ADHD and mental health.

I think “health” is holistic and circular. I think your mental health and physical health will look after one another if you look after both of them too. When I train, I want to eat well, I get the urge to drink less, and I feel good about myself. When I’m not active, it’s the opposite.

I guess in summary, I just feel better and happier when I’m fit and healthy.

What do you like most about Alfred?

I love how simple it is. It’s so quick. Being able to send a photo of your meal or just a description and having the number of calories sent back to you soon after is awesome. Knowing that it’s being calculated by actual nutrition students gives me peace of mind, knowing that they know what they are doing. Just a quick photo, send it off and forget about it until later.

How has Alfred helped you the most in terms of what you eat?

It’s made me realize that you can actually eat the foods you enjoy and not feel bad about them. I think that’s the biggest thing. In the past I’ve been the kind of guy to have an unhealthy meal and think “stuff it, I’ve ruined the day, may as well eat like shit for the rest of the day”. Since I’ve been using Alfred I have realised that one bad meal doesn’t have to ruin the day. You can enjoy a meal that may be a little bit more calorie-dense than what you would normally eat and still finish the day within your goal range without starving yourself. For me, having small amounts of “bad” foods more regularly prevents me from having those blowout binges. The Binges come from when I am too strict for too long and it all becomes too much and I cave in. It’s kind of like drip-feeding those foods I enjoy releases enough of that pressure which eliminates the chance of that bad blowout binge.

Have you noticed any changes to your energy since using Alfred?

Definitely. I definitely noticed the day after I am in a big deficit I don’t feel as good as I usually do. I have found I feel best if I am somewhere around the start of my goal area. It means I have had just enough for the next day without feeling like crap from overeating. How I feel almost always correlates perfectly with how close I was to my goal zone the day before.

One thing I have found Alfred really handy for is fueling for longer runs. When I run I burn around 80 cals per kilometer. So I would burn maybe 3,300 calories when running a marathon. Usually, in a marathon, I would eat consume around 500-600 calories in energy gels and the like. I’ll have around 300 calories in bananas for breakfast the morning of. So those two combined only give me around 900 calories. Last time I Ran a long run I used Alfred to make sure I was well over the day before. I ate about 1,500 calories over my target. So that gives me around 2,400 cals for the run plus whatever I woke up with which was a 1,500 cal surplus. So that gives me around 3,900 cals, which should see me through a marathon with a bit up my sleeve. I love the night before a long run because I can eat whatever I want, usually carb heavy. The next day I felt really good in terms of energy. After the marathon and my 2,350 cal allowed for the day, I was up to around 6,000 cals burnt for the day. So basically I was 1,500 cals over the day before, then the next day I just made sure I stayed under a 1,500 cal deficit, essentially borrowing calories from tomorrow to make sure I had the energy for the run, then using Alfred to make sure I evened it back out the next day. It was cool and worked bloody perfectly and I’ll be doing it every time from now on. I love it.

What’s your favourite meal?

I can’t answer this. I love all the food. Pizza, pasta, burgers, burritos, moussaka, lasagna, pies, ice cream, chocolate, cookies, smoothies, Thai, Indian, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, I love it all. Haha. . I dunno, man. I’m into equality.

How often do you have it?

I try to eat takeaway once a week or less. It’s been a whole lot easier since moving down the coast where they don’t have Menulog, Uber Eats, etc. I want to set a better example for my young bloke so it’s probably a good thing.

If you could go back, what would you tell yourself at the beginning of your weight loss journey?

Change your “why”. Prioritise being healthy over anything. I believe that if you change your goal to be healthy and fit primarily, weight loss will come. Weight loss is a byproduct of a healthy lifestyle.

Set yourself a variety of metric-based goals. Some weeks I would run 100k’s and not lose weight and I would think I needed to run even more. It’s bullshit. Set yourself a performance goal. A diet goal. An attendance goal. A “fit into your old clothes goal”. That way, if the scales don’t show you what you want to see, you can cushion that mental fall by knowing that you ran a PB, did more total steps than last week, went to the gym an extra day, were in deficit every day of the week, punched a new hole in your belt. We should never focus solely on scale weight to determine progress. There are way too many variables to put all out eggs in one basket. It’s about trajectory and it’s not linear.

Trust the process. It works. The slower the progress, the more sustainable it is. The more likely you are to stick with the process. And stop comparing yourself to fake dickheads on Instagram.

Got a message for the Alfred community?

I think it’s important, to be honest with yourself. If you eat something, track it. But also, if you go over for the day, don’t beat yourself up over it. Bradman got ducks, and Michael Jordan missed free throws. Shit happens. The amazing thing is, we get to try again tomorrow. One bad day won’t make you fat, one good day won’t make you skinny. Be kind to yourself. Be gentle, try your best to stick to the plan, and trust the process.

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Movember

Last week I wrote about Why I Committed to a 60k Run on 16 Days’ Notice so I won’t go too deeply into it here.

Movember now offers more ways to raise money for prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men’s mental health than just growing a mo. I have a double chin, so I ain’t shaving.

60 men die every hour around the world by suicide.

Six Australian men die every day by suicide.

So I am going to (try to) run 60k on Saturday the 26th of November as part of the Running 4 Resilience team with

Binh Dang

, , and the legendary

Singh

Talwar. I am thinking I will do two laps of the great sediment trap that is Lake Burley Griffin. I am going to start nice and early because I want to avoid running in the heat of the day as much as possible and I have to get to mum’s family Christmas party for lunch. I’m sure the sober guy who’s too tired to talk to anyone will be the life of the party, but fuck ‘em. This shit is important.

If anyone is interested in donating to a very important cause click here. Any donation big or small is hugely appreciated and will go towards saving lives. Movember donates all proceeds to charities such as The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, Livestrong, and Beyond Blue who all do amazing work.

Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram and Twitter @sbrngthghts

Guys, please, if anyone is struggling in any way, make someone aware of it. Speak to a friend, family, loved one, stranger, postman, uber eats driver, or me, just talk to someone.

Lifeline Ph: 13 11 14

Alcoholics Anonymous Ph: 1300 222 222

NSW Mental Health Line Ph: 1800 011 511

Suicide Call Back Service Ph: 1300 659 467

Mensline Australia Ph: 1300 78 99 78

Kids Helpline Ph: 1800 55 1800