# Cook or baker? Measure first, then use concepts

Two weeks of weighing everything, then 1–3 airtight rules.



## Takeaways

- Baker mode for 2 weeks: log kcal + protein in the Day log.

- Then cook mode: protein + veg every meal, window, no junk — the three toggles.

- Weigh daily or weekly, not both.



Galpin sorts people into 'bakers' (weigh and measure everything, follow the plan exactly, weigh yourself daily) and 'cooks' (a few concepts you stay airtight to — protein source at every meal, fresh vegetables at every meal, an eating window, cut junk — and weigh weekly).

His recommendation: do the baking approach for two weeks first. Everyone who does a 7-day weighed diet recall discovers the same thing — far more fat and carbohydrate than they thought, far less protein. Then you can loosen to concepts, because you finally know what a tablespoon of peanut butter is.

The literature agrees: self-monitoring of food and weight is one of the strongest predictors of weight-loss success, frequent self-weighing helps without psychological harm, higher protein (~1.2–1.6 g/kg) preserves lean mass, and simply narrowing an eating window to 10–11 h produced weight loss and better sleep with no other instruction.



## Sources

- Self-monitoring in weight loss: a systematic review of the literature (Burke LE, Wang J, Sevick MA, 2011)

- Self-weighing in weight management: a systematic literature review (Zheng Y, Klem ML, Sereika SM, Danford CA, Ewing LJ, Burke LE, 2015)

- The role of protein in weight loss and maintenance (Leidy HJ, Clifton PM, Astrup A, et al., 2015)

- A smartphone app reveals erratic diurnal eating patterns in humans that can be modulated for health benefits (Gill S, Panda S, 2015)

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Educational summary of published research, not medical advice. Screening scores are not diagnoses. If a score is elevated or you feel unwell, talk to a clinician.

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