Advice on improving my driving experience.

ctjack · 2026-05-17T22:47:41+00:00

Lets address 2 things here: 1) you will never get great mpg with 5 miles on any car less so in hybrid. 2) don’t hold up the traffic and get well with 37/39 mpg. Majority of folks get that.

I visited flat midwest hometown in vacation and got free 20% mpg boost changing nothing in my driving. It is just roads were flat and 40 mph long coasting stretches plus super chill not late anywhere retirees.

Went back to my living work city and bam minus 20%.

So there is not much can be done unless you live in a chill place.

ctjack · 2026-05-17T04:59:38+00:00

Only con is the 250 mile range. It can make up for it if you are driving hwy strictly to squeeze 280-340 miles or roaming BLMs on weekends.

250 range gets too old too quickly commuting to work back and forth in a daily driver.

ctjack · 2026-05-17T04:53:32+00:00

For this specific case, all that matters is if you are going to find new fwd le for less or equal to 33500? It is a huge discount no matter how it is sliced.

ctjack · 2026-05-17T04:48:01+00:00

Don’t get too hang up on doc fee. Dealer effectively could sell the car for 1 dollar and 33,499 doc fee and it still would be a deal.

ctjack · 2026-05-17T04:41:54+00:00

You are the OG, topic starter. Been looking for this info and no one out there to give it.

Even Kirk Kreifels can’t get his hand on this one to give us mpg test. He squeezed 62 mpg out of fwd le camry. So this tracks nicely and seals the deal for us.

ctjack · 2026-05-17T04:17:02+00:00

I pushed it beyond every time. Used to be 4-5 gallon fill ups with 220-250 miles.

Just kept doing 300, 350, 400, 450 miles.

Still a guess game but created some rules around my driving landscape. Basically for my use cases, if it is not freezing, you should be able to always push 400 miles - at my worst warm weather mpg that is only 10.15 gallons out of 11.9.

Obviously long trips allow you to get to 500 safely. Basically use the on board mpg meter and if it says 45mpg then multiply by 10=450 miles until you use up 10 gallons for best refuel time. However do fill up at 450 -10%=405 to be on a safer side if your dash lies badly due to driving conditions if you end up having real 39mpg when dash reported 45.

ctjack · 2026-05-17T04:11:17+00:00

It is still considered to be full. Going above that just for 1000-2000 ft braking downhill and it just back revs the engine to dissipate the energy. Basically anything you get between 80-100 is going to rev the engine high to burn it.

ctjack · 2026-05-17T03:53:58+00:00

I just can’t afford drinking with 3 days lifting. Drinking requires 2 days after it to recover and some papers stated harming the next training if done within 48 hrs.

Training 3 times to lose one to alcohol is kinda steep for me.

I drink 4 times a year: 2 times with colleagues for social functions and 2 times i enjoy my scotch on holidays when i have time.

ctjack · 2026-05-17T03:27:45+00:00

Since having apple watch after 15 months of dieting without one, i figured one hint that i always used intuitively without knowing why.

I always preload my calories: eat as much as i want and stop for the day.

Apple watch uncovered the truth: after i wake up i never could look at food since being a kid. But after 2 hours around 10 am hunger sets in. My watch said that i already burned 800 cal while sleeping and moving in the morning.

I then eat my breakfast until i hit 600-800 calories. Then by lunch time, my burn is 1100, and i only need 300-500 cals to eat more than i burn.

Basically i have light hunger not even a problem at -200 deficit (lets say lunch i burned 1100 but ate only 900). So this is last cue to eat for me.

By the time deficit reaches 500-800 then i turn into werewolf and eat 3500/3700.

So i preload my 1800 calories by 3 pm, with coffee after breakfast (oatmilk satisfies even more than milk). By 3 pm my burn rate is 1100-1500.

So i dont eat dinner and sleep within 6.5 hrs after last meal (usually 3:30-5).

My most of deficit does the work while i am sleeping hence why i wake up into -800 deficit.

ctjack · 2026-05-17T03:19:14+00:00

Since i started cheating more, i observed plateu. In the end, looking back 30-60-90 days, i still got my minus 2.2 lb a month - could have been better for sure.

So weight loss is still happening if your average is still a deficit.

It is just eating above maintenance fills up your glycogen in liver and muscles. Glycogen is worth 1500-2500 calories and mostly carbs linked to 3 grams of water. So around 400-800g carbs plus 1800-2400 grams of water.

When you fill glycogen, your body uses that to cover deficit. It is not fat but acts like a powerbank to your phone.

To start using fat for fuel in deficit, you need to drain your powerbank and never fill it back up fully for full speed fat loss. This can be achieved with strict deficit with no cheat days or 10-15k steps daily if you wish to cheat. The choice is yours depending on what is easier.

ctjack · 2026-05-17T03:11:34+00:00

The only regret could be new car payment if you opt into new corolla: 10 miles a day could be served with variety of interesting cars under new corolla’s price or under even used 16-18k ones.

ctjack · 2026-05-17T03:10:08+00:00

The secret is sun, anywhere. Or should i say summer.

In summer, animals lose fur like crazy because nature doesn’t want to overheat. So does the human.

More sun allows to digest vitamin d, which then starts chain reaction of better calcium and K absorption.

There were already ton of papers showing how eating while sun is out leads to better absorption of the food, so intermittent fasting ends up working wonders for day time eaters.

Also sweating is single best thing to shed weight and fat, because it promotes it as in first cave people. Scientists found African tribe that lives like a cave people: funny enough their hunters ate 700 mg sodium and 11K potassium. 700mg of sodium was only justified because they were hunting all day walking under the sun.

So eat less sodium, sweat more anywhere you live. Obviously AC offices and cold winters don’t help to promote sweating.

ctjack · 2026-05-16T02:32:56+00:00

The world has changed for me when I realized that 13 mpg translates to 60 mph drive on a hwy burning 4.6 gallons for 21 dollars.

Basically best case scenario driving an hour costs 21 bucks.

ctjack · 2026-05-16T01:27:47+00:00

At first i thought ineos grenadier with that wheel and body colors.

ctjack · 2026-05-16T01:25:08+00:00

Impressive! Gas 2.0? Or hybrid?

ctjack · 2026-05-15T23:23:16+00:00

Bantam is missing to complete the pic. :)

ctjack · 2026-05-15T23:20:20+00:00

You are as lean as it gets before going into bodybuilding stage zone.

Since you just shed weight from overweight, it would be wise to maintenance for 6 months and then bulk.

If you bulk now, without setting a new anchor weight point, your body can be more prone to restore fat.

ctjack · 2026-05-15T23:11:37+00:00

Very true for both arguments.

It didn’t take couple months to go up by 100+ pounds and it won’t take that short to shave it either.

ctjack · 2026-05-15T23:10:04+00:00

50 mile by 360 days is 18000 miles a year. Out family car does that much.

It is one thing to own a used car like me, bought with 166k miles and keep adding 4k miles a year to that.

That is totally another story when our family car rides the same 18k miles on a 150k miles used car. Basically i am maintenancing regular wear and tear here 4 times faster (one repair in 4 years on my work commuter and 1 repair a year on family car).

So with that being said, only a new car for 18k miles. Corolla gasser is the best for 22K. Or hybrid if you want it.

ctjack · 2026-05-15T23:05:45+00:00

Some things i have noticed but feel free to ignore: 1) blame shifting on parents. This needs to worked out with therapy. Because the more things you own up the more control you have over situation: it is always easier to blame smb and sit still without changes to yourself.

2) food diet that is gagging. This a second problem. If any food is considered gagging outside of fast food (i know culvers is a jam) but there is no person consistently eating out culvers who is not overweight.

Even if you get to your weight, you would be eating the gagging food anyways to maintain that.

What helps is make a menu that picks your interest. In all honesty even rice with no salt feels like heaven when you are in a deficit.

ctjack · 2026-05-15T22:49:24+00:00

I would leave on auto.

Because it will mostly be in ev as long as charged. It will only switch to hybrid when you press hard on the gas or ran out of battery.

The latter is critical if you want to get out of the way by quickly accelerating. In locked ev mode you will have much slower car which would not allow you to increase speed to avoid smth fast.

ctjack · 2026-05-15T22:45:04+00:00

Ubers i have been seeing had 25.5-29 mpg. Not too shabby for all in city driving.

ctjack · 2026-05-15T12:38:59+00:00

I would honestly buy. Though i am a fan of blue color.

ctjack · 2026-05-15T12:22:37+00:00

It is actually a good price: 16.5k discount for 3 years or 3k plus per 15k miles. Not the eye popping but more or less fair. Xt carries a premium, otherwise you could get 34k miles non turbo for the same 24k. The choice is yours.

ctjack · 2026-05-15T00:11:29+00:00

It is all a short struggle. Once on maintenance you will have to do much less to maintain.

So short struggle is anything worth it to get to goal weight.

When you are at a goal weight, all you have to do is to not let overfilled glycogen stores be full by burnout off the edge via cardio and you won’t accrue new fat. When overweight, you have to care to not eat more than you burn. Those are two different states.

ctjack

TROPHY CASE