I decided to work on reducing my weight because I am quite a bit overweight. I noticed some negative consequents of being overweight. I tend to be hungrier than when I was average weight. My heart rate was higher. My energy level decreased. My clothing does not fit me well, and I lost confidence. I decided to challenge myself to lose weight. This blog is a summary of the progress of my first four weeks of this challenge. I experienced some benefits and some setbacks I wanted to share with you to help you lose weight.
Exercise
With a commitment to being healthy, I started with regular exercise. One of the biggest obstacles for me is making time for regular exercise. Since I am working from home, I could do 30 minutes of exercise during my lunchtime and 15 minutes after work. I picked my favorite workout, Zumba fitness, for my starting exercise. I used to go to Zumba class back in Canada, and I have only good memories associated with the activity. Zumba can be a strenuous exercise, and the calories consumptions can rise to approximately 230kcal with my weight within 30minutes. I use Zumba Burn it Up!. I played the Zumba game since we acquired a console that was able to run it last Christmas, and I like the game a lot. Having a good feeling about the activities is an excellent way to keep me going with my commitment.
Equipment
The equipment I use for my exercise commitment is Fitbit Charge 3/4, Nintendo Switch, and Zumba Barn it up!
Fitbit Charge 3 & Charge 4: I have two Fitbit watches listed here because I had to replace my Charge 4. I loved Charge 4 as it tracks your activity duration and calculates your active minutes by considering the workout intensity. The workout intensity level is an essential factor for the amount of calorie output as it changes the amount of exercise expenditure per minute. For example, you will be spending much more energy by hiking a hilly mountain than walking on a flat road. The reason is your heart rate is higher for more vigorous exercise. Fitbit is not a cheap watch, but it eliminates my time to calculate activity minutes. You can use a heart rate monitor for around $20-$30 instead. The minutes for a high-intensity activity are double activity minutes.
Nintendo Switch and Zumba Burn it up!: I used a Nintendo Switch Game for an exercise program. You can use any exercise program as it is more accessible, and you feel you can commit to doing so. My husband, who disliked jogging, used Zombies, Run!, a phone app to make his jogging more interesting. He likes Zombie stories. He can now run 10 km in one go despite his physical challenges due to his brain trauma five years ago.
There are some improvements in my vital measurements, such as my resting heart rate and sleep quality in the first week. For example, my resting heart rate improved from 68 to 65, and my sleep quality increased from 76% to 83%. I was anxious about recent increases in my resting heart rates; it was an unexpected change.
It was not only good news, though. Soon, I started realizing exercising is not enough to lose weight. After a week of exercise, I lost only 0.3lb with 420 minutes of weekly active minutes. I began to review my Fitbit records, so I had to make modifications to my programs.
I noticed the following problems: sleep duration, water intake, and food intake. They are all equally essential factors in being healthy, but I must make choices. I was in the middle of a financial audit, and I did not have time to research all the factors. It is crucial to understand why I am modifying my programs. I was unsure about implementing the changes in my food intake as not all diets available are healthy nor practical. I decided to work on sleep duration and water intake. Since Fitbit cares about and tracks them, they must be important factors.
Sleep Duration
Sleep duration is essential for losing weight. According to Markawld et al. (2013), insufficient sleep leads to weight gain and obesity due to the change in energy expenditure and the changes in satiety and hunger hormones. Inadequate sleep will increase our energy expenditure per minute to compensate for the lack of energy; however, the hormone changes also signal our brain to eat more carbohydrates and fat, resulting in increased weight gain. Duration of sleep impacts females (pp. 5695-5696).
Sleep duration is a crucial factor for losing weight. To improve my sleep duration, I decided to review my habits. One of my biggest obstacles was I have no sleep schedule. I also like watching YouTube or reading on my smartphone, resulting in less than 6 hours of sleep. Even with my blue light filtering glasses, how good is not having enough sleeping time. So I will make modifications to these habits. First, I made a strict sleeping schedule that imposed a penalty to pay my husband. Second, I made it more difficult to access my mobile devices as my mobile devices are one of the factors taking away my sleep time. Third, I made a habit of meditating two minutes before going to bed. At first, it was challenging, but I managed to increase my average weekly sleeping duration to 7hours and 43 minutes by the end of the 3rd week.
Water Intake
Hydrating our body is essential for our health. There is an exciting news journal you can read on the John Hopkin University website. There are multiple benefits to drinking enough water, but I focused on a few relevant factors to this program.
According to HR NewsWire published (Jan 15, 2020), water helps hydrate our body and lose weight. Research conducted by Elizabeth Huggins suggested drinking 2 cups of water before eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner decrease food intake by 22% on average. A 2013 study reported that drinking approximately two cups of 71F water before breakfast, lunch, and dinner helped reduce body mass index and improve body composition score by 14% among healthy adults due to the increases in the body’s metabolic rate 33% average. The reason is the body tries to recover the heat lost from drinking cold water.
Finally, drinking water helps us exercise more effectively. Melina Jampolis, a board-certified physician nutrition specialist, explains that water dissolves and distributes electrolytes required for muscle contractions. Therefore, proper hydration will more effectively gain muscles. We tend to lose hydration during exercise. Sweat has its essential role in regulating our body temperature. So, it is crucial to have enough water before and during training (para. 4 – para. 15).
I struggled with implementing this habit. Initially, I set up a drinking schedule like 12 oz after waking up, 12 oz at 10 a.m., and so on. It became more challenging when I could not take time to drink due to auditors’ phone calls that lasted more than I would like. Then I missed the scheduled time to drink the 12 oz of water at 10 a.m. After few days of struggling, I drank 12oz of water after I go to the washroom. Somehow this method worked for me—the act of going to the restroom triggers my memory to drink 12 oz of water. Well, everyone has to go to the washroom sometimes after all.
I think having a sufficient sleep gave me more energy for being active. The effect of improving my sleeping habits and drinking enough water brought me a fantastic result of losing 3.7 lb in 2 weeks.
Conclusion
My tip is to work on your goals even when you encounter some challenges. Losing weight can be tricky. In some weeks, you may gain weight, or it may not change at all. It can be frustrating. A slight modification in programs may help you to accomplish losing weight. The most important thing is that you will keep working on it because maintaining a healthy weight will become your lifetime commitment.
References
Jan 15, H. N. / P. & 2020. (2020, Jan 15). Yes, drinking more water may help you lose weight. The Hub. https://hub.jhu.edu/at-work/2020/01/15/focus-on-wellness-drinking-more-water/
Markwald, R. R., Melanson, E. L., Smith, M. R., Higgins, J., Perreault, L., Eckel, R. H., & Wright, K. P. (2013). Impact of insufficient sleep on total daily energy expenditure, food intake, and weight gain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(14), 5695–5700. JSTOR.