Tag: Fitness

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Losing Weight Challenge #4 Exercising is not Enough to Lose Weight

Background

To improve my physical and mental condition, I decided to work on changing my lifestyle. I started with dancing Zumba on my switch, and I gradually made changes. My goal is to lose weight without losing my muscle mass. I implemented formal strength training offered by Les Mills into my exercise program last month. I have been exercising mindful eating for two months without any strict calorie or food restriction. With approximately 400- 460 minutes of activities per week, I gained 0.4 lb. of muscles till lost only 0.2 lb. Mindful eating is necessary; however, I still need to change how I eat to lose weight.

Procedures

I follow the following exercise program during the last 4 weeks.

 MONTUEWEDTHURFRISATSUN
ClassRestBODYPUMPAny cardioBODYPUMPAny cardioBODYPUMPBODYFLOW
My workout schedule for the last 4 Weeks

I rotated BODYATTACK, BODYCOMBAT, or BODYSTEP for my carid days, approximately 300-330 calories per 30 minutes per session. Additionally, I walked on Saturday and Sunday, which add up to about 2 hours of activities minutes. Therefore, my average activity minutes were 400- 460 minutes per week. I achieved over 8,000 steps goals for all days except for June 29th, when I felt ill. Therefore, I had more than sufficient activity minutes for losing weight. My muscle mass had increased by 0.4 lb.

The Possible for Not Losing Weight

Why am I not losing weight? I was frustrated; however, I thought that the best way to find out the causes is to review my notes. Since I am not losing weight as fast as I would like, I must make some changes. From my notes, I came up with the following reasons why I am not losing weight.

Not Enough Cardio Exercise

I may need to increase Cardio Exercise as I do only twice per week of moderately-intensity cardio exercises. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, we must target 150 minutes to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activities per week (p. 21). I did only two sessions of cardio per week which might not be adequate for losing fat. I have many activities minutes; however, approximately 250 minutes of those activities are generated from walking or doing house chores.

Not Enough Calorie Deficit

I suspected that this is the leading cause of my struggles since I exercised mindful eating. I decided how much I should be eating by listening to the needs of my body. I ate more than 1,600 calories on some days because I was starving after a long walk or workout. To lose weight, we must create a calorie deficit. To lose one pound, I need to make a deficit of 3,500 calories. I was not losing weight because I was not producing enough calorie deficit. Therefore, I need to create a calorie deficit by either doing more exercise or eating less.

Eating Not Enough or Too Much Protein at Once

Since I was still gaining muscles, I assumed that I ate enough calories and protein. So, there is a cap on how much our body can synthesize protein at once! According to the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (as cited in Venuto, 2013), you will need to eat 0.4 to 0.5 grams of high-quality protein per kilogram of lean body mass weight. For example, someone with 70kg of Lean body mass weight should eat somewhere between 28 and 35 grams of high-quality protein both pre-and post-exercise. Although, our protein synthesis cap out to about 25 to 30 grams for women (p. 179). Any excess protein above protein synthesis turns into fat. I ate approximately 70 % of my daily protein at supper. According to Layman (as cited in Venuto, 2013), the average American consumes over 65% of daily protein at dinner (p. 179). I ate enough protein because I considered total protein intake per day. However, I did not consider the timing of protein intake. So, some of my protein converted into fat since I was overeating at once. I should break up my protein intake multiple times per day.

Not Sleeping Enough For Two Weeks

In the 2nd week of the last challenge, I messed up my sleeping schedule for three weeks. I had days I could not sleep at all. I tended to eat more even with my mindful eating practice when I did not sleep 6 hours. Insufficient sleep prevents you not only healthy but also me you unproductive. Furthermore, poor sleep leads to weight gain and obesity (Markawld et al., 2013). I also see the tendency to eat more dense calories foods when I do not have enough sleep. Sometimes, I was scared to get on the weight machine in the morning. The number is a good way to monitor, but it can be cruel. When I gained weight for 1.2 lb, I had to think about how much cumulative weight I lost. I managed to fix my sleeping schedule last week, and now I am sleeping on the correct sleeping schedule. I wrote a blog, “Am I sleeping Enough?,” about how I tackled this program. Please check it out!

Things Need to be Changed

After making the list of possible causes for my struggle, I made few hypotheses on possible strategies to overcome struggle. My main reason for not losing weight was that I overate. Therefore, to lose weight, I must create a calories deficit by eating fewer calories or exercising more. According to Harvard Health Publishing (July 11, 2020), you should make 500 to 1,000 calories less than the total weight-maintenance calories to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week. Although, it is not recommended to eat less than 1,200 calories per day for a female and 1,500 calories per day for a male (para. 3). You can calculate your maintenance calories by the following formula.

  1. If you do little or no exercise: Calories = BMR x 1.2
  2. If you do light exercise (1-3 days per week) = BMR x 1.375
  3. If you do moderate exercise (3-5 days per week) = BMR x 1.55

You can calculate your BMR by the following formula.

BMR (Base Metabolism Rate) = BMR = 88.362 + (13.397 x weight in kg) + (4.799 x height in cm) – (5.677 x age in years) Women: BMR = 447.593 + (9.247 x weight in kg) + (3.098 x height in cm) – (4.330 x age in years)

Garnet Health. (July 1, 2016) Basal Metabolic Rate Calculator

If you feel lazy, You can use the online Maintenance Calories Calculator I found on the Omni Calculator website (Please use the web address for reference).

I want 500 calories deficit per week. Since my Maintenance Calorie is 1,337.3 kcal/ I want 500 calories deficit per week. Since my Maintenance Calorie is 1,337.3 kcal/ day, I could reduce only 100 calories just from eating without going below 1,200 calories. Thus, I must create a deficit of 400 calories from exercising or being active. I added 20-minute High-Intensity Interval Training on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday to increase energy output. Les Mills has a GRIT program. I am considering doing 20-minute short GRIT for now.

Modified Exercise Program

 MONTUEWEDTHURFRISATSUN
MorningRestBODYPUMPAny cardioBODYPUMPAny cardioBODYPUMPBODYFLOW
Evening HIIT HIIT HIIT 
Modified Exercise Program next 4 weeks

Conclusion

I did not lose as much weight as I would like at the last challenge. The main reason was I did not make enough calorie deficit. It was a disappointing result, but weight loss is a long journey. I am not going to give up on my journey. For the next challenge, I will create a calorie deficit of 500 calories per day by eating 100 calories less from my body maintenance calories and creating 400 calorie deficits from exercising. I would increase my cardio exercise to lose more fat.

References

Garnet Health. (July 1, 2016). Basal Metabolic Rate Calculator. https://www.garnethealth.org/news/basal-metabolic-rate-calculator

Harvard Health Publishing. (Jul 11, 2020). Calorie Counting Made Easy. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/calorie-counting-made-easy

Michalowska, J. (Jul 08, 2021). Maintenance Calorie Calculator. https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/maintenance-calorie

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.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2018). Physical Activity Guideline for Americans. https://health.gov/sites/default/files/2019-09/Physical_Activity_Guidelines_2nd_edition.pdf

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Losing Weight Challenge #4 Introducing LES MILLS on Demand

To improve my physical and mental condition, I decided to work on changing my lifestyle. I started with dancing Zumba on my switch, and I gradually made changes. Since the last challenge, I began working on mindful eating. I wanted to be more contemplative with who I am, and I wanted to trust my eating. I also decided to work on increasing my muscle mass while reducing my body fat. So, I started to look for exercise programs from home that include muscle training and cardio exercise. After some research, I decided to try LES MILLS on Demand.

I must understand how much exercise I should be doing. When I tried the first 45 minutes BODYATTACK, I barely made it to the 30-minute mark. At this point, I was not sure about my physical capability. This round, I wanted to try few different types of LES MILLS exercise classes. Then, I would customize workout programs in the future.

Procedures:

(1) Experiment with a 45-minute class and stop when I could not do any exercise. After the first week, I changed to a 30-minute class.

(2) Try a class per day until I needed a rest day.

(3) Change the time of exercise to find the best time for exercising.

I used this trial period to evaluate my physical strength, flexibility, and endurance. My main goal is to figure out my workout program. I started with BODYATTACK, BODYCOMBAT, and BODYFLOW since I did not have any equipment yet.

I monitored my total body weight and muscle mass to see the progress.

I will briefly introduce BODYATTACK, BODYCOMBAT, and BODYFLOW.

BODYATTACK reminds me of a Bootcamp class I used to take. It consists of athletic movements such as running, squats, lunges, agility, push-up, core exercise, and plyometrics. It is a high-energy exercise. My Fitbit calculated I spent about 305-310 calories for 30 minutes of this exercise. The class is intense, but you can always pick a more accessible option. For example, I can choose to do squads instead of burpees.

BODYCOMBAT is like kickboxing. It used to be called BODYATTCK. When I did my first instructor certification course with LES MILLS 15 years ago, I lost 8 pounds just practicing videos every day. Muay Thai exercises were always the hardest one for me, so I was happy to do some Muay Thai exercises. Their high knee exercises give me good muscle pain. My Fitbit calculated I spent about 325-330 calories for a 30 minute-class.

BODYFLOW contains Yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates, and meditation. I usually do their 20-25 minutes body flow class before work. I am not very flexible, so I try to imitate the instructors’ poses as much as I can. BODYFLOW is not a high-energy class; however, my body feels good from stretching.

I told my husband about getting Les Mills on-demand subscription. He knew that I had instructor certifications from LES MILLS 15 years ago. So, we agreed that we would purchase equipment for BODYPUMP and BODYSTEP. Since we received the equipment kit in the 4th week, I only tried BODYPUMP twice last week.

Finding

To find out how many days I can exercise per week, I did a workout every day. As a result, I started to have pain in the arch of the foot. So, I had to take two days of rest and light exercise the following days. After three days of rest and a light workout, the pain was gone. So, I need to be more mindful of how much I exercise. I found out I could do six days of workout; however, one day must be BODYFLOW. I added a 17 minutes BODYFLOW class in the morning in addition to a 30-minute exercise, which seems to work for me. I felt much better when I stretch in the morning.

A 30-minute of exercise per day is adequate for me for now. If I do more than a 30-minute of training, I get tired. I struggled with how to fit the exercise routine into my schedule. The first week, I was so tired from the exercise that I slept in on both weekends. Then, I was not as productive on weekends either. Furthermore, I forgot to practice the piano for two days.

Benefits 

It is convenient since I can exercise in my house. It is not my first time trying LES MILLS’s program. I used to go to their BODYATTACK, RPM, and BODYSTEP classes at a gym a long time ago. I loved their program, but the program was available only at GoodLife Fitness, where I lived. Since I was always traveling, it was challenging to attend some classes, such as BODYPUMP classes. I loved their BODYATTACK and RPA programs so much that I earned instruction certificates. I did not have time to teach the classes, but I could get instructor videos for the programs. When I realized that I can now do this program on demand, I was excited. It came with a 30-day trial period, but I have already known that I would enjoy their program. Now I can do their exercise program any time I want to.

Accessing a variety of exercises prevents us from becoming obese. Among nearly 1.7 million US adults, people regardless of their sexes who engaged both 150 minutes or more per week of aerobic physical activity and twice or more per week of muscle-strengthening exercise with different classes had the lowest incidence of obesity (Bennie et al., 2020, p. 332). When people engage in various activities, they tend to accumulate more minutes of total exercise time. It is recommended that you will need between 150 and 250 minutes per week of exercise to prevent weight gain, and you will need between 225 and 420 minutes per week of exercise to lose weight. Bennie et al. explain that Americans who exercise with two or more activities tend to do more than 150 minutes of exercise (p. 341). I had more than 400 minutes of training from all four weeks.

The class choreography is easy to understand. Instructors perform all routines as mirror images to the students so that attendants can follow the instruction easier. For example, an instructor performs left side steps and tells students to do a right sidestep.

Every class seems to contain squats. In addition to regular exercise, squats promote our body to lose body fat and gain lean body mass. For example, after observing 94 athletic adolescent boys, they found the group who did 100 reps per day of squats 45 sessions over eight weeks increased lean body mass by 2.7%and decreased body fat by 4.2% (Takai et al., 2013, p. 61).

Impact of my Total & Muscle Weight

I started caring more about my muscle weight than my total weight. I continue with my mindful eating. I gained 0.6 lb. of the total weight and 0.2 lb. of muscle mass during the first week because I ate more. I think I was hungrier because my body was going through sudden trauma from all the training. During the second week, I was more careful with my eating. I lost 1.4 lbs. I also lost 0.2lbs of muscle. During the third week, I made sure I ate enough protein and carbohydrates, and I lost 0.2lbs of the total weight while gaining 0.2 lbs. of muscle mass. In the 4th week, I regained 0.2 lbs., but I also gained 0.2 lbs. of muscle mass. I lost 1.0 lb. of total weight, but I gained 0.4 lbs. of muscles.

Losing fat without losing protein is more challenging than I initially thought. I may need to investigate how to eat appropriately to retrain my muscles.

The Next Action

From my 1-month experience, my approximate time of exercise was 5-6 x of 30- minutes of class. I must rest my body at least once a week. I will start with six days of exercise, but I may reduce it to 5 days.

Since I want to gain more muscle, I am considering more BODYPUMP classes per week. I will rotate BODYATTACK, BODYCOMBAT, BODYSTEP, and ZUMBA on cardio days. In addition, I may continue 20 minutes of BODYFLOW before work because little stretches in the morning made me feel good.

I am considering implementing the following schedule for the next challenge.

 MONTUEWEDTHRFRISATSUN
ClassRestBODYPUMPAny cardioBODYPUMPAny cardioBODYPUMPBODYFLOW
Workout Schedule #5

References

Bennie, J. A., Cocker, K. D., Pavey, T., Stamatakis, E., Biddle, S. J. H., & Ding, D. (2020). Muscle Strengthening, Aerobic Exercise, and Obesity: A Pooled Analysis of 1.7 Million US Adults. Obesity, 28(2), 371–378. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.22673

Takai, Y., Fukunaga, Y., Fujita, E., Mori, H., Yoshimoto, T., Yamamoto, M., &Kanehisa, H. (2013). Effects of Body Mass-Based Squat Training in Adolescent Boys. Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, 12(1), 60–65.

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First 4-Week of My Weight Loss Challenge

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.

perfect figure Image by Justine FG via https://www.freeimages.com/photo/perfect-figure-1326465

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.