Week 1 of My 12-Week Fitness Challenge: Down 3.6 Pounds...ish

After the first week of my 12-Week Fitness Challenge, I am down 3.6 pounds. Well, as far as I can estimate. I completely forgot to weigh in yesterday, so, I am estimating the weight to be the same as the day before.

Still, that's 3.6 pounds just by making sure I keep myself in a deep caloric deficit. And yes, I still eat a lot of the same stuff I have in the past. I'm not on some special fad diet plan or filling myself with keto or paleo-friendly foods. Most of this loss is while eating processed meals and sugars.

What Kind of Caloric Deficit am I In?

I'm sticking to my Net 600 Calorie diet that I came up with years ago. It's based on using MyFitnessPal to track food intake and my Fitbit to track calorie burn. It's how I lost the largest portion of the last 80 pounds. And it doesn't make me feel like I'm starving or feeling restricted to what I can eat.

Anyway, by setting a 600-calorie goal in MyFitnessPal, I can ensure that I burn a tad more than double what I eat on any given day. Now, this doesn't mean that I'm only eating 600 calories. The more active I am, as registered by the Fitbit, the more I can eat. In reality, I'll burn about 3,500 calories per day while eating around 1,700.

This past week, though, I had a few bad days that kind of hindered progress. However, I still managed to lose a bit of weight, so I still call it a win. It's just not nearly as pronounced as I hoped it would be.

In week one, I averaged an intake of 1,878 with a burn of 3,289. In the grand scheme of things, this isn't too bad at all. Especially when you consider that on a few of the nights, I kind of pigged out a bit.

I Even Tracked the Bad Days!

I was half tempted to just call Saturday night a wash and deal with the consequences the next day. But I decided against it and entered everything I ate, which wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

The point is that I decided not to just add a red asterisk to the day as I am collecting data. Instead, I sat down and entered all of the food for the night.

For those who don't know me, this is actually a significant step in the right direction. It also tells me that I am approaching this experiment with a completely different mindset. I feel like I am moving in the right direction, which reinforces my belief that this year is much different than the ones before. I am ready to move forward with everything, including my weight loss journey.

I know, you're probably thinking that this is a silly thing to get excited over. But for me, it's monumental.

What Happened to Exercising?

I didn't get a chance to exercise like I wanted. Quite a few things came up this week that kind of threw a wrench in my plans. Yet, I was still able to get in some decent step counts while trying to keep myself moving.

The premise behind my diet plan is to increase physical activity while reducing intake. So, even vigorously cleaning the house can burn enough to have a can of soup for lunch.

I did manage to get on the Zaaz this week, which is a vibration board that is supposed to help with weight loss. I'll be doing a review about it in the near future, but I'm not completely convinced it does a lot of good. Nonetheless, my legs did feel a bit like rubber after standing on the Zaaz for about 12 minutes.

What Are the Plans for Next Week?

Starting Monday morning, I really want to get back into going to the gym on a regular basis. Right now, the plan is to go every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The problem I'm having is my workload. I often have so much to do that if I don't get out of the house at a very specific time, then I won't have time to do the things I want to get done.

I am changing up my work schedule this week, though. So, that should help tremendously.

I also need to get back into playing the Xbox 360 Kinect. I know, the Kinect is an old and obsolete unit. However, I have burned a ton of calories playing my games, and it's something I completely enjoy doing.

Lastly, it's my goal to surpass last week's total step count. This means I need to get more than 60,533 steps. Since that is only 8,648 steps per day, it shouldn't be overly difficult, especially if I include 15 minutes of using the treadmill at the gym.

Let's Keep it Up!

At the rate I am progressing, I should still hit 200 pounds by May 1st. I'm just not sure if that's going to be a viable goal. Not because I don't think I'll lose the fat, but because I often retain quite a bit of muscle mass. Since I plan on doing more gym work, I'll undoubtedly add more muscle.

Regardless, I am in it to win it.