Progress Report: 30 August 2016: 4 weeks / 1 Month

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Progress Report:

Ok, here we are at one month.  Like a kid in the candy store I am eager to see how we have done.   Week 4 has been my best week so far.   I did not take a single day off.   Drum roll please…

Exercise:Runtastic Distance and Steps

Runtastic Distance and Steps

Figure 1:  Runtastic Distance and Steps: This chart was created by Runtastic with steps from my FitBit.

During the fourth week, I had my best week of exercise so far.  I walked a total of 42.7 miles and averaged 6.18 miles per day.   I did not take a single day off.  I did add in 3 sets of push up and setups every other day with 20-30 of each per set.  This addition of some strength exercises should add some to my weight maintenance because the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn.  

Runtatsic Distance with Steps for the Month

Figure 2:  Runtatsic Distance with Steps for the Month: This image is data from Runtastic with steps from the FitBit Surge.

 This is a new image.  This is the 28 day average for the month.  I walked almost 140 miles during the last 28 days and average 5.09 miles per day.  I burned 13,225 calories which is almost 4 pounds just with exercise. I also walked almost 300,000 steps.  The point of this image is to show what it takes to lose weight successfully.  It is not just dieting.  

Runtastic Graph for Week

Figure 3: Runtastic Graph for Week: Above is another depiction of the exercise from the Runtastic Dashboard.  I use an iPhone for GPS to get the distance.  

I burned 4,308 calories this week.  That is over one pound lost for the week just through exercise.  My calculations and the Fitbit agree with this measurement.  

Fitbit Steps for Week

Figure 4: Fitbit Steps for Week: Above is a depiction of the steps from the Fitbit dashboard.  I use a Fitbit Surge to measure my steps.  

My best day for exercise was Sunday.  I did over 16,000 step!  With my sedentary job, 86,000 steps for a week is a huge accomplishment.  

 

FitBit Steps for the Month

Figure 5: FitBit Steps for the Month: This graph shows my steps per day for the entire month.  

I did miss my goal of 10,000 steps 5 days for the month.  Most of these were days off.  That is really not bad for a month.  Why 10,000 steps?  That is really just a notional goal.  I do not believe there is any research to back that goal up but more to come in another article.  

FitBit Activity Minutes for Month

Figure 6:  FitBit Activity Minutes for Month: This graph shows the activity minutes for the month.

This graph shows that I met the activity goal of 30 minute per day for all but one day.  This is a better measure of my exercise program because it counts forms of exercise other than steps.  

Weight:

Fitbit Dashboard Weight For Week

Figure 5: Fitbit Dashboard Weight For Week: This a graphical representation of weight progression over the past 7 days.

So how much weight have I lost?  I have lost a total of 11.4 pounds in 4 weeks and 2.9 pounds this week.  That is an average of 2.85 pounds per week.  The weight loss is gradual so you can see I am doing it by combining exercise and calorie restrictions.  The interesting thing is that over 1/3 of the weight loss is from my daily exercise.  This is pretty impressive.  

Lose It Weight Graph

Figure 6: Lose It Weight One Week Graph: It is a measure with an additional day. It gives you an idea of the features on Loseit.com. I prefer the nutrition features in Loseit over the FitBit dashboard.

 

Fitbit Weight for Month

Figure 7: Fitbit Weight for Month: This a graphical representation of the weight progression over the past 28 days.

One point I want to make from the above graph is you can see the small blips or upticks in my weight during the month.  As I pointed out once in the past four weeks is that this represents water weight with dietary change.  For me this was salt intake while dining out at a required function for work.  The point of this discussion is to not get discouraged and get back on the horse the next day.  If a momentary lapse turns into a week, you will have a bigger deficit to fix.  

Nutrition: 

So how did I complete week three successfully?  I continued to take in 30-45 grams of fiber and averaged 100-128 ounces of water per day.  I maintained about 1400-1800 calorie per day.  I reduce my candy intake this week but I could use more protein.  

Lose-it Calorie Intake

Figure 8: Lose-it Calorie Intake: A graphical representation of the calorie intake for the last 7-14 days.  I averaged about 1300-1800 calories which is a deficit on the average of 900 calories a day or 6,300 calories a week.  That is just under 2 pounds of weight loss from my diet.    

 

Lose-it Calorie Intake by Meal

Figure 9: Lose-it Calorie Intake by Meal: This graph is a graph that show the percentage calorie intake by meal.  

The one glitch I can see in my diet is that too many of my calories are in snacks and too few are in my lunch meal.  I would decrease the snack and dinner and add more to breakfast and lunch if I were making a suggestion to others.  

Lose-it Fiber Intake

Figure 10:  Lose-it Fiber Intake: This graph shows the fiber intake for the last 7 days.  

My fiber consumption was 30-45 grams per day this week. I can tell a difference if I have less fiber. I am considerably more hungry.  I did miss having a dairy one day with breakfast and that also resulted in a higher level of hunger.

 

About the Author

ChuckH
I am a family physician who has served in the US Army. In 2016, I found myself overweight, out of shape, and unhealthy, so I made a change to improve my health. This blog is the chronology of my path to better health and what I have learned along the way.

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