So my wife wanted a Fibit to track her sleep habits and calorie intake. I would paraphrase Malcolm X and say what ever it will take to get you on track. Fitbit and Jawbone and a host of other pedometer gadgets us the # 10,000 like it is a magical number. It’s not at all really, it turns out back in the early 1960’s in Japan they had a walking craze not unlike the jogging craze in the states during the 70’s. The pedometers they used went to 10,000 steps and the number stuck as a goal . The average person (read American here) walks about half of that in a day. The main point is to move more. Now the great thing with recording all these little bits of info is it does get into your head ,Hey I need to move more!
Here’s some numbers to chew on (no calories here):
3,500 calories equals about 1 pound of fat, so you need to burn 3,500 more than you take in to lose just 1 pound. So if you cut 500 calories from your diet every day (500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories) you would in theory lose 1 pound a week..and by the end of the year if you stuck to just this you could with very little effort lose 52lbs of fat….sorta.
Nothing is ever straight forward when it comes to weight loss, consider your water weight,the amount of muscle gain or loss. Lots going on there inside of our bodies,but the evidence seems to be overwhelming that the more we move the fitter we are.
Lets go with the 10,000 steps for now as a goal, grab one of these cool gadgets ( I was lucky and my friend gave me one Thank you Sunshine!) and start walking your normal day and at the end of the day how did you do? Did you get passed 10,000 steps or di you not pass 3,000? If you average 5,000 on a regular basis its not that hard to add on another 5,000. Every step counts through out the day, are goal is too reach at least 10,000.
Lots of little ways to get in a few hundred steps here and there; park at the far of the parking lot, take the stairs,at my office instead of instant message I walk to someone’s office. Get in a morning walk and an after dinner walk. It all adds up.
Now for my wife counting the calories in and the calories out was a real turning point for her and she is down over 15 pounds in a month or so just by being aware of food intake and moving. She says things now like I want to eat that but I am already over my limit and I don’t feel like walking anymore, or she has gone all day and forgot to eat ( never had that kind of memory problem myself) and is way under her intake for the day. The main point it removes endless eating and shines a light on how active you are.
I get a little obsessed over the scale which is not the best of plans but I don’t care its worth it for me cause I get such a charge when I drop another pound. Now I’m turning my obsession to getting in my 10,000 steps . Well got to go I have sat enough for now.
Peace and Love all
Here’s your basement gypsy song of the day, in honor of fight to be fit.
No comments:
Post a Comment