Body Fat Reduction Challenge 1 Complete
Yesterday I completed my first body fat reduction challenge and I’m very pleased to tell you that I reached my target of burning 50,000 calories in 50 days. Well to be precise I burned off a total of 50,160 calories. When I first started the challenge 50 days ago on the 27th Feb. I was so motivated and focused and didn’t really think that burning off 1000 calories each and every day was a lot. Boy was I wrong.
Don’t get me wrong I’m so glad that I made myself this challenge because it has allowed to lose weight and lower my body fat percentage, as well as ensuring that I do not miss a workout. The exercise part hasn’t really bothered me it’s been finding the time to do it. Some nights I have been pounding away on the exercise bike at 11 o clock at night, just to make sure that I hit my daily target on the 50,000 calorie challenge.
If you are trying to lose weight making yourself challenges will keep you motivated. I know, because this challenge really kept me going, sure there were nights when I couldn’t be bothered going into my home gym. But I did it, my only rewards over the last 50 days as been chocolate which if I’m perfectly honest with you. Have slowed down my results slightly.
I’m off to Spain tomorrow for my friends stag party, whilst I’ve not got the beach body I wanted at the moment. I’m looking ten times better than I did 50 days ago. I return on Wednesday, that’s when I will knuckle down again and start my next body fat reduction challenge. I’ve not finalized what this challenge will be yet. All I know at the moment is that it will start on Friday and will be a 10 week challenge. Why 10 weeks, well in just over ten weeks I’m off to Las Vegas watching UFC 100. So I’m hoping to be in much better shape again for this vacation.
I find trying to lose weight and fat for your vacation is a brilliant way of keeping you motivated and focused. I remember all the past vacations I’ve been on were I’ve been overweight and felt like a beach whale when I’ve hit the beach. I never want to return to those dark and unhappy days, this thought alone is enough to keep me motivated.
If you are new to my body fat blog I have been taking pictures daily of the calories that I have been burning off on my exercise bike. Glad that the challenge is over because I can stop doing this now, to be honest it was getting a little boring and time consuming. To find out exactly now I managed to burn off 50,160 calories in just 50 days through exercise check out my calorie burning list here.
When Losing Weight Makes Me Unhappy
At this weeks weekly weigh in I’ve managed to lose 2.2 pounds which for most people would be a good result. But this weight loss blog is about much more than just losing weight, it’s about what matters most and that’s lowering body fat percentage. Well I’ve managed to lose weight this week but still my body fat has gone up.
I’m feeling a little bit down at the moment because of this, because I feel that I am working hard and when I see results like this on my body fat scales it get me a down and I think to myself is it all worth it. I’ve been exercising like I have never done before. The exercise part doesn’t really bother me its the time that I’m spending doing it. I’m investing hours and hours of my time into getting the body that I have always wanted.
But this week got me thinking were is the reward for all this hard work, I know though if I went back to my old diet I would quickly go back to being overweight and unhappy in a matter of weeks, and this is one thing that I do not want to happen. The main thing that I need to remember is I’m in this for the long run and some weeks I will see better results than the next it’s has simple as that.
At the moment I’m measuring my body fat on my body fat scales, whilst I’ve purchased one of the best sets that money can buy. I know that this isn’t going to be 100% accurate. I also own a set of body fat calipers, so what I might do in the very near future is maybe some weeks take measures using both methods to compare the results I’m getting.
I’m baffled at the moment though because when I’m looking in the mirror I’m looking the best I’ve looked so far this year. I actually look like I’m carry less fat but my body fat scales are measuring slightly higher than usual I just don’t get it. I’m reducing my cardio workouts tomorrow so hopefully by doing less cardio and more intense weight training. I can start building muscle mass and losing fat. I’ve only got 7 pounds to go till I reach phase two of my body fat loss journey, then the serious eating begins.
One thing I’m extremely happy about though is my metabolism, I’m eating lots and lots of food and I hate to admit it a lot of chocolate and I’m still losing weight. So my metabolism must be through the roof at the moment, which at the start of the year was performing at quite a sluggish rate. So I’m glad that I’ve been able to speed my metabolism up. All in all though I pleased with my overall performance so far, which is giving me the fire in my belly to keep moving forward and seeing results.
Weekly Weigh In April 17th 2009
I’ve managed to lose a further 2.2 pounds which you would think I would be happy about. But I’m not, my body fat percentage has gone from 22.1% to 23.3% which means I’ve lost weight but I’m now fatter. To be honest I just can’t see how I have done that. The only two things that I can think of is my body fat scales are reading slightly wrong, or I’ve just done too much cardio this week.
I needed to do lots of cardio this week otherwise I wouldn’t off reached the 50,000 calories in 50 days challenge. Speaking about this challenge it’s my last day of the challenge today and I’ve got under 1000 calories to burn then I’ve passed my first body fat reduction challenge. I’m so glad that I stuck at the challenge because there were times when I was seriously thinking about quitting because it was so time consuming and hard.
I’m going to Spain on Sunday for a 3 nights all inclusive break for my friends stag weekend. So I’m expecting to over indulge quite a bit on food and booze. So I’m expecting not seeing good results at next Fridays weekly weigh in. Not happy about my body fat percentage going up though. I need to knuckle down and find out how exactly I can lower it. Losing weight for me is easy, losing fat though is a lot harder than I imagined it to be before I started my body fat loss journey.
I am slightly disappointed with this weeks results because I’ve put in quite a bit of work on my cardio sessions. Which made me think that I would be seeing good results this week. Don’t get me wrong losing 2.2 pounds this week is a fantastic result for most people. But it’s not for me at this moment in time. I need to lose this skinny fat look that I’ve got at the moment and the only way I can do that is my maintaining my weight and lowering my body fat percentage.
I’ve just got to keeping moving forward, but the clocks ticking and I have promised myself that I will hit my target of 10% body fat come the end of 2009. I know I’ve still got plenty of time left to reach my goal. But I’ve still got around 25 pounds of fat to lose and 25 pounds of muscle to gain if I’m to reach this target. This is turning out to be a more difficult task than I first imagined. I’m focused and motivated though, which will ensure that I give it my best shot.
