As always, more after the break.
More graphs, too! Some of these are a bit blurry and not aligned properly, I don't have anything to hold my phone in place while I take the pictures. I blame Wii Fit U for not letting me use Miiverse to screenshot these. First up, the entire BMI data, from the beginning to the end of this month when I finally reached my goal weight.
Now, the ends of the weight and BMI graphs, in greater detail.
Finally, since going 100 pounds down happened at MAGFest, here's a picture of that.
Now, reflection and bulleted list time.
Fun facts:
- I've gone down from a 2XL shirt to a Medium shirt.
- All my favorite shirts are now too big since they're all XLs.
- I bought pants with a 40 inch waistline just before going in. I just bought pants with a 34 inch waistline, but even that is loose. I guess I should actually measure my waistline or something. I'm probably a 32 inch waist.
- It's a lot easier for me to get in and out of a car now.
- I'm no longer winded after going up a flight of stairs.
- I'm no longer sweating profusely after walking a short distance, possibly also involving stairs.
- I no longer hate what I see when I look in the mirror.
- I'm a lot more regular and don't clog the toilet as easily anymore.
- I burned off all my insulation so now I get really cold. Luckily, I own jackets and sweatshirts.
- My body decided to burn just enough fat from my ass that sitting down on a non-padded chair is uncomfortable.
- Going in, the figures I considered to be "overweight", "obese", and "morbidly obese" were off by an order of magnitude each. Basically, I thought that what's actually "morbidly obese" was just "obese" and that I was just "overweight". Why are so many people content with being morbidly obese? I see these butterballs wherever I go, and in high concentration around the very same fast food restaurants and donut shops that likely got them to that state in the first place.
What's left for me to do at this point, now that I've reached my goal weight? Maintaining this weight. How am I going to do that? By not being fucking stupid. I've already gotten this far, I know precisely what I need to do to lose weight. I do still plan on experimenting to see how things affect it. I know I said I wanted to do that a long time ago, but I just haven't felt like going to any of the restaurants I named or eating any of the frozen things I used to eat in anywhere near the quantity I used to eat them in, so in a way I guess it's good for me.
That said, for my own sanity, I'll no longer be doing the Body Test in Wii Fit U every day, instead I'll be doing it once per week. My major issue with the fact that the game wants you to do the Body Test every day is that it makes you too aware of tiny changes in your weight. You then begin to obsess over it and go "well, maybe if I just hadn't eaten that one thing..." and you end up with a really negative outlook on food in general, even though over time you're still losing weight. Weighing in less often lets you have those one-off indulgences, as you should be able to, and not feel bad about it. I said it wasn't getting to me, but it was.
Also, since I've been bouncing back and forth across the BMI 22 line, I've noticed how annoying Wii Fit U is going to be about that in the future. When you get below and set your goal higher, it goes into "gain weight" mode and disables your calorie goal. Then the next day you gain weight, because surprise surprise, weight doesn't remain constant, it fluctuates. The game then goes "you reached your goal!" and wants you to set a new one, and even stresses the importance of having a goal. So you set it at BMI 22 again, which makes it go back into "lose weight" mode, and it gives you a calorie goal once again.
What it needs is a way to set a ballpark you want to stay in. Being in the ballpark of 100 pounds down is where I want to stay, and it doesn't make sense to have to constantly set and re-set my goal every time I weigh in. I want nothing more than to be able to set a range around BMI 22, a simple "plus or minus this many pounds", that I'll be happy with, and have the game only bug me about my weight if it goes outside either extreme of that range. At the same time, it should still let me adjust that range, since it lets you re-set your goal every week.
Yet another issue in the long line of issues classed under "Wii Fit U does a good thing but misses the point in some way". I still don't understand why it gets its panties in a bunch about me gaining 1.1 pounds or more when I'm this far down. The game keeps all this data on what my weight has been from every single time I've done the Body Test, and it's basically telling me that basic statistical analysis of that information is impossible? No, it's just lazy programming. The statistical trend since the beginning matters so much more than what's happened within a very recent time frame. 1.1 pounds is statistically insignificant given how much weight I've lost, and given that my weight line is a very chaotic zigzag, as anybody's would be, it should be easy to tell that I'll have no problem working off an errant weight gain.
Heck, I know last month I said I was going to gradually shift more of my calorie burn into my run. While I've been doing that, I think at this point it's better for me to just make a clean break and stop using Wii Fit U as a crutch. I just talked about statistics, so... statistically speaking, the calorie burn I get from actually playing Wii Fit U isn't insignificant, but it's a very small piece of the pie, being a bit over 200 when I get a bit over 700 from the Fit Meter every day. That Fit Meter portion is only going to be going up, which means Wii Fit U will be getting less significant. Might as well stop now, the gradual tapering isn't really the best idea.
2016 became the year of losing weight for me, and 2017 will be the year of employment for me. Getting a job that keeps me active will be my number one priority, and in order to do that, I need to have a more open schedule. Currently I put about four hours a day into fitness and everything that goes into it like changing clothing, setup, putting things away, and showering. If I'm going to have a job and get out of this rut my life is in, that needs to change. Having said job will boost the calorie burn I mentioned in the previous paragraph even further, and should help me mentally just as much as it will physically.
Itemized takeaways from all of this, some of which may rehash points I made above, but deal with it:
- Exercise
- Once you get going with exercise, your body will guide you further, just listen to the signals it gives (when you feel like you can do more, do more, when you feel like something needs to change, change it, when you feel like something just isn't working, either figure out what you're doing wrong or swap it for something else that does work)
- Soreness is good, pain is bad, learn to differentiate between the two
- Weight loss is a trial and error thing, you need to be persistent and determined, but also meticulous and methodical
- If all you want is quick results, you don't have the right mindset, you need to be in it for the long haul
- If you think you can just switch up what you're doing, lose some weight, then revert your habits and be able to keep it off, you're wrong
- It doesn't take much exercise time per day to burn a bunch of calories, and just walking around the neighborhood does a lot for a person
- If you think that you can't lose weight because obesity is genetic, you're wrong, and an idiot
- No, seriously, scientific studies have proven that even with a gene that predisposes one to gaining weight, the average difference between someone with that gene and someone without it is quite small and it doesn't affect one's ability to lose weight in the slightest
- Despite Wii Fit U's repeated attempts to make me feel paranoid about every tiny little weight gain along the journey, the statistical trend matters far more than day-to-day spikes and dips
- Plateaus suck
- Looking at a graph of one's weight, it's almost impossible to correlate a gain or a loss with something done between daily weigh-ins (though going to a cook out and weighing in to find you're four pounds up is definitely the cook out at work)
- For some odd reason, sudden spikes seem to be way easier to work off than slower, more consistent weight gain
- Sudden dips are often followed by weight gain
- Morbidly obese people who use the handicapped scooters at stores just because they're morbidly obese and don't want to walk are idiots
- You can't lose weight healthfully without also exercising
- You can't control where your body burns fat from
- Food
- Having indulgences or treats is okay
- Having indulgences or treats every day is bad
- It's best to keep indulgences and treats as such, from a conceptual point of view, so that they always remain indulgences and treats
- It's a mental thing, you always want those less healthful things to be rewards you give yourself on an infrequent basis, rather than them being the norm
- Fast food is neat and all but you just don't need it to get through life
- In fact, very few restaurants (especially national chains) have your nutrition in mind, they care far more about how much money you're going to be giving them than how good for you any of their menu items are
- Cherish those few restaurants in your area (these will be local establishments, Subway doesn't count since all their sauces are mayonnaise-based and they only have one whole grain option) where everything on their menu is healthy
- Get your whole grains. No excuses. The recommendation is 48g per day, which is stupidly easy to reach (it can be done in one meal). As for the gluten-free out there, there are plenty of grains that naturally don't contain gluten. Again, no excuses. This is the only bullet point that contains a period.
- Calorie count for food matters but doesn't convey the whole picture, what's in the food matters too
- Fad diets (atkins, keto, paleo, and whatever others are out there) are retarded
No comments:
Post a Comment
I moderate comments because when Blogger originally implemented a spam filter it wouldn't work without comment moderation enabled. So if your comment doesn't show up right away, that would be why.