Yesterday (Wednesday) marked the end of the zipper weight loss challenge. My team took home the winning honors and the pot of cash. One month ago I weighed in at 171 pounds, and yesterday (after a run in ninety degree heat) I weighed in at 152.5. The other two members of my team rallied as well, coming in 16 and 8 pounds lighter than when they started.
My one-month weight loss experiment has revealed the following weight loss secrets:
Eat less (this one is key). Some simple steps to eating less are to avoid snacks and soda. One of my team members did nothing except switch his Dr. Pepper intake from regular to diet. To stave off my munchies I upped my green tea intake. Caffeine is a natural appetite suppressant and green tea has a number of other weight loss and health benefits.
Exercise is important not only to burn calories but to keep your metabolism up. Suddenly diminishing your food intake can cause your body to go into storage mode and you need it to keep going. Also important so that your body burns fat instead of just consuming its muscle.
Was I hungry? Sometimes. But I didn't stop eating anything or hold myself to a strict diet. I still included carbohydrates because those are important for exercising. I still had a week where I had made a chocolate cake and worked my way through that. I occasionally indulged in soda and I occasionally had a piece of candy. The point was that such things should be treats. By eating candy every day or going out to dinner all the time we make this things an every day part of our lives and consuming them becomes so commonplace we don't even think about the repercussions.
That's my weight loss rant.
Wednesday's commute: Bus to work and home.
Wednesday's exercise: 4 mile run. Temperature outside got up to over 100 degrees.
Thursday's commute: Bike to work. Bus home.
Thursday's exercise: 19 miles biking.
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