Men's Metabolism

I've mentioned I've been struggling with my motivation lately. My mile jog, biking and strength training have taken a hit of late. Because my elliptical (I almost always get in three 20min sessions a day) and Zumba (an hour) are part of my routine, I've still been getting in decent numbers most days though. My personal goals are 22,000 steps, 100 "active minutes" and a 3000 total calorie burn from Fitbit. Now I'm not saying I count any of these numbers as gospel (I "burned 3000 calories, therefore I can eat 2500 calories and still lose!"), they are just some numbers I use to compare my day to day. You can see I barely got to the 3000 burn yesterday.

I was looking at the Fitbit family comparisons, and noticed that my dad had dropped a little. He's nice and active, and usually  quite competitive for my kids. I went onto his Fitbit page to look at his numbers. I noticed even though he had 10,000 steps LESS than I did, his calorie burn was higher! He only had eight "active minutes" and I had 145!  Our weight is almost exactly the same. He's a bit taller, he's older (obviously, as he's my dad) ... so his only real advantage is, he's a MAN.

 My Dad

Again, not saying these Fitbit numbers are gospel truth ... 

but Fitbit is certainly going by industry standards as they attempt their estimates.

 My 18-year old

I looked at my oldest son's numbers. He had over 13500 steps less than I did and still managed to top me in the calorie burn (just barely). He does weigh just a bit more than me. He has YOUTH and the manly metabolism on his side.

 My 15-year old

My second son ... this was a slow day for him. He had 35,000 steps on Monday! Not as many steps as I did yesterday, yet a higher burn. And he weighs less than I do too.

 My 13-year old

Son #3 beat me in active minutes, but not steps ... but look at the calorie burn! He only weighs a little over 100 pounds too. All his green spikes were running and jumping at the local inflatable place. I try to stay active, walking while they play. I often can get in some steps (although I didn't do well yesterday in that regard ... my little yellow spikes, it was too crowded for me to walk around much) the kids always get a bigger burn from Fitbit (not sure if it's somehow factoring in their impact or what).

It just seems like the guys can get a higher calorie burn with a lot less effort. I can and do reach my 3000 goal quite often, but I  feel like I have to work REALLY hard to get there.

Not fair! Not that anything about this life IS fair :)
I enjoy being a girl, but I wouldn't mind a man's metabolism!

Linking up with the Hump Day Blog Hop and Workout Wednesday. 

Days of the Week

I've been using Walker Tracker for a few years now. I just enter my steps each day and I get a lot of cool graphs and numbers tracking my activity. One of the graphs I've always found interesting was the "day of the week average".  It usually just reflects what I already know ... Tuesdays are great (cardio) days, Sunday (and the entire weekend) are my worst. Mon,Wed&Fri are weight days, where I spend 45-60 minutes working out but don't get many steps to show for it.

When I look at my ALL TIME graph ... it's a little different. I remember a time when Mondays were a good (high step) day. When I was getting steps in on Saturdays (this was related to basketball, when the boys had games at the gym with a track above. I'd get in 2-3 hours watching and waiting during their games. Sometimes games and practices would be at the very end of the day, when I certainly didn't feel like working about ... but I couldn't just sit while there was a track there!) Sundays are pretty much always bad for steps... not a "rest" day per say ... but with sleeping in, church, family activities, etc ... I just call them "Slow Sundays" ...

Currently, Tuesdays have been my best days. I'll hit a session on the elliptical first thing, carpool the kids to school, then go to Zumba. I get 10,000 steps by 10 am.   

It's my Tuesday 10x10.

And getting such a jump on steps that early in the day ... it's often a 30k on Tuesday too. I hit the elliptical a few more times during the day. Read my book while I rode the stationary bike. I had an hour in the early evening, so I went down for some treadmill time. I was actually tempted to push it even MORE yesterday, to set a new PB on Fitbit (I have my 35,000 badge, next up is 40,000 ... I could have gotten there, but hubby was home and a shower and snuggle time sounded nice too).

I kept calories in check yesterday, I was really hoping to see a shift on the scale ... but no, it went UP! An entire pound! Frustrating. I know, don't put stock in the day to day readings. At least my MFP ticker is still at "30 pounds lost" ... I really don't like when it slips back into the 20s. When I wrote about My Milestones, I didn't stop and figure out exactly what number makes my MFP ticker drop back to 29 or worse. I might have to look into that (me and my numbers you know!) Linking up with Weigh-In Wednesday ... but check back Friday for my "official" weekly weigh-in and week recap.

Well, I'm going to try a different Zumba class this morning (yet another free church offering, I have yet to actually pay for a class although at this point I think I'd be willing, I just am not sure about how to go about finding one ... I know gyms offer them, but I'm not interested in a gym membership as I have my home gym downstairs!) Then it is strength-training, NMTZ day ... a basketball game for #3 in the evening, clear across town. I'm not looking forward to driving that (next week's location is even worse, so I've told the kid they can lose tonight's game, as I don't even want to go next week! I've got driving issues!)

Do you have a "good" day of the week? A "bad" one?

Weighing in on Graphs

I really like graphs. It takes numbers and makes them visual. It's very helpful to me. But even the same numbers can get a different look depending on the graph. Checking in here today for Weigh In Wednesday to take a peek at how different your weight graph can look, even when using the exact same numbers. 

I looked at my weight graph on my Iphone (using my Fitbit app, above). 

It looks pretty bumpy there.

Pretty big ups and downs.

When I look at the Fitbit website instead of the app (below), it looks very different! 

The reference numbers on the axis expand (showing more weight variety and a longer time) and this totally changed the look, makes it look super smooth (and so slllllooooooowwwww). 

The graph above is from the MFP website ... 

Shows some ups and downs, but decent progress overall.

The MFP app squished the numbers together a bit more, 

and the downward trend looks much more impressive,

of course the small ups look bigger too.

I also sync to Trendweight.com, which in addition to keeping track of actual weight, also projects your "trend" which really smooths out the bumps! It really is an interesting way to look at the numbers, and having your "actual" weigh-in come in UNDER your trend can be motivating, even when the numbers have gone up a bit. I'm not as down as I was, but I'm still down ...

I DID dip into the 150s once (159.5 on Sunday) ... it's moving SO slowly. My MPF ticker has been fluctuating between 20 pounds lost, and 19 pounds lost. It's bad enough when it stays the same for a week, I really don't like when it goes backwards!

... I know, I get a little obsessive with my numbers and graphs. It's often said how important perspective is ... how you look at things. That CAN even come into play with how you look at the numbers from your scale, you know?  

I thought this post worked with the Weigh-In Wednesday link-up. Post your own scale stories and check out other people's progress as well!