Last week, I decided to increase my activity for weight loss and see what happened.
The week before, I had been much too sedentary. I was still watching my calories, but I wasn’t moving enough. At the end of that week, I had lost only 0.6 pound.
That wasn’t terrible. A loss is still a loss. But I thought I could do better.
So I decided to run a little one-week experiment.
My Goal for the Week
I wasn’t trying to turn myself into an exercise fanatic overnight. I simply wanted to move more during my normal day.
My goal was to be lightly active instead of sedentary whenever I could.
I used our Weight Loss Calorie Calculator to see how my activity level affected the number of calories I could eat while still working toward my weight-loss goal.
According to the calculator, I should lose about 1.5 pounds.
Now I had a number to test.
I Didn’t Need a Gym to Move More
One thing I’ve been learning is that physical activity doesn’t have to mean a formal workout.
There are plenty of opportunities to move during an ordinary day.
Cooking gets me on my feet. Housework gets me moving. Taking care of the chickens counts. Walking counts. Even those little trips around the house add up.
That is why we created the Everyday Activity Burn Calculator.
You can choose different ordinary activities and see an estimate of how many calories you may burn doing them.
That calculator helped me look at everyday movement differently.
Instead of thinking, I need to exercise, I could think, I need to move.
For me, that’s a lot easier.
What I Actually Did
I didn’t manage to be lightly active every single day.
For five days, I was lightly active.
For two days, I was sedentary.
That’s real life.
Some days I move more than others. The important thing was that I had increased my activity quite a bit compared with the previous week.
Then came weigh-in day.
The Results Are In
I lost 1.6 pounds!
The calculator had predicted approximately 1.5 pounds.
That’s only one-tenth of a pound difference between the calculator’s estimate and what actually showed up on my scale.
I was very pleased with that.
I was even happier when I compared it with the previous week.
When I was too sedentary, I lost 0.6 pound.
After increasing my activity, I lost 1.6 pounds.
That’s a full pound more on the scale this week.
Did the Extra Activity Cause the Difference?
I can’t say that every bit of that difference came from being more active.
Body weight naturally fluctuates. Water, digestion and other factors can affect the number on the scale from one week to the next.
That’s one reason I don’t want to judge my progress by a single weigh-in.
Still, this experiment gave me exactly the kind of result I was hoping to see.
I ate according to my calorie goal. I increased my everyday activity. The calculator predicted a loss of about 1.5 pounds.
And I lost 1.6.
I’ll take it!
Everyday Movement Really Does Matter
The biggest lesson I learned this week is that I don’t have to spend hours exercising to become more active.
I can look for opportunities to move throughout my day.
I can cook. I can clean. I can walk. I can take care of the animals. I can get up and do something instead of spending quite so much time sitting.
Those ordinary activities may not feel like exercise.
But they’re still movement.
And movement adds up.
For me, this experiment wasn’t about becoming an athlete.
It was about getting out of that chair a little more often.
Apparently, my chair and I needed some time apart anyway. 😂
One week doesn’t prove anything by itself, so I’m going to keep watching my results. But after losing 0.6 pound during my more sedentary week and 1.6 pounds during my more active week, I’m certainly motivated to keep moving.
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