WiiFit : A Workout That Works

Okay, I've had some really awesome results with the WiiFit. Specifically, the Aerobics portion of WiiFit.

To give you a general idea of calories burned, I record all my WiiFit Aerobics sessions with my HRM (Polar 6 Heart Rate Monitor) and I currently seem to be burning about 4-7 calories per minute on average. I am getting better at burning more calories, too. I am adding bigger movements and more enthusiastic motion to each of the activities and I have seen an increase in my calories burned as the weeks have passed. I try to ignore the stares of my family as I wildly swing my hula-hooping hips or punch my imaginary punching bag.

As for which exercises are most effective, I definitely burn the most with the Hula Hooping and the Running. With the running, I actually run around a little and not stay in one place. I take a nice tour around my living room and sometimes travel into the dining room and kitchen, too.
The Advanced Step Aerobics gives me a moderate burn (but it's so much fun, so I do that one a lot.)
Boxing provides me with the lowest burn rate, so I save that one for last as sort of a cool-down activity. I'm working on ways to increasing the burn, but for now, it remains the least effective.
As a side note, I like the Free Step, too. I modify my step to include semi-lunges and that has been bringing my heart rate WAY up (about 75-80% of my maximum heart rate.)

Here are some examples of my burned calories for the past few weeks to give you an idea. I'm female, 33 years old and 127 pounds...so it will definitely be different depending on each person's stats. I have been exercising regularly for the past 6 months, so I am in decent shape, too.

These are all for aerobic-only activity sessions.

53 minutes = 202 calories burned
43 minutes = 223 calories
97 minutes = 390 calories
70 minutes = 356 calories
23 minutes = 171 calories
80 minutes = 489 calories
67 minutes = 407 calories
and...for a strength-only session...30 minutes = 70 calories.

All in all, I am very pleased with my WiiFit. I have continued to lose weight even after I substituted a few of my outdoor running days with my WiiFit workouts.

I really really wish they had a way, though, to string strength training and yoga exercises together instead of having to click through a bunch of menus to get to each one. That really breaks the entire flow of the workout. For that reason alone, I usually just stick with aerobics and just ignore the rest of the program.

I just found out that Wii Sports can give a pretty good workout, too. So, I think I'll have to try that on my next rainy day. After this, I have one more 'game' to buy - Yourself Fitness. It's for the PS2 or XBOX and it received pretty good ratings. I need all the variety I can get. I never want to get bored with exercise.

Goals - July 2006

Okay, here are my current goals.

---------- GOALS for JULY----------
[ ] Add an abs workout to my weekly exercise
[ ] Inquire about a fitness test from my local gym
[ ] Revamp my weights workout
[ ] Drink more water every day. Fill up 6 water bottles and drink them all!
[ ] Find a new bedtime snack (I'm getting tired of the one I keep eating!)
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Below you can see my goals from May (I forgot about June, so I only have May's goals) and my Long-Term Goals. Items in red are the ones I successfully completed since my last 'Goals' post.

----------PREVIOUS GOALS for MAY---------
[] Drink more water every day. Fill up 6 water bottles and drink them all!
(I didn't do so well with this one, so I'll try again this month)

[] Stick to my new weights routine. No more than 2 days in between.
(I think I need to revamp my entire weights workout...it bores me to death!)

[X] Break this weight loss stall/plateau!
(After 3 weeks of stalling, I fiddled with my diet and I started losing again...phew!)
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----------LONG-TERM GOALS----------
[*] 137 lbs. (COMPLETED 4/14/08. 10 lbs. lost since my January restart.)
[*] 134 lbs. (COMPLETED 4/27/08. 30 lbs. since 2007)
[*] 132 lbs. (Normal BMI)
[*] 127 lbs. (20 lbs lost since January)
[ ] 124 lbs. (40 lbs lost since 2007)
[ ] 118 lbs. (My college weight!)
[ ] 114 lbs (50 lbs. lost overall)
[ ] 112 lbs or Size 3/4 Jeans
[ ] 50+ HDL cholesterol level
[ ] Compete and place well in a 5k race
[ ] Healthy Waist to Hip Ratio
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Taking a Break - Maintenance

Well, I have been dieting continuously for almost 6 months. Now some people think I'm not supposed to refer to this as a 'diet.' It's supposed to be called a lifestyle change; a permanent alteration to my habits in the direction of lifelong health and weight control.

Well, the truth is these lifelong habits are currently being used to lose weight. When I finally reach my goal weight, I will continue these habits. The difference is that I won't be counting calories and exercising in order to lose weight. I will be doing those things in order to maintain my weight and stay healthy forever. That will be my permanent 'maintenance diet'. In the meantime, though, I am still on a 'weight loss diet'. I use the word 'diet' here to signify my eating and health habits...not in the sense that this is a fad.

With all of that being said...I am a little tired. A weight loss diet puts stress on the body - mentally and physically. The body likes to have things stay the same. It likes steadiness and consistency. When we are losing weight, we are constantly forcing it to change. We force it to work a little harder. So, after six months of this, I decided to step back a little bit and do a little bit of maintenance. I am still counting calories and staying active (although, I will be honest and say that my exercise has dwindled a bit, but my foot injury and bad weather are to blame for this) but I am eating at my maintenance level of calories and I have not attempted to lose weight for a few weeks.

I figured this would be a nice way to let my body get used to my current healthy weight (127 lbs, thank you very much!) before I attempt to tackle the final 10-15 pounds.

How is it going so far?

Pretty well. I have stayed steady at this weight for nearly 4 weeks now. My injured foot has healed nicely and I am about ready to resume next week with increase my exercise to my previous level and consuming the calories needed to lose my 1 pound a week again.

In essence, I basically spent the past few weeks practicing what I will be doing forever...keeping my calorie intake at the level my body needs to maintain my current weight. Of course, if I had been more active these past 3 weeks, I would have been able to eat a lot more (because the more we exercise, the more we can - and should - eat!) But, I am glad I took it easy on the activity because I was really overworking my foot injury and possibly heading towards some long-term problems. (That's what I get for running with the wrong type of sneaker!)

In any case, I just thought I'd share my experience on 'maintenance dieting' and how I fared in my attempt to take a break from 'weight loss dieting.' Honestly, calorie counting has changed how I will eat forever. It just makes the most sense to me...calories in, calories out (for the most part.) It's not an exact science, so it always require tweaking, but I'm obviously doing something right because I have lost nearly 40 pounds this way. Wish me luck for the final 15!