Last Updated on July 8, 2025 by Michael Brockbank
In week two of my Summer of Fitness challenge, I managed to lose 2.2 pounds. It wasn’t the massive drop that I wanted for my goal, but it’s not bad considering that I didn’t do much until Sunday.
On Saturday, I really didn’t count everything I was eating. It was my niece’s wedding, but I made sure that I wasn’t pigging out and kept everything to logical portion sizes. But I gotta say, that parmesan chicken was pretty good.
Nonetheless, any loss is better than nothing at all. So, I’ll call 2.2 pounds a win.
How I Lost 2.2 Pounds This Week
Throughout the entire week, I really didn’t put a lot of effort into the Summer of Fitness. Between personal and professional issues, it’s been an incredibly busy week overall. However, I did manage to slightly drop my average intake and slightly increase the average calorie burn.
Plus, I made a ton of points on Sunday, which is going to make the following week even more poignant for physical activity. I’ll explain that part in a moment, but let’s just say, it’s going to be vital that I get off my ass and do something in week three.
Getting a Bit More Movement Overall
I only played the Oculus once last week. I was going to do more, but between the weather being incredibly fickle and various parts of my life going haywire, I just didn’t get around to doing much.
The biggest saving grace moment of last week was playing a full round of golf with Dad on Sunday. Not only did I rack up 13,616 steps that day, but I also burned a lot of calories on the course.
We started early in the morning and were done before lunch. But by then, the temperature was already climbing to about 85 and going up. So, it’s a good thing we didn’t play much longer, considering that I’m prone to heat exhaustion.
I was on the course for about 3.5 hours, which tallied up 2,859 points on the Summer of Fitness spreadsheet. So, I don’t have to do the live stream shirtless this week, as I cleared what I needed for points by damn near double.
However, now I have a more pressing issue. I need 3,519 points this week, which means I really need to push myself to do more every day. One session per day on the Oculus is not going to make enough points to beat last week’s numbers.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, every activity I have on the Summer of Fitness spreadsheet is worth a certain number of points. If I can’t beat my points during any given week, I promised viewers that I would do the Tuesday night live podcast show topless. And I have a couple of fans who have been trying to talk me out of my shirt for years.
Anyway, I’ll need at least two 25 to 30-minute activities each day if I want to keep my shirt on. Easy enough, right? The problem is that I often put things off and then just forget about them.
If you want a great activity that will burn a lot of calories, play an 18-hole round of golf during the summer. It was fun, but I have a feeling it is going to screw me this next week.
What About the Food Intake?
On average, I reduced my intake by only 44 calories per day. That’s one of the biggest reasons why I didn’t lose more than 2.2 pounds this week. And the culprits? Lots and lots of cookies. And I’m talking about those big cookies you get from Maverick that come in at around 440 calories and are loaded with sugar and carbs.
Then, as I mentioned earlier, I wasn’t keeping track of intake during my niece’s wedding. On the upside, I served myself quite a bit of fresh fruit and solid proteins. And if I had been active on Saturday, I am sure I would have easily burned through what I ate. The problem is that we spent about three hours on the road in total, and I was burned out from the outdoor wedding.
Long story short, I was too tired to do much of anything that day.
Remember, I don’t handle the heat very well. It’s probably because of my blood condition; it’s incredibly thick, which is why I have to donate regularly. With thick blood, I tend to generate a lot of heat as it is. Adding more heat just puts me in a bad way.
The saddest part is that I didn’t have a single day that was under 2000 calories, nor even close to keeping the caloric intake in the green according to my Net 600 Calorie diet. I probably would have lost at least five pounds if I had been more conscious about my intake.
3 Goals for Next Week
Well, it’s pretty obvious what my goals are for this week. I am exceptionally afraid of doing the show shirtless, as I am kind of a prude. It’s the most embarrassing thing I could think of to help reinforce motivation to not fail.
Losing weight is more than just being physically active, though. It also depends on how you eat and whether you can change bad habits into good ones for the long term.
If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you’ll need to make some lifestyle changes. Otherwise, there is a great chance you’ll put the weight back on.
Dial Up the Physical Activity
Obviously, I need to vastly increase my daily physical activity. I can’t afford to play a round of golf each week just to hit the break-even point. That means I need to include at least two activities per day.
These activities can be virtually anything that I’m tracking on the spreadsheet or some other physical movement that I can easily record on the Fitbit. So, I can play the Oculus and then go for a 20-minute walk later on.
The idea is to be more physical in any regard. For an aging desk jockey who is about to turn 49, it’s not always the easiest thing to do. That’s part of why I wanted to start slowly, but a round of golf just kicked the summer into overdrive.
On the upside, I can rack up quite a few points if I go to the gym this week. Perhaps I’ll do that on Wednesday and Friday.
Keep the Carbs Under 250 per day
I’ve been eating way too many carbs without burning them off. If I can keep the carb intake to around 250, I should burn the fat quite nicely, as long as I am getting off my butt and doing something physical.
My diet lets me eat anything I want as long as I’m doing so in moderation, while adding healthier elements. But that doesn’t mean I can wolf down a bunch of cookies every day and expect to get trim.
The trick is to find a good balance. The human body converts carbs to energy. When the immediate carbs are gone, it starts using fat. So, if I can maintain a healthy level of movement every day, I should burn fat quite quickly.
The idea of dropping carb intake is to force the body to burn fat. That’s essentially the premise behind diet plans like Keto and Lean for Life. However, ramping up activity means providing enough nutrients and energy to keep going.
Glucose is needed for sustained cardio activity. That means a balance is needed if you don’t want to burn yourself out.
Try Riding the Bike?
It’s been extremely hot during the day here in Denver. And if it isn’t pushing high 90s, it’s been raining buckets. At least it has in my area.
Still, I would love to get on the bike more often. If I could ride a bit in the evening or early morning, that would be ideal. Besides, I would love to break a few personal records on Runkeeper.
I’m not going to focus too hard on this goal, though. Too many things interfere with the perfect time to ride. I might have to wait until September when it starts cooling down some. Since this challenge is running through October 1st, I’ll have plenty of time to add some bike-riding minutes.
I’ll try to ride here and there, weather and time permitting. I’m just not going to stress too much if I’m not able to squeeze in some quality time on the bike. Yet, it’s something I’ll heavily consider when the weather isn’t blistering or storming.
Losing 2.2lbs Ain’t Bad, But I Can Do Better
Losing 2.2 pounds isn’t a bad week, all things considered. I didn’t do much outside of playing golf on Sunday and a single round of playing Fruit Ninja. By boosting what I need this week in terms of physical activity, it should be an easy win for losing far more than 2.2 pounds.
Of course, that also depends on what and how much I eat. If I don’t curb my intake, it won’t matter how much I burn. I can’t eat an entire pizza after a 30-minute cardio workout and expect to lose weight.
At the end of the day, it looks like hitting the gym is going to be the most logical way to keep the points green. Eh, it’s all good. I wanted to start getting back to the gym anyway.
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