Week 4 & 5 H4H: Things Got a Bit Squiffy

Last Updated on September 11, 2024 by Michael Brockbank

So, the past couple of weeks have been a bit of a handful. Between constantly moving furniture, MyFitnessPal breaking my data, and increased levels of stress, I haven’t been on the ball.

Suffice it to say, I doubt I’ll hit any of my goals for my Hot 4 Halloween challenge.

In total, I’ve only lost around six pounds thus far. But I suppose that averages out to a little over a pound a week, which isn’t overtly terrible. It’s just nowhere near my full potential.

Despite my stress being dialed so high, though, I’ve managed to keep my eating and snacking to realistic levels. Being a stress eater, I call this an incredible win!

Why Things Have Gone Off the Rails

I’ve been having a lot of issues as of late with stress and trying to keep all of the tops spinning. And sometimes when I get this stressed, I spend too much time in my own head. This leads to wasting time, which then frustrates me even more and keeps the stress high.

It’s a vicious cycle.

I’ve also been trying to keep life and career balanced, which can be rough at times. Take the Father’s Day incident, for example. Not only did we almost lose Grandpa, but we had to completely clean his basement apartment, which is still in progress.

Someone mixed with ADHD and a hoarder can do a lot of damage to an apartment space.

Anyway, that is just the personal part of the equation. Now, let’s take a look at the technological.

MyFitnessPal no longer collects correct data from Fitbit on my account. It works fine for everyone else I know who has joined me in the Net 600 Calorie diet. But on my end, MyFitnessPal is saying that I burned an extra 1100 calories within a single minute.

I can’t figure out why it’s broken in such a way, and no one has been able to help aside from blaming the other party. I freakin’ hate corporate tech support staff.

Anyway, because I can no longer stick to my diet plan for this challenge, I’m going to have to change it up a bit. I don’t want to restart with a new plan of attack and still want to see what I can do to myself before Halloween.

What is the Plan to Get Back On Track?

Unfortunately, I’m not able to collect the data I would like and demonstrate how effective the Net 600 Calorie Diet is overall. It’s based on increasing physical activity while keeping the calories low.

So, I am going to adjust the methods to try to demonstrate a similar point. In fact, some of the goals are going to be the same as they will help with burn vs input…which is the diet’s primary focus – burning twice as much as I consume.

1800 Calorie Goal

Through the many times I’ve challenged myself, I know that I can sustain myself relatively well on an 1800-calorie diet. Even on days when I sit at my computer for 16 hours, I’ll still wind up burning more than 2200.

I get up and get a lot of coffee and such from upstairs. Not to mention going outside and walking the dog.

So, until MyFitnessPal pulls its head out of its ass, I’ll aim for a goal of 1800 calories. That is plenty of food for each meal and a few snacks throughout the day. And yes, I’ll be mixing in healthy meals and not just packing away 1800 calories worth of cupcakes.

As long as I can stick to the remaining goals below, I should still burn twice as much as I consume. It’s a bit more restrictive of a diet simply because I can’t exercise to burn off anything extra that I eat. So, if I go beyond 1800 calories, it’s going to be a red day.

12,500 Steps Through Activity

I’ve found that the 12,500-step goal is the key to my weight loss. This includes walking, playing the Oculus, cleaning the house, and anything else that generates steps according to my Fitbit.

If I can hit that number, it is a virtual guarantee that I’ll burn twice as much as I eat, if not more. That is as long as I stick to a maximum intake of 1800 calories.

For a desk jockey, 12,500 steps is an awful lot. But as long as I can at least walk twice and play the Oculus twice per day, it should be relatively easy to hit.

The problem I often have is time.

Average Carbs Below 150g per day

Perhaps one of the more difficult goals to hit is keeping the average carbs below 150g per day. Let’s face it, I love Halloween and all of its chocolatey goodness. It doesn’t take long to hit 150g of carbs with all of that sweet, sweet, sugary life force.

Still, 150g isn’t necessarily keto. As long as I have logical and healthier meals, I can still enjoy a few pieces of candy here and there. I just can’t sit down and eat the entire 145-piece bag from Walmart.

Why 150g of carbs? Because I know that is my sweet spot for weight loss. It’s the level at which I can burn off half a pound of fat per day along with the Net 600 diet. Not to mention that I have a problem with hypoglycemia, meaning my blood sugar levels often get quite low if I’m not paying attention. The types of carbs I eat play a role in maintaining that aspect.

Find Moments of Zen

Lastly, but probably the most important, is that I have to find a way to destress a bit more often. Lately, it seems that every time I find my moment of Zen, someone purposely tries to push me over the edge. At the moment, it’s a few clients who are driving me absolutely batshit crazy.

Sure, I am a bit anxious about a few author events I’ll be attending for my debut novel. But it’s nothing like someone second-guessing you when you have a decade of experience in the task.

Anyway, stress is no good on any level, especially for a stress eater. So, I need to figure out a way to let a few things go and just think happy, happy thoughts.

I definitely need to do more meditation and relaxation, such as taking a weekend off from everything and just vegging out to a new game or maybe a movie or two.

It’s Still an Uphill Battle…kinda

This challenge has been a rough one, but nearly the collapsed bridge that was the last. Although MyFitnessPal and Fitbit aren’t playing nice for me at the moment, I still think I can do some great things for my health and fitness before Halloween.

I just need to adapt and continue. So, let’s see if I can continue with an 1800-calorie diet while burning as much as I can through walking and physical activity. It’ll be interesting, but I’m pretty sure I can do it.

After all, that is how I lost the first 20 pounds in a month and a half. I simply set my goals in MyFitnessPal to eat 2,000 calories and walked around Sterling. Let’s see if I can do it again, 10 years later.

About Author

Michael Brockbank

Since 2015, Michael has put in the effort to lose more than 80 pounds by gamifying fitness and eating proper portion sizes. He conducts extensive research into various health and fitness products to provide the best answers possible according to his own experience and knowledge.

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