Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Wednesday Workout Update and BodyBugg Review!

But first, let me thank all y'all for the sweet birthday wishes...you guys are the best and made me feel really special!!!

********
Now, onto the workouts...I swear, I think both Brad and Linda are trying to kill me! They have definitely stepped it up several notches. It's been wild and I've been pushed like crazy - and while I haven't always enjoyed every second, I have to note two things: One, yesterday in the gym while doing some sort of bicep presses with dumbbells, I caught a glimpse of my arms in the mirror and could see the muscle!!! Woohoo, that spurred me on to keep going! Afterward, my arms felt tighter - the muscles are finally fighting through the flab and are beginning to be noticeable. I felt like Arnold Schwarzenegger for a moment!

The other cool thing to note is that this morning, on what is normally my hardest day to workout since I also workout on Tuesdays at 4:00 pm, I RAN on the treadmill for five minutes at the very end of my hour-long session. This was after a killer, seemingly never-ending Tabata in the gym, and then doing the stepper forever in the cardio room. I was amazed that I could do a run at the end. My endurance has improved, big time! I'm sure my awesome new running shoes helped, too.

Oh, and while I've been biking every evening, I wasn't planning on it last night, having just worked out. But Paco the Wonder Dog started "talking" to me and jumping all around - you see, he gets to go with me when I ride, and apparently he didn't care that I was a bit fatigued. So I leashed up my spoiled dog and took him for a short bike ride...geez, the things I do for that dog!

And now, onto the BodyBugg. As I wrote a few weeks ago, Linda very kindly offered the use of her BodyBugg to me. I've been wearing it for a while now, and even had a 45-minute phone coaching session (which comes with the online subscription). One cool thing I discovered via the coach was that the BB counts your steps - and no, I've never reached 10,000 in one day, although I was darn close a couple of busy work days when we had receptions.

The most important information that the BB is giving me is that I'm not burning a lot of calories, even on my workout days. For the hour-long workout, the BB tells me that I burn between 250 - 290 calories, which is much less than when I add up what the stepper, rower and treadmill tell me that I've burned. Brad is pretty good about getting our heartrates up during strength training, so I know I'm burning some decent calories there. So this is why I decided to ramp up my exercise by going for a good, long bike ride just about every evening.

How many calories does the BB say I'm burning? Well, I'm around 2100 every day. Keep in mind that it's 92% accurate, so this isn't an exact science. But it has shown me that I need to move more if I want to lose weight at a reasonable speed. And it also serves as a reminder to me that working out is not an excuse for overeating - not if you're trying to lose weight, anyway.

11 comments:

  1. Wow, that is cool, I would love to know how many calories I burn in a day. I think I read that to lose a pound you have to burn off 3500 calories more than what you take in? Not sure if I said that correctly. But if you are burning 2100 a day, wow, that is fantastic!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. LOVE the bodybugg. Not like, Love. :)

    One thing: I've read that it's not as accurate when it comes to cycling or spinning. A suggestion that I've seen from BB people is move bugg slightly to outside of arm. Check this out: http://my.apexfitness.com/message_boards/posts.php?mb=1&topic=7293

    I'm off to burn some more calories. BB says I haven't burned enough. :)
    Your workouts sound scary!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've been eyeballing that BB for quite a while. Your endorsement is about to push me into finally buying it. Oh, and your workouts? Sheesh...I'm exhausted just reading. LOL

    Happy belated birthday!

    ReplyDelete
  4. You sure are working your butt off....literally!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow love your motivation! I've been a little slack the last few days and I'd better get moving if I'm going to keep up with my blog girls!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, 2100 is very impressive!

    Love that your muscles are trying to take over the fat!! The muscles will win eventually! :D

    ReplyDelete
  7. "working out is not an excuse for overeating - not if you're trying to lose weight, anyway" -- I need to print this out and hang it on my refrigerator :)

    Nice NSV on the muscles popping out!

    ReplyDelete
  8. That hot new dress is going to be too big real soon if you keep it up, Shelley Schwarzenegger!

    That is really interesting about the BB and the calorie count vs what your machines are calculating. I have always suspected that my elliptical was lying to me about the number of calories burned.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That is a very useful and interesting report about the BB. I too suspect that the readout on the machines were a tad inacurate, otherwise I would be losing a lot more weight every week, lol!

    Well done on finding those muscles - I love admiring mine too!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I would agree with the calorie burn readouts on the cardio machines; I found even with my Polar that there's a difference. I've been contemplating getting a BB...maybe when I hit my next goal. :o)

    Great NSV on the Schwarzeneggar arms!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Happy belated b-day, Shelley! I'm sorry I wasn't around on the actual day.

    Thanks for the BB review. I've been contemplating one and you've tipped the scales, so to speak, in its favor. Hmmm...

    Machines are notorious for over-estimating calories burned. Because of a med I take, I can't get my heartrate past 135, so I KNOW I'm not burning the kind of calories the elliptical tells me I am. A BB might help me pinpoint exactly what I'm doing.

    Rock on with your morning biking self! Here's to another healthy year!

    ReplyDelete

Comments are now moderated to prevent spammers from leaving, well, spam - but rest assured that as soon as I read a real comment, I will publish it. So please, comment away, even though the blog is officially closed. Thanks!