Me, she and Wii – A weight loss odyssey, week 5

February 19th, 2010

Another week down, and more pounds down the drain. I lost 3.1 pounds over last Friday, so it appears I am past the first plateau. Now, if you remember I didn’t really lose any weight during week 4, but I noticed that I did lose inches. This is sort of a trap that quite a few weight-loss-seekers fall into. They see that they have stopped losing weight so quickly and level out for a bit, but they fail to notice the inches they are losing.

As one replaces the TV remote with exercise, not only is fat burned off, but muscle is built back up. Muscle is denser than fat, so the same amount of muscle weights more than fat. While you think that your body has just stopped responding to diet and exercise, it hasn’t. You will have replaced fat with some denser muscle tissue, which, pound for pound, doesn’t take up as much space, so you lose inches. I am now back down to a 32 waist.

One of the most fat-burning exercises on the Wii Fit Plus is the Rhythm Boxing. A trainer will give you a pattern to follow. You follow with footwork and punches. You start off at 3 minutes and as you get better, more time can be added. Some patterns now include dodging right and left, as well as stepping forward or back to take a punch. At the end of the time, you do feel like you’ve had a workout. The best thing is it burns quite a few calories while letting you have fun.