Fat Belly Challenge Diary (Day 60 Update)

This is the second update for my 90-day fat belly challenge where I am looking to implement long-standing changes to my lifestyle.

Why?

Mostly this is to turnaround my sedentary lifestyle that was not just making me fatter but less active.

I am using an intermittent fasting meal timing schedule as it seemed like the best diet plan strategy that can be used long-term.

To track activity levels through step count and to monitor my sleep I use an Oura ring.

I am now just over 60-days into my fat belly 90-day challenge where I am committed to reducing body fat and increasing my activity levels. So, have I lost any further weight, and what else has changed in my lifestyle?

What Did I Learn in the Last 30-days?

This is the second update and last month I gave my feedback on my progress after 30-days of the fat belly challenge.

The biggest takeaway from last month is that sleep is critical to keeping on track with a healthy and productive lifestyle.

More precisely, it's the QUALITY OF SLEEP that is important.

I strived to keep an average of 7 hours of sleep per night. Checking over the average night’s sleep for August I averaged 6 hours 45 minutes hours per night. According to most research the recommended daily sleep for adults is between 7 – 9 (Sleep Foundation), so I am not quite getting enough sleep at the moment.

Although I can get by on the amount of sleep per night it's not optimal and I can feel the accumulative effects of some 6 hour nights after a few days.

It's a no-brainer – I need MORE SLEEP.

Keeping on an intermittent fasting pattern of eating still works for me. I find it easy to fast for 18-19 hours per day and eat within a 5-6 hour window.

This ensures I don’t snack during the evening, which was becoming a habit before I started intermittent fasting. I also have quit drinking alcohol too, which not only helps with reducing excess calories but the sore head next morning.

Here are my positive and negative observations from the challenge so far.

Did I Lose Weight During the Last 30-days?

It's been nice this month that friends and family have noticed that I have lost weight. Even without prompting and mentioning my fat belly challenge!

That said, I didn't lose as much weight as I hoped.

It’s crunch time, what do the numbers say?

Good news, overall my body weight has dropped 3.2kg (just over 7lbs) with body fat reducing to 25.6% (a drop of 1.9%).

My PiCooc weighing scales show the same “body score” as the end of last month of 6.8 out of 10.

My visceral score is still on the high side at “8” so I have still work to do on this. The fact is my body fat percentage is still too high and needs to be under 24%!

September 3rd, 2019 Measurements

The next results will be recorded on the 1st of October and updated when I write the last part of the 90-day fat belly challenge.

Related: How to lose 20 pounds

Sleep Efficiency During the Last 30-days

Using some cool tech within my Oura ring, I can monitor my sleep and a bunch of other measures when sleeping, such as body temperature and resting/recovery heart rate.

The data measured by the Oura ring is then used to calculate a readiness score which can give you feedback on how much to push yourself (or not) during the day.

Comparing my average daily sleep time with last month and it's the same literally within one minute!

According to my Oura readings, my overall “readiness score” was 80 in August, so a drop of one point as during July I averaged 81.

I will be taking a closer eye on sleep efficiency and total time asleep as this greatly impacts the readiness score.

Activity Levels the Last 30-days

As I have already outlined, my daily activity levels are low, and since moving to Malaysia have decreased as I drive more compared to the days of walking about in London.

So, I strived to do an average of 10,000 steps each month.

Most days, I managed to do it, mostly by being mindful of my activity levels and if I fell short would take a long walk home to make up the shortfall in steps.

Some days I didn’t make it through, either because of family commitments or the feedback from my Oura ring was to take it easy (I know!).

Last Month of the 90-day Challenge

I have 30-days left of my fat belly challenge – will I reach my goals?

I believe I may struggle to lose the next 2-3 kg to reach my target of losing 6kg in 90-days. I say this because it’s certainly getting harder to lose more kgs after the initial few kilos.

This was to be expected, and with any weight loss regime, initial results are quick as you do lose some water weight.

So, what is my plan for the last 30-days to try and achieve my target?

I need to focus on getting a better and more structured sleep schedule. This will allow me to push myself more during the days to increase my step count.

We know most successful fat loss strategies are done from the kitchen, so I am going to look at shifting my macro composition to favor a higher protein intake and lower carbs.

I have done this before with good results. Although this may not be a long-term strategy it could help me to get where I want to weight wise.

The intermittent fasting strategy is perfect for maintaining weight and for initial weight loss. I will go into the other benefits of intermittent fasting in an article later this month.

Quick Summary

The month started slowly, and for the first week didn’t think I would see much if any, weight loss. This changed in weeks 3 and 4 when I managed to lose 1 kilo.

Why I am not quite sure, to be honest. But, I can see that my apron belly is getting smaller!

I need to tweak my sleep schedule and aim to get 7+ hours of good-quality sleep per night. This will improve my “readiness” for the next day and ensure I am rested to keep active.

My food choices over the next 30-days will be the key to keeping on track and being able to reach my goal of 64kg. So, I will be knuckling down and will update you next month.