Tim's 50 Day Challenge
LepperMessiah1
Posts: 102 Member
This is where I'll be updating the progress on my 50 Day Challenge.
For my 50 Day Challenge I'm going to limit my exercise to VR and walking coupled with a balanced diet. I won't be taking any supplements other than some vitamins. My personal goal is to lose 2 lbs / week, for a total of ~14.3 lbs.
Pre-Challenge Check-in
Weight: 180.4 lbs
Waist: 40 in.
Weekly Weight Loss: 0 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 0 lbs
% of Goal (14.3 lbs): 0%
My "Before" Pictures:
For my 50 Day Challenge I'm going to limit my exercise to VR and walking coupled with a balanced diet. I won't be taking any supplements other than some vitamins. My personal goal is to lose 2 lbs / week, for a total of ~14.3 lbs.
Pre-Challenge Check-in
Weight: 180.4 lbs
Waist: 40 in.
Weekly Weight Loss: 0 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 0 lbs
% of Goal (14.3 lbs): 0%
My "Before" Pictures:
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Replies
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Day 1 Workout
10 Minutes in The Lab's Longbow (Warmup)
20 in Thrill of the Fight
20 in Holopoint (Drop squats to dodge. So many squats. lol)
10 in Holoball (cooldown)
Estimated Burn: 866 kcal
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Day 3 Workout
10 min: Longbow (Warmup)
20 min: Thrill of the Fight
20 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Total Time: 1:04:34
Estimated Burn: 864 kcal
Notes: I'm surprised how closely today's workout aligned with Monday's. Guess Monday wasn't an outlier after all!0 -
Day 5 Workout
10 min: Longbow (Warmup)
20 min: Thrill of the Fight
20 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Total Time: 1:04:57
Estimated Burn: 829 kcal
Not to sound like a broken record, but I seem to have found a winning combination here and probably won't make any adjustments until I can assess my weight loss for the week.
So far everything is on track to make my 5 workout goal for this week. There are storms coming this week here in Columbus, so my daily walks with Sterling (my 18 month old son) may have to be curtailed. I still have Saturday and Sunday to do my VR conditioning (VR-Con?), and then my first weekly weigh-in on Monday!
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Day 6 Workout
10 min: Longbow (Warmup)
20 min: Thrill of the Fight
20 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Time: 1:02:34
Estimated Burn: 647 kcal
I guess I spoke too soon yesterday! Big calorie burn dropoff today due to the lower intensity burn from Holopoint. Holopoint dropped me down almost an entire heart rate zone between Friday and today. I felt the difference too - pretty much throughout the whole workout - that I just wasn't getting as fatigued. So I need to decide if I'm comfortable with getting a lower overall burn from my workout or if I want to ramp up the intensity more. ~650 calories in an hour is still a great workout, but we'll see what tomorrow brings and what my overall weight loss for the week has been on Monday before I go messing with things.
Also today I finally got around to measuring my resting heart rate, which is around 72BPM and average.0 -
Day 7 Workout: A power outage means no workout. ☹️
There's a chance it will be back on around 10PM - if the electric company is to be believed - and a chance I may workout then, but I think the chances are slim.0 -
Surprise!
Day 7 Workout Redux
10 min: Longbow (Warmup)
25 min: Thrill of the Fight
25 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Time: 1:10:00
Estimated Burn: 781
Back on track! It's late though, so I will fill in the details tomorrow when I weigh in.
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Day 7 Workout Redux (Continued)
Longbow / Thrill of the Fight / Holopoint
Holoball
First, you'll notice that my HRM went highwire in the first 15 minutes. I don't know what that was about (it's never happened before), but it still averaged out to 116 BPM, so I don't think it threw off my calorie burn too much. Second, you'll notice that I have my cooldown split off from the rest of the workout, and that my time ran over. The Thrill of the Fight was recently updated and it was pretty buggy. It crashed twice and I had to reload it. That kind of threw me off. So that ran long. Then in Holopoint I had the opposite problem. Basically, I hit a new high score and level and didn't want to stop! First time I can ever recall not wanting to quit a workout when the timer was up, lol. [Spoilers] I encountered the floating Demi-Goddess thing in Holopoint - which I was not expecting - and it kind of floored me. haha. [/Spoilers] Needless to say I died soon thereafter, but I forgot all about my cooldown and stopped the timer early. So that's why it's separate.
On to the first weigh-in!0 -
Week One Check-in
Weight: 176.3 lbs
Waist: 39.25 in. (Down 3/4 in)
Weekly Weight Loss: 4.1 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 4.1 lbs
% of Goal: 29%
Additional Weekly Data
Total sessions of high-intensity VR training: 5
Total hours of high-intensity VR training (including warmups and cooldown): ~5:26
Average calories burned per workout: 797 kcal.
Well, blew that out of the water. Not totally unexpected in the first week of a weight-loss experience, but still very satisfying. Almost 1/3 of the way to my goal with 6/7 of the time left to go isn't a bad place to be at.
The takeaway from this week I think is to not to change what isn't broken. The soreness and fatigue has pretty much left entirely at this point, so I do feel confident in adding a 6th workout this week, but I'm going to play it by ear. Tentatively, this week will look like:
Monday: Off
Tuesday: On
Wednesday: On
Thursday: Off (Maybe on)
Friday: On
Saturday: On
Sunday: On0 -
Day 9 Workout
10 min: Longbow (Warmup)
25 min: Thrill of the Fight
25 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Time: 1:04:31
Estimated Burn: 798
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Day 10 Workout
10 min: Longbow (Warmup)
25 min: Thrill of the Fight
25 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Time: 1:08:10
Estimated Burn: 721
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Day 11 Rest Day
I'd been considering maybe doing a 6th workout for the week today, but instead I decided to try something a little bit different. I tested out 3 different games wearing my HRM, thinking maybe they could give me a decent workout and I could alternate them with my current regimen. The games I chose were:
10 Min: AudioShield
20 Min: Hover Junkers: Buzzbots
10 Min: Space Pirate Trainer
Here are the results:
You can see why today is titled "Rest Day." Of the three I tested, AudioShield and Buzzbots got my heart rate up the most, but, even so, barely getting me into the 2nd HR zone. SPT barely got into the 1st HR zone.
The problem was there just wasn't any way to really push myself - physically - in any of these titles. In the case of Audioshield, you are constrained by the flow of the song. You have to wait for the orbs to approach you, you can't just punch them out as fast as possible, like in The Thrill of the Fight. The issue with Buzzbots and Space Pirate Trainer is that there isn't as much of an incentive to "squat dodge" which makes up a huge part of the intensity in Holopoint. In Holopoint there is an indication that you will be shot at either when you either hit your target or you wait too long to hit your target, and this creates a rhythm of shooting and squatting and shooting again. That same rhythm just isn't there in SPT or Buzzbots. Also that the precision required in those games means that I can't stay in constant motion as much as I can in a wave shooter like Holopoint. Lining up my target requires me to slow down or stop more often. Lastly, unlike Holopoint, these games aren't a full 360 degrees. The spinning that Holopoint requires adds a whole nother dimension of movement and intensity.
So I think AudioShield is a best contender for a warm-up or cooldown. SPT didn't even make a blip, and Hover Junkers Buzz Bots isn't something I can just jump into like the other games, and that slows down the pacing I need for a good session.
I'm not counting today as a workout and I won't average today's calorie burn into my weekly average either. At least I know my HRM isn't exaggerating my calorie burns! 0 -
Day 12 Workout
9 min: Audioshield (Warmup)
25 min: Thrill of the Fight
25 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Vest + 2.5 lbs
Time: 1:05:08
Estimated Burn: 741
I decided to add a weighted vest today, starting with 2.5 lbs. The plan is to add 2.5 lbs every other workout, which will keep me shy of the vest's capacity of 45 lbs. There was only problem. I have three velcro closures on the 3-in-1 cable to keep an audio extension cable in place. The velcro kept snagging on the bottom of the vest, yanking my head backwards every time I crouched or squatted. So, that was irritating. lol. I'll fix it before Saturday's workout, and hopefully there will be no more of that.
I've owned a weighted vest once before, it was on the cheap side with sandbag weights. That vest was pain. It would shift and sag throughout my workout and was impossible to cinch on snugly. I opted for a premium weighted vest this time around, and while it's difficult to assess it's functionality with only 2.5 lbs, it seems to be leagues ahead of the other one. Aside from the cable snagging, which I'm confident can be fixed, the only other downside so far is that it is going to make me sweat a lot more. Good thing I got a new fan too.
Used Audioshield as a warm-up today. I think this is a better choice than Longbow. If I "punch" the orbs, it makes an especially good warm-up for The Thrill of the Fight.0 -
Day 13 Workout
9 min: Audioshield (Warmup)
25 min: Thrill of the Fight
25 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Vest + 2.5 lbs
Time: 1:00:54
Estimated Burn: 734
Started my HRM a couple minutes late. Other than that, another good workout!0 -
Day 14 Workout
9 min: Audioshield (Warmup)
25 min: Thrill of the Fight
25 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Vest + 5 lbs
Time: 1:04:18
Estimated Burn: 766 kcal
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Week Two Check-in
Weight: 175.1 lbs
Waist: 38.75 in. (Down 1/2 in. from last week, 1.25 in. total)
Weekly Weight Loss: 1.2 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 5.3 lbs
% of Goal (14.3lbs): 37%
Additional Weekly Data
Total sessions of high-intensity VR training: 5
Total hours of high-intensity VR training (including warmups and cooldown): ~5:23
Average calories burned per session: 752 kcal. (Down 46 kcal from last week)
Good news is, I'm still on track - ahead even - and I lost another half an inch on my waist! Bad news is I missed my weekly goal of 2 lbs.
This week is a much more accurate snapshot of my progress than last week was. My body has adapted somewhat to the training load and calorie deficit. It's really just a matter of miscalculating my calories in / calories out and I think I did a bit of both; underestimating the calories I've eaten and overestimating the calories I've burned walking. I say walking because .8 lbs off my goal isn't that large of a margin, about ~400 cal a day. Since I'm eating back all the calories I burn in VR - an extra ~750 calories on those days - I'd have certainly gained weight this week instead of losing it.
To course correct this week:
1) Dropping my daily caloric intake by 120 cal
2) Counting nutritional calories more scrupulously
3) Measuring my calorie burns from walking with my HRM (I've been using an estimate). I'm pretty certain the number I get will be lower.
Still not sure I'm ready to add a 6th day this week. Maybe!
Monday: Off
Tuesday: On
Wednesday: On
Thursday: Off (Maybe on)
Friday: On
Saturday: On
Sunday: On0 -
Day 16 Workout
9 min: Audioshield (Warmup)
25 min: Thrill of the Fight
25 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Vest + 5 lbs
Time: 1:04:58
Estimated Burn: 738 kcal
Some questions were raised last week about how I'm able to get such a high burn from my VR sessions. What I can tell you is that I go at maximum effort with minimal rest. In The Thrill of the Fight, for example, I'm able to defeat every opponent, including the trainer, three times in 20 minutes. In HoloPoint, I'm starting at level 1 and taking out the cubes as fast as possible, and deep squatting to dodge every projectile coming at me. During these games I am moving at a furious pace! As such, these bouts are more anaerobic than aerobic and burn more calories than, say, an hour of jogging at a steady pace. As I said earlier, I am eating an additional ~750 cal on the days I do a high intensity VR session, so the simple fact alone that I am not gaining weight demonstrates that the calorie burns from these sessions are accurate.
Another point raised is that my weight loss is not a function of VR alone. That is absolutely true. Any weight loss requires a calorie deficit derived from some combination of calorie restriction and calorie burns. What VR training - or physical activity, in general - can do to aid weight loss is spare muscle (so that weight lost is derived primarily from fat loss) and raise metabolism.
Day 17 Workout
9 min: Audioshield (Warmup)
25 min: Thrill of the Fight
25 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Vest + 7.5 lbs
Time: 1:02:46
Estimated Burn: 678 kcal
First workout where I’ve added more weight than I’ve lost and I could feel it. Also came on the heels the first day of my last semester at OSU and I did a lot of walking with a heavy backpack after Tuesday’s workout. Definitely wasn’t moving as fast Wednesday, but still a good workout. Adding 2.5 lbs every other workout will eventually be too aggressive, so at some point I’ll probably dial that down to every third or fourth workout.
Day 18 Workout
9 min: Audioshield (Warmup)
25 min: Thrill of the Fight
25 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Vest + 7.5 lbs
Time: 1:02:39
Estimated Burn: 696 kcal
Big day with the interview coming out on Geek & Sundry today! Very excited to be sharing my challenge with so many people and I’m really hopeful that this will inspire people to challenge themselves in the same way. Welcome everyone!0 -
Week Three Check-in
Weight: 172.7 lbs
Waist: 38.5 in. (Down 1/4 in. from last week, 1.5 in. total)
Weekly Weight Loss: 2.4 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 7.7 lbs
% of Goal (14.3lbs): 54%
Back on track and more than half way to my goal!
...To Be Continued0 -
Day 19 Workout
So instead of taking a second rest day or having a sixth workout day, I've decided to do a moderate workout day instead. This is basically what I did last week too. This will give me an opportunity to try out some different games - some new, some recommended - for workout purposes.
For Day 19, I tried out 3 games:
1) Fist to Legend
2) Unbreakable VR Runner
3) Racket: NX Demo
First up was Fist to Legend, another boxing title, offered exclusively through the HTC VivePort Beta marketplace. Of the three, this one gave me the best workout, but it isn't nearly as fun of TTotF is. First off, there is only one opponent, but the game offers multiple levels of difficulty. I chose the hardest level. To knock out the opponent you have to bring their health meter to zero. The catch is that their meter recharges pretty quickly. Your own health meter operates in much the same fashion. The mechanics are pretty different from TTotF. Fist to Legend definitely favors power over speed. So to successfully knock him out, you need to connect 3 or 4 direct punches to their head in fairly quick succession. Blocked punches deliver no damage and neither do body punches. To do the most damage requires you to do a pretty comical uppercut starting from a squatted position and ending in full arm extension. A single knockout ends the match. The major problem for me was simply that there was too much downtime between bouts, making it difficult to keep my heart elevated. You can see what I'm talking about from the heart rate graph below:
Second up was Unbreakable VR Runner. The setup is basically that you are moving forward through an obstacle course littered throughout with hazards and barriers that you must avoid. These range from walls that you need to shuffle around, to low ceiling that you need to crouch beneath, to windows that you break though. I really wanted to like this game, and the idea is a good one, but unfortunately the unavoidable - and frankly, dumb - hazards made it unplayable for me. The worst example are the floating capsules scattered throughout the course that distort your view, either by giving you tunnel vision, or warping your vision, or otherwise. It wouldn't take long before I would confront five or six of these grouped right in front of an open path and become essentially crippled from progressing any further. From a workout standpoint, never being able to sustain an instance longer than a minute or two before starting over again from the main menu made for a lackluster effort.
Last was Racket: NX Demo. A pretty fun game that takes racketball to 360 degrees of freedom, but intense it is not. The premise of the game is instead of scoring points against an opponent, you are instead trying to direct each hit of the ball into the colored frames to add time to a running countdown. When the countdown reaches zero, the game is over. On the surface, I would have expected something even more fast paced than Holoball, but the pace was actually much slower, probably to give you extra time to turn and face the ball coming from a different direction. Of the three I tried out, this one was the most lackadaisical.
I really enjoyed the change of pace, switching up my "workouts" a bit, and it gave me some extra recovery. Definitely a win-win.0 -
Day 20 Workout
9 min: Audioshield (Warmup)
20 min: Thrill of the Fight*
20 min: Holopoint*
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
*I copy and paste this from post to post, and I just noticed that I've been citing 25 minutes in each of these games, which is not accurate. I've always done these games for 20 min apiece. Sorry for the confusion!
Vest + 10 lbs (+2.5 lbs)
Time: 1:05:01
Estimated Burn: 722 kcal
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Day 21 Workout
9 min: Audioshield (Warmup)
20 min: Thrill of the Fight
20 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Vest + 10 lbs
Time: 1:03:52
Estimated Burn: 646 kcal
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Week Three Check-in Continued
Additional Weekly Data
Total sessions of high-intensity VR training: 5
Total hours of high-intensity VR training (including warmups and cooldown): ~5:20
Average calories burned per session: 696 kcal. (Down 56 kcal from last week)
Apologies for the data dump! Gotten behind with my posts. 0 -
Day 22 Workout
9 min: Audioshield (Warmup)
20 min: Thrill of the Fight
20 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Vest + 12.5 lbs (+5 lbs)
Time: 1:03:54
Estimated Burn: 762 kcal
Really pushed hard and got a great burn.0 -
Day 23 Workout
9 min: Audioshield (Warmup)
20 min: Thrill of the Fight
20 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Vest + 12.5 lbs
Time: 1:04:50
Estimated Burn: 637 kcal
Was feeling a bit fried today and it shows.
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Day 24
Rest Day
Day 25
Half Way Point!
9 min: Audioshield (Warmup)
20 min: Thrill of the Fight
20 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Vest + 12.5 lbs (Third Day)
Time: 1:01:58
Estimated Burn: 700 kcal
Day 26
9 min: Audioshield (Warmup)
20 min: Thrill of the Fight
20 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Vest + 15 lbs (+2.5 lbs)
Time: 1:02:56
Estimated Burn: 688 kcal
Day 27
Unplanned Rest Day
This was supposed to be my "moderate" day, but I wasn't feeling up to it. Took it as a second rest day instead. I may make up the moderate workout on Sunday though, if I feel up to it.
Day 28
9 min: Audioshield (Warmup)
20 min: Thrill of the Fight
20 min: Holopoint
10 min: Holoball (cooldown)
Vest + 15 lbs
Time: 1:03:57
Estimated Burn: 708 kcal
Vest + 15 lbs
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Week Four Check-in
Weight: 170.6 lbs
Waist: 38 in. (Down 1/2 in. from last week, 2 in. total)
Weekly Weight Loss: 1.9 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 9.6 lbs
% of Goal (14.3lbs): 67%
Additional Weekly Data
Total sessions of high-intensity VR training: 5
Total hours of high-intensity VR training (including warmups and cooldown): ~5:18
Average calories burned per session: 699 kcal. (Up 3 kcal from last week)
Only 20 more days to g., I think I can do this!
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I have officially passed the halfway point, and with only 20 days left to go, I am 2/3 of the way to my goal weight of 166.1 lbs. I'm feeling leaner and having fun exercising (mostly because it doesn't feel like exercise at all). Best of all, every time I suit up my Vive, I actually feel like I'm accomplishing something. Gaming has never held a purpose for me before (other than fun) and this experience has really changed my perspective on what the possibilities of Virtual Reality can be. It's actually helping me live a healthier lifestyle. Amazing.
I was really hoping I could crack the 160's this week, but I fell a bit short of that (and just a hair's width from my weekly goal), but overall I'm really happy with how this week turned out. I'm glad to see that the calorie burns have evened out over the past couple of weeks after declining in the first two, and I think I partly have the weighted vest to thank for that. I've creeped up to an additional 15 lbs now and it's definitely notched up the intensity a bit.1 -
Will update tomorrow! 0
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Week Five Check-in
Weight: 168.2 lbs
Waist: 37.5 in. (Down 1/2 inches from last week, 2.5 inches total)
Weekly Weight Loss: 2.4 lbs
Total Weight Loss: 12 lbs
% of Goal (14.3lbs): 84%
Additional Weekly Data
Total sessions of high-intensity VR training: 5
Total hours of high-intensity VR training (including warmups and cooldown): ~5:25
Average calories burned per session: 712 kcal. (Up 13 kcal from last week)
Waaaay behind on this week's update. It's been a busy week and it's hard enough finding time to exercise, let alone time to write about it. I had some interesting observations this week though, so please bear with me.
First off I had a bit of an eye opener this week looking at the pictures my wife took for - hopefully - another upcoming article coming out soon; I wasn't squatting to parallel. A parallel squat, when properly executed, should align the crease of the hip with the top of the knee and I was shallow by more than a couple inches. I set out to correct this in the subsequent workout, and, let me tell you, the difference was palpable. Just by making this ostensibly small correction, I burned an extra 100 calories and I was heaving breath and pouring sweat on a level not experienced since my first week. Likewise, the next several days my hamstrings, glutes, and quads were sore again for the first time in weeks. It was like night and day. So my advice is, if you're playing Holopoint, and squatting, make sure you're hitting full depth. It will make a profound difference. I only added 2.5 lbs to the vest this week, given the increased exertion of full squats, and I’ll keep it there until I’ve acclimated.
Only 2 more lbs to go!0 -
I also wanted to share a comment that I got last week from /u/Lianad311:This is really impressive and congrats to you. But I can't help but wonder how much of your weight loss is coming from "good nutrition" as opposed to the actual VR part? I would love to see someone change NOTHING in their diet/lifestyle other than do something like this. I know if I just ate healthier for 25 days, I could easily lose 10+ lbs sitting on the couch doing nothing. So while I'm impressed with your weight loss and happy for you, I'm skeptical with how much the VR stuff is actually helping.
My reasoning is based on this.. I did p90X 5 days a week for 30 days, but didn't change diet/etc. I felt better, but never lost any weight really. Another time, I was going through some stuff, and set a goal to not drink any beer at home. I drank no beer at home, did no exercise, changed no diet, and lost 14lbs in less than a month. (Fact: I drink a ton of beer daily at home) So for me, exercising made me feel better, but without changing diet/beer, I lost basically nothing (although did feel better). But just changing diet, I lost 14lbs in less than a month.
Bottom line is, you can't lose weight unless you are expending more calories than you are consuming; there needs to be a calorie deficit. That deficit can come from increased activity or reduced diet or some combination. For some people that could mean eating the same and exercising more, and for others it could mean eating less and not exercising. For me it's a combination.
Personally, I am counting calories to ensure that I am burning more calories daily than I am eating, but here are the 3 big ways that the high-intensity workouts are helping:
1. The exercise is raising my resting metabolism, so I am burning more calories even when I'm not exercising.
2. By routinely exercising, I'm sparing muscle and ensuring that my weight loss is coming primarily from fat stores.
3. On workout days I get to eat about 700 more calories and still lose weight. If I weren't exercising I'd have to limit myself to about 1350 calories a day to lose 2 lb/week. I'd be miserable. That extra food makes everything easier.0 -
Hey everyone! My daily HRM updates just aren't happening for me anymore, lol. Syncing my workouts with Polar, taking the screenshot, uploading the image to Imgur and copying it here with all the details has really become a grind for me and has piled up to the point where I'm not even sure it's worth the effort. Honestly, the readings look pretty much the same from day to day anyways, and my calorie burns have stabilized to the point where it's probably boring to look at anyways.
I will, however, continue to log my workouts into MyFitnessPal as I always have, so you can certainly see what I'm doing and how many calories I burned doing it in my exercise diary, and of course the weekly updates will continue as well (which really have everything in them anyways).
Whew! What a relief that is!
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