So, here I present to you the graph. The weight change value (in kilograms) was derived in the following way: each day I would take the difference between my morning and bedtime weight to see how much I had gained or loss throughout the day. Then, the next morning I would calculate how much I had lost over night (always loss). The difference between my gain/loss over the day and loss overnight is the daily change.
The first thing that surprised me during the study was how much weight I gained during each day and lost at night. I had never really thought before too much about my daily food accumulation and nightly energy burning. And getting a good, long, unstressful night of sleep often, but not always, affected how much I burned at night.
My eating habits were variable during these five weeks. I confess to putting conscientious effort into eating with the goal of increasing my weight during the first couple of weeks of the study. But, my body wasn't really liking all of that food, so I cut back.
The second week I was very stressed about a presentation which I knew would go horribly and you can see how my weight went down that entire week. Take-away message: stress is unhealthy.
The final few weeks of the study show much fluctuation. I would love to make a general statement about showing a tendency to always gain during a certain time of the week, but there is at least one peak on the graph for every day but Sunday.
My weight from the entire data set had a range of 4.84 lbs. The difference between the averages of all my morning and bedtime weights was only 1.2 lbs. I consider this to mean that my weight is relatively consistent around the weight which it fluctuates.
During the study I often wondered, does the weight of the food I eat transfer directly to the weight I gain? I was curious, but not crazy enough to weigh all of my food before I ate it...
While we are on the topic of weight, I would like to comment on healthy habits. The Yahoo! homepage loves to supply us with all sorts of articles listing ways to improve health, relationships, city to live in, etc. Well, in this theme I came across this list tonight, "6 Easy Slim-Down Strategies". Or, as I would more properly call the list, "6 Ways to Have a Healthy Body".
1) Weigh yourself daily
2) Keep t.v. viewing under 2 hours a day
3) Eat 4g of fiber at every meal
4) Sleep at least 7 hours per night
5) Drink 8 glasses of water per day
6) Stick to an 8-hour work day
I think this is a pretty good list. In summary, it says to eat healthy, get exercise, keep stress low, and sleep well.
I can't claim to do all of these things super well, but in general I try hard. I know that I have a naturally high metabolism which is simply genetic and I do not have the ability to gift this to any of you who are trying to lose weight. But, in addition to my natural ability, I also put effort into making my diet, exercise, and sleep contribute to the betterment of my health.
I am not a great Ultimate Frisbee player, but I go twice a week to run around like an idiot, sweat, and lower my stress (or temporarily raise it, as that is really the case, but it all works towards the best for the functioning of my body). I drink water all the time which has the consequence of people thinking I'm weird because I go to the bathroom so frequently. I'm a night-owl, but that doesn't keep me from getting my 8 hours of sleep! I just sleep later into the day! One weakness of mine which I used to be great about but have fallen out of the habit is eating an apple each day. It's not just a saying! It really is good to eat an apple a day! My habit has now turned into a banana every morning, which is also good, but not as great as an apple every day at lunch.
I wish you all the best of health!
You are a true scientist!!
ReplyDelete