It’s been 10 days since I wrote the first post, and given that we’re a third of the way through June I thought I’d give a little update on the progress made so far.
So without further ado, here’s my current stats:
As you can see, I’ve managed to lose 7.6lbs so far, which is pretty damn good!
Looking at my workout history, you can see that I’ve been sticking to my beat saber routine daily (apart from Thursday, as I ended up walking 7kms):
It’s strange, but the amount of calories burned are all over the place – I have found that as I get used to some levels, my heart rate tends to go down, meaning I’m not sweating as much as before. For example, playing “ride it” used to get my heart rate to ~170bpm when first playing (and failing) to finish the level, netting around 150 calories burned in 10 minutes of attempts. But, having completed the level every time I play it for the last 5 days, I’m finding my heart rate only stays ~130bpm, a massive drop once you become more skilled.
To combat this, and to ensure I’m constantly pushing myself, I make sure to use BMBF’s Sync Saber feature, which will put new songs on my device daily. Can’t get used to a song if they’re all new each time and I’m constantly kept on my toes!
I don’t know about you, but this lockdown malarky has certainly taken it’s toll on my waistline! Just when I first came to Canada, I was as fit as a fiddle, reaching my goal body fat percentage and soon accomplishing something I’ve always wanted: to get a six pack. Whilst the six pack never came, I definitely got close:
The height of my weight loss/ muscle gain – apologies for boxer pic!
Upon arriving in Canada, I wanted to bulk up first, so I could come back to the UK a changed person, which I achieved just last year, and even achieved another goal set: to reach 200lb body weight come Christmas 2019 (with most coming from muscle):
Biggest I’ve been, whilst still packing on muscle
So imagine my surprise when Covid-19 came to Toronto and proceeded to shut everything down! No more gym and myself having fallen ill lead to 3 months of isolation, with body weight exercises not really packing the same punch as the gym used to provide.
As a consequence, I am now still 200lb’s, but I’ve certainly lost muscle and instead gained fat around the tummy:
The effects of a lockdown on your waistline – ignore the face, I was tired and just finished playing Beat Saber
It likely looks worse than it is due to the composition of my body changing dramatically – I’ve definitely gained a few percentage points of fat, and, in turn, lost percentage of muscle.
Well enough is enough.
Why Beat Saber?
Recently, I purchased an Oculus quest due to making $500 on the stock market (thanks /r/wallstreetbets), and with no games to play, I decided to download beatsaber, what with it’s wireless vr experience and near limitless song support, I thought what was there to lose?
Fat, hopefully, an awful lot.
Booting it up for the first time I noticed how in half an hours play I was sweating head to toe, with my apple watch constantly pinging me asking if I was doing an indoor run. I ignored it, thinking it was a mistake. Having checked my heart rate after the fact and seeing that it constantly jumped to 170bpm, I knew I was in for a treat in regards to working out.
So I started googling around, to see if there was any evidence to suggest that something as fun as beatsaber could help burn calories, and the evidence found is astonishing:
Beat Saber burns on average 6-8 calories per minute
As you can see from the chart below, the amount of calories you burn depends on how intensive the exercise is:
I’ve noted that whilst I play the game, my heart rate can occasionally high enough that I’m burning in the rowing equivalent – around 764-954 calories per hour!
After sweating more than I have in months, even more than when I run, I decided to make use of my heart rate tracker on my wrist that is the apple watch, and proceeded to play the game again, with apple’s “fitness gaming” exercise pattern. I didn’t necessarily care about the program being chose, it was more about tracking my heart rate than anything else.
Needless to say, the results speak for themselves:
There are times I can burn 150 calories in 10 minutes, but on average this is a normal gaming session.
Given how many calories it burns, and how fun it is, that is why I am choosing Beat Saber as my daily exercise to lose weight.
Methodology
Each day will consist of (at minimum) 1 hour of Beat Saber game play. If I should choose to, I can by all means play longer. This will ensure I’m burning around 700 calories a day from playing the game (at minimum), and will be an achievable goal considering we’re all having to stay inside still (at least here in Toronto in June).
I will also (try) to eat more healthily. I’ll admit, when I bulked to 200lbs before, I dirty bulked, meaning I didn’t care what I put into my body. This time I’ll come off sweets and crisps, and only eat main meals.
I’ll also Intermittent Fast – this means I will go 18 hours without food, and only eat in a 6 hour span (12pm to 6pm).
The Challenge
I’m hoping all of these factors will help to make me lose 10-15lbs within the next month (June).
As I publish this, we’re already 3 days into June, so I’m going to set out some baselines:
Baseline stats:
As of the 28th of May (I didn’t weigh myself the 1st of June sorry!) I was:
Weight: 198.8lbs
BMI: 23.1%
Muscle Mass: 145.2lbs
All of the stats above are based on the scales measurements – should I manage to find or buy a tap measure, I’ll also measure myself for more accurate results.
Below is screenshots from the scale app to corroborate the stats given above:
Oh, and in case you were wondering, I’m 179cm (in case you’re wondering about BMI or height).
Target:
Based on my schedule and the amount of calories burned from Beat Saver, I hope to achieve the following:
Weight: 180 – 190lbs
BMI: 21-22%
Muscle Mass: +2-4lbs
By June 30th 2020.
Expectations
The weight I think I can easily do – throughout my adult life I have consistently jumped between overweight and perfect every other year, so I’m fairly sure I can do the weight aspect of this challenge.
The muscle gain is going to be a challenge, as I’m sure I’m going to lose muscle along the way, no matter how many pushups or weight body training I do.
But we’ll see! All I can do is try my hardest, and I’ll keep you updated along the way!
Stay Tuned…
I’ll be updating this blog throughout June to let you know of any insights I have whilst doing this challenge, and will also update on the 30th with my weight loss.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this read, and if you have any questions you can by all means reach me on Twitter: @caesoose
