Why 3% in 24 Days?
According to research reported by Johns Hopkins University, people tend to gain 5 to 7 pounds on average during the winter months. A lot of times this may be due to the Change of weather, Holiday festivities, the Large Bundle of clothes…and the list goes on.
- Change of Weather: WHO LOVES THE COLD? Typically the colder weather deters people away from their normal outdoor activities especially the active ones like running, hiking and cycling. The weather change can make it easy to stay in the comfort of your home which usually leads to inactivity and ultimately to unwanted weight gain.
- Holiday festivities are a great way to spend time with loved ones and generally includes A LOT OF EATING. 9 out of 10 times the festivities are surrounded by comfort foods, treats and other foods that drive us into the opposite direction of our fitness goals!!
- Sweater Weather they call it!! It is very easy to lose sight of your fitness goal when your body is covered by layers and layers of clothing. Losing SIGHT of your goal makes it much more difficult to achieve.
Why Weight?
The first thing to understand is that when you lose weight, you’re generally not just losing body fat: you’re making changes to each component of your body composition. Five pounds of muscle looks very different than five pounds of fat. That’s why it is important to focus on your body fat percentage rather than pounds lost.
Why Shouldn’t You Focus on Pounds Lost?
If you want to lose weight, you most likely want to LOSE FAT. Your body weight fluctuates daily because it is influenced by your stomach/bowel/bladder content, water loss/retention, muscle loss/gain, fat loss/gain which can be very unreliable.
Here’s How The Weight Scale Can Mislead You
Clothes, mirrors & pictures don’t lie. But the weight scale can become your worst enemy by misleading you and killing your motivation. During strength training you will gain muscle while losing fat. But the weight scale can mislead you to think you’re not making progress, especially if your body-weight doesn’t change. That’s why it’s important to gain education about the body! When you track your body fat using a Fat Caliper you are able to get an accurate picture of your progress!
3% Challenge
U48 has created a challenge that begins on October 15th where we are challenging people to lose 3% body fat in 24 days!!!!! On average people gain 5-10 lbs during the month of October, November, and December. (That’s equivalent to an increase in Men’s pants from size 34 to 36 and Women’s Dress size from 2 to 4).
No matter if you are a U48 member or not, you can join the challenge.
