Well, it could be. After discovering that my weight plateau coincided with a calorie and exercise time drop, I made a couple of decisions last week.
Focus on real output: I have decided to stop counting steps only. This isn’t an accurate measure, esp. since my phone doesn’t track so accurately. However, my phone does seem to track activity intensity well enough, so I’m now tracking an estimate of calories burned and movement time. I think both are going to be less dependent on one kind of activity and more accurate overall. Also, it’s a darn sight easier to track these two numbers. No complex math involved!
Both of these numbers, though, reported a decrease from the Spring average of 141 minutes per day and 2330 calories burned per day to 104.5 and 2130. This drop seems quite large and may have accounted for the plateau period failure to lose additional weight. My diet probably increased a little bit erasing the peripheral loss of weight gap even further (I ate too much).
So since last week I’ve been trying to raise the 7-average towards those numbers. I’ve also taken a rest day as not taking rest days seems to be counter productive! So the move minutes is now at 128 minutes and 2228 calories for 7 day average. So it’s heading in the right direction, while I don’t have a move minute goal per se, the calories burned goal is currently 2350 (or a 600-calorie gap with BMR). It’s not quite 700-calorie gap… but I’ll try that once the current period becomes more consistent.
I don’t know if the results are consistent but the weight is starting to move again. I also don’t know how long I can keep it up. But if I can reach my 86kg goal this week, and 83.5kgs before Christmas, I’ll be well-pleased. By then the rains will have started, and outdoor exercise will be intermittent at best. The 86kg is for my birthday, next Friday! Wish me luck!