It's walking and slow in showing - XIII

Scales do me wrong

The thing that bothers me most about my body is my weight. Now, whilst I cannot say I have essentially been overweight, that is not the reckoning by the Body Mass Index (BMI) as the reading suggests for my height, I need to lose a few kilogrammes.

The BMI is imperfect, but I will not get into the whys and wherefores of it, as far as Brian is concerned, my weight serves as a reliable anchor in the boisterous winds of Cape Town that I am not permitted to take it below a certain level that I last obtained in November 2020. Since then, I have struggled to shed weight. [Medical News Today: Why BMI is inaccurate and misleading]

Walking outdoors is it

When it comes to exercise, I have found that walking suits me better than any other exertion. All the weightlifting, press-up, or planking activity is more a source of pain than any other satisfaction, I just need to burn fat and watch some of my consumption without radically changing much.

I seem to prefer walking outside to using a treadmill in the gym. A few times I did go to the gym to get my exercise and steps done. I cranked it up to 7.2 km/h on a steady fat-burning pace for 50 minutes out of the allocated 60-minute workout and what I inadvertently did was sprain a thigh muscle that required intervention.

Visiting a sports injury clinic after 4 days of radiating pain, it was worked on for almost an hour, with deep tissue massage, hot stones, and acupuncture, short of using a meat tenderiser on it. The sprain was dealt with, but the effect of the work has lasted another week, though the relief was helped on the advice of Brian by keeping the muscles warm with a hot water bottle.

What it would take

Generally, when I go for my walks that is a circuit of just over 11 kilometres, I look to getting 10,000 steps done in 75 minutes, it means I need to get a steps cadence of around 140 steps a minute. Outside, this can modulate between 110 steps per minute to 150 steps per minute, I did reach 163 steps per minute during my walk this morning, which was in the pouring rain throughout, and I did clinch 10,000 steps in 67 minutes.

On the weight, it is coming down, though, not as fast as one would like it. It is a long haul activity and I have the mind of keeping my steps above the 10,000 step average for the year.

It's walking and it's working - XI

Measuring up to averages

To an extent, I have walked myself ragged, for, in the last 4 days, I have walked 85,603 steps, but that is not the landmark, I can still feel it in my body. I only really got back to walking properly on the 8^th of April, before that, I had only walked to reach or exceed the 10,000 steps daily for 31 days out of a total of 97 days in the year to that time.

Average for the year was low, and though I thought I might make it for the 5 months of walking last year, I fell short by over half a million steps to bring my average to 9,328 steps for the year. It was already the end of April before I caught up to the average for last year, though, if I had walked every day, I might have breached the 10,000-step average for the year.

It was yesterday on Day 144 of the year that I finally got there, with an average of 10,007 steps for the year 2021, but once we got to Day 145, I was short again. My intention is to keep the daily average for the year above 10,000 steps and have something in reserve. My walk today has given me a day in hand, as my total for the year is now at 1,460,470 steps.

Marketing defines the step rule

In truth, a Harvard Medical School research suggested women only have to make 4,400 steps a day t significantly lower the risk of death. There does not seem to be any significant benefit on the risk of death after 7,500 steps a day. So, you ask, where did the 10,000-step threshold come from? It came from the tradename of a pedometer sold by Yamasa Clock of Japan in 1965 called the Manpo-kei translating to '10,000 steps meter'. [The Conversation: Do we really need to walk 10,000 steps a day?]

There was no solid evidence for this recommendation, but it took hold and that became the de facto standard for walking fitness that subsequent and modern pedometers adopted. There is no doubt that exercise is good for fitness and health. I have seen evidence of it in feeling strong and able, losing weight, and the opportunity to explore nature clearing my mind of all the clutter of the day.

Whilst I do need to walk harder and work harder to reaching what one might consider the ideal weight when my electronic scale appears to suggest I am first overweight because of the BMI (Body Mass Index) measurement. For a system developed in the 1830s, the case is being made for discarding the measurement as an indicator of health and fitness. It is a crude and blunt measurement that it is suggested there is more benefit in measuring your waist. [Business Insider: BMI is bogus]