I’m embarking on a journey that I should’ve started months, maybe even years ago. According to my David Lloyd health app, I am borderline ‘hidden obese’, which sounds absolutely terrifying. Because, well, it is. ‘Hidden obese’ means having a low muscle mass and high fat but with a relatively normal weight for my height and gender.
Essentially, it means that whilst I may look slim, my muscle mass is so low that I’m actually very unhealthy. Which, as upsetting as that realisation is, makes sense, as my diet is pretty poor and I tend to live a very sedentary lifestyle. I spend most of my days in the room in my house where I make my YouTube videos and, whilst I sometimes do go to the gym, it’s nowhere near frequent enough to have any kind of positive impact on my body. In short: I have a ‘dad bod’ and I hate it.
I really want to change this. But with the cost of living and inflation soaring, who can really afford all those gym memberships and PT sessions, right!?
So I thought to myself, how can I make these changes and transform my body into a fit, healthy, force to be reckoned with, without breaking the bank and utilising only what I have on hand? VR fitness of course! And yes, I know that Ryan Trahan did a very similar thing a couple of years back but his video did inspire me so any similarities are, of course, purely coincidental ;)
I’ve had the Oculus Quest 2 for a couple of years now and, more recently, acquired the Meta Quest Pro. So, I’m wondering, if I replace my gym membership at X dollars a month with this VR headset, can I lose weight, and increase my muscle mass, making me a happier and healthier Pete? Or will this all be a complete catastrophe? As an aside, I also want my kids to witness this journey to health and see that VR and video games and all that mind-rotting stuff CAN be used to have a very positive impact on your life.
Some of you may be wondering, why not just use YouTube or one of the seven trillion workout apps Pete? Well, I have to say that I’ve tried them all. Well maybe not all but a hell of a lot of them and, well… they just don’t work for me. I tend to scrape the very bottom of the barrel when it comes to motivating myself to work out so I need something that is going to excite me, something to trick me into getting my heart rate up without feeling like I’m burning myself out in my very busy schedule! And I think VR will be a perfect resolution to this problem!
I’ll be tracking my progress using my Apple Watch to measure my heart rate and calories burned, and to track my workouts. I’ll also be checking in with David Lloyd (he’s a gym - not a person - although, actually he probably is a person, but, anyway…) near the end of my journey to see if all this effort has actually had a positive effect on my health! So, stay tuned to see how I get on.
DAY 1
I kicked off the first day with some lightsaber dueling action and a bit of Robo Recall.
As I play, I’m reminded again of those horrible words: ‘hidden obese’, and remember, things need to change. ‘Hidden obese’ means having a low muscle mass and high fat but with a relatively normal weight for my height and gender. Basically, I’m fat, but only on the inside.
So, here's what I did for the next 90 days, to turn things around...
The benefits
By doing five 30-minute sessions of Fit XR every week caught the attention of my fitness app and as a result, they sent me a tonne of freebies including a free Apple watch, free coffee, free cinema tickets, and even free Amazon Prime membership, how awesome is that! I use Vitality Health Insurance by the way which I think is just brilliant. Use the link below to sign up and get £100!
🛒 VITALITY HEALTH INSURANCE: https://geni.us/OPb98HK4JR4-8 (Get £100 for signing up)
Someone sent me some VR dumbbells so I gave those a try too during my 30-day workout and they certainly increased my ability to sweat! To add a little bit more 'fun' to my exercise routines I also tried VR golf and some boxing which got my heart race up to 179bpm.
When it came to tennis I chose the casual workout option which was a nice pace but I made sure to push myself by adding the Force VIT Weighted Vest which as you can see, definitely got my heart racing.
After 30 days I felt able to complete Fit XR in expert mode and after reviewing the results in my fitness app, this is what I got:
Body weight down from 67 to 65.4kg
Body fat down from 20 to 18.7%
My muscle mass also went down, bone mass stayed the same, water percentage went up, BMI went down but most importantly, my degree of obesity went down to -0.6%. And at the end of all that effort, I moved from hidden obese to under-exercised, which was definitely an improvement but ideally I would like to get to the standard target.
SUMMARY
So, is doing VR fitness worth it? I think absolutely! Because even without the dumbbells and weighted vest, my heart rate was getting a good workout, and my Vitality Fitness improved which meant lots of cool freebies. For cardio-type exercise doing 30 minutes per day definitely works with VR, but I would still recommend a gym for anything weight-based.
Ultimately though, it was really good fun! Check out the links below for the equipment I used in my VR exercise journey.
🛒 GOLF HANDLE: https://geni.us/OPb98HK4JR4-1
🛒 BATTERY HEAD STRAP: https://geni.us/OPb98HK4JR4-2
🛒 LIGHTSABERS! https://geni.us/OPb98HK4JR4-3
🛒 VR DUMBBELLS: https://geni.us/OPb98HK4JR4-4
🛒 FACIAL INTERFACE: https://geni.us/OPb98HK4JR4-5
🛒 COMFORT HEAD STRAP: https://geni.us/OPb98HK4JR4-6
🛒 10% OFF FORCE VIT WEIGHTED VEST: https://geni.us/OPb98HK4JR4-9
🛒 META QUEST 2: https://geni.us/OPb98HK4JR4-7
🛒 VITALITY HEALTH INSURANCE: https://geni.us/OPb98HK4JR4-8 (Get £100 for signing up)
