Analyze my diary

Secretjannell

Hi all!
I have seem to hit a plateau with my weight loss for the last couple weeks. I usally have a couple hundred calories left over at the end of the day but the weight is not going down. I track everything and I use a fitbit daily. I have set my diary to public so any critiques as to what I am doing wrong is appreciated.

malibu927

You seem to be eating out a lot, which can contribute to much higher sodium levels/water retention. There's nothing wrong with that, just be mindful that it can mask weight loss.

As for what you eat at home, do you use a food scale to weigh everything?

malibu927

Note to self: hitting quote instead of edit is not good

StaciMarie1974

Eating out could also lead to unintentional errors on logging. Even for places that provide nutrition info, the cooks in the kitchen may use more oils, etc. than they're supposed to in preparation.

As for the Fitbit - they're not 100% accurate. I have one and love it, but I know it has limitations. I imagine its at best 90-95%. Which means if Fitbit says you've burned 3500 in day, it could be more like 3150. You're mostly leaving calories on the table, so you've kind of covered that.

Overall, I'd say to make sure you weigh everything, log everything. If you're doing that and its just been a couple weeks: give it a few more. Do you weigh now less than you did 30 days ago? If so, just keep going. Sodium, TOM, etc. could give temporary water weight gain.

Secretjannell

Thank you. I do work two jobs so I am away from home literally from 530 am to around 9 pm every single day so it's hard to prepare foods. One of my jobs is at a health conscious restaurant so I usualy make my own salads and I know exactly how much I'm eating there. I do use a food scale at home and at one of my jobs.

rosebette

It's hard to figure out if your calorie target is appropriate without knowing your age, weight, and height. It could be that you're eating too much and that you need to adjust downward if you've lost quite a bit of weight. Also, if you're closer to your goal weight, it gets harder to lose; the loss is slower because you're at less of a deficit, so you might be losing as little as .5 lb a week. I am curious about the Fitibit numbers; I've just started using a calorie fitness tracker, and even working out, I'm not burning much over 600 a day.

quakerboy

I would question the exercise numbers. I'm a pretty big male who runs regularly, and I rarely burn that much.

Secretjannell

I'm 5'10
226
24 years

I workout and work as a waitress so maybe that's why the Fitbit numbers are so high? I try to leave some calories left over for error

StaciMarie1974

I understand TOTALLY. I have an office/day job and work Friday nights & Sundays at Dominos. I make my own food there, using the scale, so I can make sure things are properly portioned. Then there is grad school - so Subway, Wendys, etc. know me well. Eating out does not mean no weight loss. Just have to be aware than when you're not in control of what goes on the plate, there can be estimation errors.

Sounds like you just need to give it time. 2 weeks is annoying, but not indicative of a problem.

Secretjannell wrote: »

Thank you. I do work two jobs so I am away from home literally from 530 am to around 9 pm every single day so it's hard to prepare foods. One of my jobs is at a health conscious restaurant so I usualy make my own salads and I know exactly how much I'm eating there. I do use a food scale at home and at one of my jobs.

StaciMarie1974

The Fitbit gives an all day burn. Its not saying she burns 900 calories in a workout. But if someone has their MFP profile set to sedentary and they're more active than that, they're going to generate a good # of Fitbit extra calories.

I think Fitbit's accuracy depends on the type and person. If you have a Flex, it might pick up on alot of arm movement. Like if you're doing a lot of kitchen/food prep your arms are moving ALL the time and your read might be off by more than 10%. If you have the One, arm movement would not affect it. On the other hand, if you do alot of treadmill incline work, Fitbit does not know anything but # of steps per minute and would not know you're working out harder than it seems.

quakerboy wrote: »

I would question the exercise numbers. I'm a pretty big male who runs regularly, and I rarely burn that much.

Secretjannell

StaciMarie1974 wrote: »

The Fitbit gives an all day burn. Its not saying she burns 900 calories in a workout. But if someone has their MFP profile set to sedentary and they're more active than that, they're going to generate a good # of Fitbit extra calories.

I think Fitbit's accuracy depends on the type and person. If you have a Flex, it might pick up on alot of arm movement. Like if you're doing a lot of kitchen/food prep your arms are moving ALL the time and your read might be off by more than 10%. If you have the One, arm movement would not affect it. On the other hand, if you do alot of treadmill incline work, Fitbit does not know anything but # of steps per minute and would not know you're working out harder than it seems.

quakerboy wrote: »

I would question the exercise numbers. I'm a pretty big male who runs regularly, and I rarely burn that much.

I run about 2 miles a day on the treadmill but I have the Fitbit you put in your pocket. Does it not pick up that I am on a treadmill and not running an actual geographical distance? I've always wondered that. I have my profile set to lightly active

StaciMarie1974

My personal opinion is the One/Zip are more accurate than the Flex, since the Flex can pick up arm movement. Sounds like you have one of those.

It picks up that you're moving, pace, etc. The old Fitbit products do not have HRM functions (one of the new ones coming out does) so they can't tell intensity. I figure ultimately that isn't a problem, for me at least.

rosebette

You're 220. You must be in really good shape even at that weight, because I would never have guessed that from the picture. Your age, height, and weight, would cause you to burn at a higher rate and need more calories. I'm a runt at 5'1.5", so I have to knock myself out to burn a lousy 500 calories.

StaciMarie1974

You're active - have an on-the-go job. And based on height, weight & age: you burn more. Comparing you to me, that is. My BMR is 1331, yours is 1855. Getting in 14k-18k steps per day (some walking, some running, some just running around getting stuff done) I burn a total per day of 2000-2200. If you were doing my life, routine: that would be 2800-3050 for you. But you don't have a desk job (I do) so I suspect your total daily Fitbit burn # is higher.

But as mentioned, assume there is some built in error of 5-10%. An activity tracker is a great device, for being accountable to yourself for how much you move. Its just not possible to get perfect information from it though.

Keep in mind that as your weight comes down, so will your burn rate. Perfectly normal. That's one reason as you get closer to your goal weight, you would decrease your loss per week rate. (The alternative is to eat less and less, but you can only go so low.) Your BMR at 170, for example, would be 1610 and you'd burn ~13% less in your daily activity, exercise as well.

Secretjannell wrote: »

I'm 5'10
226
24 years

I workout and work as a waitress so maybe that's why the Fitbit numbers are so high? I try to leave some calories left over for error

TimothyFish

You can either figure out where the errors in accuracy are, or you can just reduce your goal and the errors will sort themselves out.