"If every day were like today...."
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FishyK
Posts: 147 Member
First off I'm very happy with my Fitbit Charge HR/MFP/me interaction. I am losing just over a pound a week, I don't feel deprived, and I love watching my resting heart rate decline. I input my food accurately and I usually don't eat back all of my earned calories unless I'm actually hungry.
I'm amused almost every night when I close my diary when it predicts, in 5 weeks time, a 10 plus pound projected weight loss. I had hoped for that when I started but had to accept that my days of crashing weight off at that rate are past me. And a pound a week is healthier and more sustainable anyway. I thought that MFP's algorithms, knowing my 3 month history, age (well into middle) and gender (female) would get it by now and project my actual weight loss rate.
Not a biggie, but I am curious if others report these overly optimistic MFP projections.
I'm amused almost every night when I close my diary when it predicts, in 5 weeks time, a 10 plus pound projected weight loss. I had hoped for that when I started but had to accept that my days of crashing weight off at that rate are past me. And a pound a week is healthier and more sustainable anyway. I thought that MFP's algorithms, knowing my 3 month history, age (well into middle) and gender (female) would get it by now and project my actual weight loss rate.
Not a biggie, but I am curious if others report these overly optimistic MFP projections.
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I decided that it wasn't useful to me a long time ago, so I just don't bother with closing my diary any more. When they make that projection I don't think they look at history, age or anything else - just your current weight and your current calorie deficit for the day. They probably use 5 weeks as the duration because that makes the calculation that much easier. The projected loss (in pounds) is your deficit divided by 100.0
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I just consider it the MFP joke of the day. Some days, I would not lose, some like you 10+ etc. It just goes by that days deficit.0
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If you did literally create whatever deficit you obtained for today, every single day for the next 5 weeks- the math would likely be very close for weight loss.
Closer than anyone's ability to maintain exactly the deficit daily for 5 weeks in a row.
Indeed, 5 weeks x 7 days = 35 days does make the math easier.
The problem though, they don't know if the deficit you just created was wise or not, and could be losing more weight from muscle loss, or less weight by totally stressing out body and gaining water weight while losing fat.0 -
If you did literally create whatever deficit you obtained for today, every single day for the next 5 weeks- the math would likely be very close for weight loss.
No, I'm saying that nearly every day it predicts at least a 10+ lb loss over the next 5 weeks, when the reality is half of that. "The math" isn't taking my middle aged and documented metabolism into account.
This particular function of MFP is my overly optimistic cheerleader. Sweet, but not to be taken seriously.
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If you did literally create whatever deficit you obtained for today, every single day for the next 5 weeks- the math would likely be very close for weight loss.
No, I'm saying that nearly every day it predicts at least a 10+ lb loss over the next 5 weeks, when the reality is half of that. "The math" isn't taking my middle aged and documented metabolism into account.
This particular function of MFP is my overly optimistic cheerleader. Sweet, but not to be taken seriously.
Actually, the math is taking in to account those facts exactly, with or without Fitbit.
Without, it's based on BMR, which is based on gender, age, weight, height, and self-selected activity level.
With Fitbit, it's corrected to their estimate of daily burn, which actually uses the same BMR too for all non-moving time.
So if you indeed kept that deficit daily, but didn't see those results, that means the estimate of the calorie burn is actually off, or the food eaten is actually off, by a decent amount.
Considering you can effect how much you burn by how much you eat, you can indeed effect the very nature of the math that is used.
And if you are attempting a 2 lb weekly loss and don't have the over 60 lbs to lose for that to be reasonable - you likely have changed it.0 -
