Are my settings right?
cathie2903
Posts: 85 Member
So I have a fitbit flex and have used it for the past 9 months or so. Its linked to MFP and up until today I have had my goals set at:
1lb per week loss, sedentary. I have 10lbs to lose (I am 5ft9 and currently weigh 170lbs) I have hit a plateau for the last couple of months and just bob around at 170/171/172.
After reading the posts her i have changed my goal to 0.5lb per week and put my activity at mildly active - i try and hit 10k steps a day but most days its around 8k (plus 2 40 min spin classes a week)
Am i being realistic or do you think my fitbit is confusing the issue as it was giving me an adjustment of approx 300 cals each day so i never have hit my target cals in or out. Help - i am getting very confused.
1lb per week loss, sedentary. I have 10lbs to lose (I am 5ft9 and currently weigh 170lbs) I have hit a plateau for the last couple of months and just bob around at 170/171/172.
After reading the posts her i have changed my goal to 0.5lb per week and put my activity at mildly active - i try and hit 10k steps a day but most days its around 8k (plus 2 40 min spin classes a week)
Am i being realistic or do you think my fitbit is confusing the issue as it was giving me an adjustment of approx 300 cals each day so i never have hit my target cals in or out. Help - i am getting very confused.
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Make sure you have negative adjustments enabled, especially since you've changed your activity level to Lightly Active from Sedentary. With a Fitbit giving you exercise adjustments, your activity level setting isn't nearly as important as it would be without an activity tracker - but only if negative adjustments are enabled.
I'm not sure what you mean by "i never have hit my target cals in or out". The best thing to do is to log your food very accurately (that means weigh everything - no measuring cups or guesstimates) and trust your Fitbit for several weeks (or 30 days). Then use the calories in/calories out info that is easily available from Fitbit (either your Fitbit Weekly Report or the 30 day graph on your Fitbit profile page) and the weight loss info that is easily available on MFP and see if you've lost the expected amount of weight.0 -
cathie2903 wrote: »I have 10lbs to lose (I am 5ft9 and currently weigh 170lbs) I have hit a plateau for the last couple of months and just bob around at 170/171/172.
After reading the posts her i have changed my goal to 0.5lb per week and put my activity at mildly active - i try and hit 10k steps a day but most days its around 8k (plus 2 40 min spin classes a week)
Yes, .5 lb. per week is appropriate for someone who's only 10 lbs. overweight.
Enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings.
Log your spinning in Fitbit (that's what I do) or MFP—never both. Exercise logged in MFP overwrites your Fitbit burn during that time.
Learn to log everything you eat & drink accurately & honestly. The smaller you are, the smaller your margin of error.
Read the Sexypants post. It's full of good "how to" information: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p10 -
cathie2903 wrote: »So I have a fitbit flex and have used it for the past 9 months or so. Its linked to MFP and up until today I have had my goals set at:
1lb per week loss, sedentary. I have 10lbs to lose (I am 5ft9 and currently weigh 170lbs) I have hit a plateau for the last couple of months and just bob around at 170/171/172.
After reading the posts her i have changed my goal to 0.5lb per week and put my activity at mildly active - i try and hit 10k steps a day but most days its around 8k (plus 2 40 min spin classes a week)
Am i being realistic or do you think my fitbit is confusing the issue as it was giving me an adjustment of approx 300 cals each day so i never have hit my target cals in or out. Help - i am getting very confused.
So you had a much bigger deficit set than was realistic for amount to lose.
And you failed to reach even that low eating goal, and made the deficit even bigger.
You actually got the common effect of stressing the body like that.
Where is a setting for mildly active?
Do you manually log those spin classes since they are not step based and the calorie burn estimated on the Fitbit device will be terribly under-reported?
Or do you have a HR type device?
You could have been creating even a bigger deficit, on the hardest workout days. Not good.0 -
Heybales - the "mildly active" is not what it actually says in MFP - I meant "lightly active"
I log my spinning in MFP with a start time and a hrm calorie burn so it "overwrites" my Fitbit for that 40 min period. I have a Fitbit flex. So I think what you are saying is that my calorie intake is too low and my body is just hanging on to what it already has hence the plateau..? After adjusting the settings yesterday I now have a MFP cal goal of 1800 which is adjusted down at the start if the day by Fitbit around 200 cals which I can then earn back through the day. I do have the negative calorie adj set in MFP. Thanks for all your comments guys x 0 -
Give your new settings a couple of weeks, then reevaluate your progress.
Your diary's private, so there's no way for anyone to know if your problem is your settings or your logging.0 -
yes, opening your diary will make it easier for people to troubleshoot where the problem may be.0
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cathie2903 wrote: »Heybales - the "mildly active" is not what it actually says in MFP - I meant "lightly active" I log my spinning in MFP with a start time and a hrm calorie burn so it "overwrites" my Fitbit for that 40 min period. I have a Fitbit flex. So I think what you are saying is that my calorie intake is too low and my body is just hanging on to what it already has hence the plateau..? After adjusting the settings yesterday I now have a MFP cal goal of 1800 which is adjusted down at the start if the day by Fitbit around 200 cals which I can then earn back through the day. I do have the negative calorie adj set in MFP. Thanks for all your comments guys x
It's not a matter of the body hanging on. You eat less than you burn - you will lose fat, no way around that.
It's the problem of your body slowing down what it actually burns, so you no longer are actually eating less than you burn.
In other words - the Fitbit basing calorie burn on an average healthy body your age, height, weight is no longer correct for your unhealthy stressed body. You burn less than Fitbit thinks.
So be prepared for some surprises.
In fact, I'd suggest eating only 100 more daily for a week at a time, rather than the new goal.
Because whatever you are eating right now on average - that is your TDEE, or actual maintenance level. Not what Fitbit reports. If you were really burning what Fitbit reports - you'd be losing weight, right?
You are trying to get your body to speed back up so it matches what Fitbit thinks is your potential burn.
I'd keep eating that 100 more until you actually are eating at maintenance, no deficit, for a good week or few.
Then take a reasonable deficit for amount of weight left to be lost.0 -
It's not a matter of the body hanging on. You eat less than you burn - you will lose fat, no way around that.
It's the problem of your body slowing down what it actually burns, so you no longer are actually eating less than you burn.
In other words - the Fitbit basing calorie burn on an average healthy body your age, height, weight is no longer correct for your unhealthy stressed body. You burn less than Fitbit thinks.
So be prepared for some surprises.
In fact, I'd suggest eating only 100 more daily for a week at a time, rather than the new goal.
Because whatever you are eating right now on average - that is your TDEE, or actual maintenance level. Not what Fitbit reports. If you were really burning what Fitbit reports - you'd be losing weight, right?
You are trying to get your body to speed back up so it matches what Fitbit thinks is your potential burn.
I'd keep eating that 100 more until you actually are eating at maintenance, no deficit, for a good week or few.
Then take a reasonable deficit for amount of weight left to be lost.[/quote]
Ok so before I reset my goals my calorie target on MFP was 1330. I have now set it to 1430 (100 up) as you suggest. Next weekend I will take it up another 100.....and so on. Is it then only when I start to lose that I reset to a sensible deficit? I wasn't quite sure what you meant at the end. I will open my diary as some others have suggested....0 -
cathie2903 wrote: »I will open my diary as some others have suggested....
Your diary's still private.
Hands down, the best weight-loss advice I ever received was to read the Sexypants post: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p10 -
It's public now
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Work all the way up to eating at maintenance, what Fitbit says you burn, with any corrections needed on manually entered workouts of course.
There have been plenty that have increased calories to what should be a reasonable deficit from potential TDEE, and body obviously sped up, because they maintained weight eating say 400 more daily from prior level.
So ate 1200, didn't lose weight. Moved up to eating 1600, didn't lose weight (didn't gain either).
But they still didn't lose weight, body wasn't unstressed enough.
So solution of course is to move up to eating at max you can without gaining slow weight back.
There long enough for body to unstress.
Then take that reasonable deficit.
Some people have a body that unstresses while eating a tad more and they don't need to move all the way up.
Just depends.
If you get to eating what should be a 500 cal deficit, but only lose 1 lb every 2 weeks, then it would be beneficial to totally unstress and eat at maintenance for a bit.0 -
I'm
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R my setting ok? On phone app0
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babybellyfat wrote: »Is this good????
Yes, if (and only if) you've enabled negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings0 -
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its ok?0
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