I gained 2 pounds and I feel really crappy.

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MeiannaLee
MeiannaLee Posts: 338 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So about two weeks ago I got a fitbit and it was telling me I was burning over 2000 calories a day (lol)
And like an idiot, I was eating so much daily, and of course, I weighed myself this morning and I had put on 2 pounds in two weeks. I'm not blaming the fitbit because I was the one shoving food in my mouth, so I feel so aweful about it.

I am also so pissed off that I spent 150$ on a device that I thought would work for me but didnt. >:0

I'm so close to my goal weight and gaining those two pounds just really frustrated me. Especially considering I worked really hard to lose so much weight. Did anyone else get negative result from using a fitbit to monitor calories in vs out?

Also, how can I deal with gaining two pounds?? Like I'm more annoyed/angry than I am upset because I spent so much money on the device and so much time a will power to lose weight.

Any words of encouragement?
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Replies

  • jacklfc88
    jacklfc88 Posts: 247 Member
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    deal with it by not getting too frustrated with yourself. it happens, just don't get so annoyed that you fall off. you're obviously doing well because you're near your target weight so keep doing what you were doing if it was working and stay motivated!
  • Pumpkinandbenny
    Pumpkinandbenny Posts: 2 Member
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    Hi
    I don't have a fitbit but I have lost and gained. Don't sweat the 2 lbs or let it detract from all weight you have already lost. Concentrate on your success and getting close to your goal.

    I noticed it also depends on when you weigh yourself. If I weigh my self in the morning and a night I get two different numbers. Try weighing yourself at the same time everyday. I think you get a more accurate reading that way.

  • maxit
    maxit Posts: 880 Member
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    You might very well be burning over 2000 calories a day according to fitbit, since it includes both the calories required to keep you alive for 24 hours plus any additional step activity & what you log in FB manually. If you ACTUALLY consumed a caloric surplus of 3500 calories a week, you need to tighten up your tracking (weigh everything except liquids) and consume fewer calories, obviously. BUT - your weight will fluctuate 3-5 pounds a month due to hormone variation, and if you are working out a lot you are also retaining fluid. So don't freak out :) just figure out what a 250 calorie deficit each day actually is for your body.
  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
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    Worst case scenario: you've set yourself back by about 2 weeks. That's nothing in the long haul. Don't sweat it.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
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    It's probably just water retention. Sodium, ovulation, period, exercise, etc can all mask weight loss.

    2 weeks really is not enough time to tell if what you're doing is working or not. You should give it 4-6 weeks before changing it up.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,897 Member
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    Before you beat yourself up too much, where are you in your menstrual cycle?
  • sugaraddict4321
    sugaraddict4321 Posts: 15,720 MFP Moderator
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    In addition to the above suggestions, double-check your Fitbit settings. Make sure it's set properly with your age, height, and weight, as well as your step length.
  • andympanda
    andympanda Posts: 763 Member
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    Don't get upset, get even.. Use the emotions to motivate yourself to take off the weight, their is always ups and downs, but as long as you are doing the right thing in the long term, that is what counts.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    Take it as a lesson and learn from it. You burn calories just from being alive - FitBit tracks all those calories too. Do you have it linked with MFP or are you eating all the calories FitBit says you burn for the entire day? If you have them linked you should only get extra calories for what you burn above what MFP already assumed you'd burn. Even then you might not want to eat every single last calorie back. I use my FitBit to motivate me to get more steps and more movement and MFP to tell me how much to eat. And I encountered a learning curve too when I first linked them - eating too many calories. No biggie - just adjust, learn from it and move on.
  • MeiannaLee
    MeiannaLee Posts: 338 Member
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    I'm 5'1 and weigh 115 pounds by the way. Thats why burning 2000 calories a day didnt seem accurate to me, because I am on the short side.
    I also work out 6 times a week and do cardio at the gym for two hours and burn 600-700 calories. And I walk to and from the gym. On a daily average I walk 13,000 steps.

    My fitbit was telling me in order to lose one pound a week, or a 500 calorie deficit a day, I had to eat 1400-1700 calories a day. And I know I was because I was tracking it on MFP.

    So I have gone back to eating 1200 a day, because that's what was working for me.


    AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »
    Worst case scenario: you've set yourself back by about 2 weeks. That's nothing in the long haul. Don't sweat it.

    This! I never thought about it this way. Thank you!

  • jasonallenross
    jasonallenross Posts: 15 Member
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    The fitbit requires some "common sense" with it. I've found mine to be rather optimistic in terms of telling me how much I'm burning. So if I end up with a pile of calories left over at the end of the day, I ask myself questions like, "am I still legitimately hungry?" and "am I just eating because this electronic gizmo is telling me I can?". If I feel full/content and I still have 4-500 calories left, I write it up as the fitbit being too optimistic. If I'm still hungry, I'll eat something else, wait 20 minutes, then see if I'm still hungry.

    With respect to two pounds, it's fairly easy to waver up and down by two pounds over the course of a week. As long as the overall trend is down and to the right (If you are looking to lose weight), don't worry about it too much, just concentrate on doing what got you this far and keep doing it.

    Also keep in mind that 2000 calories burned is supposed to be your whole daily calorie requirement, not something you add to something. So if your base calorie requirement was 1800, the fitbit adjustment should have been only 200 calories.

    I am enjoying using the fitbit, even though it's bit inaccurate, since I my wife and I have a friendly competition going on. I also like the sleep tracking.
  • strong_curves
    strong_curves Posts: 2,229 Member
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    maxit wrote: »
    You might very well be burning over 2000 calories a day according to fitbit, since it includes both the calories required to keep you alive for 24 hours plus any additional step activity & what you log in FB manually. If you ACTUALLY consumed a caloric surplus of 3500 calories a week, you need to tighten up your tracking (weigh everything except liquids) and consume fewer calories, obviously. BUT - your weight will fluctuate 3-5 pounds a month due to hormone variation, and if you are working out a lot you are also retaining fluid. So don't freak out :) just figure out what a 250 calorie deficit each day actually is for your body.

    This. I have a fitbit and I burn over 2000 calories a day and I have a job where I sit on my butt all day!

  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited June 2015
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    strong_curves wrote: »
    maxit wrote: »
    You might very well be burning over 2000 calories a day according to fitbit, since it includes both the calories required to keep you alive for 24 hours plus any additional step activity & what you log in FB manually. If you ACTUALLY consumed a caloric surplus of 3500 calories a week, you need to tighten up your tracking (weigh everything except liquids) and consume fewer calories, obviously. BUT - your weight will fluctuate 3-5 pounds a month due to hormone variation, and if you are working out a lot you are also retaining fluid. So don't freak out :) just figure out what a 250 calorie deficit each day actually is for your body.

    This. I have a fitbit and I burn over 2000 calories a day and I have a job where I sit on my butt all day!

    +2...

    I use fitbit. I use the exercise function to log my exercise.. and of course get in my daily steps.. For example I run 4 miles a day, but I do not manually add exercise as "steady state cardio" I just take the steps it gave me and the calories burned for these steps...

    I very well burn from 2000 to 2300 a day on very active days and around 1700 to 1800 on semi active days.

    Are you by chance using fitbit's Calories in Calories Out tile? I use this tile all day and I am able to see to the minutes what my burn is and how much food I have eaten (logged in MFP)...

    Fitbit works and works well... I think this may be not understanding something with Fitbit and or your settings... In lieu of this, there are two ways to calculate your calories through the day and you may have it set up the wrong way for what your are looking for.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    MeiannaLee wrote: »
    I'm 5'1 and weigh 115 pounds by the way. Thats why burning 2000 calories a day didnt seem accurate to me, because I am on the short side.
    I also work out 6 times a week and do cardio at the gym for two hours and burn 600-700 calories. And I walk to and from the gym. On a daily average I walk 13,000 steps.

    My fitbit was telling me in order to lose one pound a week, or a 500 calorie deficit a day, I had to eat 1400-1700 calories a day. And I know I was because I was tracking it on MFP.

    So I have gone back to eating 1200 a day, because that's what was working for me.


    AllOutof_Bubblegum wrote: »
    Worst case scenario: you've set yourself back by about 2 weeks. That's nothing in the long haul. Don't sweat it.

    This! I never thought about it this way. Thank you!

    Are you 100% sure that it was fitbit that was off? I find it hard to believe that you were over your maintenance by 3500 calories a week when eating 1400-1700 per day. That's only 200-500 more than your currently eating or were eating. So unless you were only lose 1/2 lb per week on 1200 calories, then chances are you didn't actually put on 2lbs of fat.

    I'm up 2lbs overnight. I had 3334 mg of sodium yesterday and my period is approaching. Both of these circumstances cause water retention.

    How often do you weigh yourself? Have you ever done looked at your own fluctuations from day to day or morning to night?

  • Flookbird
    Flookbird Posts: 81 Member
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    I also have a fitbit and I do believe what it tells me, but I also know that I am not entirely accurate with my logging and that MFP overestimates the amount I burn when I swim. I have been set for maintenance and have tried to keep 500 cals a day 'left over' to account for any logging inaccuracies etc, and also to give me some leeway when I go out etc. this has worked really well and I've maintained my weight for 6 months within a 5lb range.

    If you have upped your calories slightly due to the fitbit then you may well have regained some water weight (that bit that you lose when you first start out). Give the fitbit a few more weeks. If you're still not losing, then change it down a bit, but don't give up on the Fitbit yet!
  • MeiannaLee
    MeiannaLee Posts: 338 Member
    edited June 2015
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    I don't know if it could be water retention because I dont know exactly the symptoms of that. I know I have been stressed with finals and I havent gotten my period since April....I dont know why?
    But my shorts are a bit tighter, which to me means fat gain.

    I weigh myself once a week, usually every sunday or every monday. And in the evening I weigh about 1 pound more than I did in the morning. If I were to weigh myself today at night I would probably be 116.
  • Hulbert0089
    Hulbert0089 Posts: 97 Member
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    You wake up in the am and have burned 700-800 calories I've found. Doesnt mean I should hammer a stack of pancakes and side order of sausage for breakfast. Not saying you did. With fitbit I use it a a challenge to see how much higher than an average sedintary day I can get calorie total. I had an injury this past winter that severely limited my acitivity so I feel I could challenge just about anyone for fewest steps taken in a day an know how low the calorie burn total can be. :)
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    edited June 2015
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    MeiannaLee wrote: »

    I don't know if it could be water retention because I dont know exactly the symptoms of that. I know I have been stressed with finals and I havent gotten my period since April....I dont know why?
    But my shorts are a bit tighter, which to me means fat gain.

    I weigh myself once a week, usually every sunday or every monday. And in the evening I weigh about 1 pound more than I did in the morning. If I were to weigh myself today at night I would probably be 116.

    water retention tends to also go hand in hand with bloating.

    http://www.livestrong.com/article/135355-what-are-symptoms-water-retention/

    Seriously though, if your logging was fairly accurate, then the math doesn't add up for 2lbs of fat gain.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    MeiannaLee wrote: »
    So about two weeks ago I got a fitbit and it was telling me I was burning over 2000 calories a day (lol)
    And like an idiot, I was eating so much daily, and of course, I weighed myself this morning and I had put on 2 pounds in two weeks.

    How can I deal with gaining two pounds?? Like I'm more annoyed/angry than I am upset because I spent so much money on the device and so much time a will power to lose weight.

    Any words of encouragement?

    Weight loss is not linear. Some weeks you do everything right but maintain—or even gain. Others you lose a whole lot in a "whoosh." Take measurements and progress photos, too. They'll show you the truth when the scale is being a lying liar who lies.

    Please, read the Sexypants post. It's full of good "MFP 101" information: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    As for Fitbit, I lost the weight & have maintained since July by trusting my Fitbit. Make sure you enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings. If you don't, you'll never eat at a true deficit on days you burn fewer calories than your MFP activity level.

    You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

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