Advice needed: Plateau - water retention having this big of an effect??

Angel_Grove_

Okay guys - talk to me about the effects of salt and alcohol on weight loss. I've lost just over 20 lbs since January, but I seem to have hit a stall the last couple of months. I've been keeping meticulous data and weighing every day to try to see fluctuations for the last 5 weeks, but I'm kind of at a loss. I keep thinking I'll break this "plateau" and get back on my .8-1 lb/week loss rate sooner or later, but I just seem to keep stalling. I know my alcohol/salt intake could be causing water retention, but this much? I've been downing water like crazy, though I haven't been logging that like I did when I started back in January - but I'd say I'm over 120oz/day.

I know my logging isn't perfect, but I do weigh pretty much everything I can at home and do my best to find reliable nutrition facts and make good estimates (overestimating if I'm in doubt) away from home. My husband does most of the cooking, so it can be difficult to weigh absolutely everything at home sometimes. I try to overestimate if I have to estimate. And because I tend to be a little OCD, I generally weigh out exactly 1 serving or 2 servings of whatever if I can, so if the entry that comes up doesn't break down into grams, I don't worry about hunting for another one. (Before anyone analyzes my entries and says I'm obviously not weighing my food properly.) I log EVERYTHING, even the fall off the wagon days. I would expect to be off by a little, but not over 50%.


I mostly run, and walk on breaks at work, but do some strength (modified StrongLifts on a cable machine and some calisthenics type stuff for a challenge I'm in) and yoga. I don't log the strength/yoga any more, and never have logged more calories than my tracker (Misfit Shine) gives me anyway. The calories it logs during my runs are pretty much on par with my Polar HRM - maybe +50 calories or so. I don't make it a point to eat back EVERY. SINGLE. CALORIE. but I do allow indulgences if I have some space left in my day/week. Or I add protein if I'm really short for the day. My MFP net calorie goal is 1500, which is a weekly deficit of around 3100 based on their calculations, depending on what I weigh any particular day. As you can see below, I've surpassed that deficit 3 out of 5 weeks. Memorial Day week was almost a wash,but overall, I still should have lost over twice a smuch as I did.

OK, so now for the data. My diary should be open.

Height: 5'8"
Current weight: 173.4
Weight yesterday morning: 172.2
Weght on 5/10: 174

I weigh every morning, pre-shower. Sunday morning weigh-in counts for weekly loss.


Week/ MFP Deficit/ Misfit Deficit/ +/- Goal/ Actual Loss/ Proj. Loss
5/10/ 4037/ 4040/ 929/ -2.5/ -1.15
5/17/ 3770/ 3796/ 662/ +1.4/ -1.08
5/24/ 546/ 522/ -2562/ -0.8/ -0.16
5/31/ 3679/ 3606/ 571/ +2.3/ -1.05
6/7/ 2577/ 2540/ -531/ -2.2/ -.74



Total projected loss over 5 weeks: -4.17
Total actual loss over 5 weeks: -1.8


Average daily burn via activity tracker: 2482
Average total calories consumed: 2070
Average Net Calories: 1527
MFP base burn set at sedentary: 1944


I need to take measurements again, but my BFP was 26.89% on 5/2 and 26.67% on 5/15.

Any insight or advice would be much appreciated!

Pipsg1rl

When's the last time you took a few rest days?

rivy1226

I know what you mean cause I am on dialysis and I can't get the water off without help. There are some people that gain 6 kilos in 2 days... that is about 15 lbs.. so it is possible to gain a lot of water weight. if you are doing caffeinated drinks you have to drink 2 glasses of water to make up for one caffeinated drink. And if you are eating salty things that makes the water stick in your body. I would suggest some good old fashioned fiber to get your body to get rid of any build up of stuff and lay off the caffeine if you do that. .

GreenValli

I would suggest more vegetables and less processed food and sweets. I think it would help you get more nutrition and also help with the weight loss.

Angel_Grove_

Pipsg1rl wrote: »

When's the last time you took a few rest days?

Last Sunday was a total rest day, and I didn't do a whole lot this past Tuesday either, aside from just walking at lunch, breaks, etc.

rivy1226 wrote: »

I know what you mean cause I am on dialysis and I can't get the water off without help. There are some people that gain 6 kilos in 2 days... that is about 15 lbs.. so it is possible to gain a lot of water weight. if you are doing caffeinated drinks you have to drink 2 glasses of water to make up for one caffeinated drink. And if you are eating salty things that makes the water stick in your body. I would suggest some good old fashioned fiber to get your body to get rid of any build up of stuff and lay off the caffeine if you do that. .

I don't count anything other than water whenI think about daily intake - I have a 32 oz bottle that usually gets filled up 4 times a day. 15 lbs in water is crazy! I guess I should feel lucky.

GreenValli wrote: »

I would suggest more vegetables and less processed food and sweets. I think it would help you get more nutrition and also help with the weight loss.

Yeah, you're right - I definitly need to eat more veggies... Life has been hectic lately, so I find myself eating on the go a lot. Makes it difficult.

Thanks for all the replies so far!

tephanies1234

Looks like you're eating back all your exercise calories and sometimes plus some. Try eating back only 50% for a week and if the weight doesn't move, maybe try 25% the next week. You logged a couple days of 1000+ exercise calories and ate them so I'm wondering if that is even accurate as it may be the thing throwing you off. It's worth a test.

cavia

Angel_Grove_ wrote: »

Okay guys - talk to me about the effects of salt and alcohol on weight loss. I've lost just over 20 lbs since January, but I seem to have hit a stall the last couple of months. I've been keeping meticulous data and weighing every day to try to see fluctuations for the last 5 weeks, but I'm kind of at a loss. I keep thinking I'll break this "plateau" and get back on my .8-1 lb/week loss rate sooner or later, but I just seem to keep stalling. I know my alcohol/salt intake could be causing water retention, but this much? I've been downing water like crazy, though I haven't been logging that like I did when I started back in January - but I'd say I'm over 120oz/day.

I know my logging isn't perfect, but I do weigh pretty much everything I can at home and do my best to find reliable nutrition facts and make good estimates (overestimating if I'm in doubt) away from home. My husband does most of the cooking, so it can be difficult to weigh absolutely everything at home sometimes. I try to overestimate if I have to estimate. And because I tend to be a little OCD, I generally weigh out exactly 1 serving or 2 servings of whatever if I can, so if the entry that comes up doesn't break down into grams, I don't worry about hunting for another one. (Before anyone analyzes my entries and says I'm obviously not weighing my food properly.) I log EVERYTHING, even the fall off the wagon days. I would expect to be off by a little, but not over 50%.
I mostly run, and walk on breaks at work, but do some strength (modified StrongLifts on a cable machine and some calisthenics type stuff for a challenge I'm in) and yoga. I don't log the strength/yoga any more, and never have logged more calories than my tracker (Misfit Shine) gives me anyway. The calories it logs during my runs are pretty much on par with my Polar HRM - maybe +50 calories or so. I don't make it a point to eat back EVERY. SINGLE. CALORIE. but I do allow indulgences if I have some space left in my day/week. Or I add protein if I'm really short for the day. My MFP net calorie goal is 1500, which is a weekly deficit of around 3100 based on their calculations, depending on what I weigh any particular day. As you can see below, I've surpassed that deficit 3 out of 5 weeks. Memorial Day week was almost a wash,but overall, I still should have lost over twice a smuch as I did.

Any insight or advice would be much appreciated!

I looked through your diary for the last month. First thing is I believe you are grossly overestimating your calorie burns. You have 11 days where you logged a burn in the vicinity of 1000calories. You also have 14 days where you've gone over your calories. Combined I see 22 days in the last month that look like you were likely eating at maintenance or in a surplus.

Are the recipe entries created by you or did you just pull them from the database? For instance, the Tyson BBQ wings, 8 pieces have no macro data attached to the calories (which strike me as low for 8 wings unless they were teeny tiny). Roast Beef and noodles, 2 cups - your entry? Biscuits and Gravy? Chicken and Corn chili? BBQ Beef ribs? Linda's low carb cabbage and hamburger soup - are you Linda? Are you weighing your tortillas because the weight is always the same and in my experience, they almost never weigh what the serving size says and it's never in my favour when I weigh them. Same for bread slices.

The good news is you've lost 1.8lbs in the last month so you didn't completely erase your deficit. If you tighten up your logging, from both your food and your exercise burns, you should see the scale move down a little faster than it has been.

Angel_Grove_

cavia wrote: »

Angel_Grove_ wrote: »

Okay guys - talk to me about the effects of salt and alcohol on weight loss. I've lost just over 20 lbs since January, but I seem to have hit a stall the last couple of months. I've been keeping meticulous data and weighing every day to try to see fluctuations for the last 5 weeks, but I'm kind of at a loss. I keep thinking I'll break this "plateau" and get back on my .8-1 lb/week loss rate sooner or later, but I just seem to keep stalling. I know my alcohol/salt intake could be causing water retention, but this much? I've been downing water like crazy, though I haven't been logging that like I did when I started back in January - but I'd say I'm over 120oz/day.

I know my logging isn't perfect, but I do weigh pretty much everything I can at home and do my best to find reliable nutrition facts and make good estimates (overestimating if I'm in doubt) away from home. My husband does most of the cooking, so it can be difficult to weigh absolutely everything at home sometimes. I try to overestimate if I have to estimate. And because I tend to be a little OCD, I generally weigh out exactly 1 serving or 2 servings of whatever if I can, so if the entry that comes up doesn't break down into grams, I don't worry about hunting for another one. (Before anyone analyzes my entries and says I'm obviously not weighing my food properly.) I log EVERYTHING, even the fall off the wagon days. I would expect to be off by a little, but not over 50%.
I mostly run, and walk on breaks at work, but do some strength (modified StrongLifts on a cable machine and some calisthenics type stuff for a challenge I'm in) and yoga. I don't log the strength/yoga any more, and never have logged more calories than my tracker (Misfit Shine) gives me anyway. The calories it logs during my runs are pretty much on par with my Polar HRM - maybe +50 calories or so. I don't make it a point to eat back EVERY. SINGLE. CALORIE. but I do allow indulgences if I have some space left in my day/week. Or I add protein if I'm really short for the day. My MFP net calorie goal is 1500, which is a weekly deficit of around 3100 based on their calculations, depending on what I weigh any particular day. As you can see below, I've surpassed that deficit 3 out of 5 weeks. Memorial Day week was almost a wash,but overall, I still should have lost over twice a smuch as I did.

Any insight or advice would be much appreciated!

I looked through your diary for the last month. First thing is I believe you are grossly overestimating your calorie burns. You have 11 days where you logged a burn in the vicinity of 1000calories. You also have 14 days where you've gone over your calories. Combined I see 22 days in the last month that look like you were likely eating at maintenance or in a surplus.

Are the recipe entries created by you or did you just pull them from the database? For instance, the Tyson BBQ wings, 8 pieces have no macro data attached to the calories (which strike me as low for 8 wings unless they were teeny tiny). Roast Beef and noodles, 2 cups - your entry? Biscuits and Gravy? Chicken and Corn chili? BBQ Beef ribs? Linda's low carb cabbage and hamburger soup - are you Linda? Are you weighing your tortillas because the weight is always the same and in my experience, they almost never weigh what the serving size says and it's never in my favour when I weigh them. Same for bread slices.

The good news is you've lost 1.8lbs in the last month so you didn't completely erase your deficit. If you tighten up your logging, from both your food and your exercise burns, you should see the scale move down a little faster than it has been.

I use an activity tracker - Misfit Shine - for calorie burns. I'll log runs/some walks separately via MapMyFitness, but that subtracts from the adjustment I get from Misfit. Misfit has always been on par with my HRM/MMF for instances where I've used all three together.

For example, Saturday, I logged over 25k steps. Playing frisbee at the park with the family, 5.5 mile walk, 2-3 hours of yardwork, then more walking in the evening - 1064 calories. Friday was 15k+ steps, including a 3.4 mile run, at least 60 minutes of walking during lunch/breaks at work, more walking in the evening to and around a concert downtown - 1020 calories. Last Wednesday was 12k+ steps, including the 60 min walking during breaks and a 3.4 mile run, plus whatever else - I think I did a bunch of laundry/housework that evening - 912 calories. Last Saturday was 16k+ steps, including the 3.4 mile run, some yardwork, and 4-5 hours of swimming - maybe an hour of that spent doing laps, plus lots of treading/in out of the water, chasing kids, etc - 999 calories.

Do those levels of activity seem inconsistent with the burns Misfit is telling me? I certainly felt hungrier than normal on those days.

As far as entries go, nearly all of the recipes are entered by me. Every now and then if we eat out and I can't find calorie counts from the restaurant or a specific entry for them in the database, I'll try to find something that looks appropriate (Linda's cabbage soup). Didn't notice the macro data missing from Tyson's, but I did match up the calorie/serving size with the package. They were pretty small. I don't generally weight bread/tortillas, no. I'm trying to find a balance between logging everything and driving my family crazy with the weighing/measuring.

I appreciate the time you took to point out specific areas where I can tighten things up!

Angel_Grove_

tephanies1234 wrote: »

Looks like you're eating back all your exercise calories and sometimes plus some. Try eating back only 50% for a week and if the weight doesn't move, maybe try 25% the next week. You logged a couple days of 1000+ exercise calories and ate them so I'm wondering if that is even accurate as it may be the thing throwing you off. It's worth a test.

Good idea - maybe I'll work to net 1200 on heavy exercise days, just in case.

Angel_Grove_

cavia wrote: »

I looked through your diary for the last month. First thing is I believe you are grossly overestimating your calorie burns. You have 11 days where you logged a burn in the vicinity of 1000calories. You also have 14 days where you've gone over your calories. Combined I see 22 days in the last month that look like you were likely eating at maintenance or in a surplus.

Also, it's worth mentioning that I've been using the Misfit calorie burns this entire time, even for the first 20 lbs that I only had issues dropping when I stopped logging for about a month and a half - pretty naturally ate at maintenance during that period. I know your allowance drops as you drop weight, but at net 1500, I'm still at around 3k/week deficit based on both MFP and Misfit.

Has anyone else felt that their Misfit/Fitbit/whatever tracker was overestimating drastically?

kozykondition1

Angel,

Losing only 1/3 to 1/2 of your calculated deficit in body weight is actually typical. You will see that in most published studies. It's usually explained-away by people logging inaccurately. I have yet to see a published CICO study where people gained or lost at a rate of 3,500 calories per pound. So you're right on track.

I stopped logging exercises separately from my fitness tracker unless I'm not wearing it. I've also severely reduced the amount of additional calories I'm consuming on exercise days. It pushed me through my stall.

I didn't see excessive alcohol consumption in your log. Are you logging all of it?

I addition to what others said about your diet, I would probably do something about breakfast. You have either calorie bombs or protein shakes. But again, I'd call what you're doing a success as is.

Cheers!

Angel_Grove_

kozykondition1 wrote: »

Angel,

Losing only 1/3 to 1/2 of your calculated deficit in body weight is actually typical. You will see that in most published studies. It's usually explained-away by people logging inaccurately. I have yet to see a published CICO study where people gained or lost at a rate of 3,500 calories per pound. So you're right on track.

I stopped logging exercises separately from my fitness tracker unless I'm not wearing it. I've also severely reduced the amount of additional calories I'm consuming on exercise days. It pushed me through my stall.

I didn't see excessive alcohol consumption in your log. Are you logging all of it?

I addition to what others said about your diet, I would probably do something about breakfast. You have either calorie bombs or protein shakes. But again, I'd call what you're doing a success as is.

Cheers!

I know it's not an exact science, but only 1/3 to 1/2? Wow, I hadn't heard that before - thanks. I'll have to read up on it some more. It's just frustrating because for the first 20, I was blowing the "projected" loss out of the water. Newbie effect, I guess.

Breakfast is pretty much either at home, at the table, with the family (i.e. pancakes, waffles, sausage, etc), or in my car on the way to work. It's probably not the best balance, I know. If I actually eat breakfast at home during the week, it's cereal. But then I'm hungry in a couple of hours, and it's just as many calories as my 360 cal protein shake that holds me until lunch. Any ideas for better breakfast options that I can do in 5 minutes?

I log all the alcohol - Tuesday nights and weekends mainly. But it's pretty much every week - except this weekend we deliberately cut it out.

jkal1979

I looked through your exercise diary and I'm wondering if you are getting double credit for your exercise. I don't have a Misfit, but I do know that can happen with the Fitbit if the start and duration times are not correct. It might be a good idea to not log any step based activity like running.

Ninkyou

Angel_Grove_ wrote: »

Has anyone else felt that their Misfit/Fitbit/whatever tracker was overestimating drastically?

I don't have an activity tracker, but they all will have a margin of error.
I googled the Misfit Shine overestimation, and the first one that popped up was an article about a lady who wore 6 different trackers and was lab tested to find out the accuracy. It turns out the Misfit was the worst one, overestimating by over 102%.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2925963/The-fitness-gadgets-make-fatter-claim-count-calories-burn-test-shows-theyre-wildly-inaccurate.html

So take your activity tracker with a grain of salt. I'd start eating half of the exercise calories.

cavia

Angel_Grove_ wrote: »

cavia wrote: »

I looked through your diary for the last month. First thing is I believe you are grossly overestimating your calorie burns. You have 11 days where you logged a burn in the vicinity of 1000calories. You also have 14 days where you've gone over your calories. Combined I see 22 days in the last month that look like you were likely eating at maintenance or in a surplus.

Also, it's worth mentioning that I've been using the Misfit calorie burns this entire time, even for the first 20 lbs that I only had issues dropping when I stopped logging for about a month and a half - pretty naturally ate at maintenance during that period. I know your allowance drops as you drop weight, but at net 1500, I'm still at around 3k/week deficit based on both MFP and Misfit.

Has anyone else felt that their Misfit/Fitbit/whatever tracker was overestimating drastically?

There are only 3 possibilities. You are either logging food inaccurately, your exercise inaccurately or you've developed a medical condition that impacts metabolism until adequately treated.

As for the person who says you only drop 1/3-1/2 of your deficit with CICO, my body didn't get that memo cause it worked for me just fine losing just over a 1lb/week on a 500 calorie/day deficit.

tephanies1234

For things like Frisbee, yard work, laundry, etc. I would suggest not logging those activities like you would a workout since there's a lot of standing around in between doing actual stuff. Those activities should be included in your daily TDEE which should be set at "lightly active", or whatever you think, if that's your everyday life. Then, add your workout calories on top of that. I only consider anything that gives you a higher heart rate for a certain chunk of time an actual "workout"....and eat back only 50% of THAT to start. See what happens in a week or two, and adjust.

Angel_Grove_

jkal1979 wrote: »

I looked through your exercise diary and I'm wondering if you are getting double credit for your exercise. I don't have a Misfit, but I do know that can happen with the Fitbit if the start and duration times are not correct. It might be a good idea to not log any step based activity like running.

Not getting double credit - MFP takes the total daily burn from Misfit then subtracts their estimate of your NEAT + logged exercise and subtracts that to get your Misfit adjustment. So it's not possible to double log unless what you log is actually more calories than your total Misfit adjustment for the day:

Ninkyou wrote: »

Angel_Grove_ wrote: »

Has anyone else felt that their Misfit/Fitbit/whatever tracker was overestimating drastically?

I don't have an activity tracker, but they all will have a margin of error.
I googled the Misfit Shine overestimation, and the first one that popped up was an article about a lady who wore 6 different trackers and was lab tested to find out the accuracy. It turns out the Misfit was the worst one, overestimating by over 102%.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2925963/The-fitness-gadgets-make-fatter-claim-count-calories-burn-test-shows-theyre-wildly-inaccurate.html

So take your activity tracker with a grain of salt. I'd start eating half of the exercise calories.

That article is pretty alarming - guess I'll try to cut back a bit more and see what happens. Though, it's worth noting that she wore the Misfit on her right hand and most people are right handed - wonder if she is? I might try to figure out what the others on that side are later and compare. Hmm...

tephanies1234 wrote: »

For things like Frisbee, yard work, laundry, etc. I would suggest not logging those activities like you would a workout since there's a lot of standing around in between doing actual stuff. Those activities should be included in your daily TDEE which should be set at "lightly active", or whatever you think, if that's your everyday life. Then, add your workout calories on top of that. I only consider anything that gives you a higher heart rate for a certain chunk of time an actual "workout"....and eat back only 50% of THAT to start. See what happens in a week or two, and adjust.

I didn't log those activities - they were counted as activity by my tracker which I wear 24/7. Using an activity tracker/pedometer, you set it at sedentary and go from there, since it picks up all activity, not just actual hard core workouts.

Anyway, great advice all around - I guess bottom line is, no, barring a medical condition, I'm likely not retaining enough water to mask 2+ lbs of weight loss over the course of 5 weeks. Gotta eat less.

Angel_Grove_

cavia wrote: »

Angel_Grove_ wrote: »

cavia wrote: »

I looked through your diary for the last month. First thing is I believe you are grossly overestimating your calorie burns. You have 11 days where you logged a burn in the vicinity of 1000calories. You also have 14 days where you've gone over your calories. Combined I see 22 days in the last month that look like you were likely eating at maintenance or in a surplus.

Also, it's worth mentioning that I've been using the Misfit calorie burns this entire time, even for the first 20 lbs that I only had issues dropping when I stopped logging for about a month and a half - pretty naturally ate at maintenance during that period. I know your allowance drops as you drop weight, but at net 1500, I'm still at around 3k/week deficit based on both MFP and Misfit.

Has anyone else felt that their Misfit/Fitbit/whatever tracker was overestimating drastically?

There are only 3 possibilities. You are either logging food inaccurately, your exercise inaccurately or you've developed a medical condition that impacts metabolism until adequately treated.

As for the person who says you only drop 1/3-1/2 of your deficit with CICO, my body didn't get that memo cause it worked for me just fine losing just over a 1lb/week on a 500 calorie/day deficit.

CICO's always worked for me in the past too - that's why I'm trying to figure out where the discrepancies are. This is the second time I've lost purely with CICO - first time was about 5 years ago. Just gotta figure out why I've slowed down so much when my logging/eating/workouts really haven't changed since the first round of success this year.

mraichelson

I've been having some similar issues lately to the kind of thing you're talking about. One thing that did stick out in my numbers when I went back through them was how many times I was sticking to my calorie/macro limits but going way over on sodium. Spending a few days keeping my sodium intake low (mostly by dodging processed/prepacked stuff) and chugging water led to some encouraging results.

rbiss

You must make sure you are logging accurately and hitting your targets with exercise calories also tracked accurately. I would utilize a food scale and HRM. Also, water retention would make you plateau maybe for a week or so, but if your diet hasn't changed, the amount of water you are retaining also won't change when tracked over time. Therefore, if you are eating as many calories as you burn, you won't loose weight and you wont have to worry about the water retention if you havent changed your diet.

If you log accurately and exercise, I would increase your calories a bit. Maybe 200 calories per day to see if that helps.

kozykondition1

cavia wrote: »

There are only 3 possibilities. You are either logging food inaccurately, your exercise inaccurately or you've developed a medical condition that impacts metabolism until adequately treated.

As for the person who says you only drop 1/3-1/2 of your deficit with CICO, my body didn't get that memo cause it worked for me just fine losing just over a 1lb/week on a 500 calorie/day deficit.

@cavia ,

Excellent success! The trend in published studies is surprisingly consistent.

Your food logging is very tight. And your exercise logging looks suspiciously low.

For me, I just checked my last four weeks: 52,000 calorie deficit (14.9 pounds of fat @3,500/lb), 4.3 actual weight loss. My food and exercise logging are both loose, but I'm pleased with the results.

Cheers!

jkal1979

Well hopefully someone comes along and can explain it better than I can. I still think that your exercise calories on the days you log your runs separately are overestimated.

Angel_Grove_

jkal1979 wrote: »

Well hopefully someone comes along and can explain it better than I can. I still think that your exercise calories on the days you log your runs separately are overestimated.

The calculation is pretty simple. Misfit shows a total burn of 2995 for the day. MFP estimates a sedentary burn of 1931 plus the 5.5 mile walk logged at 556 = 2487. 2995-2487=508 for the calorie adjustment from the rest of my daily activity (which included 2-3 hours of strenuous yard work, chasing/playing with my kids at the park, and probably another 1-2 miles walked that evening.) They may be overestimated due the inherent inaccuracy of the device, but they are most definitely not "double-logged".

Fesanso

I'm two inches shorter than you and just a few pounds lighter at 168, but I wouldn't lose if I ate all my exercise calories every day even tho I'd be within MFP's quota. Since the end of January, so far I have a reasonably steady loss of 1-2 pounds a week, but it goes up and down during the week. I also like to weigh myself every day, and have a scale that does fat/water/muscle/bone percents, which while not terrible accurate gives me a general idea of water retention as both water and muscle figures go up then while fat remains fairly stable.

I have a Fitbit Charge HR which I wear all the time which is the only exercise adjustment I add to MFP. I usually do 50mins - 1.2 hours of high impact cardio or weight combo. Plus walking which clock up about 16000-19000 ish steps a day. Once in MFP from Fitbit this usually gives anywhere between 700 - 1000 a day extra calories. However I feel my actual daily burn is less (always had a sluggish metabolism) and so I only eat back a lot of my calories Friday, Sat and Sun (actual calories eaten usually ranges between 1900 - 2000 on those three days but on the rare occasion when I'm eating out it's more like 2300). This includes half a bottle of wine with dinner on those days. I've only go over my net quota once or twice per month when I'm out and can't compensate with exercise.

But for the rest of the week I try to make sure I stick closer to my actual calorie base target (lower than yours at 1300, which is to lose about a 1lb a week) and only eat 200-300 over that. At max (unless I'm eating out or just terribly hungry) I try to only eat half or under of my extra exercise calories.

Perhaps MFP is giving you a higher daily burn than you actually have? I have my setting to lightly active.

I only drink the 8 cups of water a day. I can't take more than that.

Angel_Grove_

Fesanso wrote: »

I'm two inches shorter than you and just a few pounds lighter at 168, but I wouldn't lose if I ate all my exercise calories every day even tho I'd be within MFP's quota. Since the end of January, so far I have a reasonably steady loss of 1-2 pounds a week, but it goes up and down during the week. I also like to weigh myself every day, and have a scale that does fat/water/muscle/bone percents, which while not terrible accurate gives me a general idea of water retention as both water and muscle figures go up then while fat remains fairly stable.

I have a Fitbit Charge HR which I wear all the time which is the only exercise adjustment I add to MFP. I usually do 50mins - 1.2 hours of high impact cardio or weight combo. Plus walking which clock up about 16000-19000 ish steps a day. Once in MFP from Fitbit this usually gives anywhere between 700 - 1000 a day extra calories. However I feel my actual daily burn is less (always had a sluggish metabolism) and so I only eat back a lot of my calories Friday, Sat and Sun (actual calories eaten usually ranges between 1900 - 2000 on those three days but on the rare occasion when I'm eating out it's more like 2300). This includes half a bottle of wine with dinner on those days. I've only go over my net quota once or twice per month when I'm out and can't compensate with exercise.

But for the rest of the week I try to make sure I stick closer to my actual calorie base target (lower than yours at 1300, which is to lose about a 1lb a week) and only eat 200-300 over that. At max (unless I'm eating out or just terribly hungry) I try to only eat half or under of my extra exercise calories.

Perhaps MFP is giving you a higher daily burn than you actually have? I have my setting to lightly active.

I only drink the 8 cups of water a day. I can't take more than that.

That's helpful.

I ran the numbers as if I were you (5'6", 168lbs), though, to see where it may be overestimating and at sedentary with 1lb/week loss it gave me net 1300 something (1340 I think?) and lightly active it gave me net 1600. I wonder if there's just a glitch on my account?

I've run my stats through other TDEE calculators as well, though, and gotten from 1877 to 1949 at sedentary, up to the exercise I usually do which is 5x/week or 3-5 hours moderate and gotten from 2287 to 2465. That was when I weighed 172.7, so not far from what I weigh right now. That's about on par with MFP (giving me around 1944 to maintain before exercise) and Misfit (averaging my total daily burn at 2482 over the last 5 weeks), though admittedly they're both on the high end of those calculators. If the lowest TDEE calculator is closest to my real number, I guess Misfit would be estimating an extra 6825 calories worth 1.95 lbs over the course of the 5 weeks.

That probably accounts for at least part of it. I guess I need to do my own "study" to figure out what my TDEE actually is - sans alcohol or copious amounts of sodium.

editorgrrl

Angel_Grove_ wrote: »

Has anyone else felt that their Misfit/Fitbit/whatever tracker was overestimating drastically?

I lost the weight & have maintained for a year with Fitbit + MFP. So my Fitbit burn is 100% accurate.

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

The key to my success was learning to log everything I eat & drink accurately & honestly. I followed the advice in the Sexypants post: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

ndj1979

here are my thoughts..

You said you don't always log everything. Start logging everything.
You are eating back 100% of 1000 calories burns. Start only eating back 50% of burns.
Tighten up logging to use accurate entries.

The combination of these three things can make your logging off by as much as 25%. On a 1500 per day diet that would mean that you actually consumed an extract 400 calories per day, which would wipe out your deficit for the week.