Changing My Plan!

PinkPixiexox

Hi Everyone!

I've been estimating my TDEE based on various TDEE calculators and had been eating at a 250 deficit. I decided to do it the MFP way instead.

I've bought a fitbit flex.

According to MFP - I need to eat 1350 calories per day to lose 0.5
My fitbit has synced to my diary however - and I'm now allowed an extra 288. I'm very confused.

Could someone open up my diary to today's date (I've only started using fitbit today) and explain to me in layman watered down simplified 'silly person' speak - how I go about this.

Thanks

helenrosec1

I think the fact you say you "estimated" TDEE tells you something, also your fitbit takes into account any activities you've been doing where as MFP doesn't

PinkPixiexox

helenrosec1 wrote: »

I think the fact you say you "estimated" TDEE tells you something, also your fitbit takes into account any activities you've been doing where as MFP doesn't

Well I've consistently lost weight so I don't think my estimations were 'wrong' as such. I just wanted an accurate portrayal.

So today, according to MFP - I can eat 1350 calories. Ive exercised and logged the calories in to my fitbit which has earnt me 288.. I'm assuming I am able to eat half of these back on top of the 1350 and still be at a deficit?

nyponbell

I have my MFP set to "lightly active", even though I have a fairly active job; that means that when I sync my fitbit to the app (and it syncs with MFP) I get added exercise calories based on the number of steps I've taken that day (recorded ones anyway!). That's a bonus.

The real tricky part comes in when I'm not sure if the fitbit takes into account the 500 calories deficit I'm working at through MFP or not -- sometimes it does (when I do a "control count") and sometimes it doesn't.


But, the extra calories is based on your actual activity that day which your fitbit records. If you sync during the day, it won't be an accurate number (during the day it will give you a number based on your activity thus far, and what it assumes you will lose for the remainder of the day) and can go both up and down. I would suggest not logging until the evening; but when you still have time to eat a snack if you're hungry/earned a lot of exercise calories that day. In time you will be able to tell roughly how many steps will give you a certain amount of "extra" calories.

PinkPixiexox

nyponbell wrote: »

I have my MFP set to "lightly active", even though I have a fairly active job; that means that when I sync my fitbit to the app (and it syncs with MFP) I get added exercise calories based on the number of steps I've taken that day (recorded ones anyway!). That's a bonus.

The real tricky part comes in when I'm not sure if the fitbit takes into account the 500 calories deficit I'm working at through MFP or not -- sometimes it does (when I do a "control count") and sometimes it doesn't.


But, the extra calories is based on your actual activity that day which your fitbit records. If you sync during the day, it won't be an accurate number (during the day it will give you a number based on your activity thus far, and what it assumes you will lose for the remainder of the day) and can go both up and down. I would suggest not logging until the evening; but when you still have time to eat a snack if you're hungry/earned a lot of exercise calories that day. In time you will be able to tell roughly how many steps will give you a certain amount of "extra" calories.

I'm weary that I've gone over my 1350 allowance already and haven't waited until the end of the day.
Also, I would usually pre-log all my food for the following day the evening before? Eeek, very confusing

PinkPixiexox

So if i'm correct -I'll pre log for 1350 calories per day. And depending on what I've earnt by the evening, eat extra? Or bank for weekend when I plan to eat extra?

jdleanna

PinkPixiexox wrote: »

So if i'm correct -I'll pre log for 1350 calories per day. And depending on what I've earnt by the evening, eat extra? Or bank for weekend when I plan to eat extra?

Yup! At some point you might end up feeling fine pre-logging more, as you see how consistently you're earning extra calories. I use a Jawbone and was surprised at first to see how many calories it was adding to MFP for me.... I am set to lightly active and get a few hundred extra by the end of the day (& from the posts of yours I've read I think you're more active than I am!). My MFP goal is 1440, I'm comfortable pre-logging 1550 or so. I always still end up with excess calories I don't eat.

nyponbell

I think that depends on how much you've gone over. I have 1300 calories from MFP, which is low for the amount I burn (often close to 3k) so I have a lot over and have to use it to eat (plus, I want to eat in the evening anyway!).

I'm going to start banking a small portion of it (50-100 calories) for the weekend (but if not used then they're gone) but I don't want to starve myself.

It is very confusing though and I've only been truly back in the game for too short a while to see how this is all affecting my body and what changes I might need to make to the plan I have now.

WinoGelato

In your other thread you were eating 1500 cals and losing 0.8 lbs/week for the last month. I don't understand why you keep trying to push your cal goal down. What you were doing was working, you just need to stay the course.

I think a Fitbit is great, I use one myself. When I got it, I realized I was far more active then I thought and I actually raised my activity level and increased my cals as a result. I eat back pretty much every calorie it gives me. I'm 5'2 and currently maintaining at 123 which I think are similar stats to you if I recall. My TDEE according to my Fitbit is 2100 cals.

In the words of Dory... "Just keep swimming". You got this. You have to be patient.

Ninkyou

WinoGelato wrote: »

In your other thread you were eating 1500 cals and losing 0.8 lbs/week for the last month. I don't understand why you keep trying to push your cal goal down. What you were doing was working, you just need to stay the course.

I think a Fitbit is great, I use one myself. When I got it, I realized I was far more active then I thought and I actually raised my activity level and increased my cals as a result. I eat back pretty much every calorie it gives me. I'm 5'2 and currently maintaining at 123 which I think are similar stats to you if I recall. My TDEE according to my Fitbit is 2100 cals.

In the words of Dory... "Just keep swimming". You got this. You have to be patient.

This.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

PinkPixiexox

WinoGelato wrote: »

In your other thread you were eating 1500 cals and losing 0.8 lbs/week for the last month. I don't understand why you keep trying to push your cal goal down. What you were doing was working, you just need to stay the course.

I think a Fitbit is great, I use one myself. When I got it, I realized I was far more active then I thought and I actually raised my activity level and increased my cals as a result. I eat back pretty much every calorie it gives me. I'm 5'2 and currently maintaining at 123 which I think are similar stats to you if I recall. My TDEE according to my Fitbit is 2100 cals.

In the words of Dory... "Just keep swimming". You got this. You have to be patient.

I'm just trying to do it the MFP way now - so it's all there in front of me basically.

Do you eat back all of your fitbit exercise calories or just half? I notice some people eat half back - is that when the exercise calories are calculated through MFP alone and not a tracker?

Thanks

DeguelloTex

Whether it's the MFP way or the TDEE way or Carlito's Way, your results in the real world tell you how much you lose on a given deficit. If you were losing 0.8 pounds per week on 1500, an estimate of 1350 should tell you that eating back 150 a day would put you right back at 0.8 pounds per week. There's no need to guess how many or what percentage to eat back. You already know.

WinoGelato

PinkPixiexox wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

In your other thread you were eating 1500 cals and losing 0.8 lbs/week for the last month. I don't understand why you keep trying to push your cal goal down. What you were doing was working, you just need to stay the course.

I think a Fitbit is great, I use one myself. When I got it, I realized I was far more active then I thought and I actually raised my activity level and increased my cals as a result. I eat back pretty much every calorie it gives me. I'm 5'2 and currently maintaining at 123 which I think are similar stats to you if I recall. My TDEE according to my Fitbit is 2100 cals.

In the words of Dory... "Just keep swimming". You got this. You have to be patient.

I'm just trying to do it the MFP way now - so it's all there in front of me basically.

Do you eat back all of your fitbit exercise calories or just half? I notice some people eat half back - is that when the exercise calories are calculated through MFP alone and not a tracker?

Thanks

I eat most of them back, for things that FitBit isn't great at tracking like strength training and stationary bike, I enter the activity into MFP and adjust down about 10% for the calorie credit, because when I was trying out TDEE I was on a 10% cut from that and got good advice to also cut my exercise credit from MFP-FitBit by the same amount. It has worked for me.

I also believe that with the FitBit you have to give it a few weeks of synching with MFP in order for it to know your activity levels, etc in order to get the best accuracy. Last piece of advice, don't be shocked if you see downward adjustments toward the end of the day, so I always leave about a 100 cal buffer because when I go to bed and Fitbit realizes I'm not moving, you can end up with less cals by midnight than you originally thought.

Artemiris

PinkPixiexox wrote: »

So if i'm correct -I'll pre log for 1350 calories per day. And depending on what I've earnt by the evening, eat extra? Or bank for weekend when I plan to eat extra?

You could do this way:

Day 1: eat what you pre-logged, nothing more even if Fitbit says you have earned 200 extra calories.

Day 2: eat what you pre-logged, plus the extra calories.

Day 3: eat the extra calories of the previous day.

And so forth.

How many extra calories? I have a Fitbit and I never eat back those calories. BUT, somebody here wrote that you were on 1500 calories until just now and, since you already reduced them to 1350, I think you should eat back at least half of what Fitbit says.

PinkPixiexox

So technically, I should really be sticking with the 1500 per day and forget about eating back the exercise? Perhaps I could continue doing it that way and use the fitbit set to maintenance to determine my actual TDEE?

PinkPixiexox

WinoGelato wrote: »

PinkPixiexox wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

In your other thread you were eating 1500 cals and losing 0.8 lbs/week for the last month. I don't understand why you keep trying to push your cal goal down. What you were doing was working, you just need to stay the course.

I think a Fitbit is great, I use one myself. When I got it, I realized I was far more active then I thought and I actually raised my activity level and increased my cals as a result. I eat back pretty much every calorie it gives me. I'm 5'2 and currently maintaining at 123 which I think are similar stats to you if I recall. My TDEE according to my Fitbit is 2100 cals.

In the words of Dory... "Just keep swimming". You got this. You have to be patient.

I'm just trying to do it the MFP way now - so it's all there in front of me basically.

Do you eat back all of your fitbit exercise calories or just half? I notice some people eat half back - is that when the exercise calories are calculated through MFP alone and not a tracker?

Thanks

I eat most of them back, for things that FitBit isn't great at tracking like strength training and stationary bike, I enter the activity into MFP and adjust down about 10% for the calorie credit, because when I was trying out TDEE I was on a 10% cut from that and got good advice to also cut my exercise credit from MFP-FitBit by the same amount. It has worked for me.

I also believe that with the FitBit you have to give it a few weeks of synching with MFP in order for it to know your activity levels, etc in order to get the best accuracy. Last piece of advice, don't be shocked if you see downward adjustments toward the end of the day, so I always leave about a 100 cal buffer because when I go to bed and Fitbit realizes I'm not moving, you can end up with less cals by midnight than you originally thought.

So technically, I should really be sticking with the 1500 per day and forget about eating back the exercise? Perhaps I could continue doing it that way and use the fitbit set to maintenance to determine my actual TDEE?

I think I got caught up in the Fitbit excitement and wanted to do it how it's traditionally done heh.. Really, I just wanna know my TDEE.

DeguelloTex

PinkPixiexox wrote: »

So technically, I should really be sticking with the 1500 per day and forget about eating back the exercise? Perhaps I could continue doing it that way and use the fitbit set to maintenance to determine my actual TDEE?

If your numbers are accurate, it sounds like you already know your actual TDEE. It's 1900.

PinkPixiexox

DeguelloTex wrote: »

PinkPixiexox wrote: »

So technically, I should really be sticking with the 1500 per day and forget about eating back the exercise? Perhaps I could continue doing it that way and use the fitbit set to maintenance to determine my actual TDEE?

If your numbers are accurate, it sounds like you already know your actual TDEE. It's 1900.

I'm assuming my TDEE will change depending on days where I'm not at the gym? I go 4 times per week and I'm pretty sedentary (office job) other than that.

WinoGelato

I'm really not sure what to tell you to do anymore, I think you just have to use trial and error, but you don't seem to be a fan of that approach. This is not going to be exact. Even with the Fitbit I have some days where my daily burn is 2000 and some where it is 2300.

When you were doing 1500, you weren't eating your cals back, and you lost 3.4 lbs over four weeks, right? Were you using a food scale? Even then, there's a margin of error with all of this.

I guess if it were me I would keep myself set at 1500 for 2-4 more weeks, use the FitBit to get a better idea of what your average TDEE is, see if the weight loss continues at the same pace, and then adjust. I think someone calculated your TDEE in the other thread to be 1925 based on your actual rate of loss (0.8/week) so see if the FitBit gives you something similar.

WinoGelato

PinkPixiexox wrote: »

DeguelloTex wrote: »

PinkPixiexox wrote: »

So technically, I should really be sticking with the 1500 per day and forget about eating back the exercise? Perhaps I could continue doing it that way and use the fitbit set to maintenance to determine my actual TDEE?

If your numbers are accurate, it sounds like you already know your actual TDEE. It's 1900.

I'm assuming my TDEE will change depending on days where I'm not at the gym? I go 4 times per week and I'm pretty sedentary (office job) other than that.

It's all averages and estimates. The MFP way, the TDEE way, calculators and Fitbit. Yes things will change day to day. Pick a number, stick with it, monitor results, adjust after 4-8 weeks.

PinkPixiexox

WinoGelato wrote: »

I'm really not sure what to tell you to do anymore, I think you just have to use trial and error, but you don't seem to be a fan of that approach. This is not going to be exact. Even with the Fitbit I have some days where my daily burn is 2000 and some where it is 2300.

When you were doing 1500, you weren't eating your cals back, and you lost 3.4 lbs over four weeks, right? Were you using a food scale? Even then, there's a margin of error with all of this.

I guess if it were me I would keep myself set at 1500 for 2-4 more weeks, use the FitBit to get a better idea of what your average TDEE is, see if the weight loss continues at the same pace, and then adjust. I think someone calculated your TDEE in the other thread to be 1925 based on your actual rate of loss (0.8/week) so see if the FitBit gives you something similar.

Thank you.

I promise I'm not trying to be difficult, I'm just very, very uncertain about the process despite my past successes. I'm very new to the fitbit/eating back exercise calories/TDEE world. I will continue exactly as I have been as you suggested. I will make use of the fitbit to see my calorie burn and adjust in a few weeks if necessary. I think I was put off by last Friday's 0.2 loss. It kind of threw me a little and I failed to stop and remember that Weight Loss Isn't Linear. I don't think my OCD helps matters! Haha, definitely appreciate all of your advice. Sorry to be a broken record!