Does calories burned = TDEE?
lauraesh0384
Posts: 463 Member
I have a Charge HR and on average it's telling me I burn around 2700 calories a day. I'm generally pretty close to 2000 calories burned when I get home from work. I usually get 8-10k steps during my shift which is 7:30-6 with an hour lunch break. I'm 5'6", 31 years old and 161 lbs. I've been struggling to get into the 150's for the past two weeks.
This happened a few weeks back. I was eating around 1800 calories and the weight wouldn't shift. I decided to bite the bullet and increase my calories. I was eating around 2050 calories and in the span of a few days I went from 165 to 161.2. I'm assuming it was water weight. However I'm at the same scenario again. The weight won't shift. I even tried dropping my calories back down to 1800. Nothing.
So if 2700-2800 is my TDEE then I should probably be eating around 2200 calories, right? My goal is to lose 1 lb/week. The other option would be to literally do nothing after work to get within a 500 calorie deficit based on what I've already burned. Usually I would walk for 30-45 mins after work and that is what sends my calories burned in the 2700-2800 range. I feel guilty, though, if I come home and bum around.
On a low day I would get 13-14k steps (walking an additional 3-5k after work), and a high day may be upwards of 18k steps. Those high days usually occur on a day I don't work.
Or feel free to tell me I'm putting too much stock into the calories burned and to be patient. I just can't remember it being this hard to break into the 150's like I did last year.
This happened a few weeks back. I was eating around 1800 calories and the weight wouldn't shift. I decided to bite the bullet and increase my calories. I was eating around 2050 calories and in the span of a few days I went from 165 to 161.2. I'm assuming it was water weight. However I'm at the same scenario again. The weight won't shift. I even tried dropping my calories back down to 1800. Nothing.
So if 2700-2800 is my TDEE then I should probably be eating around 2200 calories, right? My goal is to lose 1 lb/week. The other option would be to literally do nothing after work to get within a 500 calorie deficit based on what I've already burned. Usually I would walk for 30-45 mins after work and that is what sends my calories burned in the 2700-2800 range. I feel guilty, though, if I come home and bum around.
On a low day I would get 13-14k steps (walking an additional 3-5k after work), and a high day may be upwards of 18k steps. Those high days usually occur on a day I don't work.
Or feel free to tell me I'm putting too much stock into the calories burned and to be patient. I just can't remember it being this hard to break into the 150's like I did last year.
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How much total weight do you have to lose? If it's less than 25 pounds, then don't shoot for a pound a week, aim for 1/2 pound a week. The less you have to lose, the more slowly it has to come off. There's just no way around that and if you try to lose too quickly, you can permanently damage your metabolism so that you have to eat less forever.
Then, take a month and track your food extremely closely. Weigh every single little bite and log it accurately. Go out of your way to avoid as many uncontrolled food situations as you can - avoid eating out, etc. so that you have a really good idea of your calories in. During this time, try to eat reasonably close to what MFP recommends (including your Fitbit adjustment). Then, at the end of a month (not less than a month, especially for a premenopausal woman), you can compare your calories in to your calories out and compute your expected weight loss. Compare that to your actual weight loss and you'll have a good idea of how accurate your Fitbit is for you and you can adjust how much you eat based on that. (Last time I tested mine it was about 6% high, so I have to leave 100-200 calories "uneaten" every day to compensate.)
If you've dieted and regained weight in the past, especially if the weight loss was rapid, the chance that you burn less than the typical person is pretty high, unfortunately. From what I understand, the only way to avoid that (or try to correct it once it has happened) is exercise and either not trying to lose weight at all or making sure weight loss is very slow.0 -
I'm thinking my goal weight is going to be 140-145 but I'm not sure. I'll change my goal to 1/2 lb per week and see how that goes. I ate around 1650 calories yesterday and I had a loss on the scale this morning. I'll try and go back up to 1800 and see how things go for a while. I already am very meticulous in weighing/logging my food, and don't really go eat at restaurants. I guess I just need to be patient.0
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lauraesh0384 wrote: »I'm thinking my goal weight is going to be 140-145 but I'm not sure. I'll change my goal to 1/2 lb per week and see how that goes. I ate around 1650 calories yesterday and I had a loss on the scale this morning. I'll try and go back up to 1800 and see how things go for a while. I already am very meticulous in weighing/logging my food, and don't really go eat at restaurants. I guess I just need to be patient.
That one day loss is actually pretty meaningless. You just don't get true fat weight loss that quickly in response to one day of virtuous eating. I was up today, but I know it wasn't a "real" gain, just temporary, because I see those sorts of fluctuations all the time. Same with a sudden dip in the scale.
So, I would also recommend using Trendweight. It smooths out those daily ups and downs in your weight, giving you a clearer picture of how fast you're losing. I went a long time without using it because I thought I had to have a wifi scale (which I didn't have at the time), but all you need is a Fitbit account - it doesn't actually care where Fitbit gets the weight data. I even went back and put a few data points per month from the very beginning of my fitness/weight loss effort into Fitbit - a couple of months before I started using MFP and 10 months before I got my first Fitbit - so that I could see the entire trend on Trendweight.0 -
lauraesh0384 wrote: »I'm thinking my goal weight is going to be 140-145 but I'm not sure. I'll change my goal to 1/2 lb per week and see how that goes. I ate around 1650 calories yesterday and I had a loss on the scale this morning. I'll try and go back up to 1800 and see how things go for a while. I already am very meticulous in weighing/logging my food, and don't really go eat at restaurants. I guess I just need to be patient.
That one day loss is actually pretty meaningless. You just don't get true fat weight loss that quickly in response to one day of virtuous eating. I was up today, but I know it wasn't a "real" gain, just temporary, because I see those sorts of fluctuations all the time. Same with a sudden dip in the scale.
So, I would also recommend using Trendweight. It smooths out those daily ups and downs in your weight, giving you a clearer picture of how fast you're losing. I went a long time without using it because I thought I had to have a wifi scale (which I didn't have at the time), but all you need is a Fitbit account - it doesn't actually care where Fitbit gets the weight data. I even went back and put a few data points per month from the very beginning of my fitness/weight loss effort into Fitbit - a couple of months before I started using MFP and 10 months before I got my first Fitbit - so that I could see the entire trend on Trendweight.
I agree with the Trendweight suggestion. I use a Fitbit Charge HR and have been eating at a small deficit to lose the last few vanity pounds because I want to lower my BF% a bit more. Based on Trendweight data, I know I hold up to three pounds of water weight during ovulation, it goes away, right before my period it comes back, then it comes off in one fell swoop during my period.
Well, this past month I increased the intensity of my exercises and I went from 110.8 pounds to 112. I waited for ovulation to be over and then I went up to 113. I was wondering if I truly wasn't eating at a deficit, but instead of changing my calories I just stuck with it because I know weight loss is not instantaneous. It wasn't following my usual Trendweight patterns, not to mention after two months of delayed periods, the past two months I've been getting them a week early. I started getting discouraged at the lack of movement.
Well, my period came and 113 became 109.5 within days which fits into the .25 to .5 pound per week weight loss that I'm aiming for. It took a bit over a month to see that change and had I messed with my calories or had given up at some point, I wouldn't have known. The leaner/closer to goal weight you are, the weirder your body is generally going to be with regard to water weight and weight loss.0 -
Thanks for the advice. I'll try using Trend Weight. It's just frustrating not knowing how many calories I should be eating. I did lose weight on 2000 calories for about 4 days but I assume it was water weight so I'm not sure if it was one of those weird things that just happened to occur, or if I can truly lose weight on eating that many and I just need to be patient. I'm trying to find the sweet spot for calories and steps. Or if I should focus less on steps and aim for a certain number of minutes for exercise. Last time around I got down to 157, but I was also eating around 1400-1500 calories a day and walking 17-20k steps. But it sucked eating so few calories now that I've grown accustomed to eating more.0
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If you were walking that many steps and eating only 1500 calories a day, you probably damaged your metabolism. I get about that many steps (average last 7 days 19K), weigh just a few pounds more than you at this point (167 this morning - I'm up a bit the last few days, I'm not sure why), I'm shorter and I'm much older but I have been losing weight while eating over 2000 calories a day. I know I've damaged my metabolism in the past by trying to lose weight by diet alone, which is why my Fitbit overestimates how many calories I burn, but by focusing more on exercise than diet, I'm still succeeding (slowly - I've lost an average of 1/2 pound a week for the last 3.5 years) without being constantly hungry or denying myself the foods I love.0
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Yeah, that's what my fear was. Then again, that was also last year. I ate more calories than I should have and stopped walking so I gained a bunch of weight back. I started weighing and logging again in April, so I wasn't counting calories for a good 6-7 months. I thought maybe my metabolism would have gotten better in that period. My thought process on weight loss is much different this time around. My focus is eating as many calories that I can while still able to lose weight. Last time I just wanted to drop as much weight as possible and also I didn't know any better. I didn't know I could eat more calories and still lose weight.1
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lauraesh0384 wrote: »I ate more calories than I should have and stopped walking so I gained a bunch of weight back.
That'll do it. I am a lifelong exercise avoider. I hated exercise. I still don't love it. I'd give it up in a heartbeat if I could do it without consequences, but I no longer hate it and I love the effect it has had. Lower weight, better health stats, less pain, etc. However, I also have the luxury of being retired - I'm not trying to find time to exercise while working, raising kids, etc.0 -
lauraesh0384 wrote: »My thought process on weight loss is much different this time around. My focus is eating as many calories that I can while still able to lose weight. Last time I just wanted to drop as much weight as possible and also I didn't know any better. I didn't know I could eat more calories and still lose weight.
Excellent.
And a bigger plus - you get more benefit from your workouts too - as in transforming the body - because you can do better workouts.
Who wants to discover after months of no weight loss and undereating and bad relationship with food causing stress - that your workouts also in essence sucked compared to what they could have been.
Great mind change.1 -
lauraesh0384 wrote: »I ate more calories than I should have and stopped walking so I gained a bunch of weight back.
That'll do it. I am a lifelong exercise avoider. I hated exercise. I still don't love it. I'd give it up in a heartbeat if I could do it without consequences, but I no longer hate it and I love the effect it has had. Lower weight, better health stats, less pain, etc. However, I also have the luxury of being retired - I'm not trying to find time to exercise while working, raising kids, etc.
I don't mind exercise if it's something I enjoy. For example, I walk in my apartment with music blasting. I also play Dance Dance Revolution which I can easily play for 1-2 hours without feeling I'm working out. Other conventional forms of exercise? Forget it. Going to the gym and work out videos bore me to tears. Fortunately I also have the luxury of having a fairly active job so I get 8-10k steps just by being at work.
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If you were walking that many steps and eating only 1500 calories a day, you probably damaged your metabolism. I get about that many steps (average last 7 days 19K), weigh just a few pounds more than you at this point (167 this morning - I'm up a bit the last few days, I'm not sure why), I'm shorter and I'm much older but I have been losing weight while eating over 2000 calories a day. I know I've damaged my metabolism in the past by trying to lose weight by diet alone, which is why my Fitbit overestimates how many calories I burn, but by focusing more on exercise than diet, I'm still succeeding (slowly - I've lost an average of 1/2 pound a week for the last 3.5 years) without being constantly hungry or denying myself the foods I love.
Well there must be something wrong with me then
I get a minimum of 20,000 steps 7 days a week. I've got my calories set at 1600 and try to eat less than 50% of my exercise calories back per day, and my weight has held steady for the past month!
Im 5'8, 147lbs, age 44. Fitbit says my TDEE is 2500... Goal weight is 143lbs0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »If you were walking that many steps and eating only 1500 calories a day, you probably damaged your metabolism. I get about that many steps (average last 7 days 19K), weigh just a few pounds more than you at this point (167 this morning - I'm up a bit the last few days, I'm not sure why), I'm shorter and I'm much older but I have been losing weight while eating over 2000 calories a day. I know I've damaged my metabolism in the past by trying to lose weight by diet alone, which is why my Fitbit overestimates how many calories I burn, but by focusing more on exercise than diet, I'm still succeeding (slowly - I've lost an average of 1/2 pound a week for the last 3.5 years) without being constantly hungry or denying myself the foods I love.
Well there must be something wrong with me then I get a minimum of 20,000 steps 7 days a week. I've got my calories set at 1600 and try to eat less than 50% of my exercise calories back per day, and my weight has held steady for the past month!
Im 5'8, 147lbs, age 44. Fitbit says my TDEE is 2500... Goal weight is 143lbs
The first thing is that you're extremely close to goal - only 4 pounds! That's going to mean slow loss. The second thing is I've gone more than just a month with essentially no weight loss at times, so I don't really see that as "something wrong" either. I get that it is frustrating especially being so close to where you want to be. However, you're actually at a normal healthy weight already. Have you assessed your body fat percentage? (Using something more accurate than a body fat scale.) It may be you really don't have any more fat to lose. Or perhaps the thing to do (if your body fat percentage is too high) is to try to "reconfigure" your mass by adding in some weight training.0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »If you were walking that many steps and eating only 1500 calories a day, you probably damaged your metabolism. I get about that many steps (average last 7 days 19K), weigh just a few pounds more than you at this point (167 this morning - I'm up a bit the last few days, I'm not sure why), I'm shorter and I'm much older but I have been losing weight while eating over 2000 calories a day. I know I've damaged my metabolism in the past by trying to lose weight by diet alone, which is why my Fitbit overestimates how many calories I burn, but by focusing more on exercise than diet, I'm still succeeding (slowly - I've lost an average of 1/2 pound a week for the last 3.5 years) without being constantly hungry or denying myself the foods I love.
Well there must be something wrong with me then I get a minimum of 20,000 steps 7 days a week. I've got my calories set at 1600 and try to eat less than 50% of my exercise calories back per day, and my weight has held steady for the past month!
Im 5'8, 147lbs, age 44. Fitbit says my TDEE is 2500... Goal weight is 143lbs
The first thing is that you're extremely close to goal - only 4 pounds! That's going to mean slow loss. The second thing is I've gone more than just a month with essentially no weight loss at times, so I don't really see that as "something wrong" either. I get that it is frustrating especially being so close to where you want to be. However, you're actually at a normal healthy weight already. Have you assessed your body fat percentage? (Using something more accurate than a body fat scale.) It may be you really don't have any more fat to lose. Or perhaps the thing to do (if your body fat percentage is too high) is to try to "reconfigure" your mass by adding in some weight training.
I've had a visual test done by 2 body builders lol And they both estimated 25-26% body fat. The only bodyfat machines available to me are those body fat scales that you hold on to the handle. I'm not going to bother spending $40 getting tested on one of those..
I've called 2 doctors about getting a proper body fat test and neither had heard of bod pod/dexa scan or anything like it, they use calipers. I don't think these tests are common knowledge in Australia at all.
I know weight training is my solution.. But it's actually joining a gym and then forcing myself to go that's the problem..
I've read over and over on the forums about people weighing way less than me constantly losing .5lbs a week. They could be telling the truth, or not
ETA: It makes me feel better that I'm not the only one going a full month with no movement on the scales. I know my food logging is on point.0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »I've had a visual test done by 2 body builders lol And they both estimated 25-26% body fat. The only bodyfat machines available to me are those body fat scales that you hold on to the handle. I'm not going to bother spending $40 getting tested on one of those..
I've called 2 doctors about getting a proper body fat test and neither had heard of bod pod/dexa scan or anything like it, they use calipers. I don't think these tests are common knowledge in Australia at all.
I know weight training is my solution.. But it's actually joining a gym and then forcing myself to go that's the problem..
I've read over and over on the forums about people weighing way less than me constantly losing .5lbs a week. They could be telling the truth, or not
ETA: It makes me feel better that I'm not the only one going a full month with no movement on the scales. I know my food logging is on point.
I wouldn't know where to get a proper body fat test done, either. However, if the body builders estimated 25-26%, then that's also right in the "normal healthy" range for a woman. So, you're at a healthy weight and probably at a healthy body fat percentage - it sounds to me like you're trying to achieve a goal that your body just doesn't want to do. No wonder you're having trouble.
My guess is that the people who weigh less than you and are losing 1/2 lb a week are also shorter than you! Maybe a lot shorter. If I were to aim for the middle of the "healthy" weight range for my height, I'd still have 30 lbs to go at 147 . With that much weight left to lose, 1/2 pound a week is quite achievable. When you're already pretty much exactly in the middle of the healthy weight range, it's going to be hard unless you've got a very small frame and are naturally thin.0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »I've had a visual test done by 2 body builders lol And they both estimated 25-26% body fat. The only bodyfat machines available to me are those body fat scales that you hold on to the handle. I'm not going to bother spending $40 getting tested on one of those..
I've called 2 doctors about getting a proper body fat test and neither had heard of bod pod/dexa scan or anything like it, they use calipers. I don't think these tests are common knowledge in Australia at all.
I know weight training is my solution.. But it's actually joining a gym and then forcing myself to go that's the problem..
I've read over and over on the forums about people weighing way less than me constantly losing .5lbs a week. They could be telling the truth, or not
ETA: It makes me feel better that I'm not the only one going a full month with no movement on the scales. I know my food logging is on point.
I wouldn't know where to get a proper body fat test done, either. However, if the body builders estimated 25-26%, then that's also right in the "normal healthy" range for a woman. So, you're at a healthy weight and probably at a healthy body fat percentage - it sounds to me like you're trying to achieve a goal that your body just doesn't want to do. No wonder you're having trouble.
My guess is that the people who weigh less than you and are losing 1/2 lb a week are also shorter than you! Maybe a lot shorter. If I were to aim for the middle of the "healthy" weight range for my height, I'd still have 30 lbs to go at 147 . With that much weight left to lose, 1/2 pound a week is quite achievable. When you're already pretty much exactly in the middle of the healthy weight range, it's going to be hard unless you've got a very small frame and are naturally thin.
You're an Angel Nancy. Thank you so much for your sensible words of wisdom. It makes so much sense when I hear someone explain this lol
I need to get out of my own head and stop wishing for that stupid scale number!!0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »I need to get out of my own head and stop wishing for that stupid scale number!!
It's pretty normal to get fixated on nice, round numbers (I assume you've been aiming for 65 kg). I'm glad that what I said helped.
I can identify with your problem with weight training. I've had a lot of success with cardio exercise. I walk, I've taken up running, I do Zumba. But, nothing I've tried when it comes to weight training has "stuck" and I know I need it. I also need to work on my flexibility and that's another area where I just can't seem to stick to it.1
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