Am I under eating?

WinoGelato

loulouowens wrote: »

Think it's gone slightly off topic

I eat well home cooked plenty of veggies and some fruit.

I think I will leave myself set to 1lb loss until I'm at my last 14lbs and just eat my Fitbit adjustments! Although I think it over estimates! So far today I've done 8827 steps and it's given me 427 extra calories. If I ate those that would take my total today to 1857!!! Surly I can't eAt that and lose 1lb

Don't be so sure... As I mentioned upthread, when I got my FitBit I was set at Sedentary and had my net goal at about 1500 cals/day, eating back a conservative estimate of walking calories logged in MFP. After a few weeks of using my FitBit and seeing big adjustments that I was skeptical of, I got the good advice on here that I wasn't actually Sedentary if I was averaging 8-10K steps/day, and that FitBit is saying that I burn more than MFP and other calculators thought that I did. I started trusting the numbers, changed my activity level and my goal to 0.5 lb/week about the same time (like you I was down to less than 20 lbs to lose) and it upped my baseline calories. I ate them back, and realized that it gave me more energy and motivated me to be even more active. I lost the last 15 lbs (plus another 8 since then) eating around 1900 calories, and am maintaining now with a TDEE of 2200. I'm 5'2 and 118 lbs now, with a desk job.

So don't just dismiss those numbers outright, play with it, eating back a percentage, until you figure it out for yourself, but those numbers don't sound outrageous to me based on what you've posted.

CharlieBeansmomTracey

edited to delete

TavistockToad

loulouowens wrote: »

Think it's gone slightly off topic

I eat well home cooked plenty of veggies and some fruit.

I think I will leave myself set to 1lb loss until I'm at my last 14lbs and just eat my Fitbit adjustments! Although I think it over estimates! So far today I've done 8827 steps and it's given me 427 extra calories. If I ate those that would take my total today to 1857!!! Surly I can't eAt that and lose 1lb

If you have MFP set to 1420 cals then an extra 400 is the very least you should be additionally eating

everher

deannalfisher wrote: »

sure you can - the MFP recommendations for weight loss, DO NOT include any calories from working out (or from steps that exceed what you set your daily activity level as)

I wouldn't be so sure OP could still lose a lb eating that. From OP's own data, not eating back Fitbit adjustments she's lost about a pound a week which is what she has MFP set to. Eating more shouldn't keep OP at the same rate of loss.

I would personally slow loss OP to a half a pound a week and also see a doctor for hair thinning and fatigue.

J72FIT

loulouowens wrote: »

Think it's gone slightly off topic

I eat well home cooked plenty of veggies and some fruit.

I think I will leave myself set to 1lb loss until I'm at my last 14lbs and just eat my Fitbit adjustments! Although I think it over estimates! So far today I've done 8827 steps and it's given me 427 extra calories. If I ate those that would take my total today to 1857!!! Surly I can't eAt that and lose 1lb

Like I said earlier, at your height, 1500 - 2100 calories is a fairly good range. So there is a good chance you could eat 1857 and lose...

J72FIT

First and foremost, get yourself feeling better...

loulouowens

WinoGelato wrote: »

loulouowens wrote: »

Think it's gone slightly off topic

I eat well home cooked plenty of veggies and some fruit.

I think I will leave myself set to 1lb loss until I'm at my last 14lbs and just eat my Fitbit adjustments! Although I think it over estimates! So far today I've done 8827 steps and it's given me 427 extra calories. If I ate those that would take my total today to 1857!!! Surly I can't eAt that and lose 1lb

Thanks for this and everyone else who's replied!


Don't be so sure... As I mentioned upthread, when I got my FitBit I was set at Sedentary and had my net goal at about 1500 cals/day, eating back a conservative estimate of walking calories logged in MFP. After a few weeks of using my FitBit and seeing big adjustments that I was skeptical of, I got the good advice on here that I wasn't actually Sedentary if I was averaging 8-10K steps/day, and that FitBit is saying that I burn more than MFP and other calculators thought that I did. I started trusting the numbers, changed my activity level and my goal to 0.5 lb/week about the same time (like you I was down to less than 20 lbs to lose) and it upped my baseline calories. I ate them back, and realized that it gave me more energy and motivated me to be even more active. I lost the last 15 lbs (plus another 8 since then) eating around 1900 calories, and am maintaining now with a TDEE of 2200. I'm 5'2 and 118 lbs now, with a desk job.

So don't just dismiss those numbers outright, play with it, eating back a percentage, until you figure it out for yourself, but those numbers don't sound outrageous to me based on what you've posted.

Thanks to everyone who replied. Can I ask when you lower your loss to 0.5per week and increased your baseline calories did you get any adjustments ? And if so did I eat them? X

WinoGelato

loulouowens wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

loulouowens wrote: »

Think it's gone slightly off topic

I eat well home cooked plenty of veggies and some fruit.

I think I will leave myself set to 1lb loss until I'm at my last 14lbs and just eat my Fitbit adjustments! Although I think it over estimates! So far today I've done 8827 steps and it's given me 427 extra calories. If I ate those that would take my total today to 1857!!! Surly I can't eAt that and lose 1lb

Thanks for this and everyone else who's replied!


Don't be so sure... As I mentioned upthread, when I got my FitBit I was set at Sedentary and had my net goal at about 1500 cals/day, eating back a conservative estimate of walking calories logged in MFP. After a few weeks of using my FitBit and seeing big adjustments that I was skeptical of, I got the good advice on here that I wasn't actually Sedentary if I was averaging 8-10K steps/day, and that FitBit is saying that I burn more than MFP and other calculators thought that I did. I started trusting the numbers, changed my activity level and my goal to 0.5 lb/week about the same time (like you I was down to less than 20 lbs to lose) and it upped my baseline calories. I ate them back, and realized that it gave me more energy and motivated me to be even more active. I lost the last 15 lbs (plus another 8 since then) eating around 1900 calories, and am maintaining now with a TDEE of 2200. I'm 5'2 and 118 lbs now, with a desk job.

So don't just dismiss those numbers outright, play with it, eating back a percentage, until you figure it out for yourself, but those numbers don't sound outrageous to me based on what you've posted.

Thanks to everyone who replied. Can I ask when you lower your loss to 0.5per week and increased your baseline calories did you get any adjustments ? And if so did I eat them? X

I did still get adjustments but I felt they were more in line with my purposeful exercise. I'm a working mom with two small kids and I can get 7k steps just in my day to day life. When I changed my activity level, I had a higher baseline to begin with, but my adjustments went from 500-600 cals to 200-300 cals which I felt was more representative of the actual workouts I was doing. I also enabled negative calorie adjustments (and so should you if you haven't already) as a safeguard against days when I'm not as active, when I'm ill, or stuck in meetings, or on a road trip. It makes sure that I don't eat too many calories if I haven't even met the baseline that MFP is expecting.

I've always eaten back my FitBit adjustments in their entirety and I lost weight according to the schedule I was aiming for and am now maintaining with relative ease.

danigirl1011

I would agree you are eating too little. I don't like to eat back all my caloires i just can't do it. But, i try to eat back about half. If you ate back half and were under sedentary (1200 calories a day) then by my calculations you should be having around 2300 per day. So, i would say you are too low. Hair loss should be a huge sign. Remember not all carbs are bad as well. Rice, whole grains, fruit, etc will do good for your energy.

CharlieBeansmomTracey

loulouowens wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

loulouowens wrote: »

Think it's gone slightly off topic

I eat well home cooked plenty of veggies and some fruit.

I think I will leave myself set to 1lb loss until I'm at my last 14lbs and just eat my Fitbit adjustments! Although I think it over estimates! So far today I've done 8827 steps and it's given me 427 extra calories. If I ate those that would take my total today to 1857!!! Surly I can't eAt that and lose 1lb

Thanks for this and everyone else who's replied!


Don't be so sure... As I mentioned upthread, when I got my FitBit I was set at Sedentary and had my net goal at about 1500 cals/day, eating back a conservative estimate of walking calories logged in MFP. After a few weeks of using my FitBit and seeing big adjustments that I was skeptical of, I got the good advice on here that I wasn't actually Sedentary if I was averaging 8-10K steps/day, and that FitBit is saying that I burn more than MFP and other calculators thought that I did. I started trusting the numbers, changed my activity level and my goal to 0.5 lb/week about the same time (like you I was down to less than 20 lbs to lose) and it upped my baseline calories. I ate them back, and realized that it gave me more energy and motivated me to be even more active. I lost the last 15 lbs (plus another 8 since then) eating around 1900 calories, and am maintaining now with a TDEE of 2200. I'm 5'2 and 118 lbs now, with a desk job.

So don't just dismiss those numbers outright, play with it, eating back a percentage, until you figure it out for yourself, but those numbers don't sound outrageous to me based on what you've posted.

Thanks to everyone who replied. Can I ask when you lower your loss to 0.5per week and increased your baseline calories did you get any adjustments ? And if so did I eat them? X

you lower your loss to .5 a week when you have 25lbs or less to lose.

loulouowens

So i should lower my weight loss to 0.5per week and increase my activiy level to lightly active? Or keep it at sedentry and eat back any adjustments ? (I have negative adjustments enabled) or eat back any adjustments regardelss of activity setting?

CharlieBeansmomTracey

loulouowens wrote: »

So i should lower my weight loss to 0.5per week and increase my activiy level to lightly active? Or keep it at sedentry and eat back any adjustments ? (I have negative adjustments enabled) or eat back any adjustments regardelss of activity setting?

just lower it to .5 and you dont need to increase your activity. and eat back some of your exercise calories.if you increase your activity and lower your calories you are still creating a big deficit. the slower the loss the healthier when you have not much to lose.

loulouowens

Changed my setting to lightly active and it's still giving me a positive adjustment for only 3500 steps! It's credited me 114 calories, I would have throught I would have to move more than that to start being given calories.

I may just unsync the blumin Fitbit and go back to just eating what MFP tells me.

Grrrrrrrr

WinoGelato

loulouowens wrote: »

Changed my setting to lightly active and it's still giving me a positive adjustment for only 3500 steps! It's credited me 114 calories, I would have throught I would have to move more than that to start being given calories.

I may just unsympathetic the the blumin Fitbit and go back to just eating what MFP tells me.

Grrrrrrrr

FitBit adjusts throughout the day though. If you went for a walk to get those 3,500 steps in a relatively short period of time, and early in the day, then it is giving you an adjustment because it thinks you will keep up that level of activity for the rest of the day. As the day goes on, if you go to work for example and don't move as much for the next few hours, then the adjustment may level off, or even come back down. This also often happens at the end of the day for me, when I finally sit down for the evening or go to bed, if it is before 10pm for example, I may see a downward adjustment when I wake up the next morning, which is why I try to always leave 50-100 cals left at the end of the day.

It also takes time for the systems to work together properly and if you've made changes in your settings, it may take a couple of days for it to catch up.

You can go back to just eating what MFP tells you but in my opinion, a tracker that is on you, measuring your movement, your heart rate, etc is going to be more accurate than an estimate based on statistical averages.

loulouowens

WinoGelato wrote: »

loulouowens wrote: »

Changed my setting to lightly active and it's still giving me a positive adjustment for only 3500 steps! It's credited me 114 calories, I would have throught I would have to move more than that to start being given calories.

I may just unsympathetic the the blumin Fitbit and go back to just eating what MFP tells me.

Grrrrrrrr

FitBit adjusts throughout the day though. If you went for a walk to get those 3,500 steps in a relatively short period of time, and early in the day, then it is giving you an adjustment because it thinks you will keep up that level of activity for the rest of the day. As the day goes on, if you go to work for example and don't move as much for the next few hours, then the adjustment may level off, or even come back down. This also often happens at the end of the day for me, when I finally sit down for the evening or go to bed, if it is before 10pm for example, I may see a downward adjustment when I wake up the next morning, which is why I try to always leave 50-100 cals left at the end of the day.

It also takes time for the systems to work together properly and if you've made changes in your settings, it may take a couple of days for it to catch up.

You can go back to just eating what MFP tells you but in my opinion, a tracker that is on you, measuring your movement, your heart rate, etc is going to be more accurate than an estimate based on statistical averages.

Thank you that makes sense!

I will stop messing with it! I'm now set to 1lb loss at lightly active with negative adjustments enabled. I want to lose another 5lbs before dropping to 0.5lb per week. I could set myself to sedentary but I prefer to plan my meals and day starting with a larger calorie allowance rather than wait for positive adjustments. (It will motivate me to move too so I don't lose.any!)

Thanks u for your help x

CassondraKennedy

loulouowens wrote: »

If I ate those that would take my total today to 1857!!! Surly I can't eAt that and lose 1lb

I have recently been using a fitbit and thought the same as the above. However, I tried eating most of my adjustments last week (+300-600 daily) and ended up losing almost exactly what was estimated. It was really enlightening. Feed your body what it needs! You'll feel much better when you do, I'm sure.