Calorie needs on super long days (it's 2pm and I don't have many calories left)

heybales

Made me review your math
All good - those weekly emailed reports from Fitbit start to make it easier, if you get them.

Fitbit uses the hang time between steps and the impact of a step, compared to stride length setting and weight to calculate the length of each step. For level walking, up or down inclines messes that up slightly.
From length and time and mass come calories.

So while bogus steps may mess with stats of steps - the distance seen from them are usually so minor, the calories given for them so small, they merely balance out the fact you have no steps when standing or sitting, and are burning more than sleeping BMR rate of calories burned that are assigned to non-step time.

That's why Fitbit when you select Sedentary sets a burn rate barely above BMR to initially calculate a daily burn and give an eating goal, corrected as the day progresses and movement is seen.
Whereas MFP Sedentary is 1.25 x BMR and includes some level of expected movement and being awake and asleep so much, some steps (usually below 4K), and other things.

KelGen02

How much water are you drinking? I only ask as I do IF (intermittent fasting) and eat twice a day in my 8 hour window and occasionally a snack in there as well and I dont ever feel hungry. With that said I drink a ton of water 6-8 32oz bottles throughout the day. I also eat high fat/low carb/no sugar, so I am not sure if its the fat/protein or the amount of water I drink daily that keeps me feeling full throughout the day. I don't focus on a calorie goal as much as I do a macro goal. Avocados, nuts, eggs, celery w/cream cheese or almond butter travel easy. I personally, would rather eat my food than drink it. (unless its titos and seltzer that is) its more of a mind over matter thing for me, but everyone is different and you need to find what works for you as what works for some may not work for others. I too am up and out the door at 630am (not as early as you) and home around 630pm (9pm on football nights) My feeding window as they say is 12pm-8pm. I do plan/prep my food the night before so that I am prepared for the day. I also have a small cooler that I pack so that when I am out on the road, training session or football game/practice, I have healthier options available. I am no expert and won't pretend I know the formulas or the TDEE BMR stuff. I am just a girl who was pushing 265lbs and decided to make a change to my lifestyle. I have tried a few things along my weight loss journey which aided in my weight loss but finally found a way of eating that makes me feel energized, has eliminated years of unexplained inflammation and joint pain and insomnia. The 60+lbs gone is just a bonus at this point. Still have 30lbs to lose but slow and steady it will come off Find what works for you, change up your eating habit a little and see what helps to satisfy you. It took me a while to figure out the difference between actual hunger and just being thirsty, bored, sad, happy, depressed, stress... I am an emotional eater, hunger was never the reason I ate (even thought I swore it was) it was always an emotion that triggered my need to eat. Good luck to you, stay strong, you can do this!!!

WinoGelato

HeyBales and PAV have already delved into the details of your numbers and how FitBit works but I’m just chiming in to say that my vote is for trusting your FitBit and MFP to work together to provide you a reasonable calorie adjustment based on your total activity that you should attempt to follow, combined with accurate logging of calories in and tracking of actual results for a period of several weeks.

That addresses the “long day” anomalies as FitBit is on you at all times and registers that you are awake longer, more active (although maybe not if your work training has you sitting when you’re normally on the go), etc. it requires some implicit trust as you’ll likely never get the numbers to match each other and your expectation and you’ll drive yourself crazy if you attempt to (heybales and PAV being the exceptions to that statement!) but I and many others have calmed our analysis paralysis (and achieved good results!) by trusting, tracking, eating, monitoring and adjusting.

successgal1

WinoGelato wrote: »

HeyBales and PAV have already delved into the details of your numbers and how FitBit works but I’m just chiming in to say that my vote is for trusting your FitBit and MFP to work together to provide you a reasonable calorie adjustment based on your total activity that you should attempt to follow, combined with accurate logging of calories in and tracking of actual results for a period of several weeks.

That addresses the “long day” anomalies as FitBit is on you at all times and registers that you are awake longer, more active (although maybe not if your work training has you sitting when you’re normally on the go), etc. it requires some implicit trust as you’ll likely never get the numbers to match each other and your expectation and you’ll drive yourself crazy if you attempt to (heybales and PAV being the exceptions to that statement!) but I and many others have calmed our analysis paralysis (and achieved good results!) by trusting, tracking, eating, monitoring and adjusting.

You are right. I definitely wasn't trusting the Fitbit enough. I figured out how to change my calorie goal on MFP to 1700 which more closely matchs the calories Fitbit is giving me at the start of the day. I've also begun wearing it more with GPS and Bluetooth on. I assume so it can figure out my stride better as well as catch my heart rate so it will learn better

I did already switch to weighing 85% of food by the gram. Instead of by the ounce or by volume. And I'm paying close attention to macros.

Yesterday was bike/cardio day. I'm up to my old 12 miles in about an hour and 20 minutes. Slower then my old hour and 10 but keeping an eye on the heart rate and not wanting to hurt my hamstrings again. We ate late last night but I had a big steak, small potato with butter and a big helping of broccoli. Since I went to bed a couple of hours later I didn't get hungry enough to need more calories before bed. So I have a few extra to use today if needed for recovery. Plus Friday is food truck night so having a few spare calories banked is a good thing.

I did finally hit a weight benchmark for me though. Getting past the newbie workout gains/water retention extra weight on the scale. I wear two rings that let me know I'm retaining water! They are as tight as ever today, the say after a workout, but my weight is finally under 180. Just barely 179.8 but I'll take it since I've been closer to 182 the day after a workout, while my body adjusts to exercise again. Theoretically, tomorrow, as the water retention subsides, I might see a solid 178 or less, my last lowest weigh in was 178.6 . So I do appear to be on the right track.

😁😁😁😀😀😀😎😎😎

heybales

Good attitude.

I wouldn't worry having GPS on constantly though, just a battery drain. It still uses stride length setting with measured impact to calculate a more accurate distance. GPS can be 3m off at best, many times worse, and that's for straight line movement.
I hope none start doing auto-stride length setting.

But HR historical is useful for it.

Is Fitbit giving initial eating goal using Sedentary or Historical setting?

Nice way of telling if water retained to keep a sound mind on what's going on.

successgal1

heybales wrote: »

Good attitude.

I wouldn't worry having GPS on constantly though, just a battery drain. It still uses stride length setting with measured impact to calculate a more accurate distance. GPS can be 3m off at best, many times worse, and that's for straight line movement.
I hope none start doing auto-stride length setting.

But HR historical is useful for it.

Is Fitbit giving initial eating goal using Sedentary or Historical setting?

Nice way of telling if water retained to keep a sound mind on what's going on.

It just took me forever to find that setting on fitbit.com. It's set at Personalized (historical), not sedentary.