I know weight loss isn't linear but commiserate with me.

heybales

BattyKnitter wrote: »

heybales wrote: »

For several posters here sounding like the adage lower is better is true - you can eat low enough to stress your body and cortisol based water weight will be gained.

Been shown 20 lbs can slowly rack up that way.

How stressed are you going to keep getting with potentially masking fat loss with water weight gain for 20 weeks say?
That shows up as almost consistent scale with with small variations up/down but no real loss.

Now - if the body is really that stressed by the amount of deficit you are taking - you are doing it wrong likely.
Less deficit, or even better a diet break for couple weeks - will likely cause a water-whoosh and weight loss.

Only kicker is if eating that low and body stressed, it's also usually done some adapting by slowing you down - so the deficit isn't as great anymore as you think because you are burning less daily.
So amount of increase to take a break isn't as great as you'd think.

@BattyKnitter - I'd agree 500 seems way off.

Unless you have a lot of steps daily.
In which case if your stride length setting is off, and Fitbit thinks you are doing more distance (because that and time and mass = calorie burn, not just steps) than reality - you could be getting extra calories.

Or if workouts are a few specific types known for inflated calorie burn best manually logged, but even that wouldn't amount to 500.

Could be combo, and the potential that your BMR is 5% off calculated, but that again is small number.

Or food logging is off by decent amount.

I think it's really just all in my head and that I am progressing fine and it will eventually be reflected on the scale, but I need to vent sometimes!

I do make sure to lower my calories on MFP every 5lbs loss or so, I still have 35% BF so I don't think it's yet time to reduce my deficit.

The 500 I was referring to is my deficit, I meant that looking back at my progress in the past year I highly doubt that my Fitbit is overestimating my burn by 500 cals thus wiping out my deficit completely. I get over 10k steps a day plus workout 6 days a week weightlifting and running, so I am active enough to get the daily 1900-2300 burn that Fitbit is giving me, it's just showing how the mind messes with us and makes us doubt the process that has worked in the past.

Likely not wipe out the 500 deficit - but depending on inaccuracy of distance calculated - could be big chunk of it.

10K steps is a lot - what kind of daily distance does that end up being reported as?

Have you ever walked a known distance at avg daily pace and confirmed it's correct? Not grocery store shuffle, not exercise pace, in the middle. Will seem slow, but that allow Fitbit to dynamically adjust it's calc's up or down in the range better.
With better distance comes better calorie estimates.

BattyKnitter

heybales wrote: »

BattyKnitter wrote: »

heybales wrote: »

For several posters here sounding like the adage lower is better is true - you can eat low enough to stress your body and cortisol based water weight will be gained.

Been shown 20 lbs can slowly rack up that way.

How stressed are you going to keep getting with potentially masking fat loss with water weight gain for 20 weeks say?
That shows up as almost consistent scale with with small variations up/down but no real loss.

Now - if the body is really that stressed by the amount of deficit you are taking - you are doing it wrong likely.
Less deficit, or even better a diet break for couple weeks - will likely cause a water-whoosh and weight loss.

Only kicker is if eating that low and body stressed, it's also usually done some adapting by slowing you down - so the deficit isn't as great anymore as you think because you are burning less daily.
So amount of increase to take a break isn't as great as you'd think.

@BattyKnitter - I'd agree 500 seems way off.

Unless you have a lot of steps daily.
In which case if your stride length setting is off, and Fitbit thinks you are doing more distance (because that and time and mass = calorie burn, not just steps) than reality - you could be getting extra calories.

Or if workouts are a few specific types known for inflated calorie burn best manually logged, but even that wouldn't amount to 500.

Could be combo, and the potential that your BMR is 5% off calculated, but that again is small number.

Or food logging is off by decent amount.

I think it's really just all in my head and that I am progressing fine and it will eventually be reflected on the scale, but I need to vent sometimes!

I do make sure to lower my calories on MFP every 5lbs loss or so, I still have 35% BF so I don't think it's yet time to reduce my deficit.

The 500 I was referring to is my deficit, I meant that looking back at my progress in the past year I highly doubt that my Fitbit is overestimating my burn by 500 cals thus wiping out my deficit completely. I get over 10k steps a day plus workout 6 days a week weightlifting and running, so I am active enough to get the daily 1900-2300 burn that Fitbit is giving me, it's just showing how the mind messes with us and makes us doubt the process that has worked in the past.

Likely not wipe out the 500 deficit - but depending on inaccuracy of distance calculated - could be big chunk of it.

10K steps is a lot - what kind of daily distance does that end up being reported as?

Have you ever walked a known distance at avg daily pace and confirmed it's correct? Not grocery store shuffle, not exercise pace, in the middle. Will seem slow, but that allow Fitbit to dynamically adjust it's calc's up or down in the range better.
With better distance comes better calorie estimates.

It's usually about 7 to 9 km on days I don't run. I walk around the office a lot, walk to the bus stop (10 min.) and walk 1 hour a day on the treadmill at work. I did calibrate my Fitbit a while back but maybe I need to do it again. Also I'm short (5'2") and take more steps per distance than average/taller people.

BattyKnitter

In case anyone is curious

Cassandraw3

This makes my data analyst heart happy. I did something similar for while to determine the accuracy of my smart watch for calorie burn as well as my input for calories in. I didn't track steps but I did have a column for weekly projected weight loss. I feel like about every 2 weeks I would get a whoosh where I lost about my projected amount.

heybales

BattyKnitter wrote: »

heybales wrote: »

BattyKnitter wrote: »

heybales wrote: »

For several posters here sounding like the adage lower is better is true - you can eat low enough to stress your body and cortisol based water weight will be gained.

Been shown 20 lbs can slowly rack up that way.

How stressed are you going to keep getting with potentially masking fat loss with water weight gain for 20 weeks say?
That shows up as almost consistent scale with with small variations up/down but no real loss.

Now - if the body is really that stressed by the amount of deficit you are taking - you are doing it wrong likely.
Less deficit, or even better a diet break for couple weeks - will likely cause a water-whoosh and weight loss.

Only kicker is if eating that low and body stressed, it's also usually done some adapting by slowing you down - so the deficit isn't as great anymore as you think because you are burning less daily.
So amount of increase to take a break isn't as great as you'd think.

@BattyKnitter - I'd agree 500 seems way off.

Unless you have a lot of steps daily.
In which case if your stride length setting is off, and Fitbit thinks you are doing more distance (because that and time and mass = calorie burn, not just steps) than reality - you could be getting extra calories.

Or if workouts are a few specific types known for inflated calorie burn best manually logged, but even that wouldn't amount to 500.

Could be combo, and the potential that your BMR is 5% off calculated, but that again is small number.

Or food logging is off by decent amount.

I think it's really just all in my head and that I am progressing fine and it will eventually be reflected on the scale, but I need to vent sometimes!

I do make sure to lower my calories on MFP every 5lbs loss or so, I still have 35% BF so I don't think it's yet time to reduce my deficit.

The 500 I was referring to is my deficit, I meant that looking back at my progress in the past year I highly doubt that my Fitbit is overestimating my burn by 500 cals thus wiping out my deficit completely. I get over 10k steps a day plus workout 6 days a week weightlifting and running, so I am active enough to get the daily 1900-2300 burn that Fitbit is giving me, it's just showing how the mind messes with us and makes us doubt the process that has worked in the past.

Likely not wipe out the 500 deficit - but depending on inaccuracy of distance calculated - could be big chunk of it.

10K steps is a lot - what kind of daily distance does that end up being reported as?

Have you ever walked a known distance at avg daily pace and confirmed it's correct? Not grocery store shuffle, not exercise pace, in the middle. Will seem slow, but that allow Fitbit to dynamically adjust it's calc's up or down in the range better.
With better distance comes better calorie estimates.

It's usually about 7 to 9 km on days I don't run. I walk around the office a lot, walk to the bus stop (10 min.) and walk 1 hour a day on the treadmill at work. I did calibrate my Fitbit a while back but maybe I need to do it again. Also I'm short (5'2") and take more steps per distance than average/taller people.

Good reason for always manually correcting the default stride length based on height & gender.

Short or long legs compared to avg for your height.

Plus I've never seen those formulas take into account that when overweight usually smaller strides, which gets longer as weight is lost.

I've also seen most calibrate at like exercise pace - while that is only a small % of the daily time/steps done, it causes inflated distance/calories when the majority of smaller daily steps is done.

ETA - also super chart record keeping.

BattyKnitter

Cassandraw3 wrote: »

This makes my data analyst heart happy. I did something similar for while to determine the accuracy of my smart watch for calorie burn as well as my input for calories in. I didn't track steps but I did have a column for weekly projected weight loss. I feel like about every 2 weeks I would get a whoosh where I lost about my projected amount.

Yes I started this spreadsheet on Feb 28, also to help determine the accuracy of my Fitbit, and it has helped ease my mind but as you can see from this thread I still panic!! I have a few other columns including projected weight loss, if that lone little 147 from today sticks around I'll be right on track with my projected loss, only time will tell!

This is the info that auto calculates that is also included in my spreadsheet, plus weekly deficits LOL

Total Deficit to date: 24,027
Deficit divided by 3,500: 6.864857143
Total Weight lost:6.8

Starting Weight:153.8
Current Weight:147

BattyKnitter

heybales wrote: »

BattyKnitter wrote: »

heybales wrote: »

BattyKnitter wrote: »

heybales wrote: »

For several posters here sounding like the adage lower is better is true - you can eat low enough to stress your body and cortisol based water weight will be gained.

Been shown 20 lbs can slowly rack up that way.

How stressed are you going to keep getting with potentially masking fat loss with water weight gain for 20 weeks say?
That shows up as almost consistent scale with with small variations up/down but no real loss.

Now - if the body is really that stressed by the amount of deficit you are taking - you are doing it wrong likely.
Less deficit, or even better a diet break for couple weeks - will likely cause a water-whoosh and weight loss.

Only kicker is if eating that low and body stressed, it's also usually done some adapting by slowing you down - so the deficit isn't as great anymore as you think because you are burning less daily.
So amount of increase to take a break isn't as great as you'd think.

@BattyKnitter - I'd agree 500 seems way off.

Unless you have a lot of steps daily.
In which case if your stride length setting is off, and Fitbit thinks you are doing more distance (because that and time and mass = calorie burn, not just steps) than reality - you could be getting extra calories.

Or if workouts are a few specific types known for inflated calorie burn best manually logged, but even that wouldn't amount to 500.

Could be combo, and the potential that your BMR is 5% off calculated, but that again is small number.

Or food logging is off by decent amount.

I think it's really just all in my head and that I am progressing fine and it will eventually be reflected on the scale, but I need to vent sometimes!

I do make sure to lower my calories on MFP every 5lbs loss or so, I still have 35% BF so I don't think it's yet time to reduce my deficit.

The 500 I was referring to is my deficit, I meant that looking back at my progress in the past year I highly doubt that my Fitbit is overestimating my burn by 500 cals thus wiping out my deficit completely. I get over 10k steps a day plus workout 6 days a week weightlifting and running, so I am active enough to get the daily 1900-2300 burn that Fitbit is giving me, it's just showing how the mind messes with us and makes us doubt the process that has worked in the past.

Likely not wipe out the 500 deficit - but depending on inaccuracy of distance calculated - could be big chunk of it.

10K steps is a lot - what kind of daily distance does that end up being reported as?

Have you ever walked a known distance at avg daily pace and confirmed it's correct? Not grocery store shuffle, not exercise pace, in the middle. Will seem slow, but that allow Fitbit to dynamically adjust it's calc's up or down in the range better.
With better distance comes better calorie estimates.

It's usually about 7 to 9 km on days I don't run. I walk around the office a lot, walk to the bus stop (10 min.) and walk 1 hour a day on the treadmill at work. I did calibrate my Fitbit a while back but maybe I need to do it again. Also I'm short (5'2") and take more steps per distance than average/taller people.

Good reason for always manually correcting the default stride length based on height & gender.

Short or long legs compared to avg for your height.

Plus I've never seen those formulas take into account that when overweight usually smaller strides, which gets longer as weight is lost.

I've also seen most calibrate at like exercise pace - while that is only a small % of the daily time/steps done, it causes inflated distance/calories when the majority of smaller daily steps is done.

ETA - also super chart record keeping.

Thanks for the help, I will look into recalibrating my Fitbit this weekend and see if that makes a change.

erickirb

BattyKnitter wrote: »

In case anyone is curious

On the face of it, those fitbit burns do seem quite high, based on the step count, but I wouldn't guess 500 off, but could easily be 100-300 off

Does your fitbit calculate cals other than just from steps? As looking at a few days compared to days you don't get many steps, you seem to be credited with a lot of cals/step, about 1.25-1.5 times what I do, on my smart watch, and I weight 160 lbs.

You can look at your acutal loss, if you think your intake is accurate, and work backwords to what you actually burned... in other words if you averaged 0.5 lbs/week for 4 weeks, you know your average deficit was 250, then compare that to what the Fitbit average deficit says, then you cans assume your Fitbit overestimates your burn by that difference.

If your Fitbit says your deficit averaged 400, then you can assume it is off by 150 cals/day on average, make the adjustment from there and go forward with that assumption

lawsonsaysread

Bry_Fitness70 wrote: »

Weight in sustainment isn't linear, either

I wish this weren't true, but it really, really is an accurate depiction.

BattyKnitter

Those calorie burns do include exercise as well. Before April 6 I was working out 4 days a week weight lifting and a bit of HIIT eah session this burns about 150 cals per 45 min session. Since April 6 I do the same as before plus I started a C25K program so I jog Sat, Mon, Wed where I get around 6000 steps and a bit less than a 400 calorie burn. Also Mon-Fri I walk on the treadmill workstation at work for an hour at a moderate pace, about 5-6000 steps and 300 calorie burn.

ultra_violets

BattyKnitter wrote: »

I haven't lost weight in 2 weeks. I know, I KNOW 2 weeks is nothing, that it's water weight fluctuations/non-linear loss/I'm PMS'ing/I just started running/and also I often don't lose weight for 2 weeks then get a whoosh of 2 pounds, I know I am weighing and logging EVERYTHING that goes into my mouth and I am as accurate as possible, BUT EVERY time I get scared that all that hard work creating a deficit was for nothing!

I know I'm not alone, share your woes about fluctuations and non-linear weight loss!

Joining the choir to say you look amazing. But I get the frustration. I'm almost 50 and with hormonal changes, even if I watch my sodium intake, I can easily gain 2 or 3 lb. overnight, even when I've had a "perfect" day. And even though I know logically it's not a punishment, it's nothing I've done wrong, it's really hard not to feel slapped down for nothing. All you can do is try not to get too hung up on the numbers on the scale and keep pushing, because it will work out in the end.