Is BodyMedia Fit working for the small gals?

tigerblue

I read so many posts about the BMF helping folks loose, and the numbers are impressive: "I lost 5 lbs in 2 weeks. . ." etc.

Of course, just reading those posts we have no way of knowing how much that person had to lose to start with, how large they were when they started, etc.

My BMF is not helping me lose. The numbers seem high to me. I am wondering if perhaps there is too large a margin of error for those of us who are close to goal weight and also petite, and the error is "eating up" my deficit.

Here are some stats:

I`m 5 ft 3 inches, 124 lbs. I would like to lose 8-10 pounds, and drop some bodyfat percentage. I am willing to take it slowly and have a small deficit to achieve the fat loss over just the weight loss. Right now I have come off of something of a 3 month re-set, as I ate as close to maintenance as I could (I say as close as I could, because my BMF was sometimes registering burns of 2500-2600, which seems high, even for a cardio day for me--I run about 3-4 miles several days a week. On non cardio days the burn was around 2200-2300, and on rest days, my burn was around 2000. During my re-set, I ate about 1800-1900 calories, and I felt satisfied. I seldom went above 2000, unless there was some sort of celebration going on. Again, I just had a hard time trusting numbers above about 2200 for my body size. During that re-set, I gained about 2 1/2 lbs. Not bad, except that according to BMF, I was eating at deficit, and should not have been gaining, should have been losing vveerryy slowly. Also, you have to add that 2 1/2 lbs to the 8 or 9 I had already gained before BMF trying to find maintenance.) Recently I began to ""cut"" again, and have been eating at what BMF shows is a 750 cal deficit. During the 2 1/2 weeks I have been keeping the 750 deficit, I have fluctuated up and down (water and hormones I`m sure) and right now as of today I am showing a loss of 0.2 lbs. (That means keeping a 750 cal deficit for 17 days has only resulted in a o.2 loss!!!!)

So, if you are petitie, and near your goal, is BMF working for you? I`d love to hear from the small gals!

(Oh, BTW I`m 45 too, so maybe that is the problem!!)

mrswine

I am not petite but have had a similar problem just counting cals and logging. Are you weighing and measuring all of your food? When you have a very small deficit to start with its easy to underestimate your calories and end up at maintenance instead of in a deficit. This is the first thing I would do before changing my intake. If that doesn't work, maybe decrease your calories by 100 each week until you start to see a loss. However, I would not recommend eating below bmr. Everytime I dip below I always plateau.

lovelyloola

So far mine is working, I have only had it on for 5 days and I'm down 2 lbs. I'm 45 years old, 5'2 and now 133lbs. BMF says my burn on a non workout day is about 1830 ( I sit at a desk all day) and 2100-2200 on work out days. So it averages out to be 1767 a day. I am on a (approx) 1200 cal diet and my average deficit is 637 cal. I have dropped 2 lbs in 4 days. I know it's not water weight because I gained 3 lbs in 2 days during TOM and lost that same 3 lbs 3 days later before getting my BMF. I am still new to this myself, I can't see getting myself up to a 2500-2600 burn. I thought I were going to die on a 30 min kettlebell video and walked 2 miles afterwards and only got to 2200 for the day and you weigh a lot less than I do. If your numbers are right, then mine is wrong. I am losing, so I believe my are more accurate.

Roll_Tide_Meg

I'm going to suggest that your deficit is too big and putting strain on your body. Adjust the slider where you know you can burn easily the amount given and you are eating enough calories to get to your BMR. For me...I am 5'8 and I eat 1670 (BMR) and burn about 2170...that is a 500 deficit. I only have to walk a few laps after work to hit that and sometimes I don't have to walk at all to hit it. I just do exercise because it feels good not really so I hit my deficit. ...also your deficit should be no bigger than 500 because you have such a small amount to lose. Sounds like you DO burn a lot during the day...maybe you are killing yourself for nothing...just try it and see.

jaz050465

I'm going to suggest that your deficit is too big and putting strain on your body. Adjust the slider where you know you can burn easily the amount given and you are eating enough calories to get to your BMR. For me...I am 5'8 and I eat 1670 (BMR) and burn about 2170...that is a 500 deficit. I only have to walk a few laps after work to hit that and sometimes I don't have to walk at all to hit it. I just do exercise because it feels good not really so I hit my deficit. ...also your deficit should be no bigger than 500 because you have such a small amount to lose. Sounds like you DO burn a lot during the day...maybe you are killing yourself for nothing...just try it and see.

So is it working for you. I am struggling to find a deficit that works- I too have about ten pounds to lose

tigerblue

I'm going to suggest that your deficit is too big and putting strain on your body. Adjust the slider where you know you can burn easily the amount given and you are eating enough calories to get to your BMR. For me...I am 5'8 and I eat 1670 (BMR) and burn about 2170...that is a 500 deficit. I only have to walk a few laps after work to hit that and sometimes I don't have to walk at all to hit it. I just do exercise because it feels good not really so I hit my deficit. ...also your deficit should be no bigger than 500 because you have such a small amount to lose. Sounds like you DO burn a lot during the day...maybe you are killing yourself for nothing...just try it and see.

I dont just run to burn the calories, although some days that motivates me. I run because I enjoy it and for the STRESS RELEASE that it is!

Even though my BMF is showing a deficit of 750 (average), really, I think the deficit is more like 250-300 because I believe that the BMF is off by about that much. For example, you are 5ft 8 and say you burn about 2170. My BMF is showing a burn of around 2100 on rest days, and I am 5 ft 3 (almost) and 124 lbs. That does not seem comparable to me.

If, after about 6 weeks I am still not losing, I may try a smaller shown deficit. But this summer I was trying to eat more and had a deficit of under 500 most days. And I gained around 2.5 in 3 months. So I am not feeling good about doing that (other than getting to eat more!).

I dont think I could go for a larger deficit without either "killing myself" with exercise as you say, or being very very hungry. I just dont think I can sustain under 1400 cals WITH exercise. Plus that just doesnt sound healthy.

tigerblue

So far mine is working, I have only had it on for 5 days and I'm down 2 lbs. I'm 45 years old, 5'2 and now 133lbs. BMF says my burn on a non workout day is about 1830 ( I sit at a desk all day) and 2100-2200 on work out days. So it averages out to be 1767 a day. I am on a (approx) 1200 cal diet and my average deficit is 637 cal. I have dropped 2 lbs in 4 days. I know it's not water weight because I gained 3 lbs in 2 days during TOM and lost that same 3 lbs 3 days later before getting my BMF. I am still new to this myself, I can't see getting myself up to a 2500-2600 burn. I thought I were going to die on a 30 min kettlebell video and walked 2 miles afterwards and only got to 2200 for the day and you weigh a lot less than I do. If your numbers are right, then mine is wrong. I am losing, so I believe my are more accurate.

Glad it is working for you! I think you are right. Your numbers sound more reasonable than mine. I wonder why mine seem so high! I even adjusted my height a bit to try an lower it. And, I found that although I am right handed, I needed to set my profile as left handed, because I do many everyday activities left handed (because of a slight deformity in my right hand.).

It seems to estimate my BMR consistently (based on sleep-time burn) with the online calculators. It also shows a burn on my workouts that is very close to both MFP and my heart rate monitor. It is the everyday activity that seems to be off. Or perhaps I have under-estimated my everyday activity for so many years that I have been under-eating. Who knows.

tigerblue

I am not petite but have had a similar problem just counting cals and logging. Are you weighing and measuring all of your food? When you have a very small deficit to start with its easy to underestimate your calories and end up at maintenance instead of in a deficit. This is the first thing I would do before changing my intake. If that doesn't work, maybe decrease your calories by 100 each week until you start to see a loss. However, I would not recommend eating below bmr. Everytime I dip below I always plateau.

I do weigh and measure most foods. After nearly 4 years of logging, I also have a pretty good chance at "eyeballing" my serving sizes, although I am surely not perfect!

I am actually trying to be more careful with this, just to make sure.

I may have to drop cals a little, but I dont have a lot of room, being small already. I am trying to hold at about 1450-1550 a day right now, and if I go much below 1400 I have a hard time not "starvign" if I keep running. My BMR is estimated by the calculators as around 1250. I burn about 300 cals exercising most days, so you can see that this is a fine line!

lovelyloola

What I did after the first day of having my BMF was change my mets range. I have my moderate rate starting at 6 and Vigorous at 8. Go to "settings" then "preference" down under physical activity level. It is defaulted to 3 and 6. I noticed that just walking down the hall to another office showed 2 minutes moderate activity. Ummm NO. Now I think it's a lot more accurate.

jaz050465

Not sure if that changes the calorie burn. I may be wrong but I think that changes the amount of moderate/ vigorous activity.

chriswalls1208

jaz, I'm not short (5'5") but I was about 137 and trying to get under 130 for YEARS using calorie counting and eventually a Fitbit too. I got my BMF in early spring and I'm now under 130 most of the time. I've also shot for a small deficit and regular activity. (I alternate days of 30' interval running/walking or simple strengthening exercises. I walk over 10K steps nearly every day.) I do think I will need to show a 200-300 cal. deficit just to maintain from what I'm seeing. I lose s-l-o-w-l-y with an average of 500.

Are you on your feet a lot even on non workout days? I am surprised at how much more I burn when I'm doing housework, etc. than when I'm truly sedentary. What you are seeing could be a combo of overestimating on BMF's part and the inaccuracy of the calories in foods. Those are just estimates too.