Left over cals

toadflaxbex

Happy Saturday! Please can you tell me with having 4K net cals here does that mean I can have a little bit extra this week if required? I usually eat around 1/4 - 1/2 my exercise cals per day

harper16

I'm confused are you eating under 1200 every day?

toadflaxbex

No I have set my goal to 1200, but exercise around 1000-1200 so usually eat around 1500-1700 depending on hunger pangs!

harper16

toadflaxbex wrote: »

No I have set my goal to 1200, but exercise around 1000-1200 so usually eat around 1500-1700 depending on hunger pangs!

Thank you for explaining. That graph is confusing. If you change from net to total does it give you the same figures?

toadflaxbex

No here is the total, doesn’t show all my exercise cals I can’t find a weekly summary of those.

toadflaxbex

Also here is the one from my Fitbit

Duck_Puddle

Yes. You can eat another 4300 calories and be at your goal for the week. That’s what I do-I use that same graph to keep myself to my weekly goal (although I have one day that is typically far over maintenance).

If you find you are losing faster than expected over 6-8 weeks, you will probably want to eat a bit more of your exercise calories. Your net calories are very low many days-but if you’re not losing faster than expected, it could be that your tracker is estimating a bit high.

Duck_Puddle

Here are how my graphs typically look. I lose as expected. First is net, second is total.

hipari

OK, you have a Fitbit and they’re synced, great.

I have the same setup and here’s what I do: my goal is to lose 1-1.5lbs per week, so I know that translates to 500-750kcal deficit per day. I log my food in MFP and it syncs over to Fitbit. With the graph you just screenshotted and the info just under it, its easy to make sure that’s my actual deficit. Currently it says 2162 cals in - 2967 cals out. I can ignore the calorie adjustment Fitbit sends to MFP as well as the ”552 cals left for the day” message Fitbit attaches to the calorie info, because I can just do a quick math in my head about 2960-2160=800, and now I know I still have room for an evening snack, especially as the day isn’t even over and I’ll continue burning at least 150 calories before midnight. Another alternative for the math is the Fitbit dashboard browser version, which has a view where the deficit is calculated.

Yes, this method requires doing some math and knowing your trend of how much you usually burn on different kinds of days so you can correctly estimate what your total burn for a given day is, but having these abilities I personally find this a simpler way of seeing what my true deficit is and how much I can eat, without fumbling with calorie adjustments and guesswork.

Now, to your question about calories and eating them: you didn’t mention your current weight or what your weight loss goal per week is. Since 1lb per week is a safe and reasonable pace for most people, I’ll base this advice on that: for 1lb loss per week, you should have a deficit of 500 calories per day. That means you should be eating 2500-3000 calories per day, assuming your Fitbit burn numbers match reality. I know for some people the burn numbers are way off, and the only way to see if they’re correct in your case is to log meticulously for 4-6 weeks and see what your actual weight loss is compared to what your deficits suggest. And even if they don’t match, the error could be in inaccurate logging instead of the Fitbit.

This ended up being a long answer, hopefully it makes some sense to you.

Strudders67

Your figures still indicate that your net average (food intake less exercise) is 538 a day, which is way way way too low. No wonder you have over 4000 calories left for the week. I'd call that more than "a little bit extra". The1200 is what you should be eating, net. If you plan to eat 4000 calories today, great, but otherwise you are really restricting yourself, even if your fitbit is overestimating a bit, and that's potentially not healthy.

Similar to what @Duck_Puddle asks, how much weight do you have to lose, what loss rate did you select in the set-up, what rate are you actually losing at and how long have you been tracking for?

toadflaxbex

I’m set up to lose 1kg a week as I have a lot to go. 163cm currently 115 I was 117kg 2 weeks ago (on Monday). First weigh in I lost 2kg. I was once 28stone and got down to 15 then had a baby so working hard to get back to there and beyond.

I put myself as sedentary so I could let Fitbit do the rest as some days I can’t get to exercise with two kids, homeschooling and working at home full time sat at a computer all day.

I didn’t eat all exercise cals as a) it takes a lot mentally to carry on eating knowing that’s what’s got me here

And b) some days I’m just not hungry enough plus I worry Fitbit over estimates so I’m cautious!

However today is wet and horrible and I just wanted a rest so only did 45mins on my bike and an hour walk so haven’t earned many cals so start to panic!

I weigh everything I eat and have always used MFP to track what I eat but only really last two weeks got the motivation to push myself!

lgfrie

You never once hit net 1200 calories this week, which is the rock-bottom minimum for healthful dieting.

Four of the seven days, your net calories were under 400.

Your average net calories for the week was 538. That is approximately half of what Axis prisoners of war were fed during WWII, as they were gradually starved to death.

I feel some of the responses here are, with all due respect, a bit lost in the weeds. You are eating a dangerously low level of calories. It is hard to envision what will happen to someone whose body is getting a net of 538 calories a day when science says you need net 1200 to keep your organs functioning properly, but it isn't going to be pretty, safe, or fun. One can only hope you are radically overestimating your exercise calories.

1200 plus your exercise calories is the minimum, unless a doctor has told you otherwise. I urge you to adhere to that before something bad happens.

Duck_Puddle

lgfrie wrote: »

You never once hit net 1200 calories this week, which is the rock-bottom minimum for healthful dieting.

Four of the seven days, your net calories were under 400.

Your average net calories for the week is 538. That is approximately half of what Axis prisoners of war were fed during WWII, as they were gradually starved to death.

I feel the other responses here are, with all due respect, a bit lost in the weeds. You are eating a dangerously low level of calories. It is hard to envision what will happen to someone whose body is getting a net of 400 calories a day when science says you need net 1200 to keep your systems and organs functioning properly, but it isn't going to be pretty, safe, or fun.

1200 plus your exercise calories is the minimum, unless a doctor has told you otherwise. I urge you to adhere to that before something bad happens.

As straight numbers, indeed.

But looking at the Fitbit graph with calories out being 3-4k? That leads me to believe that the Fitbit estimates are quite high (and resulting calorie adjustments are also high) and that OP should be going by actual loss rate (over time).

OP is eating an average of 1600 cal/day. If (and HUGE if) TDEE is 3-4K, that’s an issue. My guess is actual TDEE is more like 2600-2800.

I’m not advocating an actual net 500. That’s absurd. My supposition is that actual net is probably pretty close to 1200 (OP has a fair amount to lose and can safely sustain a larger deficit - 2.5lbs/week would be a max).

lgfrie

Duck_Puddle wrote: »

lgfrie wrote: »

You never once hit net 1200 calories this week, which is the rock-bottom minimum for healthful dieting.

Four of the seven days, your net calories were under 400.

Your average net calories for the week is 538. That is approximately half of what Axis prisoners of war were fed during WWII, as they were gradually starved to death.

I feel the other responses here are, with all due respect, a bit lost in the weeds. You are eating a dangerously low level of calories. It is hard to envision what will happen to someone whose body is getting a net of 400 calories a day when science says you need net 1200 to keep your systems and organs functioning properly, but it isn't going to be pretty, safe, or fun.

1200 plus your exercise calories is the minimum, unless a doctor has told you otherwise. I urge you to adhere to that before something bad happens.

As straight numbers, indeed.

But looking at the Fitbit graph with calories out being 3-4k? That leads me to believe that the Fitbit estimates are quite high (and resulting calorie adjustments are also high) and that OP should be going by actual loss rate (over time).

OP is eating an average of 1600 cal/day. If (and HUGE if) TDEE is 3-4K, that’s an issue. My guess is actual TDEE is more like 2600-2800.

I’m not advocating an actual net 500. That’s absurd. My supposition is that actual net is probably pretty close to 1200 (OP has a fair amount to lose and can safely sustain a larger deficit - 2.5lbs/week would be a max).

I agree that if the OP is losing weight at a healthy pace of 1-2 lbs/week then there's less need for alarm, as that would indicate that the problem lies in the data, not the actual eating and exercise. In the absence of knowing the loss rate per week, though, it's worrisome. You are right that if her TDEE is 2600, eating 1600, and losing a couple pound per week then she's just on an aggressive diet, not an unsafe one. That's a big "if". Exercise estimates are usually high, but that high?

hipari

OP, calm down. You say you wanted a rest so you ONLY did 45 minutes on your bike and an hour walk. That’s still almost 2 hours of intentional exercise. You need to eat those calories back.

If that’s OP’s idea of a rest day, I absolutely believe in the 3-4K TDEE comparing to mine, which averages weekly to around 2300-2800 (fellow Fitbit user). I’m 98kg, slightly lighter than OP’s 115kg. Even on ”no exercise” days (which still seem to have 2 hours of intentional exercise) there is bound to be a lot of daily activity with two kids and homeschooling. That activity needs to be included, so I think it’s a good thing there’s a Fitbit tracking this ”sitting on computer all day” kind of lifestyle. To compare with my activity, I don’t have kids but I also don’t have a car, so there’s quite a lot of unintentional walking and hustling just to get to work, buy groceries etc. So, by comparison, 3-4K TDEE with the described behavior and idea of ”rest” seems believable. My Fitbit burn and food logs match, as in math checks out and I lose approximately what I’m supposed to, and I find it hard to believe both burn and food logs would be wrong by an equal amount, which leads me to believe the Fitbit burn numbers are correct or at least close to correct.

OP, could you open your food diary? You say you aren’t hungry enough to eat more than what you’re currently eating. Honestly, I think that’s *kitten*. You clearly ate a lot more before, since you didn’t get to be 115kg by netting 500 per day. The hunger is there. Based on the calorie amounts and your comment about not being hungry enough I’m guessing you have also switched to some kind of whole food / healthy food / restricting types of foods diet. Make sure you get all necessary nutrients. Carbs and fat are necessary, you need them to function. If you don’t feel hungry enough to have a full plate of food, eat some cheese or nuts to get those calories in. They are vital to your health and, frankly, living. Lgfrie said it pretty well, so I’m not going to repeat that.

I’m going to say this again: calm down. I know I’m making assumptions on my own based on what you have said to fill in the blanks, but here are the facts: 1. You are 115kg. 2. You currently eat (or estimate to eat) around 1600 calories 3. Your estimated TDEE is 3-4K 4. Your idea of a rest day is suddenly almost 2 hours of intentional exercise. 5. You claim to not be hungry enough to eat more.

Based on these facts, I’m going to assume that the exercising and the 1600 calorie diet are very new additions to your life, as you did not get to 115kg by working out 2+ hours a day and eating 1600 calories per day. I’m also assuming you have radically changed what you eat, so you eat approximately the same amount of volume as before, but there’s significantly fewer calories than before. So, after you have fixed the burning issue of killing yourself by starvation, here’s the big question: are you going to eat like you do now and work out 2+ hours per day every day for the rest of your life? If not, there’s really no point in doing that now. Spend this time learning sustainable lifelong habits instead. Slow and steady wins the race. Slow and steady also doesn’t cause organ failure or starvation.

Duck_Puddle

Fitbit can be very high. Particularly if worn on a dominant hand or if someone typically makes a lot of hand gestures.

I often burn 300 calories on my wrist based Fitbit when I’m making a presentation during a conference call (I work at home all the time). Or cooking a meal. Or folding laundry. Or pretty much anything where my arm moves.

We obviously don’t know all those details but 3-4K is EXCEPTIONALLY high for a 5’4” person (as a 5’4” person who also started at nearly the same Weight as OP and did similar amounts of exercise).

I’m not at all advocating a crazy low net-but this really screams Fitbit overestimate to me (meaning actual numbers are fine; but data is off-like people who are “eating less than 1200 but not losing weight but also not weighing food and having a cheat meal they they sort of log” - nobody should be eating less than 1200 but it’s unlikely that’s what’s actually happening).

I have another (non-wrist based) Fitbit that is pretty much dead on for me. I also have other trackers other brands that have similar variations in calorie estimates. I’m not trashing Fitbit - just that (like anything) they can be off.

toadflaxbex

Thanks all. Yes I’ve added way more fibre in and changed things up a bit. I was on slimfast before and just started to plateau after loosing a fair amount so wanted to go back to calories in vs out. I have upped exercise primarily to kick start things. Not doing school runs on an average day at home I’d do less than 3k steps however when the kids are at school I can easily his 15K so that change since March had me put on, so I wanted to go all in and really get motivated.

I didn’t want to fully trust fitbit as I also don’t believe I’m burning 3-4K but I know I’m kicking some out so have eaten a little more, but maybe not enough. I did have a sneaky look on the scales this morning and it was showing a little over a KG loss (weigh day Monday). So if that stays around that I’ve lost a little over 3kg in 2 weeks. The first week I expected a little more!

lgfrie

toadflaxbex wrote: »

Thanks all. Yes I’ve added way more fibre in and changed things up a bit. I was on slimfast before and just started to plateau after loosing a fair amount so wanted to go back to calories in vs out. I have upped exercise primarily to kick start things. Not doing school runs on an average day at home I’d do less than 3k steps however when the kids are at school I can easily his 15K so that change since March had me put on, so I wanted to go all in and really get motivated.

I didn’t want to fully trust fitbit as I also don’t believe I’m burning 3-4K but I know I’m kicking some out so have eaten a little more, but maybe not enough. I did have a sneaky look on the scales this morning and it was showing a little over a KG loss (weigh day Monday). So if that stays around that I’ve lost a little over 3kg in 2 weeks. The first week I expected a little more!

I urge you to take your foot off the gas a bit with this diet. There's being motivated and pumped, and there's going overboard. 3.3+ pounds per week is overboard.

Incidentally, for your info and to put the TDEE question to rest, 3.3 pounds per week lost entails an actual (not theoretical/Fitbit, but real) daily deficit of 1650, and since you're eating an average of 1575 calories, that means your TDEE is 3225.

Strudders67

A weight loss rate of 1kg a week, at the moment, is appropriate. If you've lost 3kg in 2 weeks, that's definitely too aggressive and you need to eat more of your exercise calories.

Also, as you lose weight, you should update your stats in MFP, recalculate your calorie allowance and also decrease that rate to 0.75kg a week then 0.5 kg a week etc. But that's not for now, just bear it in mind.

You could partially test the accuracy of your fitbit. Don't do any intentional exercise other than a walk tomorrow / on a selected day. Track how far you walk and for how long (to calculate your speed). In MFP, select Exercise, select Walk at x mph and enter the time that you walked for. Compare the number of calories earned to what your fitbit says. Assuming you've entered your stats in to MFP correctly, I find it typically calculates exercise calories for walking fairly accurately.