Eating my net Calories

richardwilson5070276

Hi all. A bit of clarification more than anything please.
So since August I've got a Garmin fitness tracker which I have been wearing all the time, even bedtime. On average I was burning about 2600 calories a day, which includes 650 average active calories burnt.

2600-650= 1950.

I walk 10,000 step a day, weight train 2 times a week and cycle probably once a week, so I would say I'm reasonably active.

So I logged my food just before Christmas and was on about 2400 calories a day.

Post Christmas I opted to start a weight loss. 0.5kg a week.

I set out my own goal of doing 2100 calories and dropped down to MFP 1785 calories.

Lost 3kg in 6 weeks, so on track.

But I haven't been eating my NET calories. Basically sticking to gross calories of 1785.

Last 2 weekends my weight just popped up a bit and then it takes me all week to get back to where I was the week before!!

But I've lost the right amount of weight?

So should I just carry on or start to eat my NET total calories??

AnnPT77

I have to admit, I find your post a little confusing, arithmetically speaking.

So, your Garmin thinks you burn 2600 calories daily (it's still just an estimate, BTW).

If it's right, and you eat 2400 calories, you'd expect to lose about 0.18kg per week. Loss that slow usually takes multiple weeks to show up on the scale, amongst normal, healthy daily fluctuations in water weight and digestive contents on their way to becoming waste.

Then you set your goal to 2100 calories, which would be about a pound a week loss (if Garmin's spot-on for you), but you decided to only eat 1785 calories? (1785 calories should be a loss of about 0.75kg per week.)

You lost 3kg in 6 weeks, which is about 0.5kg per week on average, a little slower than predicted from your actual calorie intake? But on point for how you set MFP, which gave you a calorie goal different from 1785?

When you say this, I don't understand what you mean:

But I haven't been eating my NET calories. Basically sticking to gross calories of 1785.

If the key problem is this:

Last 2 weekends my weight just popped up a bit and then it takes me all week to get back to where I was the week before!!

Are you having a so-called "cheat day" or "cheat meal" on the weekends? Are you eating within your same calories but a different range of foods (such as more carbs and salt)?

Cheat days/meals can reduce weight loss or even wipe it out. Extra carbs or salt increase water retention, distort results on the scale. (Your weight on the scale includes water, fat, food in transit, bones, muscles and other lean tissue, and several pounds of gut microbiota that genetically aren't even you. Calories affect the fat part, not the other parts. Water, in particular, can confuse matters: Your body can be 60%+ water.

If you feel like you've lost the right amount of weight overall (with apologies for my being confused about that), then it's fine to carry on as you are. It's normal to see weight fluctuate by several pounds for reasons that have nothing to do with fat gain/loss.

If you haven't already read it, can I recommend this article?

https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations

Best wishes!