Fitbit TDEE help me understand

CherylP67

Hello,

I've been steadily working on this healthy living since May. I'd lost 35 pounds, 4 pant sizes, and started running and working on lifting heavy. I still need to lose 25+ pounds. I'm 5'5, 46, started at 198 and was down to 163 lbs, but am now 166 lbs.

Here's my problem. My weight loss has stalled for over 8 weeks. I was eating according to a sedentary TDEE-20% (1500) and eating back some exercise calories. I have a Polar HRM and figured my exercise calories that way. About 3 weeks ago, I decided to eat at an active TDEE-20% (1800) and not eat back my exercise calories in an attempt to start losing again. According to Scooby, I should eat around 1950. I was planning on bumping up. Gradually, 1500 to 1800 was a big jump and I was going to move up to 1950 after a couple weeks at 1800, but I'm afraid to with what's happening now.

This has resulted in a weight gain of about 2-3 pounds and my stomach is bigger.

I eat within my calories most days and I'm starting to focus more on my macros, especially carbs and protein, I eat too many carbs and not enough protein. I feel that I still have a lot of weight to lose, so I shouldn't have to do all of this fine tuning to lose weight, because I thought a calorie deficit was my main objective to lose weight. I set my goals to 35 carb, 35 protein, and 30 fat. My goal this week is to get to 100 grams of protein a day.

I bought a fitbit a couple weeks ago. Today I averaged the past 16 days TDEE and it was 2420, if I subtract 20% I get 1940. I'm eating at 1800, I've even tried a couple of cheat meals because that's worked for people to help get them losing again. I averaged my calorie intake for the past 16 days and it's 1764. I also drink plenty of water, I average 10 8 ounce glasses a day, 1-2 cups of coffee a day, and a coke zero 1-2 times a week.

When I do the math, I have a calorie deficit of 10,496 for the past 16 days, which should be 3 pounds.
2420x16=38,720
1764x16=28,224
38,720-28,224= 10,496/3500= 2.998

How long does it take for increasing your calories to work? I'm in this for the long haul, and I'm not extremely discouraged, I'm using this stall as time to learn more.

I'm a float nurse at a pediatric hospital. I work 3 12 hour shifts a week. Being a float, I go to the busiest; most in need unit every day I work, so I rarely have a slow day at work. I run 3-4 days a week for 40 minutes (10 of these minutes are walking), I walk 3 days a week for about 2.3 miles with my daughter who is recovering from a broken ankle. I haven't worked out at the gym for 2 weeks, we've passed an illness around my house and I'm trying to get my family back on track. I attend an outdoor bootcamp 1-2 times a week.

I've used the search bar, but I'm not finding a lot that pertains to my situation. I know people have been where I'm at.

Thanks for reading this far and for any help or experience you can offer. I'm not giving up or looking for a quick fix, just trying to learn what's happening.

Francl27

Are you weighing your food and logging everything? The only thing I can think of is that you're eating too much.

CherylP67

Are you weighing your food and logging everything? The only thing I can think of is that you're eating too much.

I weigh, measure, and log everything.

donjessop

So I took a look at my Fitbit dashboard to see what you were getting at and I can see where things went wrong. Based on the dashboard on Fitbit there are two numbers: Calories and Activity Calories (I have the Premium version so I can export data so you may not have both of these numbers.) If I subtract Activity Calories from Calories I should end up with my BMR, but I don't, I end up with a number much lower. I also adjusted some other numbers in the background and came up with a different number for Activity Calories, which seems to indicate that the number is somewhat ambiguous in nature.

As for the calories number in general, it is somewhat accurate, but is based on its BMR number for you and the number of calories it considers you to have burned for the steps you have taken. This number isn't necessarily correct as there are a lot of different factors involved in creating that number that Fitbit can't answer. For example, a less physically fit person is going to burn more calories doing a 1000 steps than a physically fit person, but Fitbit has no idea whether or not your are physically fit so it guesses.

When I plugged your numbers into Scooby (http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/) (Female, 46, 65 inches tall and 166 pounds), for Sedentary I get a number of 1402 for TDEE - 20%. You may want to revisit the calculator and make sure you entered the correct numbers. Also the definition of "moderate exercise" will vary depending upon the person. For someone who is more fit walking at the same pace as before they started walking is going to burn less calories and should not be considered the same amount of exercise. (As an aside, did you know that walking at 3 miles per hour you burn less calories than at 2 or 4 miles per hour?)

All in all, I think you might be better marking yourself as sedentary and eating back some of the calories that you burn until you can figure out what "moderate exercise" actually means for your body.

Francl27

The fitbit should be pretty accurate though. I'm guessing you need to give a bit more time to your body to adjust to the new calorie intake, 1500 was really way too low. Either that or you have some sort of thyroid issue.

CherylP67

The fitbit should be pretty accurate though. I'm guessing you need to give a bit more time to your body to adjust to the new calorie intake, 1500 was really way too low. Either that or you have some sort of thyroid issue.

I'm wondering about just needing more time.

There is nothing wrong with my blood work. I got free lab work at work when they had to correlate their machines and everything is perfect.

You've lost a lot of weight, did you stall out at any point?

Francl27

I stall 2-3 weeks at a time every month, but it doesn't last longer than that. I've always done TDEE-20% pretty much. I have a fitbit too.

The only other thing I can think of is that your fitbit isn't accurate. Did you adjust your stats and your stride? I never figured out how to do the stride thing but I have a fitbit one.

CherylP67

I stall 2-3 weeks at a time every month, but it doesn't last longer than that. I've always done TDEE-20% pretty much. I have a fitbit too.

The only other thing I can think of is that your fitbit isn't accurate. Did you adjust your stats and your stride? I never figured out how to do the stride thing but I have a fitbit one.

Thanks for your help.

I have a fitbit one too. I feel like it's accurate. The biggest shocker to me was how much more walking I thought I did at work than I actually do. I thought I walked tons at work, on my busiest days, I take 12000 steps at work, and that with intentionally taking the stairs.

I just looked at the in place of a roadmap thread. I set my daily calories down to 1740, and reset my macros so that I'm getting 1 g of protein per lb of lean body mass per day. I think I just need to keep pushing through and hope for the best. I'll try to look at this as a few weeks to adjust to this weight and learn what will take me to the next level.