input on my calorie deficit please?

alexandriamarino

Hi all, I was wondering if I could get some help to make sure I'm interpreting my food diary correctly and not eating too much. I'm trying to lose weight slowly but surely, maybe around 1 lb a week.

I'm 5'5" and currently 162lb, and it seems my BMR should be somewhere around 1400 according to the calculators I can find (I'm 30 and currently around 30% body fat).

I wear a Fitbit and I workout with a Polar H7 HRM.

Here's my question/concern -- isn't my fitbit/exercise basically just tracking all the energy expenditure above my BMR, such that if i eat my BMR and my exercise calories, I'll break even and never lose anything? Or is there a lot of energy that I expend that isn't captured by my fitbit/exercise logs that will help me have a deficit?

For example, today I jogged for 5 miles which burned 560 according to my HRM and then got 373 from other fitbit walking, so i was able to eat 2200 for a net of 1250 or so. I just am having a hard time seeing how I could lose weight on this, because since I'm eating back my exercise calls, i'm basically only 200 below my BMR. Can someone help? Please feel free to view my diary. I really really appreciate it! I'm kind of a data-driven person and I'm very careful with food weighing so I'd rather use numbers like this than something like TDEE, for now anyway.

I know that one answer is 'wait and see what the scale says' and of course I will, but I'm also curious if I'm interpreting any of this funny.

Thank you!

3dogsrunning

You are confused about what BMR is.
BMR is Basal Metabolic Rate, it is what your body needs just to survive if you were in a coma today.
Your TDEE is Total Daily Energy Expenditure - that is your BMR, plus your daily activity from sitting around, brushing your teeth, walking to the car, and your exercise.
You need to eat below TDEE to lose weight, not BMR. Many people suggest eating above BMR but lower than TDEE.

I'm not exactly sure how your Fitbit and HRM are working together. Are you using them at the same time? Just be sure you aren't double counting your exercise. Where did you get the 2200 number?

alexandriamarino

No, i absolutely know what the definition of BMR is (as well as TDEE), I just don't know how much I burn above BMR by things that are not already accounted for by fitbit/hrm. This is a subtlely different than TDEE I think.

I checked, they do work together correctly. The HRM logs through run keeper which logs a start time, and if the start time is logged then the fitbit doesn't count those steps in its total (I researched this for a while).

2200 is 1320 which is what I'm supposed to eat for 1 lb loss (i marked sedentary because I thought I would log exercise separately) plus my fitbit steps and exercise for the day.

3dogsrunning

No, i absolutely know what the definition of BMR is (as well as TDEE), I just don't know how much I burn above BMR by things that are not already accounted for by fitbit/hrm. This is a subtlely different than TDEE I think.

I checked, they do work together correctly. The HRM logs through run keeper which logs a start time, and if the start time is logged then the fitbit doesn't count those steps in its total (I researched this for a while).

2200 is 1320 which is what I'm supposed to eat for 1 lb loss (i marked sedentary because I thought I would log exercise separately) plus my fitbit steps and exercise for the day.

I guess I am not following but I don't use a Fitbit either. Hopefully someone else can help you out. :drinker:

alexandriamarino

No worries, thanks for the thoughts

suejoker

What 3dogsrunning said. Also, if your fibit & polar are saying you burn 2200/day and you're fine with losing at a moderate pace, then only reduce that number by 15% (or 330 calories) and you should eat 1870. Doing this should get you an almost 1lb/week loss. If it doesn't, then you need to look to see if you're accurately logging your food. Food scales rock! Going below your BMR on a routine basis is a bad idea. Your body needs to be properly fueled, in order to stay healthy and perform optimally. I did this for months and lost a lot of weight, but then my weight loss stalled and I started getting sick all the time. Now, I'm doing a metabolism reset to try to help my body recover. Now, if I burn a bunch of calories, I make sure to eat them back up to my BMR.

alexandriamarino

Thanks Sue -- i use a food scale religiously at home (even if it says 2 T on my food diary, what that really means is that I saw on the label that 2 T = 28 grams or whatever, then measured it in grams).

I'm not burning 2200 a day, that's just what it says I should eat. I'm not sure exactly what I'm burning, because it puts my exercise calories on top of the this 1320 number that it came up with, and i'm not sure what burn it assumes in the 1320.

Any people who really like to dig into number willing to give some input? Again, the basic question is, what, above HRM/fitbit/BMR does a person tend to burn? Because my deficit, it seems, would have to come from those calories... Because I'm basically eating my BMR + exercise, and fitbit might account for daily activity.

Edited to add: It's totally possible I'm asking a question no one has an answer for, but I figure there are lots of people here who know the diet and exercise science pretty well, so I thought I'd give it a shot!

heybales

No, i absolutely know what the definition of BMR is (as well as TDEE), I just don't know how much I burn above BMR by things that are not already accounted for by fitbit/hrm. This is a subtlely different than TDEE I think.

I checked, they do work together correctly. The HRM logs through run keeper which logs a start time, and if the start time is logged then the fitbit doesn't count those steps in its total (I researched this for a while).

2200 is 1320 which is what I'm supposed to eat for 1 lb loss (i marked sedentary because I thought I would log exercise separately) plus my fitbit steps and exercise for the day.

You are correct kinda.

Fitbit assigns BMR level burn for all non-moving activity, you would actually burn more awake resting, and even more standing say.
You would also burn calories processing food, about 10% of the daily TDEE is that.
And then exercise in in there too.

So the Fitbit is figured to capture about 85% of the days calories NOT including serious workouts that it would underestimate.
But it is the BMR included, and the activity that is step based, and anything you manually log.

So if you ate what it said you burned - you should lose weight - slowly. Inaccuracy in food eaten logged would probably wipe out that little deficit.

But TDEE would normally include all those things - but Fitbit doesn't.
BMR, TEF (Thermal Effect Food), NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), EAT (Exercise Activity Thermogenesis).

If a manually logged workout comes over to Fitbit for running or walking, it does recalc the steps for that time based on your stride length and stated distance. Of course the calories that come over replace what it had for calories already.

So if you have them synced, Sedentary is fine, MFP does the compare with Fitbit's daily burn, it'll increase or decrease what it guessed you'd burn by the difference, which shows up in exercise as Fitbit adjustment, and then subtract your deficit to cause the weight loss, 500 in your case.

Now, if you find on non-exercise days decent sized adjustments, you could make planning your day easier by setting MFP activity level to Lightly Active, that way you have better idea of calorie goal up front, and smaller tweaks as day goes on.

And you are viewing the math wrong too.

How far below the Fitbit TDEE did you eat in total? If you told MFP 1 lb weekly, it should be 500 less.

amandzor

A fitbit is more like....a glorified pedometer. Don't get me wrong, I -love- mine, as it inspires me to be more active.

HRM's are much more accurate in calorie burn, so you should probably stick with that.

That being said, I have more luck losing weight when I don't eat my exercise calories back. Or at least not -all- of them back.

If I go on a strenuous bike ride, a hike, or jog a 5k at the gym, I'll eat (and log) and extra something, usually half what I burned pretty immediately. Within 20-30 mins of the burn.

If you aren't seeing progress on the scale, My advice is to cut back the additional calories you're eating due to your exercise. Don't remove them, but reducing them by 200-400 can help move that number.

alexandriamarino

Thanks -- this makes sense. It almost seems like the fitbit is giving me an excuse to eat when I probably shouldn't be -- maybe I should try without it for a while and just log exercise.

Also appreciate your patience -- I've lost weight in the past by REALLY undereating and I'm trying to not go down that path again, but I'm finding it really hard to figure out where the happy place is!

alexandriamarino

haybales -- where is there a fitbit TDEE? I have been doing all my diet planning here. Is it useful?

heybales

Thanks -- this makes sense. It almost seems like the fitbit is giving me an excuse to eat when I probably shouldn't be -- maybe I should try without it for a while and just log exercise.

Also appreciate your patience -- I've lost weight in the past by REALLY undereating and I'm trying to not go down that path again, but I'm finding it really hard to figure out where the happy place is!

haybales -- where is there a fitbit TDEE? I have been doing all my diet planning here. Is it useful?

Actually, Fitbit is giving you a chance to keep to a reasonable deficit based on how much you really do, rather than foolishly thinking that bigger is better and going down that road again.
And as I stated, it's already underestimated for several things.

Yes you should manually update exercise with the HRM estimates and overwrite Fitbit data, as you already stated you are doing through Runkeeper.
Yes you should manually log strength training and NOT use inflated HRM data either.

Yes you should sync MFP and Fitbit and take the increased eating level.

You merely need to eat less than you burn daily. That's all.

Fitbit is giving MFP your best estimate you'll get of what you burn daily, even better when you update it with stuff it under estimates.

So why are you using the Fitbit and the HRM for calorie burns - except for wanting to be more accurate on what you burn, right?

So now you have the tools - why in the world wouldn't you want to use them?

The Fitbit TDEE - Total Daily Energy Expenditure - is what it reports as Calories burned, Calories out, Calories, ect.

MFP gets that figure and compares to your non-exercise TDEE that it estimated based on your selection of activity level x BMR.

If it's bigger, you burned more in the day then it estimated, so your eating goal goes up. Same calorie deficit in there you asked for to lose whatever weekly.
If you burn less than expected, you eating goal goes down. Same deficit to cause weight loss.

As long as you know what the tools are good and bad for (the closest tool is not always a hammer), and correct what Fitbit is bad for, and log correctly on MFP for food - use them for what they are meant to do.

alexandriamarino

shoot, you are totally right heybales, that kind of 'throw away the fitbit and eat less' approach isn't a healthy way of thinking for me. thanks for pointing that out. unfortunately i'm not sure being ocd about numbers is great either, but at least i'm trying to stick to a reasonable goal.

all right, i'll keep on trucking and see what the scale/tape measure does in the next few weeks. thanks for your input all.

suejoker

I came back to make sure you got the answers you were seeking. I have 2 more things to offer. Near the top of your Fitbit profile page, there's a graph of your intake vs burn for the past 30 days. At the bottom of the graph it gives you your average intake & burn numbers over the past 30 days. I've been basing my metabolism reset on that average burn# for my TDEE and it seems pretty accurate.

Also, here's a great calorie calculator: http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/ If you'd rather just figure out an average TDEE and take the deficit you want from that number. The only thing you have to do after that is to customize your goals on MFP to match the numbers you pick. You'd still need to be mindful of eating above your BMR when you exercise a lot, but a lot of people like the simplicity of this method.

heybales

I suggest NOT going and guessing a TDEE level from 5 rough ones, when you have a device right now that is giving you your personal infinite levels of TDEE.

And on a daily basis to boot!

If a single calorie number is desired, by all means take 2 weeks of corrected Fitbit weekly burn, and divide by 7 each week to get average daily.

Take off 10-20% depending on amount left to lose, and manually set eating goal on MFP to that. Eat daily.

Unsync MFP and Fitbit then, keep updating workouts on Fitbit that need to be, and every 2 weeks adjust the TDEE in case it changes enough to warrant.

WalkingAlong

Near the top of your Fitbit profile page, there's a graph of your intake vs burn for the past 30 days. At the bottom of the graph it gives you your average intake & burn numbers over the past 30 days.

That is what I used... the existing 30-day average burn & intake. Keep those two lines 500 calories apart and that's all you need to look at.