Help understanding Bodymedia

Bump so I can read responses later, I have the same questions.

Had mine for a little over a week and I"m a little confused on some things. Are you suppose to eat back any exercise calories at all with it? Do you do anything in MFP with your exercise or just let the Bodymedia handle it all? Bodymedia gave me 1510 calories to consume. And suggest a 1000 calorie deficit per day to lose 2 pounds per week. Well most days it says I am burning 3200 calories. While this seems high, it has been consistent the whole week. Now should I be eating more calories than the 1510 to bring this to a clear 1000 calorie deficit? Or stick with the 1510.
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If you're comfortable and and feeling good, you could stick with the ~1500. Give it a couple weeks. See how your body reacts. If, after awhile, you feel "off" or your weight loss seem to drop off, then you could bump your intake back up a bit.


*edit
Just to ad, I'm using the CORE. Now I also just use MFP for meal logging (and of course the awesome forums).

If you have your BMF linked to here, it already has your exercise included so if you exercise and add that amount to your diary, you do not need to eat them back. I like to track my exercise on here but don't want to see my calorie goal up when I add exercise since it is already included in my TDEE, so I just manually put in that I burned 1 calorie because zero is not accepted, at least 1 calorie needs to be in there to track it to your exercise diary. That 1510 BMF originally suggest is just based off what you told it, but the readings it is actually getting should be more accurate. So, if you are really burning about 3200 a day then in my opinion you should eat more than the 1510. I take off about 10% of what BMF says I burned because it might not be 100% correct. I have found that the amount suggested I eat by my BMF is usually about a 400 calorie deficit of what I actually burned in a day. I'm trying to eat about 200 calories less than that to compinsate for possible inaccuracy.
Hope that all makes sense.

I just realized that might have been all too wordy. I think the easiest way to look at it is to eat about 20% less than your TDEE, that is a safe deficit for burning fat. After you have your BMF longer you can look at reports to find out your average TDEE. So if it was me and my daily average turned out to be 3200, I'd take 10% off of that for possible BMF error so that brings it down to 2880. Then to eat in deficit take the 20% off of that, so that would be 2320.

Is that 10% error what you think it’s off or what you have seen?
I thought it had an accuracy of 5%?

I know its only 5% but just wondering, I’ve only had mine about a week so I’m still collecting enough data to have a meaningful analyst.

I just realized that might have been all too wordy. I think the easiest way to look at it is to eat about 20% less than your TDEE, that is a safe deficit for burning fat. After you have your BMF longer you can look at reports to find out your average TDEE. So if it was me and my daily average turned out to be 3200, I'd take 10% off of that for possible BMF error so that brings it down to 2880. Then to eat in deficit take the 20% off of that, so that would be 2320.

Is that 10% error what you think it’s off or what you have seen?
I thought it had an accuracy of 5%?


I know its only 5% but just wondering, I’ve only had mine about a week so I’m still collecting enough data to have a meaningful analyst.

When I 1st got mine, almost a year ago, I think I read that it could be 5% off on normal daily activity but 10% on more strenuous exercise. Or maybe that was flip flopped, so I just go with 10%. Each individual will have to go through trial and error themselves though.

BMF uses the Harris-Benedict equation for its initial BMR assessment which is the worst equation to use for people who are overweight. The result TDEE is often overestimated as a result. Go to Heybales' spreadsheet as it has a calculator that adjusts the BMF TDEE using your BF and the Katch-McCardle equation for BMR.

Just curious where you found this info. I thought BMF got your calorie burns based off the readings it gets from the transmitter you put on your arm, so equations would have nothing to do with it.

I thought so too, but i very well could be wrong.

I eat to the 1000 calorie deficit. I figure that will make it easier when I transition to maintenance. You really don't want to lose more than two pounds a week anyway. Like you, I burn well above average because I workout a lot and have an active job, so some days I struggle to get enough calories in. I generally look at my stats just as weekly averages instead of individual days. Some days I'm near TDEE some days I'm way below, but it balances out. I've averaged 2 pounds a week loss since I got the armband for Christmas. You can adjust your settings too. If you put your daily goal at 3000 burned, it will set your input goal at 2000. That may be simpler for you. The bodymedia customer support is awesome if you have questions. They respond really quickly and are helpful.
The readings are interpreted based on your weight, so yes, if goes by continuously collected data, but your stats (weight, age, etc.) play a factor. Mine has been accurate. I eat a 1000 deficit based on those numbers and I average 2 pounds a week loss, so it can't be far off for me. I only take mine off for the requisite hour a day which probably helps with accuracy.

bump

Yep I weigh everything with a digital scale, measure my milk etc.

I see a personal trainer twice a week, go to karate once a week and i am still not shifting the weight.

I am starting to feel that wearing my BMF armband has made my situation worse and I now over think everything.

I have been wearing my BMF for just under 2 months now and i have lost a whole 0.5 lb ! I have even signed up and have one of the teams nutritionalists call me once a week and my weight is just not shifting. :-(

I was originally eating 1200 cals as suggested by MFP but this soon got adjusted to 1500 once i knew my calorie burn was higher. I have recently ( 3 wks ago ) moved up to 1700 cal a day as like some of you my daily burn can be anything from 2600 - 3200 depending on the amount of exercise i am doing. My deficit is always a minimum of 1000 and more often higher. I cant possible eat any more and i am finding the whole experience rather frustrating now....... I log my food via MFP and i also wear the armband for at least 23 hours a day.

Any suggestions anyone?

Do you use a digital food scale? This week I wanted to do baked potatoes with dinner. The nutritional information on the bag was for one medium potato (148g). The smallest potato in the bag was 196g. Someone guestimating it was a 'medium' potato (like I would have) would be very far off on calories.

In my experience, 1000 calories is too high. Just look at the number you will burn by the end of the day and subtract 500 calories. It will give you an estimate later in the day of how much it thinks you will burn on average if you hover over the "calories consumed" bar graph. You will eat different amounts each day according to how much you burned.