BodyMedia 90% accurate?? Maybe not. . .
tigerblue
Posts: 1,526 Member
I`ve had my BodyMedia for almost three months. I got it mostly to find out what my maintenance really is, and then to relose the 5-10 lbs that I put back on when I tried to go to maintenance.
So here is what I`m finding. My BMF puts my average daily burn at around 2400 cals. I work out most days, but sometimes miss, so this probably gives a good average.
I eat about 1700 cals per day on average. That is up from before the BMF by about 100-200 cals. (BTW I was maintaining on 1500 or so cals, but that did not seem right since I run about 15 miles a week, and am reasonably active outside of exercise.) So now I seem to be maintaining on 1700 cals.
But according to BMF I have an average deficit of 700 cals. I should be losing a pound a week or so, not maintaining.
I did some research and BMF is said to be 90% accurate for most people, with 80% accuracy for a small number. With my above numbers, it shows an accuracy of 71% for me.
So where to go now. . . . Do I trust BMF and try to continue to increase my cals to see if I will maintain at 2400? Or do consider that the thing is just not accurate for me, and start cutting 10-15% from 1700? (Also, most of the online calculators put me at about 1900 for maintenance for my activity level--of course the activity level is always a guess in my opinion)
Any advice?
So here is what I`m finding. My BMF puts my average daily burn at around 2400 cals. I work out most days, but sometimes miss, so this probably gives a good average.
I eat about 1700 cals per day on average. That is up from before the BMF by about 100-200 cals. (BTW I was maintaining on 1500 or so cals, but that did not seem right since I run about 15 miles a week, and am reasonably active outside of exercise.) So now I seem to be maintaining on 1700 cals.
But according to BMF I have an average deficit of 700 cals. I should be losing a pound a week or so, not maintaining.
I did some research and BMF is said to be 90% accurate for most people, with 80% accuracy for a small number. With my above numbers, it shows an accuracy of 71% for me.
So where to go now. . . . Do I trust BMF and try to continue to increase my cals to see if I will maintain at 2400? Or do consider that the thing is just not accurate for me, and start cutting 10-15% from 1700? (Also, most of the online calculators put me at about 1900 for maintenance for my activity level--of course the activity level is always a guess in my opinion)
Any advice?
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Replies
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You said you gained 5-10lbs when you tried maintance before,how many calories were you eating then? try cutting those numbers a bit and see what happens. As for the BMF, its tuff to say how well it "estimates" calories burned, I started using mine april 1st,dropped 20 lbs in 3 1/2 months ,after a 4 month stall,and am eating at a 1000 calorie deficit daily and not losing a pound!
I'm eating around 1220 calories a day and working out an avarage of 60 minutes a day 5x a week,hard. Cut my carbs to 25 a day for 2 weeks ,nothing,uped them again and just pushing on, I also am at my wits end and don't know what to do,or weather to believe what numbers the BMF is telling me.0 -
I feel for you gals... the process can become overwhelming.
It's hard to say what going on based on the info provided... there are simply too many variables.
Someone on here who had lost weight and looks amazing recommended the BMF to me... I've had it for about 2 month now.. Between logging on MFP and the addition of my BMF, I've lost just over 20lbs in roughly 2 1/2 months. I had weeks that I kept gaining and losing the same pounds, other weeks I lost when I didn't think I would, other weeks I stayed the same when I was sure I would lose.
I believe the BMF overall is fairly accurate (as long as it isn't defective), but it certainly isn't 100% and can be less accurate during certain activities (such as cycling, etc.) It can be a pain in the derriere with all the trial and error, but it can take some time to figure out what works for you. And then as your body adapts trying to figure out how to adjust to those changes and keep the progress going.
Personally I'm finding I must get in more activity. If I eat less than 1300 cals I'm generally ravenous and overall unpleasant. And I need to do what I can to support a healthy metabolism... eating enough calories and more often. I try to eat good carbs abd get in enough protein.. but I do splurge here and there. Resistance training/toning and cardio work well for me, but I do seem to stall/gain with more weight training. This isn't necessarily bad - in the end I'll be smaller but not lose as much weight (the whole muscle vs fat thing), but it's hard to grapple with when wanting to see the scale move, so I've been trying different workouts.
It can be so frustrating... and sometimes there is a delay in seeing results.
Interested to see what others have to say...0 -
If you figure your BMF is off (overestimating) by 29%, just allow for the error in your calculations. At least for me, the BMF is an invaluable tool, even if it is not 100%, it is more accurate than any other method I've tried.0
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You said you gained 5-10lbs when you tried maintance before,how many calories were you eating then? try cutting those numbers a bit and see what happens. As for the BMF, its tuff to say how well it "estimates" calories burned, I started using mine april 1st,dropped 20 lbs in 3 1/2 months ,after a 4 month stall,and am eating at a 1000 calorie deficit daily and not losing a pound!
I'm eating around 1220 calories a day and working out an avarage of 60 minutes a day 5x a week,hard. Cut my carbs to 25 a day for 2 weeks ,nothing,uped them again and just pushing on, I also am at my wits end and don't know what to do,or weather to believe what numbers the BMF is telling me.
This is more or less why I tried the bmf. I had gotten to the point that to lose anything I had to net about 1100 cals. If I exercised I could eat about 1300. More and I would gain. And on days when I couldn't exercise I just had to starve. I couldn't go on that way for the rest of my life. But now I'm beginning to wonder if that is the only choice if I want to be slim. . . .
So frustrating.
I guess I should be glad that bmf has helped me up my cals to eating a total of 1600-1700. At that I am maintaining at 124. But a little more than a year ago I was at 114. And the bmf shows that on average 1700 is a 700 cal deficit. That means I should be losing more than 1 lb a week right?0 -
I just came to BMF from a fitbit, I was trying to hold off until the new models are released but bought one anyway. What I like about it and why I wanted it is that it lets me see what my calorie burn is when sleeping with a lot more accuracy than fitbit has. It also than has the versatility to let me set may goal based on a more "Accurate" BMR (what I burn asleep essentially). This is what MFP supposedly also does but it is based on a statistical calculation. Regardless of the accuracy if I base my goal using the the BMF then it will measure my progress to that goal with the same degree of accuracy/inaccuracy. This tends to balance out I think.
I have noticed that my HRM and BMF are real close on Calories burned when I use the elliptical so I feel pretty good using its numbers and I do not enter in the HRM numbers instead. If anything they may be a little lower than the HRM but that is cushion since they are not far off. The Step Count is way off but steps don't seem to enter into the calorie burned calculations.
I set my BMF goal at BMR and in doing this my budget is higher than MFP and I am lower than what BMF would give and I do not feel deprived. Seems to be working and so anything extra I do gives me more budget which is also how MFP is supposed to work. I finally have the two playing well together.
This works for me, your mileage may vary.0 -
Almost the same experience as me. I plateaued at 1550 calories, got a BMF in April, found I burned 2400ish a day. I upped to 1700. Maintained.
Here's what I did based on Eat more to weigh less. I upped cals to1900 lost a lb, 2100 maintained, 2300 gained 2.5lbs., 2400 gained a lb. Went on vacation ate around 2600ish for a week, gained another lb. Work slowed - I usually stand most of the day but am sitting half the day now - and my burn dropped to 2250. I then cut to 2k avg. cals past week and a half, lost 4 lbs. Part of that is also due to a 10% decrease in carbs.
Hopefully my metabolism is functioning correctly again. I'll know in a few more days if the scale goes down again.
Edited to add - part of my gain was also more carbs and heavier lifting.0 -
Almost the same experience as me. I plateaued at 1550 calories, got a BMF in April, found I burned 2400ish a day. I upped to 1700. Maintained.
Here's what I did based on Eat more to weigh less. I upped cals to1900 lost a lb, 2100 maintained, 2300 gained 2.5lbs., 2400 gained a lb. Went on vacation ate around 2600ish for a week, gained another lb. Work slowed - I usually stand most of the day but am sitting half the day now - and my burn dropped to 2250. I then cut to 2k avg. cals past week and a half, lost 4 lbs. Part of that is also due to a 10% decrease in carbs.
Hopefully my metabolism is functioning correctly again. I'll know in a few more days if the scale goes down again.
Edited to add - part of my gain was also more carbs and heavier lifting.
That does sound like me. How long did this process take? What are your stats, if you don`t mind my asking? I`ve been struggling with this for over a year now, although I got the bodymedia about 3 months ago. Unfortunately I really don`t need to gain any more (not that any of us do!). Ive already gained 10 or 12! So continuig to eat more is really scary to me. But I dont want to continue to kill my metabolism, if that is what has happened. And a lifetime of starvation doesn`t sound like much fun either! I don`t have to eat huge amounts, but feeling hungry is the pits. Plus I like an occaisional dessert and a drink too!0 -
Almost the same experience as me. I plateaued at 1550 calories, got a BMF in April, found I burned 2400ish a day. I upped to 1700. Maintained.
Here's what I did based on Eat more to weigh less. I upped cals to1900 lost a lb, 2100 maintained, 2300 gained 2.5lbs., 2400 gained a lb. Went on vacation ate around 2600ish for a week, gained another lb. Work slowed - I usually stand most of the day but am sitting half the day now - and my burn dropped to 2250. I then cut to 2k avg. cals past week and a half, lost 4 lbs. Part of that is also due to a 10% decrease in carbs.
Hopefully my metabolism is functioning correctly again. I'll know in a few more days if the scale goes down again.
Edited to add - part of my gain was also more carbs and heavier lifting.
That does sound like me. How long did this process take? What are your stats, if you don`t mind my asking? I`ve been struggling with this for over a year now, although I got the bodymedia about 3 months ago. Unfortunately I really don`t need to gain any more (not that any of us do!). Ive already gained 10 or 12! So continuig to eat more is really scary to me. But I dont want to continue to kill my metabolism, if that is what has happened. And a lifetime of starvation doesn`t sound like much fun either! I don`t have to eat huge amounts, but feeling hungry is the pits. Plus I like an occaisional dessert and a drink too!
I've had the bmf 15 weeks. I was too afraid to up all at once. I'm 5'6" currently 140.8 lbs, do short runs (under 30 mins) 2x a week or sprints, strength train 3x a week, walk on active rest days. I'm basically back to where I started weight wise but lost on 500 more calories a day - so far. Kind of soon to tell. I'm looking to drop about another 5 lbs before I increase my carbs again since I know upping them will add a few lbs. I'll post here Wednesday after my next weigh in.0 -
I wish I could offer some stellar advice here, I am no where near maintenance. One thing that I know is that BM is not the whole story. The information is helpful but there are so many other factors like the quality of food, ratio of macro nutrients, type of exercise, etc. The only thing that has worked for me is a program that takes carbs into consideration and exercise that focuses on building muscle.0
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I know I do better at smaller deficits and lower carbs. At 1,000+ deficit I either maintain or gain, but around a 500 calorie deficit I lose - provided I don't get too crazy with the carbs (fruit and veggie carbs are fine, it's the grainy carbs that get me). I'm a firm believer in the eat more to lose more approach, I just have problems consistently doing it and breaking how I was brought up - eat when you're hungry not when the clock says. I need to eat when the clock says! Good luck.0
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Thx everyone for your insights. I'm still scared to trust my numbers. I am also reluctant to lose by limiting carbs since I tried that 10 years ago. It worked but was not sustainable in real life. There are too many times when I cannot control where/what I am eating. So I regained all the weight and more. But counting calories and controlling how much I ate worked for two years. Now I feel like all the rules changed!0
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You could do a kick start thing like carb cycling or South Beach for just a few weeks to confuse your body and change things up.0
