ugh! Calories out vs. calories in, doesn't seem to work!

Do you input your exercises on Fitbit? Or do you let it calculate those for you as well? I found that the Fitbit gave me a really low number for weight lifting... and was really disappointed... but it's been pretty accurate since I'm maintaining my weight as I should be.

I would suggest trying to let Fitbit pick up on all of your burns by itself for a few weeks and see if your TDEE changes. (Maybe go ahead and eat at 1700 until you see what Fitbit says after the first week unless you feel hungry.) Remember that the Fitbit may not be 100% accurate. It takes a while to find your balance.

To answer your question, a caloric deficit IS all that is needed to lose weight... but if you don't eat enough protein, you can expect your muscles to retain more water as they heal from your workouts. Cake and chocolate are not evil. Most of my friends on here eat ice cream almost every day (myself included). It's the only thing that keeps us sane! lol

Stress can also make your body hold onto fat. There are may factors and most people do not lose exactly according to a schedule. I can be the same weight for several weeks and then be down 2 or more pounds the next week. All calorie counts are estimates as well as the FitBit. Obviously some tools are more accurate than others but in the end all are estimates. If 1700 works better for you go for it.

I can only speak for what I have experienced, so bear with me. I have found that the online calculators for calories burned through exercise are often way overestimated, but found my heartrate monitor to be a reasonable number of cals. For example, I did the 60-day Insanity programme, and was not particularly fit before (an occasional walk). Looking at the internet and a lot of posts on mfp I expected to burn between 400 and 700 cals per second month workout (hour of HIIT). The only time I reached 400 was when I did 2 workouts back to back. I got the hrm and ate back my exercise cals, keeping the net cals to about 1300. I lost five pounds, but more importantly 5 % body fat during the two months.

I follow the Eat, Train, Progress group on here, and did the maths. Add up all cals eaten over the period you need to check, add in any cals from weight lost and divide the total amount by the amount of days. You then have your TDEE which is the amount of cals you would eat to maintain your weight. This is assuming you do not change your exercising, and also assuming you have been very very accurate in measuring your calorie intake. My TDEE over that period was averaging at 1900 cals per day, that means if I ate 1900 per day without changing my exercise I would maintain my weight. That is irrefutable evidence, considering I weighed everything and logged everything. Only by being accurate with intake was I able to see how many cals I consumed over the period, coupled with cals from weight lost (3500 per lb) to come to that number.

I don't think it is possible to lose weight without the accurate numbers, and having just googled a fitbit I dont see how it could be accurate. If it doesn't measure your heartrate how can it tell how many calories you have burned? You could sit on the couch and shake your arm for half an hour and it would tell you that you had burned lots of calories. Or maybe I have it wrong, but I can't see how it works otherwise. 2462 is a huge burn per day. My average day (monday to friday) was 45 mins to 1 hour high intensity workout (300 cals) followed by a half hour fast walk to work (desk job). A 40 mins fast walk at lunchtime, and a half hour fast walk home. And with all that exercise, my TDEE which is maintenance calories if you eat it, was 1900. I would consider that I was very active. I do believe it is calories in vs calories out, and I think if you have not lost weight, then you have been eating at maintenance, hard as it is to accept. Maybe try dropping your intake to 1600, while doing whatever amount of exercise you have been up to now. Weigh everything and log everything, even if it is half a biscuit. A 390 cal daily deficit should result in a pound lost in 9 days. Maybe try not to weigh yourself til then, just concentrate on weighing and logging. If indeed you lose about a pound in 9 days then you know what your maintenance cals are, which is the holy grail.

Just my two cents.

In the meantime, join Eat, Train, Progress and have a read of all the stickies at the beginning. They make a lot of sense.

PS I eat chocolate and crisps everyday. I just make sure I log them.

PPS watch this shocking vid to see why measuring scales are the only accurate way to measure cals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

Are you synching fitbit with MFP?

Are you being sure to only enter in your food and workouts in MFP? If not, you are getting double the cals back for the workouts.

If you aren't losing weight you are either eating too much and/or overestimating your workouts ( unless you have some medical condition ). Calories in vs Calories out always works.

Try and just eat a daily allowance for a while and not track any other calories from working out or whatever. Lets say just try and hit 2,000 everyday and thats it. Tracking all these extra calories isnt necessary.