Not too sure If I'm doing this right

frenchmaid69
frenchmaid69 Posts: 84 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have been here for a while but not too sure if really I'm doing this right...

I set up my goal to lose 2 lbs a week I also have fitbit the flex bracelet that sink into here...

I also have fitbit bracelet that calculate my walking... and then add to this site but I get confused because my goal is 1 200 cal a day and then I exercice let see 188 cal and I eat 520 as of lunch ... so now my calorie goes up to 868 so do I eat the extra calorie I burn from my exercices do I always follow the calorie remaining ... because during the day since I move around It always goes up so If I always eat all those calories how will I lose weight?
Nutritional goals Goals

Net Calories Consumed* / Day 1,200 cal/day
Carbs / Day 150.0 g
Fat / Day 40.0 g
Protein / Day 60.0 g


Fitness Goals Goals

Calories Burned / Week 1,310 cal/week
Workouts / Week 5 Workouts
Minutes / Workout 40 mins


Your diet Profile Target

Calories Burned
From Normal Daily Activity 1,780 cal/day
Net Calories Consumed*
Your Daily Goal 1,200 cal/day
Daily Calorie Deficit 580 calories
Projected Weight Loss 1.2 lbs/week

* Net Calories Consumed = Total Calories Consumed - Exercise Calories Burned

Replies

  • Rianna_88
    Rianna_88 Posts: 6 Member
    I also use a band, and sync it througout the day so the calories burned changes each time. As long as you are just eating to your goal of 1200 you will lose the weight. Your goal will still be less than how many calories you are burning throughout the day, therefore you will still have a deficit :) What MFP is doing is calculating the calories burned and added them so you will net your goal for the day. You'll be eating back all of your exercise calories basically.

    I always try to sync right before bed, so I can see the difference when I know I'm not going to be active anymore. Usually the calories are right on where they should be!

    If you go to your diary and click on the adjustment in the exercise section it should tell you how many calories you are "expected" to burn for the day based on your activity at that point. Mine starts at 0 in the morning when I first sync and log in here and by the end of the day I'm to 2000. Once you've been doing it for a couple weeks you should start to see an average number and know how many calories you will have by the end of the day most of the time. I base my calories that I eat according to that average.

    Hopefully this helps and doesn't confuse you!
  • frenchmaid69
    frenchmaid69 Posts: 84 Member
    I also use a band, and sync it througout the day so the calories burned changes each time. As long as you are just eating to your goal of 1200 you will lose the weight. Your goal will still be less than how many calories you are burning throughout the day, therefore you will still have a deficit :) What MFP is doing is calculating the calories burned and added them so you will net your goal for the day. You'll be eating back all of your exercise calories basically.

    I always try to sync right before bed, so I can see the difference when I know I'm not going to be active anymore. Usually the calories are right on where they should be!

    If you go to your diary and click on the adjustment in the exercise section it should tell you how many calories you are "expected" to burn for the day based on your activity at that point. Mine starts at 0 in the morning when I first sync and log in here and by the end of the day I'm to 2000. Once you've been doing it for a couple weeks you should start to see an average number and know how many calories you will have by the end of the day most of the time. I base my calories that I eat according to that average.

    Hopefully this helps and doesn't confuse you!

    So is this mean that I need to have my net at 1200 at the end of the day... but how do you get to this by eating the remaing calories left or by exercises puff this is confusing
  • Whyareyoumad
    Whyareyoumad Posts: 268 Member
    Try to keep it simple: If your calorie goal is 1200 and you work out 500, then your calories for the day should be 1700. If you dont work out, stay under your calorie goal of 1200. If you work out, MFP adds those calories back as net calories and you should be eating those back. I wont debate your goal as I have been as low as 1350 per day, but found that was too low for me.
    I am sure others could give a better science to the formula, but that is how I do it.
  • EmoJew
    EmoJew Posts: 94 Member
    The issue you're having (i think) is that you have your fitbit set to allow negative adjustments, so when you haven't yet moved much fitbit/mfp actually take calories away from you.

    you can turn it off in settings>diary settings if you want to.
  • frenchmaid69
    frenchmaid69 Posts: 84 Member
    Try to keep it simple: If your calorie goal is 1200 and you work out 500, then your calories for the day should be 1700. If you dont work out, stay under your calorie goal of 1200. If you work out, MFP adds those calories back as net calories and you should be eating those back. I wont debate your goal as I have been as low as 1350 per day, but found that was too low for me.
    I am sure others could give a better science to the formula, but that is how I do it.

    Do you think 1 200 is too low.... I was not the one who set that up it did it automatically when I add my weight, age and what I do all day since I sat in an office most of the day. My watch count all my exercises right now on its says :
    Goal 1 200
    Food + 470
    Exercises - 328
    Net 142

    Remaining calories 1 058

    Now if I eat those what remaining of calories every day for a week I should lose weight?
    But If I don't eat those what happen will it do like they say if you don't eat enough calories you gain weight?

    Sometime I feel like quitting this I don't like to bug people for explanations... sorry
  • frenchmaid69
    frenchmaid69 Posts: 84 Member
    The issue you're having (i think) is that you have your fitbit set to allow negative adjustments, so when you haven't yet moved much fitbit/mfp actually take calories away from you.

    you can turn it off in settings>diary settings if you want to.

    I'm not sure ... when I get up I see my calories goal on my phone and then when I get to work and started moving It was sometime like a -47 in the Net calories... why was there a - before the number what's that mean?
  • knlucero
    knlucero Posts: 8 Member
    The average person has to eat at least 1,200 calories a day, regardless of your net calories, (or else your metabolism slows and you gain weight) but if you don't exercise, that means you end up with negative net calories because you are only allowed 1,200 net calories. So you have to do some form of exercise to gain some net calories so that you are not in the negatives. It does not matter how many net calories you end up with at the end of the day as long as it is positive and you ate at least 1,200 calories (again, to prevent from undereating). I find that it helps to manually put your exercise in instead of syncing it so that way you can see exactly where your remaining calories are coming from. Everyone is different but the important thing is that you don't go over your net calories (and also try to balance your carbs, fats and proteins. You won't get it perfect the first try, you get it through trial and error and then learn how to balance your meals)
  • mumblemagic
    mumblemagic Posts: 1,090 Member
    Try to keep it simple: If your calorie goal is 1200 and you work out 500, then your calories for the day should be 1700. If you dont work out, stay under your calorie goal of 1200. If you work out, MFP adds those calories back as net calories and you should be eating those back. I wont debate your goal as I have been as low as 1350 per day, but found that was too low for me.
    I am sure others could give a better science to the formula, but that is how I do it.

    Do you think 1 200 is too low.... I was not the one who set that up it did it automatically when I add my weight, age and what I do all day since I sat in an office most of the day. My watch count all my exercises right now on its says :
    Goal 1 200
    Food + 470
    Exercises - 328
    Net 142

    Remaining calories 1 058

    Now if I eat those what remaining of calories every day for a week I should lose weight?
    But If I don't eat those what happen will it do like they say if you don't eat enough calories you gain weight?

    Sometime I feel like quitting this I don't like to bug people for explanations... sorry

    The MFP goal includes the deficit you need to lose weight, which is why you get to eat back your exercise. So for example for me:

    78 kg
    5 ft 8
    lightly active

    Online calculators and my measurements (I got a bit nerdy) suggest my maintenance is around 2100. This includes all non-exercise activity including digestion, heart pumping, brain energy, generally keeping me alive, walking to and from the bus stop, walking around at work, making tea, lunch, dinner, washing up, cleaning, basically all activities I do on a daily basis. It does not include my planned workouts, as I do those on an irregular basis and don't want to get fat on weeks when I don't have time to run! :smile:

    MFP works on the basis of 500 cal deficit per day for a 1 lb per week weight loss. It recommends I NET 1600 per day for me. By net, it means eating 1600 on days when I don't do additional exercise, but eating back extra calories when I do extra exercise.

    I don't know much about fitbits, but from what I have read, it works out for you how many exercise calories you are allowed to eat back, and tells MFP. The numbers you have listed above say that you have eaten 470 calories, but burned off 328 of those in exercise, so you need to eat 1058 to reach your goal.

    If you have a - in front of the number, it means you have gone over your goal for the day. The number shows up in red for me too, just as an added indication. Don't worry too much about this. Aim to be within 50 calories of your goal each day (either above or below). If you are significantly under, try to eat a bit more, even if it's ice cream - I find that even if I'm not hungry today, if I net less than about 1200 calories it messes me up the next day or the day after and I feel faint and lethargic. If you go significantly over, don't worry; providing you are under your *maintenance* for that week you will still lose weight. This usually means that if you are on average anywhere between your goal and your goal +500 over the course of the week you will still lose weight.

    P.S. if you are still confused, it may be worthwhile ditching the fitbit and trying a simple 1400 calorie goal for a while, and ignoring exercise. This is what is recommended by the NHS:

    http://www.nhs.uk/LiveWell/weight-loss-guide/Pages/weight-loss-guide.aspx

    I'm guessing they are assuming you are more or less sedentary, doing little or no exercise at the beginning of the plan.

    Don't allow the technicalities, graphs, gadgets and gizmos to distract you and scare you off the goal. Sometimes it pays to keep it simple! :smile:

    http://evidencemag.com/simple-weight-loss/
  • frenchmaid69
    frenchmaid69 Posts: 84 Member
    Ok... I dunno why but often I'm not hungry I don't eat that much but I crave so much sugar its not funny but I gain weight tho... I don't think I eat 1 200 during a day I think I eat less...:smile:
  • frenchmaid69
    frenchmaid69 Posts: 84 Member
    Ok... I printed your notes...

    Maybe I should write everything down on a book for a bit with the calories beside it and check for the total and just used the fit bit to calculate my exercises I dunno....

    Or should I just continue like this... also I don't log all my food because sometime I not sure how much the calories are....

    1 400 you mean do it by hands like write everything down the old fashioned way?

    Sometime I do feel weird like dizzy and light headed when I don't eat much during the day.... but I taught that was cause by my allergies...

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