BodyMedia FIT big surprise

Let me start by saying that I am a 32 year old married mother of 2 and I am fast approaching my 2 year quitting smoking anniversary. I am 5'8" and about 175. I am a full time mother/homemaker and part time student, so my days are always different when it comes to activity level, but I am generally doing something. I am sure that there are a lot of other women who are in the same boat, that is the point of this post. I have been struggling to lose some weight, I never lost the extra after my 4 year old was born and then gained another 20 after I quit smoking. I lost about 15 pounds before the holidays with a big move, and gained 5 or so back during the holidays. I am still having some problems losing pounds but I don't really care because I have lost inches. I have lost 2.5 lbs since Feb, but I have lost 4 inches off my waist. I have also gone down 2 pants sizes and I think that is a much better gauge than weight.

I have been on here since Feb faithfully monitoring everything that I eat and drink, I have a food scale and use it religiously. I always eat back my exercise calories and have mfp set for a lb a week. I put in lightly active to start and ended up getting a 1610 calorie allowance. I always tried to hit it. I lost 5 pounds to start with, and have been stuck and even gained ever since. Depressing right? I also stopped losing inches. Whats a girl to do, so after a few weeks I came into a little cash and decided to order the bluetooth version of the bodymedia fit. I have been reading a bunch of stuff on here about the famine response and also about underestimating calories burned, so it could be either for me right? Well I don't have the patience to play around like that, plus I love to eat so I really didn't want to go down in calories.:blushing: So I got the gadget and with a bit of patience with the bluetooth app (the new one is great the old one is just grr), I was off and running. So I gave it a while to settle in before I thought to post, but I have read such helpful things from everyone on here, I hope I can give back a bit.

MFP had my maintenance calories at 2110. With the bodymedia, it is at 2430. 320 calorie difference is huge to me because I only want to lose about 20 lbs or less. I am aiming for more Sophia Vergara than Julie Bowen, this is just how my body is built and I like it that way. Well here is the big surprise to me, I average 2600 calorie burned a day. On my low days, when I concentrate on just doing school work and quite activities like that I still usually burn about 2300. On the days when I am very active, cleaning the house running errands, playing with kids etc, I burn more like 2800, without added exercise. I am a light exerciser, just yoga and resistance training, I can't stand cardio unless it is fun like just dance with the kids. I only try for 20 min 3 times a week, this is a lifestyle change and I will tell you I am not going to spend the rest of my days killing myself at the gym:happy: . But here is the thing, on my busy days before I got my bodymedia, I wouldn't add any exercise and now I know I was burning 27-2800 calories. That was a huge 1200 calorie deficit instead of the 500 I am shooting for. I have days like this 3 or more times a week. Now on my inactive days, I would log my 200 or so for my workout and bring up my total to about 1800 calories to consume and I would burn about 2300 total with the exercise, that is the 500 I am shooting for.

Now I have read a whole lot on here about having a smaller deficit the closer you are to your goal and that if you set your goal too high your body rebels. I am pretty sure that is what was happening to me because I am losing again and I have actually lost a pound in the last week. If 3 or 4 days my deficit was over 1000 calories and then 500 deficit on a few more, and then somewhere in the middle for the rest I think that is why I stopped losing and even gained a few. I think that is way too much for me, maybe if I had more to lose or if I had a smaller build. I also have to add that I am very strong, I do a lot of manual labor, think of those burly girls in the home depot manhandling the 50 pound bags of dirt like they are nothing. That is me, I love to show the boys up with stuff like that and I can arm wrestle with the best of them , I may be chubby but I am like a draft horse underneath, this may have something to do with the calories I burn also since muscle burns more than fat.I may have fat covering most of my body but even at my heaviest I could always see my muscle definition in my arms, and since starting the bodymedia I have lost half an inch around my biceps. My thighs are a trouble spot for me and I hadn't lost any inches there with just MFP, but I have since lost an inch since I upped my calories a ton.

Sorry such a long post but I hope it will help out someone who might be struggling also. I know it is hard to eat more because we have always heard that you have to reduce your calories to lose, but sometimes it is just too much and it is so frustrating to have to pass up great food because of the darn calorie limit. So I still log all my food here because it is so much better than the bodymedia site, plus I love the community here and I just learn so much. I also most importantly, and the whole point of this post upped my activity level to active and I still log exercise, but I also log stuff like raking the leaves and scrubbing bathtubs. Somedays I have over 2000 calories to consume, I use the bodymedia to determine my calorie goals for the day, and try to make MFP match. I was very skeptical that I could really lose on that much but I have started to lose again, most importantly inches where I haven't lost before. If I hadn't bought the bodymedia then I am sure I would have tried to cut my calories even more, and then I think I would have lost my hard won strength too, let me tell you that my husband is a mechanic and very strong and when we do things together I have to keep up. I love it that he thinks nothing of asking me to help move things that are 500+ pounds because he knows I am strong and capable. :ohwell: I would hate to lose all the years of moving firewood and pushing cars and doing really sucky things with heavy objects because my body decided that it couldn't keep the muscle and turned it into fat so it could conserve calories. I think that a lot of people underestimate their activity level, especially us women, but just because it isn't formal exercise doesn't mean that it isn't burning calories, it is amazing what a little laundry and straightening up burns. Also I think that if you are a strong woman then you need to up your activity level even if you don't think that you are that active because the stronger you are the more calories you burn at rest. I am certainly not an expert, but it is working for me and I hope that I can help someone else out.

I love my BM fit and I think I will probably use it for years, but I understand not everyone wants or can buy one so if your life is similar to mine and you are having problems losing try to up your activity level for a good month and don't short yourself on exercise calories. You might gain a bit at first like I did, but stick with it and give it a chance and you may be pleased and surprised with your results.