Fitbit inquiry & question about my exercise routine!

Asterie
Asterie Posts: 159 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all!

I have more or less 30 lbs to lose (not going for a specific number), and I had a couple of questions.

Firstly, I don't fully understand the number my fitbit gives me every day. Is it my TDEE? I've had it for ages, so if I want to do the TDEE -20% method, could I just average my daily fitbit number for the past 2 weeks and subtract 20% from it? I want to do it this way because it really annoys me that I won't know my "full" calories until midnight.

Also, this is what I'm doing for exercise:
- 30-40 minutes of Chalean Extreme 3x/week
- 60 minutes of pole fitness 3-4x/week
- Long 60 minute walks with doggy 3-4x/week (this fluctuates depending on the weather--he hates the rain). Generally, I get over 10k steps a day every day and during days I take him for a long walk it'll go up to 17k-20k

I want a tight, toned body, and I don't know if I'm doing enough cardio for that. I know it's calories in vs calories out, but I want to use my time efficiently. If you were me, what would you change to get that tight, toned body (ignoring lbs lost) in the quickest amount of time (I don't mean asap, but I mean maybe 8 months from now).

Thanks in advance! <3

Replies

  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
    At Fitbit, go to your profile. The top chart has your 30 day average burn on it. :)
  • Asterie
    Asterie Posts: 159 Member
    WalkingAlong wrote: »
    At Fitbit, go to your profile. The top chart has your 30 day average burn on it. :)

    Wow, I never realized that. Thank you so much!
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    The Fitbit calories burned would be your total/TDEE. I would suggest look at your past history and set goals for yourself. It might be a different goal (calories burned) depending on your schedule. Such as if you're more active on Sat-Sun you might aim for 2500 burned on Sat-Sun and 2200 Mon-Fri. Then take off ~500-600 from there.

    Or average - that's another way to go. :)
  • Asterie
    Asterie Posts: 159 Member
    I think I'm going to go with the average, as you suggested, for simplicity, thank you! I'll probably just update the number every few weeks or months, depending on if I become more or less active during the winter months. (By the way, your number of posts is currently 1337!)
  • luckydays27
    luckydays27 Posts: 552 Member
    Asterie wrote: »
    I want a tight, toned body, and I don't know if I'm doing enough cardio for that.

    You cant get "toned" by cardio alone unless you lose your fat and have muscles underneath it. Weight training builds muscle which gives you the "toned" look. Cardio burns fat. There are plenty of people who are skinny fat because they dont spend any time lifting weights. They are slim but look fluffy or squishy.

    And if you only have 30 lbs to lose TDEE-20% is to aggressive. You will be hungry with all that workout. Try setting MFP and FB to 1 lb a week weight loss for 10 -15 lbs, then change it to .5lb a week loss until you hit your goal.
  • Asterie
    Asterie Posts: 159 Member
    I'm not doing just cardio. I'm doing pole fitness 3-4x a week (this is absolutely not cardio) and weight lifting 3x a week--do you think that's enough? Or rather, do you think I should dedicate more time to lifting and less time to cardio?

    Good point! I'll lower my TDEE to -10%!
  • luckydays27
    luckydays27 Posts: 552 Member
    Asterie wrote: »
    I'm not doing just cardio. I'm doing pole fitness 3-4x a week (this is absolutely not cardio) and weight lifting 3x a week--do you think that's enough? Or rather, do you think I should dedicate more time to lifting and less time to cardio?

    Good point! I'll lower my TDEE to -10%!

    I cant say what is to much for you. I dont have the time to workout as often as you do. I spend 4 hours a week on fitness, you seem to spend at least 10 hours. For me, this is too much. If you have the time, it might be just about right.

    Though, they say if you are lifting heavy weights, you need to have a rest day in between workouts of the larger muscle groups so they can recover. I lift heavy MWF so I always have a day off in between and do TRX on saturdays.

    I do no cardio specific exercises (because I hate it)
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    The Fitbit will be your TDEE if, IF - you manually correct for non-step exercise it is grossly under-estimating.

    Ever seen the steps you take during strength training? Think that Fitbit calorie burn is anywhere near what you actually burn? Nope.

    Must manually correct all non-step based exercise, like lifting and pole work, biking, swimming, elliptical, rowing, ect.

    Fitbit has a nice database activity for Weight lifting, 2 levels, compared to MFP's 1 strength training, just in case you aren't doing it heavy for you, or you spend a lot of time talking between sets.

    If the cardio tires you out enough you can't lift to overload, you can't cause the damage from lifting that requires repair stronger.
    You might spend a week just doing the lifting to see if it's easier to do the weights you are at. If so, the cardio is impacting a good lifting workout.
    In that case - time to decide the priority.

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