Daily Activity question

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missar
missar Posts: 32 Member
edited February 2015 in Health and Weight Loss
I am finding it really difficult to lose the weight I want, I am sticking to my calorie goal of 1290, I do sometimes eat under this limit due to exercise (bootcamp 3x a week)

I have my settings on lightly active, but also find most week days at work I reach my fitbit surge 10k steps goal and burn about 250-300 calories a day by this (my weekends are a lot slower and I don't reach the 10k steps goal)

I am unsure if I should maybe move the daily activity setting to the active setting?






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Replies

  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
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    64kg? How tall are you? What is your goal weight.

    Closer to your goal weight the slower it gets.
  • missar
    missar Posts: 32 Member
    edited February 2015
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    I am 5'2 and want to weight around 57kgs (64.4kgs currently)
  • missar
    missar Posts: 32 Member
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    I deleted that part of my post sorry Merkavar, I thought I may be being a bit too impatient and hasty hehe and will wait another week to see what happens then re post the question if still no change to my weight :)
  • Abby2205
    Abby2205 Posts: 253 Member
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    Do you mean change to active and then increase your activity to match? All else being equal, more activity will burn more calories.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    You want to lose ~15lbs? Set your goal to half a lb a week (1kg/week? whichever is the lowest) because you do not need to be losing quickly. You should be able to eat more than 1200 calories to lose 15lbs.

    You also should be eating at least half of your exercise calories back.

    If you are not losing on 1290 calories chances are yuo are not logging accurately. Do you weigh solids and measure liquids? Log daily? Use correct entries and use your own recipes?
  • missar
    missar Posts: 32 Member
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    Abby I was more thinking of changing to the more active setting without increasing my exercise, in fear that I possibly wasn't eating enough calories? sorry I am new to this (this is my first real attempt) and still trying to work it all out lol
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    Well you won't NOT lose by eating too little, although that can affect gym performance. Some people note losses start up again when they increase intake because it subsequently improves their energy levels and they thus burn more again.

    You've been at this for less than a month. Give things more time. But a goal of half a lb a week is still your best bet, and eat back at least half of your exercise calories. If you lose faster or slower than expected after a month at a specific goal, change your activity level.

  • missar
    missar Posts: 32 Member
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    Hi Ana
    My goal is set at .5kgs a week which allows me 1280 calories a day, and i do try to eat back as much as i can of the calories burnt off by exercise
    I weigh everything I eat, including the milk i use in my cups of tea, and i rarely eat out so i do mostly eat food i prepare myself
  • missar
    missar Posts: 32 Member
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    Ok great, thanks so much for that insight Ana :)
  • Abby2205
    Abby2205 Posts: 253 Member
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    Well if you want to eat more calories you can just change your calorie goal. But no, eating more will not cause you to lose weight faster. Also some people find it really motivating to see the extra calories from fitbit added to their daily calorie goal, whether they eat them back or not. If you change your activity setting but don't increase your activity, you won't see as many extra calories, or even might see calories subtracted. For reference, I'm set at active and I need to get about 14,000 steps per day to break even.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    you might want to try measuring the milk - it's not a huge difference, but things in ml cannot be weighed (if it's a solid in ml, like icecream or pretty much all canned food in Canada, I look up the american version and use that info) accurately.

    Is your goal set to sedentary? I remember others talking about a glitch with MFP setting the goal to 1200 regardless of weight loss goal. 1200 sounds really low for your weight loss goal. Can you take a screencap or just rewrite your goal settings here?
  • macgurlnet
    macgurlnet Posts: 1,946 Member
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    I have found that the quality of your calories can be more important than just the quantity.

    I tried counting calories/logging food last year for a month, ran for 1-3 miles 3 times a week, and saw no change. I was reasonably active on the off days, too.

    This time around, I'm paying more attention to what I eat, rather than just how much. Cutting back on carbs, reducing the calories I drink, and cutting out sugar as much as possible. Dessert is fine in moderation, but chocolate in my protein bars and fiber bars, etc, was doing me in. Most of my sugar these days is from the fruit I'm eating, and I figure that's not as bad

    And make sure you drink plenty of water - staying properly hydrated should make you lose a few kg alone!
  • missar
    missar Posts: 32 Member
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    Thanks Abby
    Ana I will try measuring the milk :) And I will add a screenshot zv20x41f77i1.jpg
  • missar
    missar Posts: 32 Member
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    Hi Mac, thanks. I have been trying to improve on that also I pretty much only drink water (I may have coke once a month, or alcoholic drink once a month) 5 days a week I eat .5 cup oats with only water for breakfast, a salmon salad sandwich no cheese or pineapple for lunch and count and weigh all of my dinners and try and keep them fresh and healthy. Weekends is more varied but still healthy and under calorie goal. I do have a treat eg icecream 1x week but still remain under my calories for that day and I always aim to drink as close to 3litres of water as I can but like everything else it is a constant learning curve :)
  • azulvioleta6
    azulvioleta6 Posts: 4,195 Member
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    Why are you taking FOUR rest days a week?
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    When you use an activity tracker, you should have yourself set on sedentary and enable negative adjustments.
  • missar
    missar Posts: 32 Member
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    Hi azul I dont, I walk the the other days or do weights or use the elliptical. So do you recommend I should change my goal setting to that lifting4lis? Sorry I am new can you tell me more about it lifting4lis please
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    macgurlnet wrote: »
    I have found that the quality of your calories can be more important than just the quantity.

    I tried counting calories/logging food last year for a month, ran for 1-3 miles 3 times a week, and saw no change. I was reasonably active on the off days, too.

    This time around, I'm paying more attention to what I eat, rather than just how much. Cutting back on carbs, reducing the calories I drink, and cutting out sugar as much as possible. Dessert is fine in moderation, but chocolate in my protein bars and fiber bars, etc, was doing me in. Most of my sugar these days is from the fruit I'm eating, and I figure that's not as bad

    And make sure you drink plenty of water - staying properly hydrated should make you lose a few kg alone!

    For weight loss, no. CICO, whether that's from chicken breast, blueberries, or chocolate chip cookies.

    Everything you are doing is totally unnecessary for weight loss. Only CICO is required.

    The reason you saw no changes before was because you ate too much, whether that is due to poor logging (regularly over your goals, not eating at an actual deficit period, grossly mislogging by not weighing and not even measuring with cups/etc, not logging every day, using incorrect entries, using generic recipes instead of your own) or simply due to overestimating your calorie burns (especially if doing MFP method, if your activity level was too high and/or your exercise burns were grossly overestimated and you ate back most of it), or a combo of both. You aren't a magical special snowflake, there is no requirement to reduce or cut out things from your life outside of eating more reasonable portions that fit into your caloric needs. Lost 30lbs eating chocolate and "junk" most days of hte week.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    azulvioleta6 wrote: »
    Why are you taking FOUR rest days a week?

    If I don't do my solo cardio day, I take 3 rest days a week. Doesn't matter for weight loss, especially if she's logging and eating back calories.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    OP, what does the app tell you your weight maintenance calories are if you go change your settings to maintain? you can change it back afterwards, it won't negatively affect your logging. Your goal is about 1lb a week so that should be a 500 calorie deficit from your maintenance, so if your maintenance is set at 1780 then the low goal will make sense. Although if you need to set it to sedentary for the fitbit to work properly then do that.

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