New to this - very high deficit?
tlrcwr
Posts: 12 Member
Hello! I read through the FAQs and tried to find an answer to this. I received my Charge HR yesterday, got everything set up, and used it today.
I have a 1399 calorie target without Fitbit. At the end of today, I consumed 1605 calories, exercise 956, for a total of 631 left to consume. ??
That seems HIGH. I checked my MFP activity level, and it's set for sedentary (which is true outside of the one exercise period I get per day). I read that I should ensure my Fitbit account matches. Well, I can't find where to do that - I am using my Android phone as my main Fitbit account, and the options under Food Plan are just to set up the weight loss amount per week, not a sedentary/light active/etc.
Am I missing something? I think if I were to consume another 631 calories I'm going to be gaining weight quickly...
Thanks!
I have a 1399 calorie target without Fitbit. At the end of today, I consumed 1605 calories, exercise 956, for a total of 631 left to consume. ??
That seems HIGH. I checked my MFP activity level, and it's set for sedentary (which is true outside of the one exercise period I get per day). I read that I should ensure my Fitbit account matches. Well, I can't find where to do that - I am using my Android phone as my main Fitbit account, and the options under Food Plan are just to set up the weight loss amount per week, not a sedentary/light active/etc.
Am I missing something? I think if I were to consume another 631 calories I'm going to be gaining weight quickly...
Thanks!
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Replies
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I'm not sure what exercise you did, but I get an extra 1000 calories for a bit over 20,000 steps. I gasped when I first saw it, but it's spot on for me.
I'm in maintenance and eat back most, sometimes all of my exercise calories and haven't put on an ounce.
On your pc, on your dashboard it should have all the info you need on that first page... But I'm not 100% sure what you mean.
My mfp diary and fitbit never have matched. On my fitbit page it always says I'm over!!! probably because I Prelog all my food into mfp first thing in the morning. Have I confused you further? LOL0 -
Forget the eating goals on Fitbit if that's what you mean.
MFP is for food and eating goals - Fitbit is for exercise and activity goals.
Don't try to follow 2 roads to the same destination - just leads to confusion and aggravation. And the lady's voice on the GPS starts to sound really annoyed too. ;-)
You may mean the MFP goal for your sedentary non-exercise day is 1399 - and that already has a deficit in it if you told MFP you wanted to lose so much weight weekly, hopefully a reasonable amount.
So MFP received from Fitbit the fact that you actually burned 956 more calories with whatever you did compared to what it thought you'd burn.
So you get to eat 956 more calories - and you still have the deficit in that higher eating goal to lose whatever you told MFP you wanted to lose weekly.
You've eaten 1605, so 631 left to go.
Let's say you selected 1 lb weekly, or 500 cal deficit daily.
1399 + 500 = 1899 MFP thought you'd burn on your sedentary non-exercise days.
Fitbit told MFP that you burn 2855 though - from increased activity over Sedentary (maybe you aren't really) and/or exercise.
Fitbit burn 2855 - 1899 MFP estimate = 956 more burned.
Daily burn 2855 - 500 deficit = 2355 eating goal
MFP literally does this though.
Eating goal 1399 + 956 adjustment = 2355 eating goal (same result)
Eating goal 2355 - 1605 eaten = 750 left to consume (you got 631, so this must not be end of day report, but midday)
So indeed - you need to eat more - because you are more active than you think.
Unless there is false step and distance data showing up in your Fitbit activity graph per 5 min blocks - when you know you weren't walking/moving much.
Most people are more active than they think, and burn more than they think.
On the opposite side of the equation - until they weigh their food they also generally think they eat less than they really are.
But if your initial deficit was reasonable - don't make it unreasonable by missing your daily goal by some huge amount.
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Your Fitbit burn is TDEE—the number of calories necessary just to maintain your current weight. If you eat at a reasonable deficit from that (250 calories for every 25 lbs. you're overweight), you will lose weight.
Trust your Fitbit for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress.0 -
Yup - I get a big adjustment from Fitbit each day. I use my charge to track my activity (output) and MFP to track my food (intake), so far it has been working well. Most days I eat the majority of the adjustment back, but it depends on the type of activity I did and frankly how hungry it does or doesn't make me. What I love the most about the Charge is that it has made me MORE active ... it's made me want to move more, which increases my deficit, and means I can eat more and still lose weight!0
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OP, you're mixing up your terms. "Deficit" is the difference between your calories in and your calories out. Set your goal to .5 lb. (250 calories) for every 25 lbs. you're overweight: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided
If (and only if) you enable negative calorie adjustments in your diary settings, then eating back your Fitbit adjustments means you're eating your Fitbit burn minus your MFP deficit.0 -
Ok, that makes complete sense now. Thank you all for the input and feedback. I think I'm on the right track although still hesitant to eat all of those calories. I'm going to watch for a couple of weeks and see what happens.
Thanks for helping a newbie!!0
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