If calories in vs. calories out is what matters, why no weight loss?
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Any device that uses algorithms based on averages of the population are going to be inaccurate for some and not for others. Not sure why this is shocking.
I believe Fitbit are currently facing a class action in relation to claims about the heart rate monitoring capability of some of its watches. Apparently some people are surprised about its inaccuracy during periods of intense exercise.
That kind of thing may not be news to people who are relatively well informed but most consumers? I'm not sure on that one.0 -
Colorscheme wrote: »Colorscheme wrote: »GuitarJerry wrote: »Because fit bits are inaccurate. That's why. Total pieces of crap. I gained weight using mine. They don't work.
Why I also found the fit bit to be inaccurate for me as well, that doesn't mean its inaccurate for everybody. The biggest problem with fitbit is there is no way to adjust the algorithm to your actual results so if it works for you great, if not then it can't be relied on for caloric intake.
Just because you guys gained weight doesn't mean it's fitbit. I didn't lose any weight with mine because I apparently wasn't logging as accurately as I thought I was.
While I would agree with you it doesn't 100% mean that its the reason, it is for me.
I did an experiment after not losing weight for about 5 weeks using fitbit. I wore my fitbit but did not have it synched with MFP. I used MFP to manually log my excercise calories and ate my net amount. I started to consistently lose weight at about a lb a week. When I compared that amount to what fitbit said I should eat for a lb a week, it was consistently 500-1000 calories more a day.
When looking at daily activity the problem was in the activity burn rates. They were insane. A 15 minute 3.0 mph walk burned 165 calories. Using MET charts its more like 80 calories. The more active I was the more skewed the numbers were. It made no sense, considering the step counts and distance traveled were spot on.
To come back to the 15 minute walk fitbit gave me 165 calories for, the distance matched my gps almost identically. But if I actually went into fitbit and logged the same distance that my fitbit said i went, it would give me like 75 calories. Makes no sense to me.
Before its asked yes my stats were checked and double checked.
I honestly have nothing against fit bit and it seems to be accurate for many people here, just not for me and thats okay.
Was it a HRM model? non HR model? Generally, it's a 100 cal burn for every mile you walk/run.
Non HR model. It was at least double that if not more.0 -
Any device that uses algorithms based on averages of the population are going to be inaccurate for some and not for others. Not sure why this is shocking.
I believe Fitbit are currently facing a class action in relation to claims about the heart rate monitoring capability of some of its watches. Apparently some people are surprised about its inaccuracy during periods of intense exercise.
That kind of thing may not be news to people who are relatively well informed but most consumers? I'm not sure on that one.
That's fine, but I would hope that we aren't "most consumers" and anyone who doesn't understand will hopefully just read my post and think logically. Lol.0 -
When I plateau, it is usually cause I am not eating enough calories. When I increase it by 100, my weight starts dropping again. Just a suggestion- I see you have many, but that is what works for me
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Any device that uses algorithms based on averages of the population are going to be inaccurate for some and not for others. Not sure why this is shocking.
I believe Fitbit are currently facing a class action in relation to claims about the heart rate monitoring capability of some of its watches. Apparently some people are surprised about its inaccuracy during periods of intense exercise.
That kind of thing may not be news to people who are relatively well informed but most consumers? I'm not sure on that one.
That's fine, but I would hope that we aren't "most consumers" and anyone who doesn't understand will hopefully just read my post and think logically. Lol.
Lulz - ever the optimist then...0 -
Ohjeezitskim wrote: »Someone might have mentioned it already but I read that when you are wearing a HR or something else that counts calories burned, you do NOT keep it measuring your heart rate while doing strength training. You pause it until you go back into cardio exercises.
how do you pause a fitbit? that would be great, cos every now and then i gain steps while cycling.
I don't own a fitbit, so I'm just thinking out loud. Or online. Or something.
Maybe take it off?2 -
Ohjeezitskim wrote: »Someone might have mentioned it already but I read that when you are wearing a HR or something else that counts calories burned, you do NOT keep it measuring your heart rate while doing strength training. You pause it until you go back into cardio exercises.
how do you pause a fitbit? that would be great, cos every now and then i gain steps while cycling.
Yeah, pause it by taking it off.1 -
My fitbit has always been accurate. In fact, I bought it about a month and a half after I started really using MFP well and consistently and lo and behold my scale weight started to drop faster.
Like others have said, you CAN adjust the algorithm to suit your personal needs. I jumped on the fitbit support group here and did what they said from day 1 of having it and it's always been very accurate for me. (the things they recommended which I did were adding my actual measured gait length, telling fitbit I'm 5'1" instead of 5' 2", and wearing it on my non-dominant hand while telling fitbit it's on my dominant hand)
And because I'm generally present for my own daily activities, I'm also aware of which things are inflated, cause, you know, I was there for that bumpy car ride at 11:00 and the dashboard lets you overwrite that activity with other things (by manually adding exercise in MFP with time stamps) any time of day you please to correct it.
ETA: My fitbit doesn't pick up steps in my car usually. The road has to be in serious disrepair for that to happen. Normally, and we have concrete rather than asphalt roads here so they're all bumps, all in time JUST like steps would be, I can get into the car with X steps and come out with X+0 or X+1or 2.1 -
gataman3000 wrote: »Keep in mind when you post in these boards, you are asking for advice from people who have been overweight their entire life, asking people who have been u healthy their entire life how to be healthy. Go to they gym and talking to them, they will give you better advice or a nutritionist.
Except I've never been overweight I just dont like the way I look which is why I want to lose some weight lol1 -
gataman3000 wrote: »Keep in mind when you post in these boards, you are asking for advice from people who have been overweight their entire life, asking people who have been u healthy their entire life how to be healthy. Go to they gym and talking to them, they will give you better advice or a nutritionist.
Talk to "healthy all their life" person:
Me: "Hey, how do you do it? How do you stay healthy all your life?"
Healthy person: "I dunno. I eat like crap all the time. Never really exercise. I just do what I want and end up looking like this. Wish I could help, but so far, I don't do anything special."
I'm guessing you don't know many folks here who have been overweight and have lost it all, added muscle, and are totally awesome. They can help those who want real life experience...because they were overweight, used MFP, asked questions on the forums, and worked for it.
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cmcollins001 wrote: »gataman3000 wrote: »Keep in mind when you post in these boards, you are asking for advice from people who have been overweight their entire life, asking people who have been u healthy their entire life how to be healthy. Go to they gym and talking to them, they will give you better advice or a nutritionist.
Talk to "healthy all their life" person:
Me: "Hey, how do you do it? How do you stay healthy all your life?"
Healthy person: "I dunno. I eat like crap all the time. Never really exercise. I just do what I want and end up looking like this. Wish I could help, but so far, I don't do anything special."
I'm guessing you don't know many folks here who have been overweight and have lost it all, added muscle, and are totally awesome. They can help those who want real life experience...because they were overweight, used MFP, asked questions on the forums, and worked for it.
I know right??!!
What kind of advice is that? That's like telling someone with acne to talk to someone who's never had a problem with acne how to deal with it. What good is that? That person doesn't have any idea what non-comedogenic means, they have no empathy for your love hate relationship with foundation, they can't provide ANY advice other than "Sorry all I ever do is wash my face and sometimes I forget that and it all just works out fine anyway".
Maybe us ladies should start asking the guys what we should do about cramps and mood swings HA HA11 -
CrossfitOCRunner wrote: »CICO is about half of it. the last few pounds are hard to lose and you need to focus more on your macros, nutrient timing, food quality and exercise. This depends on if these last few pounds puts you at a low body fat percentage - those pounds are harder to lose - or if they are just the last ones to your goal and you could lose a bit more if you wanted to. In the latter case, you still need to dial in the other aspects that affect changing body composition and you probably have been doing some of the same things for a while and need to change it up to trick the adaptation cycle. you can do it!
nope not at all.0 -
I'm surprised none of the fitbit users have suggested that the OP make sure their current weight on fitbit is accurate. That's like step one to make sure both your tdee and exercise calorie burn are accurate. I adjust mine every five pounds I lose and it's amazing how quickly that affects your calorie expenditure for the day.2
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It seems that FitBit will pick up steps while in a car for some, and not for others. It might be different engine rhythms, terrain, who knows. Mine does give me false steps while I am driving. BUT, I noticed it right away and looked for a solution. The solution for me was the DriveBit app. It updates the FitBit on the duration of my drive. Problem solved. Since then mine has been very accurate and I am losing weight steadily.1
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Colorscheme wrote: »Colorscheme wrote: »GuitarJerry wrote: »Because fit bits are inaccurate. That's why. Total pieces of crap. I gained weight using mine. They don't work.
Why I also found the fit bit to be inaccurate for me as well, that doesn't mean its inaccurate for everybody. The biggest problem with fitbit is there is no way to adjust the algorithm to your actual results so if it works for you great, if not then it can't be relied on for caloric intake.
Just because you guys gained weight doesn't mean it's fitbit. I didn't lose any weight with mine because I apparently wasn't logging as accurately as I thought I was.
While I would agree with you it doesn't 100% mean that its the reason, it is for me.
I did an experiment after not losing weight for about 5 weeks using fitbit. I wore my fitbit but did not have it synched with MFP. I used MFP to manually log my excercise calories and ate my net amount. I started to consistently lose weight at about a lb a week. When I compared that amount to what fitbit said I should eat for a lb a week, it was consistently 500-1000 calories more a day.
When looking at daily activity the problem was in the activity burn rates. They were insane. A 15 minute 3.0 mph walk burned 165 calories. Using MET charts its more like 80 calories. The more active I was the more skewed the numbers were. It made no sense, considering the step counts and distance traveled were spot on.
To come back to the 15 minute walk fitbit gave me 165 calories for, the distance matched my gps almost identically. But if I actually went into fitbit and logged the same distance that my fitbit said i went, it would give me like 75 calories. Makes no sense to me.
Before its asked yes my stats were checked and double checked.
I honestly have nothing against fit bit and it seems to be accurate for many people here, just not for me and thats okay.
Was it a HRM model? non HR model? Generally, it's a 100 cal burn for every mile you walk/run.
Non HR model. It was at least double that if not more.
Strange. Did you ever ask for a new one to see if it was just the one, or was it inaccurate with more than one model? You're also supposed to input stride length and such.0 -
AmberSpamber wrote: »When I plateau, it is usually cause I am not eating enough calories. When I increase it by 100, my weight starts dropping again. Just a suggestion- I see you have many, but that is what works for me
eating more food is never the answer to "why can't I lose weight"9 -
- If you've read up on how inaccurate all fitness trackers are, you wouldn't have posted this.
I have read articles that have debated the inaccuracies of fitness trackers but that doesn't mean they are inaccurate for everyone. From the articles I've read and the experiences from users that I've read, it seems like the more overweight someone is, the more Fitbit overestimates their TDEE. Also, some of the articles were based on self-reported data which, in my opinion, must be taken with a grain of salt.
I don't have a FitBit, I have an UP. But this has been my experience as well. I think for my "active" calories it's doing some crazy multiplier. It's like "wow, you're obese and getting that much walking in? go you!" and gives me a sh- ton of calories for walking a few miles a day. Like way more than MFP even. Based on how many people say "it works perfectly for me" but a lot of those people are near goal weight...I have a theory it uses some whacked out multipliers if it thinks you are obese/overweight. For me on sedentary days I think it's actually pretty accurate (close to Scooby's TDEE). Just some screwy multiplier on my walks. I disconnected the two and manually enter in my activity on MFP with a very conservative estimate. Hopefully once I get closer to goal weight I can connect the two and get reasonable estimates. On days I walk about 3 miles it often gives me 1,000+ EXTRA calories a day, often bringing my total to 3,000-3,500. If only. I'd be losing weight so fast if this thing was accurate.0 - If you've read up on how inaccurate all fitness trackers are, you wouldn't have posted this.
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shadow2soul wrote: »GuitarJerry wrote: »Because fit bits are inaccurate. That's why. Total pieces of crap. I gained weight using mine. They don't work.
Why I also found the fit bit to be inaccurate for me as well, that doesn't mean its inaccurate for everybody. The biggest problem with fitbit is there is no way to adjust the algorithm to your actual results so if it works for you great, if not then it can't be relied on for caloric intake.
@ryry62685 - Adjusting your height would change the calorie burn estimations. Overestimating = adjust the height down / Underestimating = adjust your height up
Granted that's not a perfect solution, but it's a way to adjust it to try and get the burn closer to reality.
I have done this and found it more accurate. I tell it I am one inch shorter than I am.0 -
cmcollins001 wrote: »gataman3000 wrote: »Keep in mind when you post in these boards, you are asking for advice from people who have been overweight their entire life, asking people who have been u healthy their entire life how to be healthy. Go to they gym and talking to them, they will give you better advice or a nutritionist.
I'm guessing you don't know many folks here who have been overweight and have lost it all, added muscle, and are totally awesome. They can help those who want real life experience...because they were overweight, used MFP, asked questions on the forums, and worked for it.
Truth. I may not know about "those last few stubborn pounds" having ranged in weight from pleasantly plump to morbidly obese pretty much since I was born, but I did just lose 80 lbs since 1/26/2015 and I feel like I have a pretty good bead on this weight loss thing.1 -
You're eating 1200 calories a day, but exercising 2200-2300? I really hope those numbers are incorrect. You're not giving your body enough fuel and nutrients and in the long run, doing yourself more harm than good. If you do that daily, you'll lose lean body mass--not the weight you want to see come off.
That being said, if those numbers were happening you would be losing weight. I just want to address the idea of being in the red by the end of the day--it's not healthy.
2200-2300 is my total calories burned for the day INCLUDING exercise.0
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