Scooby and Fitbit TDEE

Losing weight is about diet not exercise. TDEE -20% and using Scooby's calculator I have found is more accurate than the fitbit. And unless you are very short (<4'11") eating under 1200 calories is unnecessary for weight loss. Will only lead to muscle loss and becoming skinny fat.

I'm partial to Scooby because using that calculator helped me lose 50 pounds. It works as long as you're honest with it and yourself.

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

I have lost 85 lb without a fitbit. I put my stats in myfitnesspal. It told me I could eat 2130 calories each day. I eat less than that. I lose weight.

Why would I want a fitbit? It just seems made to confuse the issue.

I use my fitbit to count steps and measure my heart rate nothing more. The general consensus on here is that the TDEE figures are roughly accurate for most.

keharty wrote: »

Guess I'll just have to try to up the exercise. I do have a desk job which doesn't help. I'm good at coming up with excuses as I really hate most forms of exercise. I know everyone says to find something you like but I don't like any of it, lol. Plus I'm just tired when I get home from work.

One thing to keep in mind, don't discount the value of working to raise your NEAT, your daily activity level to raise your overall TDEE. You don't have to exercise strenuously to increase your overall calorie burn, and that's one of the things I think is most helpful about a FitBit. I'm a petite female over 40 with a desk job, and my TDEE is actually pretty high, 2200, not because I run marathons or lift like a beast. I do walk and do light circuit training, but in addition to the time I spend intentionally exercising, I've found ways to increase my overall step count and thus my overall calorie burn. Little things like: parking in the back of the lot and walking into work, getting up and walking around the office a few times a day (when weather is nice I walk outside), walking up and down stairs in my house, pacing while I'm cooking or helping kids with homework, etc. It's hard in winter but when the weather is nice, I try to get outside and walk to neighborhood restaurants, to the grocery store, etc. My average step count is 15K and about half of that is just from my general activity, not "exercise".

keharty wrote: »

Guess I'll just have to try to up the exercise. I do have a desk job which doesn't help. I'm good at coming up with excuses as I really hate most forms of exercise. I know everyone says to find something you like but I don't like any of it, lol. Plus I'm just tired when I get home from work.

I was ALWAYS tired when I got home from work. I changed into workout clothes and hit the gym anyway (without sitting down at home. If I sat down, I was not getting back up). Even better if you hit the gym on your way home. After doing that for awhile, I found I wasn't tired when I got home from work anymore. Vicious cycle and you ultimately have to force yourself out of it.

quiksylver296 wrote: »

keharty wrote: »

Guess I'll just have to try to up the exercise. I do have a desk job which doesn't help. I'm good at coming up with excuses as I really hate most forms of exercise. I know everyone says to find something you like but I don't like any of it, lol. Plus I'm just tired when I get home from work.

I was ALWAYS tired when I got home from work. I changed into workout clothes and hit the gym anyway (without sitting down at home. If I sat down, I was not getting back up). Even better if you hit the gym on your way home. After doing that for awhile, I found I wasn't tired when I got home from work anymore. Vicious cycle and you ultimately have to force yourself out of it.

That's ultimately why I ended up starting to get up and work out in the morning. It was just too easy to skip the evening workout when other things got in the way. It was rough at first, but now if I don't get up and workout, I feel like my whole day is off track.

cathipa wrote: »

Losing weight is about diet not exercise.

Losing weight is about having a calorie deficit, which comes from both diet and exercise, in whatever proportion the person with the weight prefers.

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

I have lost 85 lb without a fitbit. I put my stats in myfitnesspal. It told me I could eat 2130 calories each day. I eat less than that. I lose weight.

Why would I want a fitbit? It just seems made to confuse the issue.

Then you wouldn't want a FitBit. When I plug my stats in MFP (following the activity level instructions which suggest that I should be "lightly active"), it tells me to eat almost 1000 calories/day less than I actually need to eat for my target weightloss of 1 pound/week. I did the math manually and made the correction, but getting confirmation from my FitBit that I'm not nuts is massively helpful. My husband likes his because it makes him move more and some combination of his FitBit + my calorie counting has helped him get to his lowest weight in decades. He does not calorie count or log food in any way.

keharty wrote: »

When I plug my stats in to the Scooby calculator it gives me a TDEE of 1623 however according to my Fitbit I burn between 1360-1564 calories per day if I get no additional exercise other than my daily activities. Of course I know I should exercise daily but I don't always. If I aim for 1200 calories a day how the heck am I supposed to lose weight? I'm thinking of maybe eating less than the 1200 calories on non-exercise days and then a bit more on the days when I do exercise would balance out?

If you aim for 1200 calories/day, you'll have a deficit between 160 and 364 calories/day. That will likely average out to about half a pound of weight lost per week.

If you are small and sedentary, half a pound per week is likely the most weight you can safely lose. If you want to lose faster than that, you have to move more. Eating below 1200 is not advisable.