Activity really matters, people
Replies
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This is true for me also. At 'goal weight' I only burn 1400-1500 calories a day based on sedentary life/desk job. And if I don't make the effort to move more, then I AM truly sedentary. We were not meant to live this way. So my options are a) gain weight b) eat at a reduced level forever or c) move more and eat at a reasonable level.
The Fitbit helps put my activity into a measurable form.
I got a new Fitbit for Christmas. I used one for a bit 3.5 years ago when I was losing weight, but it was a clip on, and I stopped using it in the Summer because I wasn't going to clip it on my bra... So I got a charge HR 2 this time.
I knew this already, but it's become extremely obvious that activity makes a HUGE difference. For reference, I'm 5'5", 138 lbs (and 38yo). I lost 80 lbs, been maintaining for 2.5 years (put on 3-5 pounds over the Holidays that I'm working on losing now). Fitbit's default calories for me to maintain my weight is 2335, assuming that I meet all the daily goals (250 steps every hour, 10 stairs a day, 10k steps).
In those 3 weeks, my calories have been all over the place from 1600 calories in a day to 3300. And all that is from my activity (my main exercise is just walking).
So yes, weight loss depends on diet... but you would really make it MUCH easier on you if you increased your activity too. I've been on a Fitbit challenge with friends this week and trying to walk more and yes, I'm much hungrier from all that walking - but it's so much easier to stay under my goal too... I can eat pretty much what I want and still keep a deficit.
But it's so important to eat back exercise calories too... Yesterday I walked 38k steps. That's 16 miles total. I would have crashed and burned if I had stayed at my goal of 1800 calories (I've been eating 400-500 calories over that all week and I still have enough of a deficit to lose half a pound so far in just 3 days).
Anyway, just thought I'd share my experience.
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I agree with the OP and am a huge proponent of using a FitBit or something similar to track steps, motivate oneself, and be more aware of total calorie burn.
As a petite female over 40 with a desk job it is assumed that I would be on the lower end of TDEE and one of those people who thinks they have to cut to 1200 or below to lose weight. My FitBit has shown, that because I've worked to increase my NEAT activity through low intensity steps as well as my intentional exercise, that my TDEE is actually about 2200 and I lost my weight eating between 1600-1900 cals.
Typed as I pace in my basement trying to make sure I get my steps in since we are home bound with the Midwest ice storm...11 -
NorthCascades wrote: »SusanMFindlay wrote: »I have the flu right now and my heartrate has been over 100 all day (even while sleeping). I'm curious if that's considered equivalent calorie burn to exercise with the same heartrate (body using energy to heal itself, etc.). Unlikely.
When you go for a run, your heart rate will be very elevated; when I run a 10K, my average HR is just a hair under 165 bpm.
I burn a lot of calories running a 10K, but it isn't my heart that burns most of them.
My legs have to do a lot of work for me to run. I'm jumping from one foot to the other, lifting my body weight up into the air, roughly 10,000 times. My leg muscles are working real hard. The reason my heart rate goes up is to supply oxygenated blood to my leg muscles. They need oxygen to unlock the energy stored in my fat cells.
Walking requires less of my legs than running, so my leg muscles don't have to produce energy as quickly (since they're not using as much of it), so they need less oxygen to walk than they do to run. That's why your HR is lower when you walk then when you run.
While you're sick (or stressed, or drinking caffeine, or dehydrated, etc) your heart rate will be higher than normal. It's true your heart is a muscle and it's using more energy now, like your BMR is slightly higher. But it's not the same as exercise. Also, it's out of your control, so it's not like you can use it as a weight loss strategy.
Interestingly your resting heart rate is higher during PMS too... Mine was 67/69 instead of 59/63!1 -
_Justinian_ wrote: »You guys are making want to buy a Fitbit now. lol I was going to just get a watch, but this seems a much better alternative.
I've had mine for about 2 months now and love it, especially since I learned to properly sync it with mfp.
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Tacklewasher wrote: »Geez. I was feeling good about upping my step goal to 8000. Now you gotta go and burst that bubble with your 38K.
I thought the same thing
arggg0 -
Tacklewasher wrote: »Geez. I was feeling good about upping my step goal to 8000. Now you gotta go and burst that bubble with your 38K.
I thought the same thing
arggg
One step at a time... literally, lol.3 -
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Fully agreed. With my intentional exercise, plus the fact that I get around 17 to 20K steps per day means as a 5'3.5", 113 pound woman, I maintain my weight on 2100 to 2500 calories depending on the day. I'll take that over the 1240ish calories I'd get by being sedentary any day.5
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I honestly don't know how anyone loses weight and keeps it off without being pretty active. I'd probably just decide I'd rather be fat than eat as few calories as I'd need to stay thin and be sedentary. I'm more active that most everyone I know that is my age and I still find it hard not to overeat.3
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I wholeheartedly agree!
I've just spent two months recovering from a messed up back and could barely move. My daily step average was barely 3k during that time and my calorie allowance was a pittance. I preferred to eat at maintenance than kill myself on 1300 cals a day. And even the 1800 from maintenance were hard...1 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »I honestly don't know how anyone loses weight and keeps it off without being pretty active. I'd probably just decide I'd rather be fat than eat as few calories as I'd need to stay thin and be sedentary. I'm more active that most everyone I know that is my age and I still find it hard not to overeat.
94 % of the people who lost a bunch of weight and kept it off increased their activity level, mostly by walking more.
http://www.nwcr.ws/Research/default.htm1 -
SusanMFindlay wrote: »I have the flu right now and my heartrate has been over 100 all day (even while sleeping). I'm curious if that's considered equivalent calorie burn to exercise with the same heartrate (body using energy to heal itself, etc.). Unlikely.
I'm not considering this as an actual weight loss strategy; just academic curiosity. I'm having to force myself to eat anything at all, so not terribly worried about a deficit.
I treat myself to lots of spicy Asian noodle soup when I'm sick.
Hope you feel better soon.1 -
I want to thank you for pointing this out with some numbers. This is one of the things a lot of folks overlook with the physical disability/overweight-obesity connection: that decreased movement due to physical disability and pain can lead to considerable weight gain without gluttony when you aren't consciously changing your intake to match your new circumstances. Actually, it's strongly linked to weight gain with ageing as well as older people (generally) move less than younger versions of themselves.3
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Seriously, I hit over 4,000 calories, some days. It really does help.0
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What's wrong with clipping your FitBit to your bra? That's where I wear mine.
Edit because autocorrect is a kitten some days.0 -
jennifer_417 wrote: »What's wrong with clipping your FitBit to your bra? That's where I wear mine.
Edit because autocorrect is a kitten some days.
Bulky and annoying, lol!0 -
Ahhhh I can't wait for my fitbit charge 2 to come in the maaaaill!0
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jennifer_417 wrote: »What's wrong with clipping your FitBit to your bra? That's where I wear mine.
Keeping my Fitbit One in a pants pocket or clipped to my underwear works for me.
I have (temporarily) lost it a few times though, which would be harder to do with a device that stays on your wrist.0 -
_Justinian_ wrote: »You guys are making want to buy a Fitbit now. lol I was going to just get a watch, but this seems a much better alternative.
I've had mine for about 2 months now and love it, especially since I learned to properly sync it with mfp.
Picking mine up today. So like, does this thing simply add calories based on the number of steps you take daily in addition to what you log in as exercise?1 -
_Justinian_ wrote: »_Justinian_ wrote: »You guys are making want to buy a Fitbit now. lol I was going to just get a watch, but this seems a much better alternative.
I've had mine for about 2 months now and love it, especially since I learned to properly sync it with mfp.
Picking mine up today. So like, does this thing simply add calories based on the number of steps you take daily in addition to what you log in as exercise?
There are probably more detailed explanations in the FitBit user group but essentially:
MFP has an estimate of your NEAT based on the stats and activity level you put in. Hypothetically let's say that's 2000 cals.
FitBit monitors your activity throughout the day and estimates a total calorie burn based on steps and any additional exercise you might log.
If FitBit estimates you will burn 2400 today because of your activity level, your adjustment would be 400 cals.
It is dynamic and adjusts throughout the day as it syncs with MFP so if you work out early, FitBit may think you are going to sustain that activity level all day so then when you go to work and/or are more sedentary it may give you a bigger adjustment but then back it off a little bit. A lot of people are surprised by that at first, as well as the fact that they think they "lose calories" at he end of the day, but again it's related to when you go to bed and your activity goes down since the two systems are on a 24 hour clock.
I think FitBit gets more accurate after a few weeks because it sort of figures out your patterns and the adjustments start to be more consistent and trackable.
I think they work really well but you have to get used to it and sort of trust the two tools, if you try to pinpoint it to the single digit you'll drive yourself crazy.5 -
WinoGelato wrote: »_Justinian_ wrote: »_Justinian_ wrote: »You guys are making want to buy a Fitbit now. lol I was going to just get a watch, but this seems a much better alternative.
I've had mine for about 2 months now and love it, especially since I learned to properly sync it with mfp.
Picking mine up today. So like, does this thing simply add calories based on the number of steps you take daily in addition to what you log in as exercise?
There are probably more detailed explanations in the FitBit user group but essentially:
MFP has an estimate of your NEAT based on the stats and activity level you put in. Hypothetically let's say that's 2000 cals.
FitBit monitors your activity throughout the day and estimates a total calorie burn based on steps and any additional exercise you might log.
If FitBit estimates you will burn 2400 today because of your activity level, your adjustment would be 400 cals.
It is dynamic and adjusts throughout the day as it syncs with MFP so if you work out early, FitBit may think you are going to sustain that activity level all day so then when you go to work and/or are more sedentary it may give you a bigger adjustment but then back it off a little bit. A lot of people are surprised by that at first, as well as the fact that they think they "lose calories" at he end of the day, but again it's related to when you go to bed and your activity goes down since the two systems are on a 24 hour clock.
I think FitBit gets more accurate after a few weeks because it sort of figures out your patterns and the adjustments start to be more consistent and trackable.
I think they work really well but you have to get used to it and sort of trust the two tools, if you try to pinpoint it to the single digit you'll drive yourself crazy.
Thanks for the info. Sounds exciting!!0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »_Justinian_ wrote: »_Justinian_ wrote: »You guys are making want to buy a Fitbit now. lol I was going to just get a watch, but this seems a much better alternative.
I've had mine for about 2 months now and love it, especially since I learned to properly sync it with mfp.
Picking mine up today. So like, does this thing simply add calories based on the number of steps you take daily in addition to what you log in as exercise?
There are probably more detailed explanations in the FitBit user group but essentially:
MFP has an estimate of your NEAT based on the stats and activity level you put in. Hypothetically let's say that's 2000 cals.
FitBit monitors your activity throughout the day and estimates a total calorie burn based on steps and any additional exercise you might log.
If FitBit estimates you will burn 2400 today because of your activity level, your adjustment would be 400 cals.
It is dynamic and adjusts throughout the day as it syncs with MFP so if you work out early, FitBit may think you are going to sustain that activity level all day so then when you go to work and/or are more sedentary it may give you a bigger adjustment but then back it off a little bit. A lot of people are surprised by that at first, as well as the fact that they think they "lose calories" at he end of the day, but again it's related to when you go to bed and your activity goes down since the two systems are on a 24 hour clock.
I think FitBit gets more accurate after a few weeks because it sort of figures out your patterns and the adjustments start to be more consistent and trackable.
I think they work really well but you have to get used to it and sort of trust the two tools, if you try to pinpoint it to the single digit you'll drive yourself crazy.
I've taken off the negative adjustment. Ironically I am trying to tone down my activity (30k steps a day was too little for me, waking up at 3 each morning and essentially exercise took over my life for the worse recently despite reaching my goal weight). Because of that, I realised that even waking up 30 mins later I was in a negative and it was quite disheartening and basically made me go back to my over exercising.
The overall message I agree with, just be more active. Walk the long way to the shops, walk the longer way to the toilet at the office etc. Problem for me was/is I went overboard1 -
jennifer_417 wrote: »What's wrong with clipping your FitBit to your bra? That's where I wear mine.
Edit because autocorrect is a kitten some days.
Bulky and annoying, lol!
How tight are your shirts that you can tell you're wearing the fitbit, young lady?
I wear my One clipped to my undies which used to be fun when I'd be out for my walk and stop into a store in the middle of it so would have to slip my hand into my pants to turn the activity recorder off. I'd try to do it so surreptitiously.
Now I don't care and that hand is in my pants while walking into the store while still listening to my music.0 -
One of the bonuses of a clip on tracker is that it's inconspicuous,. You shouldn't be able to see or feel it, unless you're wearing super low cut, tight tops.0
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Sounds like you really found something to motivate you! I'm sure a tracker would be a big wake-up call, even though I already know I'm very sedentary. I exercise every other day, but I'm doubtful about the prospects of me becoming more active in general, at least at this time a year. In warmer weather I get out more.0
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