Fitbit again ....... adjustments

loulouowens
loulouowens Posts: 103 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello all

Ive read lts of threads on fitbits etc but im still confused!

Im 5ft 9" 38yr old female, cw is 175.5 (lost 82lbs so far!) set to sedentry goal is 154ish set to lose 1lb per week cals are 1430

Ive been on this road 12 month now, and so far ive done okay, its only now my weight has come down ive started exercising bought a fit bit.

I have negative adjustments enabled, so for the past 2 weeks Ive experimented. Ive done no specific exercise but made sure ive hit 10,000 steps a day, of course this has given me a positive adjustment every day of around 300/400 calories. Now ive not eaten any of these(i really want to be able to ) weighed this morning and. Lost 1.5 pounds, which is on track with mfp settings.

So if i had have eaten even 50% of these adjustments i wouldnt had even lost what i have! My tracking is spot on everything gets weighed on a digital scale (a slice of tomato, a dollop of mayo etc) i thought the whole point was to be able to eat the adjustments back because mfp has already created the deficit for the weight loss goal?

Please help me understand

Thank you

Replies

  • CathReese33
    CathReese33 Posts: 112 Member
    I don't exercise to eat - I exercise to enjoy the bonus of knowing I am burning a few extra calories. That being said, my caloric intake now ranges between 1500 and 1800 calories a day
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
    ziggy2006 wrote: »
    Well, yes, if you eat back some of your exercise calories, of course you won't lose as much weight as you would if you didn't eat them back. You say that your settings on mfp are based on a rate of loss of 1 pound per week, and last week you lost 1.5 pounds.

    So, to keep the math simple, let's say you earned a 400 calorie adjustment every day and assume that a 3,500 calorie deficit equates to 1 pound of weight loss. If you ate half of each adjustment, you'd consume 200 calories each day, the equivalent of 1,400 calories in a week. 1,400 calories is .4 pounds. So, had you eaten back half of your calorie adjustment, you would have lost 1.1 pounds last week, which is in line with your mfp settings for rate of weight loss.

    It looks like eating half of your calorie adjustment should set you up to lose at the rate you selected on mfp.

    This has some truth to it, but it's not so black and white either OP.

    Our bodies are not immediate input/output when it comes to weight loss. If you eat at a 500 calorie deficit for a week straight, on the 7th day the odds are that you will not weigh exactly one pound less. Throughout the month, various factors can make us hold water, especially if you're a woman. Someone could lose 2 pounds in a week but due to a water fluctuation, it may appear they only lost 1 pound. When it comes to devices like Fitbit, it's best to look at 30 to 45 days worth of data at a time to assess your rate of loss, not two weeks.

    As this poster stated, you should at least start with eating half back, but don't assume if your weight fluctuates up at any point that you're gaining weight. You really do have to give your body time to adjust and wait until you have a good chunk of data before reassessing your calorie intake.
  • loulouowens
    loulouowens Posts: 103 Member
    In 2 weeks I've lost 1.5lb which is less than MFP is set to at 1lb per week?
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    edited June 2017
    loulouowens wrote: »
    In 2 weeks I've lost 1.5lb which is less than MFP is set to at 1lb per week?

    Weight loss is NOT linear. You have to look at the average of 4-6 weeks. Hormones, stress, salt, and plenty more have an impact on scale weight. Some weeks you will see no loss. Some only a little and there will be times you might see a slight gain. Average over 4-6 weeks will give you a more accurate picture than 1-2 weeks.
    zd08ctpxb85k.png

  • loulouowens
    loulouowens Posts: 103 Member
    Thanks everyone guess I either have to trust Fitbit or not!

    So today I've done 9000 steps and it's credited me 300 already eaten MFP allowance of 1430 just fine it hard to believe I've earned another 300!
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    loulouowens wrote: »
    Thanks everyone guess I either have to trust Fitbit or not!

    So today I've done 9000 steps and it's credited me 300 already eaten MFP allowance of 1430 just fine it hard to believe I've earned another 300!

    I struggled to believe fitbits calorie burn in the beginning too, all of the threads i started in a panic just wanting a clear black and white answer, and wanting someone to tell me that the burns were 100% perfect and accurate lol

    Just for comparisons sake, I'm 5"8 and 148lbs, 45 and so far today I've done 7947 steps and I've got an extra 305 calories imported into mfp.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,585 Member
    edited June 2017
    As @Maxematics and @shadow2soul indicate, your weight "number" changes faster than your "weight level".

    Day to day your weight "number" can be up or down significantly. What you're really after is your weight "level" because that one is a better indication of the level of longer term changes you're making.

    You may want to connect your fitbit.com account to trendweight.com and see how your daily weight ins fluctuate over time. Happy Scale on iphone and Libra on Android provide similar functionality.

    Your weight can fluctuate wildly up and down between one day and the next and one week and the next.

    3m.png

    It is the (much) longer term trend that matters.
  • waffle944
    waffle944 Posts: 13 Member
    edited June 2017
    Echoing other people, the trend is what matters! I recommend looking at the last 14 or even 28 days to get a sense of how fast you are actually losing weight.

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