Someone PLEASE answer this question. Im so confused.
angelb1983
Posts: 160 Member
I have a fitbit and have started a very intense workout that includes weights 3-4 times a week. I decided about a week ago to take my fitbit off and try to lose weight by eating around 1700 calories a day (although, Im pretty sure when I wear the fitbit on those days it will allow me over 2,000) I have slipped up a couple times and went a bit over 1700 but nowhere near what my fitbit would have given me. I don't feel deprived at 1700. Long story even longer here is the question. I have not lost more than a pound in 3 weeks. I understand it takes time for the body to catch up when we start a new fitness program but I was also measured yesterday and haven't lost much there either. I understand hormones are probably playing a factor right now too. I just wonder if people lose quicker eating the amount fitbit gives them or setting calories to a certain number like I did and just sticking to that? This has been so confusing to me. My trainer wants me to eat around 1500 calories but I can't do that low. Is this all trial and error? I just hate to waste another week. Do you all eat what fitbit gives? Is that way too much? Do you set it to sedentary and trust that its pretty accurate?
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Have you double/triple checked your food log? Looking to make sure all the calories you logged are accurate (for example there is a chicken entry that has only 1/3 the calories it should). Also make sure you are not using entries that start with "homemade", the calories could be vastly different than what you actually eat.
Do you use a food scale?0 -
Looked at your log and I see a lot of sodium (can cause water retention) . You have also been using some of those homemade entries.
I saw a chicken entry that was 54 calories off (150 instead of 204).
You also didn't log last weekend.
Stick with it another week or so, but tighten up your logging, maybe cut down the sodium a bit, and avoid skipping a day.1 -
The only chicken leg that I logged and see, I logged as 237 which was one of the higher calorie counts offered.0
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There was a 150 calorie fish entry but I scanned it from the bag1
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Oh sodium sodium... that’s a huge challenge but I know true. I woke up to swollen fingers this morning. Why does the salty things have to taste so good0
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angelb1983 wrote: »The only chicken leg that I logged and see, I logged as 237 which was one of the higher calorie counts offered.
It was in early January. 6 oz Chicken breast skinless (before the 13th/14th where you didn't log)0 -
Oh ok. I just started getting more strict with logging. I went through a while where I just didn’t care. I hate those phases because they don’t get me anywhere. Thank you for your response. Maybe what I need is just more consistency whatever I choose.0
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1700 seems high for a woman unless you have an intense workout routine. 1500 seems more reasonable, as your trainer suggested. How many grams of protein and fat are you averaging each day? Perhaps if you tweak what you're eating to incorporate foods that keep you fuller for longer (protein, fat), you might have better success?
As for your question, I eat what MFP tells me to based on my height, weight, gender, and weight loss goals. I exercise with my fitbit but rarely eat those calories back unless I'm unusually hungry or having a special occasion.
I can't see your diary, but check that your macros include adequate protein and make sure you're eating foods that meet these numbers. This will help curb hunger.3 -
River_Goddess wrote: »1700 seems high for a woman unless you have an intense workout routine. 1500 seems more reasonable, as your trainer suggested. How many grams of protein and fat are you averaging each day? Perhaps if you tweak what you're eating to incorporate foods that keep you fuller for longer (protein, fat), you might have better success?
As for your question, I eat what MFP tells me to based on my height, weight, gender, and weight loss goals. I exercise with my fitbit but rarely eat those calories back unless I'm unusually hungry or having a special occasion.
I can't see your diary, but check that your macros include adequate protein and make sure you're eating foods that meet these numbers. This will help curb hunger.
1700 isn't high, especially for a woman who's more active (I lost 65 pounds eating 1600-2000 net calories a day, as I have a fairly active job).
OP, give yourself a few weeks as you tighten up your logging.7 -
River_Goddess wrote: »1700 seems high for a woman unless you have an intense workout routine. 1500 seems more reasonable, as your trainer suggested. How many grams of protein and fat are you averaging each day? Perhaps if you tweak what you're eating to incorporate foods that keep you fuller for longer (protein, fat), you might have better success?
As for your question, I eat what MFP tells me to based on my height, weight, gender, and weight loss goals. I exercise with my fitbit but rarely eat those calories back unless I'm unusually hungry or having a special occasion.
I can't see your diary, but check that your macros include adequate protein and make sure you're eating foods that meet these numbers. This will help curb hunger.
Not really. I lose weight when I eat around an average of 2k calories a day. I'm just an active person in general. I wouldn't consider my exercise routine that intense either. It's just workout dvds. Some days I only do 20 mins and others an hour.
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That makes sense. It probably only seems high to me because I'm fairly sedentary/only lightly active. If I ate 1700 cals per day, I would lose at a snails pace. Every body is different!
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I do HIIT style workouts an hour a day 3-4 days a week and walk every day for at least 30 minutes until Winter lets up and then I plan on restarting C25K outside which I greatly miss. My fitbit would give me just for walking 1700-1800, on HIIT days, it gives me up to 2500 but Im going to try to stay around 1700-2000. It will probably just take some time because I just started tracking consistently a little over a week ago. Usually if I mess up and go over I just quit tracking and Im trying to change that mentality. Yesterday I wanted more food but didn't have the calories and it was close to bedtime so I just went to bed. Thats progress.1
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The HRM-based calorie burn for that interval stuff is going to be inflated by some degree.
And with 1 hr 3-4 x weekly - could be decently amount off.
You can go ahead and start the workout to get HR and steps and see what Fitbit came up with for calorie burn.
But then manually log a workout with same start time and duration.
As to what to log - depends on what you mean by HIIT, since it is actually a specific term that has been slapped on all manner of workouts that aren't actually HIIT.
What is the workout, what are the rests and how long?
Because true HIIT you could not do for an hour, no way.
Also - diet is a stress anyway - made the deficit bigger than the body is happy about - and you'll gain cortisol induced water weight.
In that stressed state, workouts also will usually start becoming medicore - how the body adapts to being underfed for what it's being asked to do.
But really, an hour for around 700 calories could be reasonable if actually intense the whole time.
So having an increase of that much is not unreasonable at all.
Really depends on what the workout is.
How much to lose to healthy weight?
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Thank you heybales! I am 198 pound female that is 5'7 so I have a ways to go. They did a body scan of me it said I have only 122 pounds of lean body mass at this time. She is hoping that will increase and my fat will decrease in the next three months. With that said, I am not sure HIIT is exactly.That was the closest thing I could use to explain it. We get NO rest time between workouts unless I take it because I need it. We do 20-30 second intervals most of the time and every day it is different going from burpees to high knees to running, to lifting weights, mountain climbers, to ab work, farmers carry, starfish jump, karaoke, and so much more there is just so much that Im really not sure what to call it but it is HARD even for the very fit people in our class. I asked the trainer if it ever got easier and her reply was "it doesn't get easier, you just get better" I have found that so true this week. I could FINALLY do something I couldn't do 4 weeks ago. That was almost as motivating as the scale.
On another note the scale finally went down .8 this morning. Its not much but it is finally going down. Woohoo!!
Yesterday I kept my fitbit on during my walk and my workout and it said I could eat up to I think either 2400-2500. I stayed under 2000 but have always wondered if something special was going on if I could eat those calories and not affect my weight loss. We have a super bowl party going on in a few weeks. Has anyone ate those and still lost?1 -
lost more this morning. Seems like 4 weeks was the magic number that finally sent me downward 0
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So yes, that is not HIIT.
The things you describe are automatically interval by nature - you aren't doing some long cardio session out of them except the running. There is no aerobic version of them.
HIIT is taking something aerobically possible to do - running or biking, and making it interval to benefit from a specific effect not available in the aerobic only phase.
Short Interval Training, Interval Training, and High Intensity Interval Training - all interval methods.
So that would be logged as calisthenics on Fitbit to gain some accuracy.
Because your HR is going to be all over the place up and down, and you have periods of anaerobic being done.
All places where HR-based calorie burn is invalid calculation.
When you do that - then for sure each your adjustment - MFP still has a deficit in there anyway.
More deficit isn't going to help either the workout or fat loss.
So if you have less than 50 lbs to lose, 1.5 lbs weekly is reasonable at this point.
At 30 left switch to 1 lb.
10-15 go to 1/2 lb weekly.
That would be max.
The more benefit you want from your workouts, the less deficit you should take too.
Good job on getting fit with such variety.1 -
Please dumb this down for me a bit. Are you saying it would be best to set my calories to 1.5 pounds lost, whatever that is and then on workout days just log them as an hour of calisthenics and eat that?0
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I’m also learning all calories are not created equal. I ate cookies last night and I could barely do the work today
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angelb1983 wrote: »Please dumb this down for me a bit. Are you saying it would be best to set my calories to 1.5 pounds lost, whatever that is and then on workout days just log them as an hour of calisthenics and eat that?
He means if you have 50lbs to lose set your weight loss goal to lose 1.5lbs a week. Once you have 30lbs to lose set your goal to lose 1lb a week. Once you're down to the last 10-15lbs change your weekly weight loss goal to 0.5lbs a week.0 -
angelb1983 wrote: »I’m also learning all calories are not created equal. I ate cookies last night and I could barely do the work today
That is very true for their effect on some many levels - feeling full, getting tired, good recovery, sleeping well, ect.
As far as a unit of energy, the calories are the same to the body.
You probably got a blood sugar spike, insulin spiked, overdid it's job of getting blood sugar off to the liver and muscles and through the night probably got low blood sugar, making you feel drained this morning.
That's a low blood sugar tiredness. Body was probably concerned about releasing more from liver after that effect, so at the low end of acceptable.
Your muscles on the other hand likely benefited from that glucose and got filled out more, considering those workouts are high carb burning.
So if you can get past the mental state of tired, muscles have plenty of energy.
But it's very hard.
It's why there is so much variety on when it's beneficial to eat, and what. Some protein right before bed gives the body something to work with when repairing from a good workout.
Some food before a workout may allow doing it better, or could make you tired too, or stomach problems and bad workout.
And yes to above comment, and that it would be max deficit if really in those ranges for loss. You don't have to attempt that fast/much weekly.
With hard workouts like you are doing though, I'd bet a 750 cal deficit would be pretty hard to keep, and if it was kept, workout would suffer noticeably.0
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