Advice please - tracking through Fitbit or just 'intentional exercise'

skinnyrev2b
skinnyrev2b Posts: 400 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi folks,
Apologies for putting this on here rather than on the Fitbit thread - and apologies if it's already been answered. I've looked, but can't find a similar thread. So here goes...
I've been back on the wagon for 7 weeks. I'm 5'4", 42 and 172lb. I'm aiming to get to 130 ish lb at a rate of 1280 calories a day minimum. My activity is set to inactive.
I wear a fit bit and try to do intentional exercise every day (walk the dog, swimming when the pools were open, daily yoga and now walking for an hour or so (3.5 ish miles depending on the route) or so at a reasonable intensity (I walk with my OH who has long legs, and it's hilly round here!).
My fitbit usually claims and adds to MFP a step rate of about 11-15000 steps and a calorie burn of about 6-700 average. I eat back half of these - again, average.
However, I noticed that my Fitbit was also logging steps when I was fussing the dog... which got me wondering whether it was over estimating my calorie burn.
I've been losing .5lb average per week rather than my 1lb goal. I know I'm in it for the long haul, but the estimated goal weight on Libra is looking depressingly far away and I'm worried that I'm eating at just shy of maintenance which will cause a stall at some point in the near future.
So - my question. Should I just use the Fitbit to remind me to move and to track my intentional exercise, remove it from sync with MFP and intentionally add in those specific exercises into MFP - and still eat half those calories...
Or should I just suck it up as one of those things and assume that my weight loss will continue or gain traction as the stress of lockdown improves?
Your thoughts and wisdom muchly appreciated. I'll also go and open my diary for those of you who are interested. :smile:

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,937 Member
    I think either way you have a handle on it. It's an experiment!

    How accurate are you with your food logging? Logging 100% every day? Sticking to your deficit every day or having an off day? Using a food scale? Food logging is usually where it succeeds or fails.

    You should be able to continue to lose on 1280 + intentional exercise calories. I would actually think Fitbit is doing a good job. Have you been eating 1800-1900 based on Fitbit? How long have you been at that level?

    Pick one method and stick with it for at least a month so you have good trending data.


    Eating 300 for those intentional walks is a good call.

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,937 Member
    I just noticed you said your diary would be open.

    It looks like you're at least weighing stuff.

    Try to get that protein up. You'll feel better and it will be easier. Maybe you need to trust the process and eat the 1700-1900 that your Fitbit is telling you to eat. That's the only way you'll know if you can trust it.

    Stressing the body too much will lead to increased cortisol and water retention. You may be under-fueling. I don't know.

    How long have you been accurately logging and staying within calories? You say you've been at this for 7 weeks? Have you seen your doctor?
  • skinnyrev2b
    skinnyrev2b Posts: 400 Member
    Thanks @cmriverside . Yeah, I am tracking religiously, recognising that if not, the only person I'm affecting is me. I use a food scale for everything and usually the barcodes rather than manual entry - checking the numbers against the entry (I've even corrected a few over the last 7 weeks - go figure!)
    I hear you on the protein front. I looked at my nutrients a week or two back and realised I needed to improve both that and my iron levels. Iron is an easy one - a supplement hits me right up.
    The protein is more difficult. I'm trying to change my diet one meal at a time to increase this (now the Christmas chocs are gone, the snacks can become yogurt and nuts!) but I'm mostly veggie so it makes it a little more difficult.
    My head says eating all the calories is counter-intuitive. Surely a greater deficit = greater/quicker loss... but I've also been around MFP enough (this is maybe my 3rd time round?) to know that some of the more experienced users recommend time and experimentation rather than a rush for the greatest deficit. So maybe I'll change the habit of a lifetime of use on MFP and try it...
    Thanks for replying!
    G
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,937 Member
    edited January 2021
    I would caution against taking an iron supplement unless advised to do so by a doctor.

    You can't trust MFP's iron content on foods. A lot of the entries just don't even have it entered.

    Have you considered a plant-based protein powder? I have one always on hand. I also have a regular whey-based powder. They have different nutrition profiles, and the plant-based ones have a good amount of iron.

    I only use one half to one scoop every other day or so, but it helps get to goal. I also eat meat and fish so it's easier for me, but still I have to watch my protein carefully.

    I don't really know why you're struggling...hopefully someone will be able to spot your problem. How do you feel?

  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    I'll mention Steps is a figure sent to MFP like glasses of water drank - for display only, steps not used in any math.

    On Fitbit's side of course steps have a distance, and distance, time, and mass are very accurate calculations of calorie burn.

    So while you got steps with the dog, look at your 24 hr graph and how many calories - you'll probably be next to nothing extra.

    Considering you are given a sleeping rate of burn (BMR) during all away and standing non-step time, and that is underestimated - just consider it a balancing out.

    That calorie adjustment on MFP is MFP correcting your selected activity level calorie burn to what Fitbit said you did.
    It may or may not have anything to do with exercise.
    Besides which the whole exercise thing of 50% is based on some exercise entries from the database - that's not what you are getting.

    What if you had selected the dead on correct activity level on MFP and got no adjustment - you'd be eating the whole amount, right?
    What's different with what is occurring with this correction?
    Nothing.

    That being said - some workouts Fitbit will inflate - anything with low HR is using calculations that will result in inflated calorie burn. Like those walks would be best by distance but it's probably using HR-based if started as a workout or auto-starting one.
    Manually add a workout with same start/duration times on Fitbit to replace what it has (Fitbit is replace-only system, last is used, you can leave the prior to see HR stats). Select distance and time and that calculation is correct.
    Then MFP will be correct.


    I'm shocked you aren't finding more incorrect using the bar codes - every time I've used one in the last 5 years - it's wrong.
    That SKU was created years ago, and they changed the recipe since then and current nutrition label is usually smaller for everything, to keep the price point the same size shrinks.

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