Help!!
lisaj5227
Posts: 13 Member
I have 100 pounds to lose I'm counting macros carbs20 fat30 protein 50 with 1858 calories allotted for active lifestyle. I wear a FitBit while working out and my heartrate gets up into 160s I'm 62 my fitbit says I'm burning up to 600 or more calories just exercising I put the fitbit on only during cardio when I compute those calories into my diary my macros, calories shoot up, problem I can't seem to eat as much as whats being allotted and by 6pm which is my deadline on my intermittent fast 8-6 will I really be harmed if I dont eat all those calories will it keep me from losing?
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Replies
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No, it won't keep you from losing... What is your activity setting in mfp? You might be double dipping your calories...0
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Active0
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I drink a banana, smoothie every morning 540 cal and around 600 cal for dinner skipping lunch the smoothie fills me up. I do Peloton at home and go to gym every day3
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I'm currently losing 3 to 4 pounds per week and am concerned I may be screwing up my metabolism0
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you're not going to screw up your metabolism. thats just hoo ha wishy washy nonsense.
There is nothing special or magical about IF. For some people, it is a way for them to help reduce the number of calories they eat. Just like any other 'diet'. thats all. nothing else.
Why do you have your activity level set to active? Not saying you're not, but i don't know if the average person IS. maybe? probably not. wearing your fitbit all day, everyday would probably give you a good idea
When did you begin all of this? the first few weeks of weight loss, you typically lose at a faster rate. Most of it is water weight. It does slow down (and many people get upset about this). So, if this is new, I would expect to see it slow down over the next couple of weeks.
The fitbit isn't really designed to only be worn during exercise. I've worn one off and on for years but am not sure how accurate it would be if ONLY worn during exercise. Maybe someone else knows for sure? But, with 100 pounds to lose, depending on the exercise and for how long , I could see 600 calories burned. You should be eating back some of your exercise calories if it is adding them to your daily calories to eat. This is a gray area though, because even with a fitbit, it is just an estimate of how many were burned. Its usually recommended to start by eating back half, and watching your weight for a couple of weeks. if you are losing faster than expected, eat back a few more. If losing less than expected, eat back a few less.
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If you have your setting as active, you probably wouldn't eat back your exercise calories. But, if you're losing 3-4 lbs a week, you definitely have a little wiggle room to eat more. Are you damaging your metabolism? Most likely not, especially if you're not hungry. If you're hungry, maybe try to eat a small lunch.0
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I have 100 pounds to lose I'm counting macros carbs20 fat30 protein 50 with 1858 calories allotted for active lifestyle. I wear a FitBit while working out and my heartrate gets up into 160s I'm 62 my fitbit says I'm burning up to 600 or more calories just exercising I put the fitbit on only during cardio when I compute those calories into my diary my macros, calories shoot up, problem I can't seem to eat as much as whats being allotted and by 6pm which is my deadline on my intermittent fast 8-6 will I really be harmed if I dont eat all those calories will it keep me from losing?I'm currently losing 3 to 4 pounds per week and am concerned I may be screwing up my metabolism
From where did you get the 50% protein goal? That's unreasonably high and, as you've found, hard to do. If you reallocate some calories to carbs and especially fat you may find it easier to meet your calorie goal.
Here's a reputable protein calculator:
https://examine.com/nutrition/protein-intake-calculator/
I shoot for @ 500 calories of exercise per day, and when I do, using the MFP default of 20% protein aligns with the protein recommendation from examine. If I were completely sedentary, I'd need to bump it up to 30%.
Since I always try to get in that 500 calories worth of exercise, the increased calories and macros isn't a surprise.3 -
I put the fitbit on only during cardio when I compute those calories into my diary my macros, calories shoot up
wait.
are you ADDING the exercise in manually? or have the fitbit synced and letting fitbit do it?
youre adding it in manually, aren't you?
dont do that.
or if you insist on doing that, change the calories burned to '1'
you are 'double dipping' your calories.
look, the BEST thing to do is wear your fitbit as its intended. sync it to MFP (it can be glitchy at times, just fair warning) do not add your exercise in manually. let fitbit do its thing and adjust your calories. if you see it constantly adjust DOWN, you know you need to change your activity level downwards. and, if you get more calories to eat, eat back around half of whats given, and watch your weight to see how accurate that adjustment is.8 -
callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »I put the fitbit on only during cardio when I compute those calories into my diary my macros, calories shoot up
wait.
are you ADDING the exercise in manually? or have the fitbit synced and letting fitbit do it?
youre adding it in manually, aren't you?
dont do that.
or if you insist on doing that, change the calories burned to '1'
you are 'double dipping' your calories.
look, the BEST thing to do is wear your fitbit as its intended. sync it to MFP (it can be glitchy at times, just fair warning) do not add your exercise in manually. let fitbit do its thing and adjust your calories. if you see it constantly adjust DOWN, you know you need to change your activity level downwards. and, if you get more calories to eat, eat back around half of whats given, and watch your weight to see how accurate that adjustment is.
OP is losing 3 to 4 pounds a week. Advising them to make changes that will lead to lower calorie intakes is not wise.4 -
I drink a banana, smoothie every morning 540 cal and around 600 cal for dinner skipping lunch the smoothie fills me up. I do Peloton at home and go to gym every day
If you are eating 1200 calories or less and exercising every day and active in your job on top of that, you are definitely undereating. That isn't sustainable. There are consequences for undereating that you really won't enjoy, like hair loss, no energy, mood swings, damage to muscles including your heart, etc. The most likely is that you will decide it is too hard and give up. You would do better to put your stats into MFP and list 2 lbs. a week loss. Then try to eat to that calorie goal. Not less. Your activity level is what you do in your everyday life (work, childcare) and doesn't include exercise. You can log your exercise or have your smartwatch do it if you have one that is synced to MFP. You should eat back some if not all of your exercise calories, depending on whether you are losing weight faster or slower than expected.3 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »I put the fitbit on only during cardio when I compute those calories into my diary my macros, calories shoot up
wait.
are you ADDING the exercise in manually? or have the fitbit synced and letting fitbit do it?
youre adding it in manually, aren't you?
dont do that.
or if you insist on doing that, change the calories burned to '1'
you are 'double dipping' your calories.
look, the BEST thing to do is wear your fitbit as its intended. sync it to MFP (it can be glitchy at times, just fair warning) do not add your exercise in manually. let fitbit do its thing and adjust your calories. if you see it constantly adjust DOWN, you know you need to change your activity level downwards. and, if you get more calories to eat, eat back around half of whats given, and watch your weight to see how accurate that adjustment is.
OP is losing 3 to 4 pounds a week. Advising them to make changes that will lead to lower calorie intakes is not wise.
thats why i wanted to know how long ago they started. if it was just recently it may be an initial water weight loss.
there's a lot of missing information plus using the fitbit incorrectly to say exactly where the problem is, i think. even just knowing how long ago he started would give a good place to start, for all of us.
if he uses the fitbit as intended, and his activity level is correct, his calorie intake will be correct.1 -
callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »I put the fitbit on only during cardio when I compute those calories into my diary my macros, calories shoot up
wait.
are you ADDING the exercise in manually? or have the fitbit synced and letting fitbit do it?
youre adding it in manually, aren't you?
dont do that.
or if you insist on doing that, change the calories burned to '1'
you are 'double dipping' your calories.
look, the BEST thing to do is wear your fitbit as its intended. sync it to MFP (it can be glitchy at times, just fair warning) do not add your exercise in manually. let fitbit do its thing and adjust your calories. if you see it constantly adjust DOWN, you know you need to change your activity level downwards. and, if you get more calories to eat, eat back around half of whats given, and watch your weight to see how accurate that adjustment is.
OP is losing 3 to 4 pounds a week. Advising them to make changes that will lead to lower calorie intakes is not wise.
thats why i wanted to know how long ago they started. if it was just recently it may be an initial water weight loss.
there's a lot of missing information plus using the fitbit incorrectly to say exactly where the problem is, i think. even just knowing how long ago he started would give a good place to start, for all of us.
if he uses the fitbit as intended, and his activity level is correct, his calorie intake will be correct.
Using a watch / HRM just during cardio is a perfectly valid strategy, people don't have to use FitBits or other devices as all day trackers. Just like using MFP to estimate their daily average activity is a perfectly valid strategy.
But using a device that counts heartbeats to estimate exercise calories is also no guarantee of accuracy, especially for someone with 100lbs to lose. My suspicion would be that the high heartrate could well be due to poor fitness levels rather than achieving high exercise performance.
OP - if sticking to your eating window / fasting schedule is causing you difficulty in eating an appropriate amount of food to achieve a moderate rate of weight loss then that eating pattern is a poor option for you.
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callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »I put the fitbit on only during cardio when I compute those calories into my diary my macros, calories shoot up
wait.
are you ADDING the exercise in manually? or have the fitbit synced and letting fitbit do it?
youre adding it in manually, aren't you?
dont do that.
or if you insist on doing that, change the calories burned to '1'
you are 'double dipping' your calories.
look, the BEST thing to do is wear your fitbit as its intended. sync it to MFP (it can be glitchy at times, just fair warning) do not add your exercise in manually. let fitbit do its thing and adjust your calories. if you see it constantly adjust DOWN, you know you need to change your activity level downwards. and, if you get more calories to eat, eat back around half of whats given, and watch your weight to see how accurate that adjustment is.
OP is losing 3 to 4 pounds a week. Advising them to make changes that will lead to lower calorie intakes is not wise.
thats why i wanted to know how long ago they started. if it was just recently it may be an initial water weight loss.
there's a lot of missing information plus using the fitbit incorrectly to say exactly where the problem is, i think. even just knowing how long ago he started would give a good place to start, for all of us.
if he uses the fitbit as intended, and his activity level is correct, his calorie intake will be correct.
Using a watch / HRM just during cardio is a perfectly valid strategy, people don't have to use FitBits or other devices as all day trackers. Just like using MFP to estimate their daily average activity is a perfectly valid strategy.
But using a device that counts heartbeats to estimate exercise calories is also no guarantee of accuracy, especially for someone with 100lbs to lose. My suspicion would be that the high heartrate could well be due to poor fitness levels rather than achieving high exercise performance.
OP - if sticking to your eating window / fasting schedule is causing you difficulty in eating an appropriate amount of food to achieve a moderate rate of weight loss then that eating pattern is a poor option for you.
Thanks. I knew a standard HRM could be used that way (obviously), wasn't quite sure about a fitbit and how accurate it might be when doing it that way. What you mention about the high HR makes sense, too, hadn't thought about that.
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Ok, set my macros to 40 carb 30fats 30protein, going to wear fitbit from morning until bedtime, adjusted my daily from active down to moderately active ( Im retired) I have been using mfp for 6 weeks and have lost 26 pounds so far. When I do cardio I go hard, have always exercised that way dripping of sweat, unable to speak and heart rate into hiigh 160's so hopefully things will even out and I'll get this weight off and I'll get back to being healthy.2
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Ok, set my macros to 40 carb 30fats 30protein, going to wear fitbit from morning until bedtime, adjusted my daily from active down to moderately active ( Im retired) I have been using mfp for 6 weeks and have lost 26 pounds so far. When I do cardio I go hard, have always exercised that way dripping of sweat, unable to speak and heart rate into hiigh 160's so hopefully things will even out and I'll get this weight off and I'll get back to being healthy.
That's a really good macro split. I did most of my weight loss at 40% Carbs 40% Fat 20% Protein - so good idea to change your previous split. 50% protein on 1800 calories was too much.
With more carbs, you'll have a slight bump up on the scale though - it will be temporary but you'll be concerned. It's just what happens when you go to higher carb, and it's water, not fat. Stay the course.
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Ok, set my macros to 40 carb 30fats 30protein, going to wear fitbit from morning until bedtime, adjusted my daily from active down to moderately active ( Im retired) I have been using mfp for 6 weeks and have lost 26 pounds so far. When I do cardio I go hard, have always exercised that way dripping of sweat, unable to speak and heart rate into hiigh 160's so hopefully things will even out and I'll get this weight off and I'll get back to being healthy.
its been long enough i think its safe to say its not initial water weight. i would eat a bit more, consider not doing IF (truly, there is no reason to in your case, it doesn't seem like, anyway?), and ... for lack of a better way to say it, calm down a bit. it's easy, and most of us have been there, to want ALL OF THE WEIGHT GONE NOW! Most people who burn out, do so because they try to do too much, too soon. You did not gain the weight quickly. You will not lose it quickly. Better to lose it slowly, and KEEP IT OFF, then lose it quick, and gain it all back and more! We see a LOT of that. Many of US have done that, too. Under eating comes and intense exercise comes with its own set of health issues. Some pretty scary ones, if you read this thread (and it applies to women AND men...its not just a woman thing) https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10761904/under-1200-for-weight-loss/p1
You want to go about this in a smart way, and in a sustainable way. You want to KEEP this weight off. And you want to STAY healthy, otherwise, what's the point of losing weight, right?
When you make changes, watch the scales for a couple of weeks to get a real idea of what's going on. Ask on here for help. There are SO many truly wise members who are so good at figuring things out and helping people!
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26 pounds in 6 weeks is very, very fast weight loss - over 4 pounds a week. You say you have 100 pounds to lose. For 4+ pounds a week to be reasonable, IMO, you'd need to be well over 400 pounds to start, to avoid increasing health risks beyond minimal. If you were over 400 pounds, I'm guessing you'd think you had more than 100 to lose, unless you're *exceptionally* tall.
You won't stop yourself losing weight or wreck your metabolism if you lose too fast, but you can lose unnecessarily much lean mass (muscle is slow/hard to regain, at our age especially), impair your immune system, experience hair thinning/loss, and other potentially more serious health consequences.
I don't know about you, but I'm less resilient to stresses in my 60s (I'm 65, lost from obese to healthy at 59-60), compared to when I was 20. Fast weight loss is a major stress. Stress has physical and psychological consequences. The weight-loss stress is cumulative with any other physical or psychological stress we have going on in our lives.
Consider slowing down. Lack of hunger isn't necessarily a sign that all is well. I accidentally under-ate when I first got on MFP (because MFP significantly underestimates my calorie needs - rare, but it can happen). I felt energetic, not hungry . . . until suddenly, I didn't. It was like hitting a wall. I was weak and fatigued. Even though I corrected as soon as I realized, it took multiple weeks to recover. I was lucky nothing worse happened (just maybe a little hair thinning a few weeks later - that's usually a delayed effect). No one needs that!
Please be careful!3 -
callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »I put the fitbit on only during cardio when I compute those calories into my diary my macros, calories shoot up
wait.
are you ADDING the exercise in manually? or have the fitbit synced and letting fitbit do it?
youre adding it in manually, aren't you?
dont do that.
or if you insist on doing that, change the calories burned to '1'
you are 'double dipping' your calories.
look, the BEST thing to do is wear your fitbit as its intended. sync it to MFP (it can be glitchy at times, just fair warning) do not add your exercise in manually. let fitbit do its thing and adjust your calories. if you see it constantly adjust DOWN, you know you need to change your activity level downwards. and, if you get more calories to eat, eat back around half of whats given, and watch your weight to see how accurate that adjustment is.
OP is losing 3 to 4 pounds a week. Advising them to make changes that will lead to lower calorie intakes is not wise.
thats why i wanted to know how long ago they started. if it was just recently it may be an initial water weight loss.
there's a lot of missing information plus using the fitbit incorrectly to say exactly where the problem is, i think. even just knowing how long ago he started would give a good place to start, for all of us.
if he uses the fitbit as intended, and his activity level is correct, his calorie intake will be correct.
Sorry -- I could have sworn this was a thread where they OP had been at it for several months. I guess I hopped between threads and forgot where I was.2 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »I put the fitbit on only during cardio when I compute those calories into my diary my macros, calories shoot up
wait.
are you ADDING the exercise in manually? or have the fitbit synced and letting fitbit do it?
youre adding it in manually, aren't you?
dont do that.
or if you insist on doing that, change the calories burned to '1'
you are 'double dipping' your calories.
look, the BEST thing to do is wear your fitbit as its intended. sync it to MFP (it can be glitchy at times, just fair warning) do not add your exercise in manually. let fitbit do its thing and adjust your calories. if you see it constantly adjust DOWN, you know you need to change your activity level downwards. and, if you get more calories to eat, eat back around half of whats given, and watch your weight to see how accurate that adjustment is.
OP is losing 3 to 4 pounds a week. Advising them to make changes that will lead to lower calorie intakes is not wise.
thats why i wanted to know how long ago they started. if it was just recently it may be an initial water weight loss.
there's a lot of missing information plus using the fitbit incorrectly to say exactly where the problem is, i think. even just knowing how long ago he started would give a good place to start, for all of us.
if he uses the fitbit as intended, and his activity level is correct, his calorie intake will be correct.
Sorry -- I could have sworn this was a thread where they OP had been at it for several months. I guess I hopped between threads and forgot where I was.
lol yup- been there, done that 0 -
I drink a banana, smoothie every morning 540 cal and around 600 cal for dinner skipping lunch the smoothie fills me up. I do Peloton at home and go to gym every day
if your calorie goal is 1858, then why are you only eating 1140?
Eat more. losing 3-4 pounds a week is pretty fast for a prolonged period of time.2
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