Fitbit and eating those excercise calories

cboscari · June 2012

Hi everyone, some history about me:
Last year I started at about 210 pounds (I am male, 6'0), and I lost about 18 pounds last year, then hit a plateau (at 192 pounds) for about a month. Frustrated, I added calories in, increased exercise, nothing. I had my fitbit, and had a pretty consistent calorie deficit of about two pounds. I stopped watching my diet and calorie intake, and gained 12 of it back. So I started again about three weeks ago.

According to the fitbit, I am burning 2900 or so calories a day. I walk a lot, so I am fairly certain this accurate. Last year, I was trying to hit a loss of two pounds a week before exercise. This time around, I am trying for a pound and a half, to try and delay a plateau. I have NOT been eating my exercise calories, which runs around 400-600 a day.

After losing 4 pounds the first 2 weeks, I have been stuck around 198 or so for the last two. I realize this is a little soon to call it a plateau, but I want to catch any problems early. My goal weight is 185, putting me solidly in the average BMI range.

I was wondering what everyone here thinks. Do you eat your exercise calories? Do you think that with the amount of activity I am doing, I need to eat more food? Or less? Those with fitbits, how do you use it with this site? I set my profile to sedentary, so I can see the calories I burn as an adjustment in MFP.

Any thoughts appreciated, even those who don't have a fitbit.

Thanks!
Chris

TamaraHaase · June 2012

I am by no means an expert, but I can tell you what has worked for me. When I first started, I lost 13 in two weeks and then stalled for several weeks. I upped my calories from 1200 to 1350 and began exercising, and it started to slowly come off again. Now I've found a grove and have begun losing 1-2 pounds per week, for a total of 26 so far.

In regards to eating back your exercise calories, so many on here will tell you you should. While I don't disagree with them, I find it very hard to eat back 900 additional calories when I have a hard enough time getting in the 1350. So do I eat them back, no. But I also don't worry about going over 1350 on days that I've burned a few extra hundred. BTW, I don't have a fitbit, I use a Polar FT40 HRM.

If you're already pretty close to where you need to be (based on your comment that your goal weight is in the mid range for 'normal' bmi), it may be harder as well. You know, those pesky last ten pounds. Have you checked what your BMR and TDEE are? Knowing those numbers would help as well. A good rule of thumb is to have your calorie goal between those two numbers.

I use this site to help determine BMR and TDEE: http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/

Start with finding body fat (the military body fat calculator), then move on to BMR which will also fill you in on TDEE based on activity level. It's a helpful site. I hope this helped!

mcarter99 · June 2012

Is the 2900 burn from Fitbit counting or not counting the 400-600 from exercise a day? And if not, how are you estimating those calories and what are they from?

I've never lost weight with MFP but I've lost 35 with Fitbit from just racking up enough deficit days based on their estimate. I didn't log much activity but I didn't do a lot that they didn't track well.

I have a feeling that you just need to stick to your Fitbit deficit and push past the slow scale response. It'll catch up. You probably have a feeling about if you're eating at a deficit. If you're dying of deprivation, eat more. If you're not feeling the least deprived, eat less. I wouldn't take the advice of eat more regardless, whenever the scale doesn't move for a week, which is such a popular idea here.

Try not to weigh if it derails you. It does me, too. Make a deficit plan that you're pretty sure is going to result in loss of SOME level and stick to it for 3-4 weeks. Then examine your results and make changes if needed. If the scale didn't move but your clothes fit better, that's progress and you might want to just keep on, or try a little lower calorie level. Listen to your body, too.

cboscari · June 2012

My TDEE comes out to 2956, pretty close to the fitbit, and a BMR of around 1850-1900. I have a body fat estimator, it matches the Military calculator result pretty closely. I have been eating pretty close to my BMR, not really eating my exercise calories to get more in the middle of those two numbers. I 'm wondering if that maybe part of the problem.
Chris

cboscari · June 2012

Hi mcarter-
That 400-600 is what MFP is calling the fitbit adjustment for exercise. The fitbit itself typically reads 2900-3100 at the end of the day. As an example, right now at 10:30PM, it is reading 2892. The adjustment for exercise in MFP reads 773, probably because I have set my profile to sedentary, which what was suggested in the FAQ for fitbit users.

I know I should be more patient, but when this happened last time it was very discouraging. I admit though I was bouncing from 188 to 192, which is within that last ten pounds everyone has trouble with. This time, a possible(?) stall is happening earlier. I am trying to prevent any problems.

Chris

TamaraHaase · June 2012

that might be it, I upped my calories by just a couple hundred and, while it did take a while, I've finally started losing and now it feels like it is just falling off. But I did go through a few weeks of nothing, then a few more weeks at a snails pace. So far this week I'm down three pounds

mcarter99 · June 2012

My feeling is you'd be fine eating at either of those levels, and both might be slow, so either way it's going to take patience and perseverance. I personally would pick the lower level if I wasn't uncomfortable at my eating level but I just will never wrap my head around eating more to lose more, unless someone is in some cortisol-fueled state of stress over their eating level and eating more helps them... track better? Sleep at night? I don't know how it helps some. It never helped me do anything but gain more or lose less.

Fitbit and eating those excercise calories

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