I need help!!!

[RWHaffey]

Hi I’m currently stuck in limbo! I’m 30, 173cm and currently weigh 160lbs!

I'm going to try and slim down to 150lbs but I’m a beginner in how the whole calorie deficit/calories burned and how many calories I should eat etc Could someone give me an Idiot’s guide to weight loss please ....:

[Heather-S]

@RWHaffey You might want to poke around the Manage Weight forum here.  

Weight loss is calories in versus calories out.  Get yourself a proper food scale and weigh and log everything you put in your mouth, even drinks. You'll need to figure out your calories you need for maintenance and go from there. There are tons of resources on Google.  

Best of luck!

[Heybales]

In addition to great advice above - with so little to lose to healthy weight - don't stress out your body so much that in rebels and makes this a hard fight.

Select smallest weekly weight loss, the 250 cal deficit.

Since calories eaten is per grams - weigh everything but liquids.

I will add about figuring out your maintenance - guess what your Fitbit is telling you daily - your maintenance.

Just follow the program and the goals. No need to go elsewhere and estimate with 4-5 rough levels when you have a device ready to give you thousands of levels, changing each day as each day changes.

Some are eating goals - those really matter.

Some are movement goals - those help make the eating goals higher or lower.

[RWHaffey]

Thank you for your help

So for instance today I have burned 4,500 calories does that mean that I should eat 4,000 calories to be in a 500 calorie deficit? 

[Heybales]

That does.

To burn off fat you merely eat less than you burn - at reasonable level.

Hence the old adage - move a little more, eat a little less.

Not big scale changes both directions.

I add that, because if you undereat too much, body won't use protein you ingest for building back up the muscle that is torn down each day (or the extra from workouts), but rather use the amino acids for all the required body functions it finds most life sustaining.

So long term under-eating can cause muscle loss - for sure not desired.

Long term can mean 3 weeks too, as I proved out 1 time when I thought I was eating enough with some big workout loads. Lost something like 3.2 lbs of LBM along with some fat. And while LBM is more than just muscle, that was part of it too.

So that is one big calorie burn for the day - what did you do to earn that?

Because you may be dealing with inflated calorie burns - either exercise or daily life, depending on a few factors.

[Heather-S]

@RWHaffey That sounds like way too many calories burned for your height and weight.  I would NOT aim to eat 4,000 calories.  

Check this Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) calculator and plug in your metrics.  Even if you selected "Heavily Active", you'd only be burning 2,523 calories.  

I always say to err on the side of caution and put that you are sedentary or lightly active.  

As much as I love Fitbit, it's known that all fitness trackers can over-estimate the calories you burn.

[Heybales]

I'd suggest that telling someone to use a Sedentary and Lightly-Active choice when you haven't even heard what he does or his stats to reach that calorie level would be very bad idea also. Not sure how you even had enough stats for that ancient Harris 1919 research study calculator to get a figure on his activity level.

[RWHaffey]

I work as a Refuse Collector ( Garbage Man ) on average I’m doing about 40,000 steps a day ( 15 miles ) so I’m guessing that’s where the high numbers of calories burned are coming from plus my BMR on top of that.

[Heather-S]

@RWHaffey That makes more sense, being that you're doing a high volume of steps. But you're still not a big person.  My husband isn't far from your size (a little smaller) and he couldn't eat 4,000 calories a day.  

All you can do is record your meals, weigh them with a food scale, and see if you lose weight on 4,000 calories.  If the scale doesn't move after a few weeks, then you are eating too many calories or eat at maintenance.  Trial and error.  

[Heybales]

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@RWHaffey wrote:

I work as a Refuse Collector ( Garbage Man ) on average I’m doing about 40,000 steps a day ( 15 miles ) so I’m guessing that’s where the high numbers of calories burned are coming from plus my BMR on top of that.

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So here are some potential gotcha's for the device in that usage. This is why I asked.

The device can be very good estimate for average person in average use with average workouts.

You aren't average.

The devices attempt to see impacts to register as a step, if it's enough impact.

From what it sees as impact force along with hang time, and your account stated stride length - it's working out what each step must have meant for distance.

Well, pace (distance/time) and weight are very accurate formula for calorie burn. Used for the daily stuff.

But are all your impacts actually steps with a distance and calorie burn?

Bumpy truck?

That's probably extra false steps. Now, the distance on them may be very minimal as would be the calorie burn - but when you have 40K, they are going to add up.

To that point of 40K steps, even if all legit. You gotta be causing more impact with up and then down steps that had nothing to do with the distance but just stepping down. Extra impact, extra distance, extra calories.

And finally to the point that mere mortals with far less steps have to be concerned with, the general accuracy of the distance calc for each impact.

Because the device is trying to work out distance from impacts from grocery store shuffle to exercise pace walk. So the best place for a stride length setting is right in the middle, about 2 mph or tad less.

People with 20K steps can have big improvements on confirming that.

You may not feel like a 1 mile walk after work, but if you could do a confirmed 1 mile, at 2 mph only, and see what Fitbit said the distance was - you can improve that stat.

That step there (step - get it! oh never mind) could improve the accuracy of the majority of those steps for calorie burn.

The high impacts from big steps down, or the false steps from bumpy truck - it would be interesting to see just how bad an effect those are.

If you had ability to start an activity on device just so it would have a start/stop time - right as you were about to do a longer ride in truck on typical road - you could look at graph later for steps and distance in that block of time.

Same with a street perhaps where you know there are tons of step downs but not much actual walking done - start the activity, stop when done - look at graph later. If it says you walked a mile, but you know you only drove down a mile street stepping down often - then that wasn't right.

So just some ideas to figure out how close the device may be.

Yes you are burning way more than avg person - but 4500 still likely to be inflated with your usage.

[RWHaffey]

That is a lot of words to read in a reply lol 

I just tracked a 1 mile walk there and my results were as followed :-

Time - 17 minutes

Step - 2,121

[Heybales]

Ahh - but how far did the Fitbit say you went?

That's what lets you know if it's decently accurate or not.

[RWHaffey]

It said I done a mile because I tracked it for a mile lol 

[Heybales]

Ahh - needed a known distance mile not according to Fitbit, to compare to.

Your stats may be interesting merely to see if the work steps relate even closely to normal walking.

You can create an Activity Record (easier on web site access) that you give start and end times, for like your whole shift.

That will then display the steps and distance just for that chunk of time.

Might be interesting to divide total steps in that Record by what you got on test walk, and see if miles matches up.

That would likely tell you right there if the step down impacts are causing greater distance to be seen.

Hope you didn't wear work boots on that test walk! Though they could be comfy I guess.