Always burn more than I eat, still gain weight

[Case13]

I've read a lot of forums across more than just the FitBit site that all say "it's as simple as burning more than you eat."  Well, I do.  I probably eat excessively one to two days per week but even then, I usually eat what I burn where all the other days I maintain a 100-700 calorie deficiency.  

In December, I had some medical issues in play where I couldn't eat enough to not lose weight.  Then suddenly, in the last week of January (so not over holidays or anything), my weight shot up by 16 pounds and has been moving up and down in an 8 pound range since then but never back down to where I was consistently from August to January.

You might think it is a new medicine I am on, but I have had this problem for years whenever I'm not on a medication that causes weight loss.  You might think it is a thyroid issues, but apparently my standard thyroid test comes out perfect (although that doesn't mean the more in-depth test would).

Any ideas?  It's incredibly depressing.

[fitchakra]

I was referring to the article, not attacking you personally. Sorry for the misunderstanding. 

[ssullivan]

It's ok, I didn't think you were.  I think the article made a good point in the end though.  The tracker is good for keeping up with your movement, but don't use it to count your calories in vs out to determine how much you can eat. Plus you can still eat to much of what's good for you too and still gain weight.  There is so much more to it than movement vs intake.  I think looking at what the dashboard show I can eat is to much for me at my age and it's really not a lot of calories 1,350 a day, but I've decided I need less.  On the flip side, I have always been active, but it made me realize I'm not as active as I thought I was.  Since using the tracker, and increasing walking, my Dr told me my heart and pulse was fitter than in past visits, so I'm using that to determine I have gotten fitter.  But I didn't take it you were attacking me, I understood what you said.  Because I believe people think they can walk and exercise and eat what they want and I know it's not true.  

[ljkee]

What finally seems to be working for ME is that I have changed my work out routine. I was doing the 1/2 hour treadmill and 1/2 eliptical routine. Seven weeks ago I went to a 6 week boot camp at the gym where I work out. I learned more weight/resistant exercises and how to use the TRX. We mixed up the cardio with the strengthening. I was down 3 1/2 pounds after the six weeks were up. My routine since starting the boot camp has changed to where I do 15 minutes of cardio on the treadmill, work out on the machines for 15 (using the heaviest resistance I can handle), to the stair stepper, then back to the machines, and then finish up on the stair stepper. Oh...and I stopped drinking my diet cokes. Well this past week I was down another 3 1/2 pounds. My knees are less painful and I feel much better. If you are exercising and still gaining you must do something different. You cannot continue doing the same thing every day and expect different results. You must either change someway that you are eating or change the way you work out. I changed the way I was working out, eating cleaner, and stopped the diet cokes.

[Heybales]

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@ssullivan wrote:

http://www.today.com/health/my-fitbit-making-me-fat-users-complain-weight-gain-fitness-1D79911176

While I am fitter, I have gained since I started using my tracker.

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Most of those comments in there are showing the ignorance of what the body does when you first start exercising - puts on water weight.

No comments seemed to have been for extended time.

Some didn't clarify, but I'm sure at that point you get in to dishonest logging, intentionally or not, or not logging food at all, thinking the increased activity will help by itself.

Studies have shown without food tracking, exercise by itself rarely leads to weight loss - people eat more.

[nkbma]

I have found the baseline BMR (basal metabolic rate) to be FAR too high on fitbit.  most sites I use to calulate my BMR list it around 1500 calories a day.  this is the number of calories I burn even if I just lay on the couch all day.  fitbit seems to be giving me something closer to 1800 calories a day...this is 300 calories a day that fitbit maintains I can eat even before I walk around.  also, when I walk the treadmill the number of calores I burn may be around 350 calories but fitbit gives me closer to 400 cal.  so already fitbit is giving me a false 350 calories that I really shouldn't get.  I would suggest signing up for the "kind hard" or "hard" setting.  in this case you really will be under, but perhaps not by much.

bottom line: I believe fitbit overestimates calories burned in various ways thereby giving a false sense of how many calories you can eat.

[ssullivan]

@nkbma I feel the same way.  I've noticed the more I move the more calories it gives me.  It's more than I know I need for my age and height. I think everyone should log, but maybe realize the calories the Fitbit display says you can have may be more than you really need.  I log everything I eat, drink, lick, bite, it's a habit after working at weight watchers for 7 years. I thought I had my setting set harder, but I may not, I need to check that.  Thanks for the suggestion!

[Heybales]

Huh, Fitbit uses pretty close to the Mifflin BMR formula, using age, gender, height, weight.

Look at your Activity tab Calories burned per 5 min during sleep or any non-moving time. Divide by 5 x 1440 = BMR they are using.

Close now?

If not - you have entered some stats wrong somewhere. Or you are reading some calorie amount somewhere thinking it's currently burned.

Fitbit is giving you your TOTAL daily burn - because as you mention - as soon as you climb out of bed, you burn more than BMR. Just in case you are confusing BMR and TDEE that Fitbit is estimating.

Actually, Fitbit underestimates your daily burn, because as you can see from that calorie burn graph, ALL non-moving time is given BMR burn amount, and that's not true when awake, when standing, when digesting food, ect. Calorie burn is actually higher than BMR at those times.

Now, you may have the calorie estimation option on - but that's an option in your Preferences, not anything to do with accuracy. Disable it, simple fix.

So treadmill and Fitbit disagree with calorie burn. (hope this is treadmill you enter in weight, which is required)

Do they disagree with distance?

If yes - there's your problem - you didn't manually set stride length for walking and jogging.

If Fitbit thinks you are walking farther, of course bigger burn. Very correct.

It's a tool, it has it's limitations, not everyone hits the averages, and you have to know how to use it before you throw the concept of using it away.

[angelleeg]

maybe your not eating enough?

[KatrinaO]

Snacking is dangerous, especially when we start estimating the calories in our snacks. I try to eat 3 meals a day, and 2-3 planned snacks. Meals are 400 calories, snacks are 100 calories. 3*400 + 3*100 = 1500 calories per day. Yes, it's tough to keep a meal to 400 calories--lean protein, lots of veggies, an occasional small portion of potatoes, yams, or other starchy food. The advantage of breaking down the meals this way is that I never get really hungry. Best of luck with your body change goals! Katrina

[Outback365]

Sometimes I have to increase my calories to lose weight.  Try eating 5 small meals a day and stay within your target range for intake of calories.  If you do not eat enough your body will slow down thinking you're in starvation mode.  Eat more healthy choices - try to hit a daily calorie composition of Carbs 45% - 65%, Fat 20% - 35%, Protein 10% - 35%.  Your fiber should be around 26 gr and keep your sodium between 1500 - 2000 mg daily.  I enter my food prior to eating it so I know I'm on track.  I usually have a loss of 2lbs per week, if I log my food.  Drink plenty of water and get at least 10,000 steps per day.  Start reading labels at the grocery store - you would be amazed at what you will stop buying when you know whats in it...Good Luck and don't give up!

[Coralluvz]

I have found water is the key. I have always struggled with weight but I know when I am drinking at least half my body weight in ounces or more that's when I see the difference. When I gain weight I know its not what I am eating it is what I am not drinking. also the more you drink the less hungry you feel. most people are thirsty and confuse it for hunger. just a thought.

[kleoniki]

hello! it is very depressing indeed. I would propose to you the following :

- an accurate  test of your metabolic rate

- plus strength training, weight lifting e.t.c. to build muscles in order to help ur metabolism wake up

-in the mean time i would not vote for a very high caloric deficiency since it lowers your metabolism even more.

Hope a/m was helpful and will work for you. Good luck dear coFitbiter!

[annatheterrible]

its not just about amount of calories u put in ur body . It is also about what kind of food you are eating. Would suggest to u to clean out all sugar( or as much as u can ), especially high fructose corn syrup and to eat only veggies for dinner. Also you could try not eating dairy for a while .

[stiches987]

Same thing for me......What I think happens is this..... I went on a 800 - 900 cal diet.   Worked great , loss lots of weight....however   when you start to eat Normal..... l500-1700 cal a day... you body is not used to the higher amount.  It just absorbs it fast....   You have to start increasing the cal very slowly.... like an extra 100 cal a day over a couple of weeks...    I know this is insane.... but believe me I ended up putting back 16 lbs.... in a weeks  REALLY NOW.   I did not over eat that much.... maybe enough for 3 - 4 pounds....if at that... and it was really weight not water.... very depressing.   Once your metabolism slowed down... it just didn't burn off the normal calories.....  So next time I will vary the calories ....I was very upset to say the least..... and blew the whole diet thing.... and I was looking lean and mean too.

[Shackamaxon]

I have been doing well with my Zip which is truly motivating me.  I check either the zip or my dashboard several times a day. But I am at a plateau right now and have been reading about water retention. I have another 50 lbs to lose to get to my next goal and I am currently drinking 64 oz daily.  I read somewhere that your fluid intake should be 1/2 of your wt in lbs.  That would mean that I should be taking in almost 100 oz every day.  How does this match up with what other dieters are looking at?  Is that a realistic amount.  I certainly feel as if I will gurgle if I drink that much but I am willing to give it a try.  I do seem  to be elimating what I take in.

Mickey

[Heybales]

There are all kinds of myths surrounding water intake.

The one you mention is the most recent one based on nothing more than word of mouth claim.

Even the 8 glasses a day started with a theory that included the water in food eaten, it was never a separate 8 glasses.

Are you eating at a reasonable deficit to what you burn? Sounds like more than 50 to lose, so indeed 2 lbs weekly could be reasonable.

But you aren't making it more by eating even less  than goal are you?

Water retention is a myth except for stress. Stress and constantly elevated cortisol can cause upwards of 20 lbs water retained - but drinking more doesn't help that.

Getting rid of stress does.

Sadly diet is a stress, frequent intense exercise with no recovery is a stress, food sensitivities and allergies are a stress, life is a stress, disease is a stress.

You got an upper stress limit you might say - go above it with combo of everything - and you got a losing fight on your hands for weight loss.

So you lower what you can. Perhaps reasonable diet for a healthy body doesn't apply to you if you have a disease. Or stressful job/family life. Or unknown food sensitivities.

Because a few lbs of like sodium retained water isn't going to mask real weight loss for more than a week. That's where drinking more might help. But again, if all your meals are high sodium, then you have so much extra water you carry - that doesn't stop weight loss.

[Vorberger]

take no notice of fitbits calorie calculations. They are drivel. Really.   Set your calorie target for a 1000 under your calorie intake. You might just then lose weight. Alternatively, try to keep it around 1300-1500 cals a day no matter how many cals fitbit says you can eat. Try that for a month and I bet you'll lose weight.

[Heybales]

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@Vorberger wrote:

take no notice of fitbits calorie calculations. They are drivel. Really.   Set your calorie target for a 1000 under your calorie intake. You might just then lose weight. Alternatively, try to keep it around 1300-1500 cals a day no matter how many cals fitbit says you can eat. Try that for a month and I bet you'll lose weight.

---

Just because your unit is setup badly for your experience, doesn't mean others are.

You might want to read some of this topic to see what has already been done - namely what you recommended.

And then read some of the links as to what you can do to your metabolic efficiency by applying such advice. Might surprise you.

[Andielyn]

FWIW, I am relatively new to Fitbit and my experience in the last month has been it's an extremely accurate estimation over a month's time.  I dropped all the data into an Excel spreadsheet, added up my deficits for a month, divided by 3500 (average calories for a pound of loss) and came within 0.1 lbs of my actual weight loss.  I am eating MORE than when I was just tracking my food and using a standard calculator based on average activity level.  I also use an HRM for moderately strenous activities that aren't calculated well by the Fitbit (i.e. biking) for a closer estimate of calorie burn.

Notice I did say "estimations", "calculations", etc.  Any tool you use is going to be an estimation.  So far the Fitbit has been the closest in accuracy for me.

[jleist]

Cass.. are you still out there? 

It seems you havent posted on this thread since June.

On the off chance you are still out there, I have a couple thoughts....

1. THYROID... you said your test results were "perfect" but you didnt say what your numbers were

                        did you know that most Doctors and Labs are using outdated guidlines for TSH levels

                        If your Dr. measured thyroid function with a TSH test anything over 3.0 reflects a

                        slow thyroid. The old number was about 5.0 If you are over 3.0 find a Dr. that will

                        use the new guidline. You can Google "new TSH guidelines" and bring the information

                        to your Doctor.

2. RMR-......     Fitbit calculates off a standard mathmatical model. If you have higher or lower muscle

                        mass your actuall RMR will be different.

3. INTAKE...    You mentioned that at 1600 calories a day you are basiclly eating a couple snacks

                         and one regular meal a day. I would look at where you can cut calories in that meal

                         so you can add more meals or snacks. Sauces and condiments are often calorie

                         rich. I'm eating 1 meal consisting of 2 servings of protein and 3 servings of vegitable

                         and 5 snacks a day. My average daily intake is less than 800. Today I had steak and

                         broccoli

4. RATIOS...     Forgive me if this was already covered, I scanned all the replies, but admitt, I didnt

                          read them all. What I did read was suggesting a high carb ratio. That would be SOP..

                          but you might consider TEMPORARILY adjusting your ratios where the highest

                          percent is protein followed by carbs and keeping your fat to under 20% Since your

                          body typically gets most of its energy from carbs.. cuttign the carbs will force it to burn

                          fat (assuming you have any fat to burn). The high protein will help you maintain

                          your muscle mass

5. PALEO...      There is a lot of "stuff" in our food. Many people who have had trouble with weight,

                         gastro-intestinal issues, allergies, skin problems etc.. have found relief with a Paleo

                         diet... clean eating is simple and can make a huge difference. Some of these issues

                         are caused from our immune system attacking us. My daughter wasnt looking to

                         loose weight, she was having skin and gastro-intestinal issues. Her Doctor told her to

                         try a Paleo diet. All her ailments went away as well as 35 pounds.

I hope something here helps

I have Hypothyroidism

I'm a Medi-fast FitBiter

I've lost 100 pounds in 9.5 months