This thread is for those who meticulously count calories and follow the equation that weight loss is a function of the calorie deficit.
I realize many people do well without counting calories, but I'm not one of them. Whenever I stop counting calories, I quickly gain weight.
I'd like to thank @JohnRi and @Dominique for mentioning trendweight. It connects easily to the Aria scale and some other WiFi scales. It may pull the numbers from Fitbit. I don't know.
This is my progress since the beginning of the last round of weight loss which started on May 15th. I went from 191.3 lb to 179.3 pounds.
Instead of chasing steps, I chase calories. My goal is 4,000 a day as measured by the Surge. I averaged a 1700 calorie deficit according to the Fitbit, but some fancy math showed me it was more like an actual 1200 calorie deficit.
I've been sidelined the last few days from getting my calorie goals because of a muscle strain, but I should be back on track soon.
Tip: I earn my calories before I eat them. I generally only eat up to 75% of the calories I burn during the day. This gives an automatic deficit equal to 25% of the total calories burned. Added to this are the sedentary calories I burn after the last meal of the day. -- Note: This is subject to the systemic error of the Surge calculating calories incorrectly. In my case, it takes about a 4,000 "Surge deficit" to lose a pound.
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I too am chasing calories... I tend to be over budget most days. Because the fitbit reports indicates that my over all intake is less than my output, I should see a decrease in weight. Slow & steady will be fine *smiles*.
Best AnswerCalories - The Universal Currency
If I were running a weight loss camp in the military, I'd give everyone a Surge and they could purchase food with the calories they burned. There would be a 25% tax, so if a person burned 1,000 calories they could purchase 750 calories of food.
There would be no credit, so the person would get no food for the calories they will burn between the last meal and midnight.
Watching calories calculated by the Fitbit is simpler than counting steps as a person doesn't have to convert alternative exercises into step counts.
When I look at a person's profile, I'm more interested in the calories burned/calories eaten chart than the step chart. If I see a gap, I know they are losing weight.
Here is mine for the last 30 days. The average intake doesn't show. This is a known glitch with Fitbit.
Behind the scenes, I had to take six days off from running, so I reduced my calorie intake accordingly.
Notice I have a bigger gap on high burn days. I find it's easier to run a large deficit when burning many calories.
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FYI, when you connect Trendweight.com to your fitbit.com account it pulls it's weight day from Fitbit. So your Aria sends the data to Fitbit, and Trend pulls it from Fitbit.
I've been logging and controling my diet since I got my Surge November 7th, 2015. Today I hit 215. I haven't been this light since my early 20's. When I get it down under 210, I'm looking at my weight when I was 20. Under 200 is my high school weight... 200 sounded so far away at 281 lbs, now it's just a couple of months away....
When first got my Fitibit, I had already lost around 10 lbs. I had changed my diet, I was walking A LITTLE every other day. I thought I was eating around 2000. Turns out I was eating around 2600. A pretty big difference. So I've kept logging it.
I've been eating around 1800 calories for a very long time now. Since February. So my chart looks pretty much the same for months...
So my diet has been independent of my activity level. Although on REALLY active days, if I'm hungry I'll eat more. I've noticed a possible trend of slight muscle loss, so it's time for for me to increase my calories a bit. So I'm going to start eating between 1900 and 2000 calories. It will slow my weight loss, but hopefully, it will result in more fat loss, and less lean mass lost.
I can so relate to the strain. I lost 3 weeks of exercise when I strained 5 of the 9 calf muslces behind my right knee. It was only a type 1 strain, which is appoximately a 30% muscle tear. My weight loss came to a grinding halt. I was able to ride my bike without pain, but I got so saddle sore... But I did hit 20 miles on the bike before I started rehabbing my calf, and getting back to walking. I just had my best pace times the other day. 6 miles walking at 16:50. I've been trying to get back to 15:00 miles. I was able to walk that in 2007 when I was 41. At 49 it's a lot harder!
A couple of my trendweight charts....
With the days getting longer in January, I was able to walk more, and then I adopted the strict 1800 calorie diet. And you can see my weight loss increased as a result. I still have another 33-32 lbs to go just to get into the normal weight range. I'll probably try to get to around 175 and stabilize there.
One thing I'm enjoying is getting into smaller clothes. I'm down to medium shirts, and 34x30 jeans. A huge different from XXL shirts and 42x30 jeans. I'm also enjoying little to no back pain from my ruptured disc between L4 and L5. When I was 24, the disc ruptured due to a work injury. I hurt my back, and I was young, kept working with the pain... a month later POW!!! Worse pain in my whole life. Decided against the barbaric surgury back then, probably going to have the minor surgury they do today at some point.
I'm also enjoying normal cholesterol and normal blood pressure. I was on two different blood pressure meds, and I'm off both of them now. Cholesterol med I'll be off when I get my physical in September.
I had a ton of medical issues... Bad cholesterol, high blood pressure, almost pre diabetic, sugar crash issues if I didn't eat on time, severe head aches from the blood pressure, ingestion, fever at night if I ate too late in the day... Fatigue. Memory problems... All of these have cleared up since I have lost the weight.
So to say I feel 20 years younger and million times better would be a huge understatement!
My only goals for 2015, was get off all meds, and get under 200 lbs. I'm almost there!
I haven't been 175 since I was 4 inches shorter, and maybe 13 or 14. I have no idea what it's going to feel like being so small....
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I like your term "chasing calories." I like to do little hundred calorie challenges by doing either housework or yardwork. I used to jump on the treadmill, but the house got dirty and the lawn didn't get cut. Here are three challenges I did this morning.
Cleaning Bathroom
Vacuuming
Gardening
The total calories are 368. I'll get another 200 or so walking to meet someone for lunch instead of driving.
Unless I'm actually walking, I use the workout or treadmill function on the Surge. They both give about the same calorie count and the same steps for the day. I know the steps are inflated because some of the actions I was using give unearned steps. But the calories are close enough.
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I know this will change as my weight goes down, but I'm never where I should be calorie-wise. At the moment I'm always behind where I should be. Yesterday I specifically went out for a higher calorie lunch as I've had days this week where even with late in the day eating I ended up 2000 calories down. I began to feel this deficit very much so yesterday. Last night I moved away from my usual macros and did carb and fat later in the day. I very much let how many calories I burn drive my eating. When I have a low burn day I definitely adjust my eating.
Best AnswerBetter than the fuel gauge
I find the fuel gauge difficult to understand because I don't know how to calculate the number of calories to get in the green zone. Today, I found an alternative.
The first step is to hover over the gear in the upper right and select the sedentary plan. This only allows a person to eat after they earned the calories. If you click on the side arrows, you will find a place to set your deficit. I use 1,000 calories.
All a person has to do is keep the number on the left green and they will get a 1,000 calorie deficit. If the number is green, the deficit will be 1,000 plus the number. If it is red, it will be 1,000 minus the number.
If you click on reports on the top of the food log you can get a free report for the week to date.
If someone asks, I'll explain why I eat so many carbs and why they don't make me fat.
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@GershonSurge wrote:If I were running a weight loss camp in the military, I'd give everyone a Surge and they could purchase food with the calories they burned. There would be a 25% tax, so if a person burned 1,000 calories they could purchase 750 calories of food.
Great idea! Send half of America to such a camp for one year and you’ve cured the obesity epidemics 
.
Maybe it’s something Donald could do!
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@Dominique wrote:
@GershonSurge wrote:If I were running a weight loss camp in the military, I'd give everyone a Surge and they could purchase food with the calories they burned. There would be a 25% tax, so if a person burned 1,000 calories they could purchase 750 calories of food.
Great idea! Send half of America to such a camp for one year and you’ve cured the obesity epidemics
Maybe it’s something Donald could do!
You misunderstood, but that's funny. I think Donald should be on the first bus. We'd call it a resort for him. He'd have to go alone since he doesn't like anyone.
Seriously, when I was in the Air Force, people who remained in the obese range got kicked out. One of the services they would provide was a weight loss camp for those who were making a good effort.
In my hypothetical example, the camp would be for the military since people could be forced to go and there could be strict monitoring of the food eaten. It's be no different than an eating disorder unit in a hospital.
In our area, the obesity epidemic seems to be disappearing (pun intended.) I don't have any hypothesis except there are more people living on the financial edge. The least expensive food in terms of cost/calorie is generally the healthiest.
Best AnswerWhat you must know about total calorie deficit!
1. A person needs to eat 3,500 fewer calories than they burn to lose a pound. The body doesn't care if this happens in a day, week, or month. It will eventually catch up to the total calorie deficit.
2. Measuring calories burned is inaccurate, so 3,500 measured calories is wrong. It's different for each user because of measurement error in the Fitbit. This can't be fixed, but it will be consistent. However, it will be a different consistant error for each person and with different devices.
3. If a person tracks total calorie deficit, they will never plateau. That is if they have a deficit each day. If they have a surplus one day, they will back up a little.
Let's look at a chart to explain this.
My total calorie deficit for the last 36 days is on the x-axis. My weight is on the y-axis. Notice how the weight tracks the total calorie deficit. Also note in the chart title that it's based on a 4,041 calorie defisit to lose a pound instead of a 3,500 calorie deficit. To calculate this number, I divided my total calorie deficit for the period by the actual weight lost. Excel did the rest of the work for me.
The reason I say a person will never plateau (unless they want to) is by running a calorie deficit every day, they can push the line to the right and the weight will eventually follow.
Note: This may not work if the calorie deficit is low as the measurement error may be greater than the deficit. I recommend using exercise to have a deficit of 750 calories or more. I never recommend eating below the BMR.
For Exel Users:
This is easy to set up with a scattergram. If you have any questions, I can send a file. Maybe later, I'll put one on google docs.
For yesterday's weight, I used today's early morning weigh in. That's because the calorie deficit that affects today's weight happened yesterday.
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