Calorie in/out more important than calorie goal.

[Onus]

I am new to fitbit and the past two weeks have stuck to my calorie goal to lose 1lb week but haven't lost any weight. Am starting to realise/wonder is my calorie intake versus burned actually the main goal I should be looking at for weight loss?

[abb123]

Calorie burn is not an exact science.  If you are trying to lose 1 lb per week that means your looking to burn about 500 calories per day more than you take in...  

A couple of things.. its going to be hard to know for sure when you hit your goal because 1 lb could just be a glass of water being retained because you had a salty meal or you haven't had  a good bowel movement or any other number of things.  

The other is that your BMR may be lower than expected for any number of reasons.  So you may be closer to 300 calories per day under even though Fitbit is estimating you ar close to 500.  Body types, activities, and even the way we prepare food can play a part in our ability to lose weight.  

Don't be discouraged, if you are staying 500 calories under the estimate, you are still going to lose that 1 lb even if it takes an extra day or two.   Consider than if they are just 100 calories off, it will take 2 more days to lose that pound, because you will have only burned 2800 calories after 7 days as opposed to the 3500.  3500/400 = slightly less than 9 days.

[Onus]

That's really helpful thanks esp thinking a bit longer term rather than on my weekly weigh in day. I am 11lbs off my target and assume the last stage gets harder to lose too!

[Dominique]

Two things: first, there is a margin of error in both the calorie expenditure estimated by your Fitbit and in the calorie intake counted by you. Fitbit could overestimate your calories out by 250 calories and you could underestimate your intake by 250 calories, in which case a 500 calorie deficit turns into no deficit at all. Secondly, two weeks is a very short period: people tend to be too impatient and want to see results right away (hence the popularity of "xx days fixes"). The truth is: it takes time, and slow and steady is usually a better approach.

You may also want to add other methods to evaluate your progress, for instance by measuring your waistline, evaluating your body fat (in spite of its limitations, the Fitbit Aria scale is very convenient for that in my experience) etc.

Don’t be discouraged. If you know you are doing the right things, just keep doing it. If things are still stuck, you can make minor adjustments, like increasing your step count a little bit and/or decreasing your intake.