Calories - weight loss

[smileybrit]

Hello everyone,

I am new to fitbit and just wanted a little help on calories in and out. I have a fitbit flex and logging all food and drink that i consume. I understand for a woman it is 2000 calories daily and as i am wanting to lose weight (approx. 3 stone to lose) you just go under the daily allowance. I have been eating in small amounts and eating healthily however, I have a calorie deficit of 2000 calories and I am either under or over my daily allowance. This is confusing and becoming frustrated that i am not losing as much as i would like.

Any tips will be welcomed.

[JohnRi]

Can you give us a little more info. What does your fitbit tell you your daily goal is?  2000 calorie deficit is incredibly excessive.  I maintain one around 1200 calories a day, and it's pretty harsh.

Did you mean 1000 or 200? 

[smileybrit]

Sorry, my daily goal is 10,000 steps daily. i do have over 2000 calorie deficit. Does this mean i am eating too little or too much? I do lots of walking, going to the gym and swimming each day and find that i am not losing weight.

[Dominique · Accepted solution]

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@smileybrit wrote:

logging all food and drink that i consume. I understand for a woman it is 2000 calories daily

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There is no rule that says a woman (or a man) should eat 2000 calories daily. It all depends on your age, your size (weight/height), your activity level and your goal (lose, gain or maintain).

For a smaller, older and sedentary woman, 2000 calories will be too much (compared to expenditure). For a taller, younger and more active one, it will be too little (or will cause her to be in a deficit, which may or may not be her goal).

Have a look at an online calculator such as this one, in order to see how the above mentioned factors (gender, age, size, activity level) affect your BMR and your TDEE.

[JohnRi]

How many calories are you Eating a day?  How many are your burning each day? 

[CarlyinCarolina]

Also new to fitbit and have been a bit confused about this! I've been searching around, and I this is what I have figured out. Someone please tell me whether this is correct.

There are two widgets on the dashboard: one for "Calories In vs. Calories Out," and one for "Calories Burned." 

The Calories In vs. Calories Out is automatically set to 2,000. So, it wants you to eat 2,000 calories/day. No more, no less. The Calories Burned is just.... how many calories you have burned that day. Simple as that. If you want to lose weight, you should always burn more calories than you have eaten. The question is, how much of a difference should there be between calories in vs. out if you want noticable weight loss? That's what I can't quite figure out...

[Dominique]

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@CarlyinCarolina wrote:

how much of a difference should there be between calories in vs. out if you want noticable weight loss? That's what I can't quite figure out...

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1 pound = 3500 calories, so if you have an average daily deficit of 500 calories, you would lose  weight at a weekly rate of 1 pound. One pound may not be "noticeable", but in three months, that’s 12 pounds. 

[Dominique]

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@CarlyinCarolina wrote:

If you want to lose weight, you should always burn more calories than you have eaten.

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Not always, but most of the time. Having one day when you eat more than you burn won’t necessarily ruin your efforts. For instance, if you eat at 600 calories deficit 6 days out of 7 and at a 100 calories surplus on 1 day, you’d still have the same weekly deficit of 3500 calories you would have eating 7 days at a 500 calories deficit. If you have a 500 deficit on 5 days and a 500 surplus on 2 days, you’d still have a weekly deficit, but of only 1500 calories.  

[smileybrit]

Hi Carly,

Yes i am too new to fitbit and was confused about the same thing. As Dominique pointed out, calorie intake can be different for each person due to many factors. As I am 4ft 10in, i would need less. As i understand it, your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is how many calories you burn just by living (sleep, breathing) and your total daily energy expeniture (TDEE) is the calories you burn by activities. From this a calorie deficit is calculated which is on the dashboard. As long as there is a deficit you will lose weight, if you want to gain weight eat more so there is no deficit. Use the link that Dominique has given, I found that useful as it gives you the amount you need to eat each day for you.

Hope this helps I am learning about all this too

[JohnRi]

Ok, now I think I understand what you are asking about.

First it's odd that your calorie Out is always 2000.  Mine changes every day based on activity.

In theory Calorie Out should be the same as calories burned.

Now keep in mind your calories burned/out can changed if you exercise.  My calories out right now says 1488, after I exercise and burn 900-1100 calories it will say calories out 2600-2800.

Now your Fitbit won't let you set a calorie deficit larger than 1000 calories a day.  A calorie deficit is the number of calories under your calories burned that you will eat in a day.  So if your burned 2800 calories, and choose a 1000 calorie deficit, then you can only eat 1800 calories.  IE, your calorie in, should be 1800.

As long as you keep your calorie in, lower than your calorie out, you should lose weight.

[CarlyinCarolina]

Good to know, thank you! I just checked and I do have my Fitbit set up with a goal of a 500 calorie deficit. As long as my little chart stays in the yellow ("under target") or in the green ("in the zone") I should be ok, right?

[SebringDon]

@CarlyinCarolina

There's a link in my signature to a four-part series of posts that explains how Fitbit's Food Plan works in detail. I've had great success sticking to the plan, because it fits my metabolism to a T. Even if you burn a little differently than I, there are ways to adjust your plan to get the results you want.

Hope this helps!