Constantly under budget

[moooni]

Hi! I've a question about the calorie intake.

Short premise - I've started walking a lot almost a year ago, got a Fitbit three months ago (one of the best presents in my whole life :D), and began paying attention to what I eat a couple of weeks ago.

So, I set the weight loss plan and tried to stick to it.

I'm basically trying to eat better, keeping track of what I eat, but without drastic changes. A few examples: 

- I've reduced the carbs but still eat them (a little less bread).

- I'm sticking to one glass of wine per day (measured it: it's 150 ml);

- If I put some oil on my salad, I measure it (one spoonful)

- No sodas nor candy (not a big change, actually. I very rarely eat sugared stuff at lunch/dinner, or eat candy during the day).

Bottom line - I'm just keeping track of the quantities. I decide before how much wine I'll drink, pour it and when it's finished, it's finisehd, no refills.

Now, my question. According to my Charge HR I'm constantly under budget.

For example, today I tracked food for 1400 cals and burned 2750 (it's 11 PM, so it'll go up a little bit)

My theories:

1) I'm not really burning that much. I'm 26, female, overweight (around 84 kg), 5'9'' (I'm not sure it's the right way to write it - anyway, around 175 cm).

In my typical day I average more or less 15k steps (usually, one longish walk, and a short one, plus a Leslie Sansone workout three/four times a week)

But, 2700-3000 cals is too much. If I really burned that much, I don't think I could have gained the weight I gained in the last few years.

How precise is the Charge HR?

2) Tracking calories - I'm doing it wrong.

I'm actually trying to weigh everything I'm going to eat, but some foods are not easy to record. For example, I had a steak for dinner - but in the database there are tons of entries for "Steak". Maybe I'm choosing the wrong one...

Homemade dishes are hard to track too. For example, pasta with homemade ragu. How can I know the calories for that? Are the ones in the database reliable? Is it ok if I measure the pasta before cooking it?

And, last question. If I realize in the evening that I'm definitely under budget, what am I supposed to do? Eat something more?

Thanks and forgive my long message. I really want to get fit and trying to do it right!

[JohnRi · Accepted solution]

First things first.  Visit this site. Http://fitcal.me

This site will let you calculate your BMR, BMI, and TDEE.

I see your BMI is 27.3.  Mine is 28.6, so we both have 20 lbs or so to get to a healthy weight.

Your BMR currently is 1644.  Many will say you should always eat at least your BMR.  Now look at this.

I choose a moderate exercise level, and TDEE, or Total Daily Energy Expenditure is 2549.  This an estimate of how many calories you burn, doing moderate exercise 3-5 days a week.

So if your fitbit says 2750, it may be a little over, but it's pretty close to being a good guess.

As you can see from this chart an extreme diet is 1912 calories.  So 1400 is a little low.  I'm assuming you are trying to do a 1000 calorie deficit.  Just some advice, high deficit close to goal, are bad.  You mostly lose muscle and lose almost no fat.  A 1000 is recommend for those with 40 or more to lose.

750 for those 20 to 40 lbs to lose.  And 500 for 10-20.  And 250 for 10 lbs to lose.

And actually, if you eat too few calories, you do gain weight.  Usually for women it's under 1200-1300's.  But you were always active, and ate way under, that could cause weight gain. 

The trick to weight loss, you have to eat enough so that your body burns fat, and not muscle.

I'm 26 lbs away from my first goal, and I was eating 1800 calores,.but my fat % started going up, and my lean mass went down.  So increased to around 2100, and my fat % started coming down.  BUT now it's happening again, so I'm about to increase to 2300.

It's very tricky.

My wife turns out is very very active.  15000-20000 steps a day.  She was eating one meal a day around 800 calories.  She gained weight.  She now eats 1500-1800, and she's lost 35 lbs.  Her BMI is now 25.8.  But her Fat % is still very high.  Her BMI is almost normal, so she's Normal weight, over fat. 

So you have to make sure you do eat enough.

So your calorie deficit was 500 caloiries.  At 10:00 PM, you are now 600 calories under.  I wouldn't worry about it.  If you are 900 calories I would eat something around 100-200 calories.

The food database is pretty accurate.  But you can always add custom foods, and enter your values manually.

[NicoleLovell]

I fount this quite confusing at first, but i soon realised that it's including the calores you burn at a resting rate, rather than just the calories you burn during exercise. So 3500 calories MORE than what you burn at your usual resting rate would equal to 1lbs lost 🙂 Not sure if this makes any sense or is relevant to your question haha. Hope this helps anyway!

[moooni]

Hi @JohnRi, thanks for the detailed answer.

I've looked at the website you linked - very useful.

I was actually trying to go for a 500/750 cals deficit, which looked more doable and less stressing. i just didn't realize my food plan wasn't going to be enough.

Just - to me, it doesn't look like I'm eating too little. As I said, no drastic changes and I eat a bit of everything (carbs and fats too)

Just to be clear, I don't have everyday the deficit I mentioned yesterday; some days I do reach 1700 / 1800 cals. But it's always considered under budget. 

Just, I don't understand how come I haven't lost weight. Before starting seriously "dieting" (i.e. keeping track of calories in a journal, a couple of weeks ago) I wasn't eating very differently. Some more alcohol (but it's not like I was getting drunk everyday LOL), some more carbs...but it couldn't be 1000 calories more than now :-S

Anyway, I'll try to be more consistent with my caloric intake, sticking everyday more or less to the same (higher) number.

Last question: does the fitbit Charge HR take into account my heart rate to compute the calorie burn? Or just the data he knows about me (heigth, weight, gender, age)? 

Thanks again!

[moooni]

@NicoleLovell Yeah, at the beginning I found it confusing too! Also because the values kept shifting (I guess depending on my current level of activity)

[Laneymcg1]

Mine is always very underbudget too.