Diabetis: Calories taken vs calories burnt

[LRHeimpel]

I was diagnosed 3 months ago with diabetis type 2.  My current A1C is 6.1 (down from 11.5) and I average a glucose reading of 130 taken each  morning.  My doctor put me on a 1250 cal/day diet, I have gone from 230 lb down to 193 lb.   My fitbit says I use up around 4000 calories each day.

Now that I arrived at my ideal weight, will I have to eat more calories per day?  4000 to keep intake/burnt on balance and maintain the same weight?

[Baltoscott · Accepted solution]

That’s quite a weight loss over 3 months.  Congratulations!  Fitbit’s calorie burn estimate is just that, an estimate.  In your case it (4000 cal/day) sounds kind of high.  Here is a link to a TDEE calculator that probably puts you closer to 3000/cal day — depending on your age and height.  You might try increasing to 2500/day for a few weeks and see how it goes.  Expect a weight increase (5-10lbs) over the first week or so, since your body is used to 1250 right now, but it should stabilize after a couple of weeks and if you start losing again at that point you could move to 3000/day or more.

[LRHeimpel]

Thanks for the info Scott!

I will show it to my doctor and see what he says.  It is nice to have something to argue with 😉

My work requires a lot of walking (and moving physical weight around) plus I exercise 3 times a week por an hour+.   Fitbit estimates ranges between 15,000 to 23,000 steps or 8 to 15 miles.  That's why it estimates 4,000 calories.  May be a high estimate as you say.  But as soon as I decreased my food intake by half, weight just came off, no effort!   

[Baltoscott]

@LRHeimpel — because of bike commutes and lots of walking my exercise is pretty high too - usually over 20K steps/day.  And I lift weights at the gym 3x/week. I consider myself lucky that I’m healthy enough to be so active as it makes weight loss fairly painless.