Does it help to put your Fitbit at your goal weight when trying to lose?

[mrj1988]

I set my Fitbit at my goal weight of 180 and try to eat about half of what I burn all day. There have been bad days along the way but it's working great for me so far and I'm almost to months in and 40lbs lost since October 26, 2015. I started at 327lbs.

[Ozzie65]

Hi @mrj1988 - It's clearly working for you. Keep it up!

[HelenaFitbit]

Congratulations on the weight loss @mrj1988! Even if the weight loss goal seems scaring seeing it on the dashboard tile, I believe it's the best motivator to keep pushing it. 

You can do this! Keep on stepping 

[Tave]

Excellent work.  Keep at it if it works for you!

[emili]

fantastic!!!! you should be so proud of your accomplishments- keep going, the best is yet to come!

[Heybales]

Great results.

But - you have the eating goal for what it would be at goal weight maintenance - and that in itself would cause weight loss.

But you also then eat half of what your body would want then?

So I'm guessing at this point you have a 40% deficit?

Actually - you likely have no idea - but I'd bet it's about that high - because your weight is used for calorie burn for moving and non-moving time - so both are under-reported.

That's rather crash diet extreme deficit there.

You seen what happens to people on extreme crash diets? Not pretty if they reach goal weight, and how long they might keep it off.

Just suggestion you are lucking out at the start - don't expect the body to like that the whole time attempting to get to goal weight - it will adjust to protect itself.

[SebringDon]

@mrj1988

I've got to go with @Heybales here, and I can't believe more people aren't pointing out the low chance of long-term success and the possible damage you're doing to your body with your current routine.

A starvation diet, which is essentially what you're on, is aptly named. You're starving your body of the nutrients it needs to work properly, and you're going to have at least two problems with that. While the weight may be flying off, your body is consuming muscle, as well as fat. Muscle takes a lot of time and effort to rebuild, unlike fat, so you're doing yourself long-term damage for short-term gain. That's a bad idea.

Secondly, you're training your body to survive on a tiny amount of food, which means all your systems are working at sub-par. In addition, you're slowing your metabolic rate, which means that the more weight you lose, the less your body will be able to burn. You're setting your systems up to gain weight rapidly if you ever go back to anything approaching a normal eating routine.

The Fitbit approach is designed to be a much saner and safer approach, using your current Basal Metabolic Rate (based on your current weight, height and age) plus calories burned through exercise to estimate a reasonable diet budget based on a goal of one to two pounds of weight loss per week. That way you avoid all the problems described above, and most importantly, it works not only for losing weight, but for setting you up to be able to successfully maintain an appropriate weight once you reach your target.

Above all, it works. I have my plan set for one pound per week weight loss, and I generally leave less than 200 uneaten calories of what Fitbit budgets for me every single day. Over 12 weeks, I have lost an average of 1.3 pounds per week. On top of that, by eating the right foods, I'm never hungry and have more energy than I've ever had.

Dig into how Fitbit is designed to work, set an appropriate plan, and work that plan. In the long run, you'll have a much more successful and healthier weight loss process.

Sorry to rain on your parade, but I think it's important to your long-term health and success.