Have you lost weight since you got your Fitbit?

[Rnda]

I am the exact same weight as I was when I got my Flex 3 1/2 months ago!

How about you?

I'm hoping with Spring here and Summer around the corner, that my walking will increase. 

Moderator edit: title

[Dominique]

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@medas2005 wrote:

I would focus more on body fat percentage.

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Yes, but how do you "focus on body fat", without losing weight? @FrogMystic said she incorporated resistance training in her program, which is indeed the right thing to do. I’ve found the only way I can reduce body fat is by losing weight.

[medas2005]

I agree with you that the primary way to lose body fat is to lose weight.  I found it quite helpful to assess body fat each week (I used the scale at our community center) and multiply the percent fat times my weight to make sure that I was pushing my fat down, not just weight.  I found that 2 or 3 hours per week of weight lifting in addition to my walking and cardio helped me achieve that.

[FrogMystic]

@medas2005 The scale is just one metric for me, and I use it for overall trending information. Although I weigh every day, I don't focus on whether the number is high one day or low the next, but week to week whether the overall trend is downward. I also measure myself weekly at the neck, waist, and hips, and I gauge how my clothing is fitting. Interestingly, there is always a bump up on the scale after a heavy resistance day. If my research is correct, that's water and glycogen working to repair and refuel the depleted muscles. After a rest day, there's always a whoosh down.

To date I have lost over 10 inches in my waist, 8 inches in my hips, and over an inch in my neck. That tells me what I really want to know. The fat is going. At the moment, I can't be sure I'm not losing muscle, but I like to think I'm not losing much. My strength has increased. The body weight exercises I'm doing are intense, and I'm keeping my protein intake up. I'm not low carbing, because that doesn't work for me. It crashes my mood and makes my resistance training performance suffer. However, my carb intake is somewhat lower than recommended for an average diet. I use healthy fats for satiety and to make up that small deficit.

[SitStayGoodDog]

I got my FitBit on 12/20 and I've lost 1 pound.  I walk 15 miles a week.  I log another 6 miles a week running on the treadmill.  And I weight-train 2 or 3 times a week.  I record everything I eat, and I should have about 1,000 calorie a day deficit.  Even if the calories burned is way off, I still should have lost something.  It's very discouraging.

[medas2005]

Walking 15 miles per week is great for your health.  It is probably not enough to move the needle much on weight loss.  I found that I started to lose weight when I exceeded 15K steps per day together with some gym works 2-3 times a week.  At that point I began to lose a couple of pounds a week.

Good luck in your efforts, the road is not easy.

[SitStayGoodDog]

@medas2005  I wasn't very clear in what I posted.  I'm getting about 16,000 steps a day on average.  The 15 miles a week is just what I do as "added" exercise on my lunch hour (3 miles, 5 times a week).   I'm not sure how many calories a days I was eating before I got the FitBit, but I'm only eating a1,200 calorie a day vegetarian diet now.  It's very confounding.  I'd like to lose 43 pound. Fortunately I have until Christmas time to do it 🙂

[medas2005]

Well good, you are doing the right thing.  In my experience, I worked almost two months before really started losing weight and then it changed pretty dramatically.  I just kept working a bit harder and refining my food intake each week until eventually my body gave in and got smaller.

[Esya]

@SitStayGoodDog

Your calories deficit might actually be too large. When you eat too little your body will hold on to the fat (weight) as a survival instinct. For a medium weight loss a 500 calories deficit is more typical. Try eating more for a few weeks and see if that helps losing weight.

[kaelarenee7]

You're probably not eating enough for your activity level if you're only
eating 1200 calories a day, which is going to hurt your weight loss. That
amount of calories might not even be enough just for the amount of calories
you burn per day just by being alive, without any exercise. It may sound
counterintuitive, but you may need to eat more. Or you might not be
accurately measuring what you're eating and are eating at a surplus.

[Dominique]

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@medas2005 wrote:

I started to lose weight when I exceeded 15K steps per day

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That was also the same for me, back in 2013. However, it was a case of out-exercising a poor diet. Now I know I could have achieved the same result with far less steps, by paying more attention to what and how much I’m eating. Not that I regret the time spent getting crazy step counts at one point: it didn’t hurt me and it certainly improved my fitness level.

[Roboharrogate]

To me there has been three key focus areas for me losing weight; 36lb since 20 Feb this year.

The first focus for me was my attitude and approach. I decided to go to a boot camp . It was hard, probably the toughest 10 days I have ever endured ( having done very little exercise for a long time) but it was worth it. I learned a lot about what I was capable of mentally and physically and also about nutrition. I lost 16.5lb at bootcamp. This was a catalyst to me changing.

Easy when you'r in a closed environment and not at home or work. So my second focus was my lifestyle. With my work I spend a lot of time entertaining clients who expect good food and wine. My approach coming home was not to think of this as a diet, which is generally a short term approach, but much more a change in my lifestyle and a long term, permanent change. It was all about me and my health so when I go out for a meal I look at what is BEST for me on the menu. If there is nothing healthy then I ask for it. Alcohol is the killer on any weight loss program, I enjoy a drink but have not had one since the 20th Feb and in all honesty I don’t miss is.

Cut out the crap, I have avoided processed food and kept to approximately 1600 calories a day and I never feel hungry. I use calories per day as my wight los indicator, if you burn 4000 calories but only take in 1600 then you have burned 2600 calories extra. 3500 calories = 1lb weight loss so mathematics are easy.

Food is key but make sure it is the right food ! Keep clear of the heavy starchy food, such as potatoes, have sweet potatoes a couple of times a week. Avoid rice, replace it with cauliflower rice or Quinoa. Pasta, replace it with black bean pasta ( Holland and Barrett), tastes great. Keep well away from bread and refined sugars. Don’t cut out carbs but on eat healthy ones and halve your normal portion sizes. Everyone under estimates their daily calorie intake. Don’t beat yourself up if you occasional have allow out in your favourite Indian or Chinese restaurant.

The third focus is exercise. I quickly learned that measuring steps is a good indicator of activity but not a guarantee of losing weight. I have learned that the most effective way to lose weight is to keep the metabolic rate high so you keep burning calories hours even days after you have been to the gym. Interval training and HIT is the best way to really kill the fat. Some people have said that they have spent hours on the treadmill but not lost weight. It is more effective to do intervals at high intensity for a much shorter period than to just keep running on the treadmill. Your body gets used to doing the same thing at the gym or outside so it is key to keep change what you do, so one day do HITs on the bike and rower and the next on the cross trainer and stair climber. Remember to do the core exercise as part of the program and 15 mins ABS every day if you can..Body weight training is great and I would recommend a suspension trainer that you can take with you!

Get outside, gyms get boring.

It s not say but I am enjoying eating healthy, working out and I feel great.

[Dominique]

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@Roboharrogate wrote:
losing weight 36lb since 20 Feb this year.

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Today is March 10, so you’ve lot 36 lb in 19 days (an average of 1.9 lb per day)?! Several people in the community have lost 100 lb in a year, which I found very impressive and challenging. Another person recently reported a loss of 11.2 lb in 12 days, which left me speechless. But 36 lb in 19 days is something I just can’t understand. Yes, it is commonly admitted you need a deficit of 3500 calories for a weight loss of 1 lb, which means the deficit for 1.9 lb would need to be 6650. If eating 1600, total expenditure would need to be 8250. We’re entering Michael Phelps territory here.

[Igottalose30lbs]

@ medas 2005,

What do you mean about a "heavy resistance day"? Does that mean free
weights?

I'm just looking for some guidance from someone who has experience.
Yesterday I hit 10,000 steps at 12:30 (noon) and darn-near fell over with
excitement! I've only hit that mark twice since I got my fitbit on feb 4th.

Losing 10 inches on your waist is fantastically significant! What have you
done to accomplish that?

Once I started gaining weight, I could no longer wear chocker necklaces
because they looked horrible on my oversized neck!

I used to be thin a year ago, but I retired from the Army and "WHOOSH" I
gained about 40 pounds. I had to run to the goodwill and buy clothes that
would fit. A few months later, I had to run back and get an even larger
size! I'm soo sick of this weight, I just want it gone!! Do you have any
advice for me?

Lisa (aka, Igottalose30pounds)

[Igottalose30lbs]

I tell you what, that's all that matters!!!!!  I have 3 closets in my house full of clothes that "used to fit" but don't now.  I flat out refuses to give them up!  I've only had my fitbit since Feb 4th 2017, so I'm still trying to get myself into a routine or patter to walk or jog or just move more.  I want to get into those clothes soooo bad!!

Lisa (aka, Igottalose30pounds)

[medas2005]

Free weights is best, but you can do quite a bit with no weights or with a machine.  I paid a trainer for just a couple of sessions and he put together a whole program of circuits for me to do.  That was a year ago and I still do them now.  I also do some things like squats when I am doing my long walk for the day.  There are lots of pretty good programs on-line that you can find with a Google search.

I also switched over from a carb cereal breakfast to a protein shake breakfast which I just love and makes a big difference because protein is hard for the body to convert to fat.

[Igottalose30lbs]

kamiller,

Thank you so much for the advice and for sharing your weight loss experience!!  You have truly inspired me to make a change!

Lisa (aka, Igottalose30pounds)

[Igottalose30lbs]

Seg31,

Thank you very much for your inspiration.  Unfortunately I am a die hard salt-aholic!  I realize now that if I can cut that back and try to be active, maybe I'll see some results!

Lisa (aka, Igottalose30pounds)

[Dave001]

67 days with Fitbit, just over 1 million steps and weight loss so far of 15.1kg (33.3lbs).

Still a long way to go to reach a healthy weight, but the trend is encouraging. 

As well as aiming for 10k steps/day (I've managed it 61/67 days), I've overhauled my diet. 

I've gone from sedentary, gluttonous omnivore (meat, cake, chocolate, fried English breakfast etc., etc.) to Mediterranean diet, pescetarian, borderline veggie. And I love it. 

I'm experimenting with veggie recipes. I've eaten more chickpeas/lentils/beans in the last couple of months than I had in the preceding 40 years!

Today, I made an amazing veggie pâté.

(http://www.amuse-your-bouche.com/walnut-roasted-garlic-chickpea-pate/)

My love of exercise and food has returned!

[HemantP]

Hi 

 I feel like kinda stuck with walking (though that itself is going good as started basically at 0 steps and now average about 12500 per day). However, I find it difficult to jog/run still due to the weight. I did lose about 15 pounds in 7 months but more not happening even with the walk above. I started gym too where i have now started taking inclines on treadmill with decent enough speed as jog/run i still find it difficult. Any advise guys who might be into something like this or already crossed this hurdle?

[Dominique]

@HemantP: there’s nothing wrong with walking, and with walking only. It’s safe for most people and can be sustained for long enough to burn a decent amount of calories. Although I have no problem running, I still prefer walking and this is what I’m doing most of the time. You may want to pay (more) attention to your diet, as it’s probably what is preventing further weight loss to happen. Since you’ve joined a gym, I would suggest you use it for resistance training (whether with free weights or machines), since you can walk outside the gym.