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

[Shadowsforbars]

I am not sure that the fitness community understands this.  Us seniors, almost without exception, have multiple maladies we are trying to manage concurrently.  If we fail to manage our weight in line with our own very high expectations, it is not because we are not trying or incompetent.  It is more likely to mean that we are succeeding in managing one or more of our other ailments.  As Dylan said, we are trying to balance a mattress on a bottle of wine.

When I was younger I struggled with multiple demands on my wallet, paying the mortgage, saving for the kids' education & possible marriage, my own retirement.  I did my best, but I made mistakes.  For example, I saved for 2 & half years for a Betamax recorder.  Now I make mistakes managing my wellness.  I learn and try to better in future, but I am not going to beat myself up if things are not perfect.  

Good health to all those who struggle.  You are unique and none of us can ever understand your position.  

[idiaz]

I am hoping the best for you and your goals.

[GershonSurge]

@Shadowsforbars,

I'll respond since you are a recent arrival. Welcome to the forums.

Most people here have some physical challenge other than just being overweight. It's not only the seniors. We don't look like the pictures in the Fitbit ads.

[russsss]

Hi totally confused !!!!  

Having read most of your posts and most of the replies it's easy to understand the confusion along with a smattering of frustration and a little anger .  Having said that, please understand that most of the commentors really do mean weĺl and are not trying to insult you in any way . They are in some way trying to "solve" what they see as a problem without having the information to define the problem (s) ... this is not malicious or an attack on you .

As for me, no advice, no suggested articles to read, no technical dissertation on anything but I will share my feelings about what I take from your posts ... 1st you'really doing pretty well !!!

2nd as far as weight loss, (dare I say this ?), don't be to concerned   3rd remember, you have to take care of YOU before you take care of anyone else (read that on a board here)   4th you can do this, you can increase your strength, endurance and fitness, (I could be wrong about this but not likely) 

😊

Reading is probably my 2nd favorite thing to do ... fb is usually the 1st .  

[Kateyd1]

Wouldn't that psych have better insight?

Sent from my iPhone

[totallyconfused]

Thanks

[totallyconfused]

Thanks, I never thought of to little calories. I'll up the calories on
days I'm really active. Maybe trying to eat a snack mid morning and mid
afternoon of fruit or protein would help.

Thanks again, would have never thought of that.

[GershonSurge]

@Heybales,

I watched the video you suggested. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i_cmltmQ6A). 800 calories a day is not a safe diet as you probably know.

I do agree that a person who exercises to lose weight may find their muscles are more efficient, so their BMR will be lower. I've seen the number of calories it takes to run a mile steadily decline. According to Fitbit, I now burn 66 calories an hour at rest instead of 72. This happened before I lost weight.

In my opinion, which is in this case unsubstantiated by in depth research attributions, I think it's possible to reset the set point by eating mostly carbs and exercising frequently in the fat burn range. This is 180 minus a person's age to ten beats below. This is close to the theoretical 70% max heart rate. 

[russsss]

Haybales ... there are several types of medications that will suppress ones pulserate as a lot of people with cardiovascular issues can attest to .  The first year after I had a heart attack my pulse wouldn't get up past 115 no matter what I did and when I ? the cardiologist about it he told not to expect much more than that with the meds I was on, since then the dosages have decreased and some of the meds are a thing of the past and my pulserate and response is near normal .  

... moral of the story ... things are not always what they seem to be

[GershonSurge]

@russsss wrote:

Haybales ... there are several types of medications that will suppress ones pulse rate as a lot of people with cardiovascular issues can attest to .  The first year after I had a heart attack my pulse wouldn't get up past 115 no matter what I did and when I ? the cardiologist about it he told not to expect much more than that with the meds I was on, since then the dosages have decreased and some of the meds are a thing of the past and my pulserate and response is near normal .  

... moral of the story ... things are not always what they seem to be

---

This might be true except for totallyconfused's previous post:

‎05-27-2017 16:28

Hi, getting my heart rate up is my problem. Even when I walk the
treadmill for my heart test they can't seem to get it past 115 and
that's with me running at 5 mph for 5 minutes. Of course after that I
ended up with back surgery. resting heart rate is 65.

It's not the only part of her story that changes. Nobody expects perfection in recounting details, but when many details vary, don't complain when the recommendations don't satisfy you. Definitely don't start calling people who are trying to help names. 

[GershonSurge]

Hi, getting my heart rate up is my problem. Even when I walk the
treadmill for my heart test they can't seem to get it past 115 and
that's with me running at 5 mph for 5 minutes. Of course after that I
ended up with back surgery. resting heart rate is 65.

[GershonSurge]

It's not the only part of her story that changes. Nobody expects perfection in recounting details, but when many details vary, don't complain when the recommendations don't satisfy you. Definitely don't start calling people who are trying to help names. 

[totallyconfused]

Now really confused, fitbit chart shows to loose the weight I want in
the time frame I want at a medium pace I should eat 500 calories less a
day. So when the chart shows 1300 calories doesn't that mean I can only
have 800 calories?

[DavidSchneier]

---

@totallyconfused wrote:
Now really confused, fitbit chart shows to loose the weight I want in
the time frame I want at a medium pace I should eat 500 calories less a
day. So when the chart shows 1300 calories doesn't that mean I can only
have 800 calories?

---

I'm late to this exchange, so I offer apologies if I'm rehashing what's already been discussed.

Each individual is different, no chart can accurately determine how many calories you (or anyone else) needs to consume to maintain their weight. Although devices such as FitBit lend a hand in working things out, it's really a trial-and-error process.

FitBit overestimates my calorie burn by approximately 600 per day. Part of that is because I have hypothyroidism, part of that is because it's an imperfect process relying mostly on BMR and your heart rate. I knew early on that I couldn't rely on the FitBit numbers because despite having capped my calorie intake to a daily average of 2,200 for nearly a year, and despite my health tracker (initially Microsoft Band followed by FitBit) telling me I was burning an average of 2,900 calories per day, I never lost so much as a pound. Once I adjust the number downward by 600 and set a daily budget of 1,500, the weight started melting off of me.

I would set a daily calorie budget based on an assumed average daily burn rate and maintain it for 2-3 weeks to see if anything changes. Start off at 1,500 and work from there.

[Heybales]

---

@totallyconfused wrote:
Now really confused, fitbit chart shows to loose the weight I want in
the time frame I want at a medium pace I should eat 500 calories less a
day. So when the chart shows 1300 calories doesn't that mean I can only
have 800 calories?

---

That chart is based on what Fitbit estimates your daily burn is. At that point, not what is seen, what is calculated.

You can select from Sedentary, which for Fitbit is barely above BMR, or sleeping all day.

Or Historical, which is based on just that, what it's seen you do on average.

If there is no historical, it uses Sedentary.

Considering your amount of movement - you obviously didn't select Historical or you'd be well above 1300. Doesn't sound like new user either, it should have historical data.

So that initial calorie goal is if your day actually ended being barely above sleeping all day.

And what you may be reading is the initial eating goal with 500 already removed - eating is supposed to be 1300. And then going up.

And that's obviously not true either.

So your eating level would only be at 800 if you basically slept all day - getting up only to eat.

And in that case, like if really in the hospital - they would know NOT to put you on a diet then or you'll lose muscle mass, not just atrophy shrinkage of non-use, but truly losing it.

Much easier to lose muscle than to gain it.

Now that will lower your BMR by some amount, still not much since muscle doesn't add a whole lot to basic metabolism.

So just need to learn the tool a bit better - your eating goal should be going up through the day.

If using the phone, confirm your device actually syncs to the phone, and your phone has data to update it's info.

[JenniferinFL]

---

@totallyconfused wrote:
Now really confused, fitbit chart shows to loose the weight I want in
the time frame I want at a medium pace I should eat 500 calories less a
day. So when the chart shows 1300 calories doesn't that mean I can only
have 800 calories?

---

No. If you set it for a 500 calorie deficit, than you would be eating the 1300 calories shown. Fitbit is assuming that at your weight and activity level you will burn around 1800 calories per day. Fitbit does the math for you. 

[Heybales]

---

@russsss wrote:

Haybales ... there are several types of medications that will suppress ones pulserate as a lot of people with cardiovascular issues can attest to .  The first year after I had a heart attack my pulse wouldn't get up past 115 no matter what I did and when I ? the cardiologist about it he told not to expect much more than that with the meds I was on, since then the dosages have decreased and some of the meds are a thing of the past and my pulserate and response is near normal .  

... moral of the story ... things are not always what they seem to be

---

Very true.

And I've never seen a study or case studies (merely examining someone) where that suppressed HR allowed the person to actually increase the intensity much or for long.

Like in your case, what I've seen before is that indeed, you couldn't push hard enough to get over 115.

But except for the brief anaerobic time not needing oxygen for a higher level of effort, your effort will come down to match what your HR allows supplying in the way of oxygen to your muscles to metabolize fat and glucose as fuel.

So it's not so much a case of you can't push your HR higher, but rather your medicine suppressed HR will only allow your effort to go up so high. That HR can only allow so much oxygen to be supplied to the muscles for using fat and carbs for regular rate.

This is very much like the effect of "hitting the wall" or "bonking" in endurance events - where you have gone too hard and burned off glucose stores too fast to complete the distance with them.

You hit the point with only plenty of fat to burn (and lactic acid and ketones as poor glucose substitutes at hugely less quantity), your effort will be slowed down so the amount of oxygen you can supply matches what can be burned.

Which is a whole lot slower with basically fat-only burn. Which is why most have to walk or pedal so slow to finish at that point.

But my comment was to a HR that was said to go from resting 68 to 70 at a pretty high level of effort. max incline and decent speed.

[SunsetRunner]

Since May 16 when I got Charge 2 I lost 5.5kg ( 12lbs ). Fitbit helped me to be way more active and I got totally addicted to that. However, nothing could be done without proper diet ( and permanently modifying my eating habits ).

[Uhatat2]

I did , but the Fitbit stopped working after 2 weeks I was already enjoying it when it stopped. I have to get another one charge 2

[cyndistepper]

Sorry to hear your Charge 2 quit working. I stated with the Blaze but now too have the Charge 2 and recently the Flex 2 because its waterproof so I can keep it on in the summer while doing water activities. I've had problems lately loosing large numbers of steps while syncing them both and Fitbit has told me its a known issue they're working on. UGH Oh well, still doing the challenges and pushing on

Have a great day

[cyndistepper]

Perfectly said!!

Cyndi

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

[stslimjim]

I have lost about 60lbs since I bought my FitBit.  In total I lost 90lbs but I hit a plateau at 240 then I decided to start tracking my food so I bought the FitBit.  It has been a great tool in my journey to be healthier.  I have kept the weight off for almost a year now.