Help! Weight Loss/Caloric Intake Dummy Here

[Riprock]

Ok, so I am very new to the whole tracking calories thing and I'm embarrassed to say that I am absolutely lost.  I've used different calorie calculators online and it seems like they all come up with different numbers for me.  I just want to know how many calories I need to be taking in to lose at least 2 pounds a day.  Fitbit is saying 1,600 while I've had calculators tell me that I need 2,800!  HELP!!  And once I get an accurate number, should I assume that my exercise has been factored in or should I add that in myself?

[Ukase]

You want to lose 2 pounds a day. Okay.

First, we need to talk numbers. It's dreary math, but it's simple math, like from the 5th grade.

A pound is roughly equivalent to 3500 calories. Some say it's 3600 calories. I've even read articles that suggest that a calorie is not just a calorie and that some calories are really a little higher in calories than we think. But, that's beyond your question - so let's assume that 1 pound is equal to 3500 calories.

In order to lose 2 pounds of weight - you must burn 7000 calories more than what you eat that day.

My guess is that you meant to say 2 pounds a week. Burning 7000 calories a day would be a full time job for anyone, and very hard to do, except maybe for a teenager who's already very tall and very fit.

Myself, I'm on my feet all day, and walk about 10000 steps just at work. I work out in the mornings and walk in the evenings and I'm hard pressed to burn over 3500 calories per day, with an intake of about 2200 to 2500 calories. I cannot fathom the effort necessary to burn 7000 calories a day more than I eat.

In any event - let's say that now you know you need to burn 7000 calories more than what you eat during any given time period. Let's also say that you've measured and weighed all your food that you're eating and know how many calories you've consumed in a day.

Calories burned minus calories consumed equals calories remaining.

If calories burned is larger than calories consumed, you've lost weight.

If Calories burned is smaller than calories consumed, you've gained weight.

You should assume that if you're wearing your fitbit, your total calories burned are being tracked

UNLESS you're swimming, or weightlifting. It's really tough for a fitbit to know if you're weightlifting. And, if you take it swimming, it'll probably break or get lost in the water. In these cases, you can add an activity if you know the start time, ending time and the distance or the calories burned (from the dash of the elliptical, for example, or just guess 11 calories per minute for weight lifting - but that's really a shot in the dark. Very hard to say how many calories that is because it really depends on how intense the workout is, how strong you are, how often you change the music on your ipod instead of just lifting the weights.

Hope this helps.

[Algenon]

I agree with Ukase.  Two pounds a day is a bit much...

I would also like to add to what Ukase said:   no two people lose weight the same way.  If you have a low metabolism due to genetics it will be a bit harder lose weight  than someone who has a higher metabolism.  This is why the numbers are different.  I always use the higher numbers when adding in food and try to go below way below the number of calories I eat. ( I would use the lower fitbit number).  You can then adjust based on how you are losing weight.  

[Heybales · Accepted solution]

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@Riprock wrote:

Ok, so I am very new to the whole tracking calories thing and I'm embarrassed to say that I am absolutely lost.  I've used different calorie calculators online and it seems like they all come up with different numbers for me.  I just want to know how many calories I need to be taking in to lose at least 2 pounds a day.  Fitbit is saying 1,600 while I've had calculators tell me that I need 2,800!  HELP!!  And once I get an accurate number, should I assume that my exercise has been factored in or should I add that in myself?

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You are using sites that are estimating what you burn daily based on an activity level you told it.

For MFP, that is non-exercise activity, exercise is added later when actually done.

Other TDEE sites, you include exercise in a rough selection of usually 5 activity levels.

But guess what Fitbit is doing instead of rough 5 levels to choose from - daily adjusted infinite levels - forget the sites.

And unless you have over 50 lbs to lose, 2 lbs weekly is unreasonable, and sooner or later your body will let you know because you won't get that loss anymore, or worse, any loss.

Now, Fitbit does need to be informed of exercise it can't see, obviously swimming or lifting or rowing, ect, or non-step based stuff it's calorie burn is very wrong with, elliptical, biking, ect.

Manually log that stuff so Fitbit has best estimate of what you burned that day.

Then eat 500 calories less than that - daily. Yes, it will change, but probably not so much you can't plan the day well to adhere to it.

And I'm guessing the 2 lbs daily was mistake, only with some pretty stupid stuff could you get that effect, but since you'd probably die soon after, why even worry about the weight loss then?