Losing weight with 10K

[Kyle15]

So I am new to the Fitbit community, I am simply trying to get some advice, if I continue to reach or exceed my 10K steps a day, along with my cardio run in the gym, and keep my "Remaning" calories from reaching the negatives or even single digits, can this help with weight loss? 

[JohnRi]

In theory yes.  Keep in mind that your tracker is only estimating how many calories you eat and burn.  Both can be off by 250 or more calories.  And therefore if you eat to your remaining calories are zero, chances are you are eating to smaller deficit than you are planning.

I would under eat 200-300 calories each day to make sure you are not logging your food incorrectly, and that the estimating calories burned is not overestimating.

[Xakka]

The 10k steps is a good goal for activity, it will help you burn a couple extra hundred calories each day that give you more room to have a deficit or buffer what you have been eating. If you are tracking calories and activity keep note of your deficit per week for 2-3 weeks and see if over time you are loosing the amount of weight you are expecting to. Your body can burn calories at different rates depending on the types of activity you do, 10k steps running will burn more calories then 10k steps walking. (NOTE: After a really hard workout your muscles will hold onto more water while they heal, so you will likely weigh more for a few days after, I weigh 275lb and after a hard warkout i can weigh in as much as 4-5lbs heavier for the following 2-3 days)

The two tools for weight loss are calories reduction for your diet and increase in activity. It is easiest to make a small adjustment two both intake and activity rather a large change to activity or food.

[bagwoman1]

Thanks for that explanation abtou weight gain (water) after a hard workout. I never knew that information. It would be good to know that as a general rule, as I would get discouraged seeing weight gain after such a challenge to my body. I will remember this going forward and stay the course. 

[JohnRi]

There is a website Trendweight.com. It links to your Fitbit account and it will even out the day to day weight fluctuations and show you an average trend. Very handy for those sudden spikes due to water weight gain.

Plus it shows you how much weight your have lost in the last day, week, 2 weeks and month...

[JohnRi]

This is my last 3 months of weight readings, leveling out the day to day up and down numbers.  Showing the long term trend.  Nice for those days where you "gain" weight. 

The black dots show you my readings on my Aria for that day.  One key thing you should see, is weight loss isn't a science.  Nor it there a magic formula.  I eat about the same 1800 calores each day, and get roughly the same amount of daily exercise.  Yet my weight loss was different from day to day, week to week month to month...

[emili]

One other thing to consider and if you are already apologies in advance. I think based on your name you are a guy.. just be watchful to not over cardio yourself and lose muscle.

If you burn more than you eat, you will lose weight. As John mentioned the data is all based on estimates. Your truest indicator is the scale. If you are losing- keep doing what you are doing. If you are not, adjustments need to be made- move more, eat less or both. Much luck!

[Marcy]

@JohnRi Do you know why most of the weights recorded are below the trend line in the TrendWeight chart? 

[JohnRi]

That's a very good question @Marcy.  This from the help page at Trendweight.

What mathmatical analysis is being used to calculate my trend weight?

The techiques used on TrendWeight come from John Walker's The Hacker's Diet. I found it to be an interesting read (and it's free!). In particular, I recommend reading the "Signal and Noise" chapter for a better understanding of the weight tracking methodology used on this site.

[JohnRi]

Basically it's some fancy math based on Moving Averages and previous weight readings...

From the book...   

The trend line is drawn in as before, and each day's weight is plotted as a diamond. I've drawn lines from each weight measurement to the trend line to show the relationship between daily weight and the trend that day. Remember, in an exponentially smoothed moving average the most recent day's measurement has the greatest influence on the trend line. Recall also, that since the moving average looks back in time, it lags the actual trend. Consequently, when the trend is falling, most of the daily weights will be below the moving average trend line. Think of the trend as a fishing line in the water. Daily weights that fall below it are sinkers, pulling it down; the further the weight is below the trend line, the stronger it pulls the trend line down. When the trend is rising, most daily weights will be above the trend line: floats, tethered to the line, pulling it up.

[Dominique]

Thanks, @JohnRi, for digging out the info from the book! The fishing line & sinkers analogy makes it easy to understand. Your line is more clearly sinking than mine:

[GershonSurge]

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@Kyle15 wrote:

So I am new to the Fitbit community, I am simply trying to get some advice, if I continue to reach or exceed my 10K steps a day, along with my cardio run in the gym, and keep my "Remaning" calories from reaching the negatives or even single digits, can this help with weight loss? 

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@Kyle15

In order to make calorie counting work for you, you will have to count calories. This means weighing or measuring everything you eat and logging it. It does get easier as you create favorite foods.

One method that works for me is "earning" my food before I eat it. If my total calories eaten for the day never exceed 75% of what the Fitbit device shows, I'll lose weight over time. Your percentage will vary from mine, but it's a good place to start. 

I don't recommend eating below the requirement for a sedentary person with the same gender, height and weight.

People generally lose about a pound for every 3,500 calorie deficit. This number will vary based on the person and your Fitbit accuracy. The Fitbit accuracy varies based on the type of exercise you do.

[GershonSurge]

@JohnRi

Thanks for the tip on Trendweight and the book. I'm reading the book now. 

Here is my chart for the last month. I started then, so there is no earlier data.

[JohnRi]

That's a great start!  We are the same height, so I know from a BMI stand point you are crossing into the normal weight range.  I'm a long way from that, but I look forward to seeing my chart like that sometime in the near future...

It's a pretty good book.  Pretty sound principles overall.  I've read about half of the book, and skimmed the last half. 

Out fitbit's do a lot of what his book suggests.  But it's a good read.

[bagwoman1]

a gret tool.. Thanks John Ri! Ihave synced mine with Fitbit dashboard and this porvides a uniquely different look into the weight progression (up or down).

[JohnRi]

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@bagwoman1 wrote:

a gret tool.. Thanks John Ri! Ihave synced mine with Fitbit dashboard and this porvides a uniquely different look into the weight progression (up or down).

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I can't take credit.  It was @Dominique that posted about the site on other posts.  After a few of his posts, I went out and tried the site, and was very surprised at how useful it was.