My calories in vs out

[nonnamama]

My calories in vs out says I'm over, but I've eaten less than I've burned

[Heybales]

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@OpheliaCollins wrote:

I love my Fitbit, it's actually making me wanna move more.  But if we can't trust the some of the guages on our dashboards how do we know if we can trust the Fitbit?  I hope I'm just missing something here because I really need this thing to help me!

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The Calories In/Out gauge is merely for that moment in time, and is about 50 calories.

And may be totally useless for most of the day, as you may workout out early, and slowly through day eat more to make it up.

Look at Food Plan tile, that tells you how much you have eaten out of what your plan is.

And your plan of course is based on what you have burned, so it can change.

The Calories tile will say what you have burned.

And of course the Calories In/Out guage you reference tells you both, and should match those other tiles.

So usually lack of trust is based on lack of knowledge - what patr of dashboard do you not understand?

As to trusting Fitbit - are you aware of how it estimates calories burned?

[OpheliaCollins]

The part I don't understand about the dashboard is the calories in/out part.  I know that we have to burn more calories than we take in to lose weight.  My guage keeps telling me I'm "under" the calories I'm supposed to eat everyday but I track my calories down to the last one and am definitely in range.  Yet my guage says I'm under. 

[Heybales]

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@OpheliaCollins wrote:

The part I don't understand about the dashboard is the calories in/out part.  I know that we have to burn more calories than we take in to lose weight.  My guage keeps telling me I'm "under" the calories I'm supposed to eat everyday but I track my calories down to the last one and am definitely in range.  Yet my guage says I'm under. 

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50 under is all it takes to show up as under.

Give an example of where you tracked your calories and where it said how much you had eaten, to how much your goal eating level was.

And what is your definition of being within range? Are you trying to be under your eating goal, even though your eating goal is already under what you burn?

Even just looking at that gauge, if you had a 500 cal deficit between calories in and calories out, and at end of day you see a difference of 550 calories, it'll show under. Meaning you could eat 50 more to be in the green.

That's the easiest thing to do with the gauge, just give instant figures, you do instant math, and see where you are.

Not really that useful I think. Your first meal could be lunch, which means until noon (shoot, even when you wake up before breakfast), it will show as under. And your last snack may finish off your day as planned, but even after dinner it shows under.

Some tools may not be useful for you, that one isn't for me. In which case remove the tile and look at calories burned and calories eaten elsewhere.

[OpheliaCollins]

Thanks Heybales, that's pretty much the conclusion I've come to also; that the calories in/out gauge isn't really all that helpful so I'm just gonna ignore it.  I'm doing the Jillian Michaels program and right now my "magic number" is 1405 so I'm trying to keep my calories in that range.  So when I saw the gauge saying I needed to eat 500 more calories when I knew I had already eaten 1200 calories, that set off alarm bells for me.  I track every single calorie I take in so I always know how many calories I can eat throughout the day. 

Thanks for your help!

Ophelia

[Heybales]

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@OpheliaCollins wrote:

Thanks Heybales, that's pretty much the conclusion I've come to also; that the calories in/out gauge isn't really all that helpful so I'm just gonna ignore it.  I'm doing the Jillian Michaels program and right now my "magic number" is 1405 so I'm trying to keep my calories in that range.  So when I saw the gauge saying I needed to eat 500 more calories when I knew I had already eaten 1200 calories, that set off alarm bells for me.  I track every single calorie I take in so I always know how many calories I can eat throughout the day. 

Thanks for your help!

Ophelia

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Well, now taking an additional deficit making it even bigger isn't wise either.

Bigger is NOT better, and it'll come back to bite you later.

So if it's 500 calories to meet your eating goal that is already 1000 under what you burn - meet your goal.

Would you miss your goal weight by 40% and say that's close enough, call it quits then?

I'm betting no.

There is a big difference between 50 calories under, and 500 under.

You merely need to eat less than you burn, start from the top down, not the bottom up.

1200 is recommended lower limit for safety reasons for a sedentary person to get nutrients in.

You sedentary? You want the most out of your workouts? Don't do the minimum.

[TwlightNite]

Heybales - Thanks for your helpful information, and Yes it is true that you should not eat below 1200 calories.  If you continuously have a deficit in calories you will definitely not lose weight.  You need to eat the recommend number of  calories it tells you to eat and you will lose weight.  I have just started losing based on the fact that I am now eating the number of calories I need to eat based on my activity level - which I am trying to stay with based on the recommend steps, calories, water, etc.

[TwlightNite]

But based on your activity level that changes.  If you want to lose 1 lb  Per week you need to eat 400 - 500 calories less than your calories out level.  Because the deficit for that level is 500 calories.

[GBFL]

I have been counting calories for 105 days.  (I did not have my fitbit the entire time, so prior to that, I was writing it down.)  I have eaten from 950 to 1050 a day.  Being a woman and older, who can't walk too much, due to bad knee, I have still managed to lose from 1 to 1 1/2 pounds a week.  Some weeks I don't lose any, and some weeks more than a pound.  So I am stating my weight as a weekly average. I want to lose 15 more pounds and then maintain.  I know getting closer to goal it gets harder.  Those who have a lot to lose take it off faster in the beginning.  However, the pound to a pound and a half seems to be the healthy way to do it.  I would not eat any less calories.  I take a miltivitamin every day, and I swim laps for exercise.

[christopherm1]

do i have to eat my targets or be under i am always under

[Heybales]

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@christopherm1 wrote:

do i have to eat my targets or be under i am always under

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It's a goal - something to reach.

You willing to miss your goal weight and say close enough?

Besides, that eating goal with deficit already included may be not reasonable already - don't make it worse by making it bigger.

Bigger is not better.

Reasonable deficit is for fat loss.

Unreasonable includes muscle loss too - you'll regret that later if not sooner too.

[muffy65]

OK, I'm upset with what is happening to my body now.   When I first got FITBIT and use the lose it app with it to record food.  I lost 5 lbs and was wonderful..    I exercise 6 times per week.   4 of these are jazzercise which I burn 242 to 291 calories.  Then 2 times per week do zumba which burns 700 to 1000.  I'm to be on 1193 calories per day.   So there are day I'm burning 1500 calories but I stick to my 1193 calories.  I lost weight that way, now the past two months I keep gaining and not doing anything different.  It is very frustrationing and I'm sure I'm not the only one.  I just do not understand now instead of loosing 5 more lbs to goal it is back to 10 lbs.   Help

[Heybales]

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@muffy65 wrote:

OK, I'm upset with what is happening to my body now.   When I first got FITBIT and use the lose it app with it to record food.  I lost 5 lbs and was wonderful..    I exercise 6 times per week.   4 of these are jazzercise which I burn 242 to 291 calories.  Then 2 times per week do zumba which burns 700 to 1000.  I'm to be on 1193 calories per day.   So there are day I'm burning 1500 calories but I stick to my 1193 calories.  I lost weight that way, now the past two months I keep gaining and not doing anything different.  It is very frustrationing and I'm sure I'm not the only one.  I just do not understand now instead of loosing 5 more lbs to goal it is back to 10 lbs.   Help

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Read all the posts in this topic - you have not or you'd understand exactly the amount of abuse you are causing your body.

Very bad idea if you want success losing fat.

Your method you'll be back here next year attempting to lose even more fat with less muscle.

And yes, that is frank, and I hope a scary thought - because if your current routine just looking at those numbers doesn't concern and scare you - something should.

[muffy65]

Sorry just asking for some help

[Heybales]

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@muffy65 wrote:
Sorry just asking for some help

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Well, no need to be sorry, I know you were.

That's why I was saying the life preserver was already thrown into the water, you just need to turn around to see it, you don't know it's there yet.

And that's by reading the posts in this topic.

[Raviv]

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@muffy65 wrote:

I exercise 6 times per week.   4 of these are jazzercise which I burn 242 to 291 calories.  Then 2 times per week do zumba which burns 700 to 1000.  I'm to be on 1193 calories per day.   So there are day I'm burning 1500 calories but I stick to my 1193 calories.

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Listen to Heybales.  He's right.

This is not good for your body, and it's letting you know that by refusing to lose weight.

You have a Fitbit because you thought it would help you.  Let it.

Set a REASONABLE calorie deficit (depending on how much you have to lose) in the Food Plan section of the Logging pages, then eat as many calories as it says to eat.  If you get within 50 calories and it says "You nailed it!" then you know you are appropriately feeding your body and it will return the favor by working correctly.

[christopherm1]

Some times when i up date calories in on my phone it doesnt update as i put items on they just over ride the last total so if i got 200
And i update 60 it gives me a total of 60 eaten
Chrism

Kind regards,

Moderator edit: personal info removed

[muffy65]

thank you