My new journey begins! - New to FitBit Community!

[Milian]

Hello guys my name is Jay,

I recently received a FitBit Charge HR for my birthday, and today I decided to begin my new weight loss journey. I will be lurking around just to see peoples progession, because that's what motivates me. This whole month I don't have school so I am going to take advantage of it and try to do 5 Miles a day.

Today, I started and I used the runtastic app for my iPhone. I did approx. 3 miles at a running park (don't really know the name of it.) Afterwards, I decided to go home on foot which was 2 miles. 

My experience was not as I expected. Infact, I though I was going to quit by the first mile, but I didn't and I am proud of that. After the first lap my lungs were feeling dry, but I had read somewhere about breathing techniques so I decided to regulate my breathing through my nose, and it worked it stopped my chest burn. One important thing I forgot to do was strech, so now I have a cramp. I was so not prepared. I ran in shorts and it was semi cold but after my body warmed up it was easier to deal with it. I also ran without drinking water, because in the past thats what kept me back.

Are there any tips you guys/girls would have for me? I am just trying to make new friends throughout my journey. 

Mod edit: format

[emili]

Welcome and congrats on making a commitment to a healthy you. You may want to find some friends to help you along the way. You can simply click on the picture of anyone you think you would like to be friends with and send a request. Its all about support so don't be shy. You can message with folks if you need a little extra motivation.

About running- stretching before and after is a must. And drinking before and after is a must. You don't have to drink a lot before and it can be several minutes before, but your body needs additional oxygen to burn through out your run- don't deprive it. You will feel less tired and achy if you drink.

Depending on your fitness goal, you may consider some kind of muscle building activity since running breaks down muscle. I make sure I get strength training in with my runs and I also don't run everyday- although I work out every day except Friday. Hope this helps- good luck in your journey!

[SebringDon]

@Milian

Instead of using runtastic, you can use the "Track my exercise" portion of the FitBit app on your iphone. That way all your data is integrated, and when you set up your weight loss plan you won't need to log data from runtastic in your FitBit app.

[Milian]

@SebringDon, I did not know that this was a feature, but thought it was to log an exercise. I will give this a shot on my next run! Yeah it's becoming very difficult to log things from different apps, but then again this will definitely help alot, and I appreciate the tip! 

[SebringDon]

@Milian

Remember that the simple weight loss formula is calories in must be less that calories out.

You can't do it all by calories out, and if you've just started and have a lot of weight to lose, trying to run and get five miles a day may not be the best way to go. It may just wear you out and discourage you over the short term. Too many people give up because they don't work both sides of the equation, get discouraged because they aren't losing weight really fast, and decide it just doesn't work.

It works, I promise. But you have to learn a bit about your body, nutrition and exercise, and balance the various factors to have a successful experience.

Now that  you're working on the calories out part of the equation by exercising, you should also start on the calories in part by logging your food. Check out FitBit's food plan capabilities, set up a reasonable calorie deficit based on how much you have to lose, and start meeting your calorie consumption goal.

[Tave]

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@Milian wrote:

Hello guys my name is Jay,

I recently received a FitBit Charge HR for my birthday, and today I decided to begin my new weight loss journey. I will be lurking around just to see peoples progession, because that's what motivates me. This whole month I don't have school so I am going to take advantage of it and try to do 5 Miles a day.

Today, I started and I used the runtastic app for my iPhone. I did approx. 3 miles at a running park (don't really know the name of it.) Afterwards, I decided to go home on foot which was 2 miles. 

My experience was not as I expected. Infact, I though I was going to quit by the first mile, but I didn't and I am proud of that. After the first lap my lungs were feeling dry, but I had read somewhere about breathing techniques so I decided to regulate my breathing through my nose, and it worked it stopped my chest burn. One important thing I forgot to do was strech, so now I have a cramp. I was so not prepared. I ran in shorts and it was semi cold but after my body warmed up it was easier to deal with it. I also ran without drinking water, because in the past thats what kept me back.

Are there any tips you guys/girls would have for me? I am just trying to make new friends throughout my journey. 

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First off congrats on getting started.  Your body will initially stress on the activitiy but will acclimate to it over time.  I remember when I first started 5 years ago and could not make the 30 minute walk up hill without stopping for a break 4 times.  Then some months later could make 3 of those treks without a break.  If you start slow and work your way up, it becomes more sustainable for you.

Also, do track what you eat and drink.  The activity means nothing in the end if you consume more you burn.  You can use the log feature to input the foods (and buy a small kitchen scale to weigh things).

Lastly, give it some time.  You won't see changes overnight, but in a month you will feel it, and then people will notice.  Congrats again for getting started 🙂

[emili]

@Milian- I use the stop watch feature when I work out. This tells me how long, how many steps, how many calories and becomes part of my stats- push and hold in the little knob thing on the side until you feel the vibration and you see the stop watch. Push and hold again when you are done and it will give you your stats and then synch with the app.

[Milian]

@SebringDon Yes, it has happened to me in the past were I was discouraged because I wasn't seeing any results. When I was younger I started doing bicep curls and saw results but after a while so I know what you mean. 

I am also aware about the calories that I eat must be burnt in order to maintain the plan. It's was my third run today, didn't run yesterday because it started to rain so I made it up by going today. 

I was able to run half a mile without a break, unlike my first run were I had to take a break at a quarter mile. I even beat my PR for the mile at 12:26, but sadly my other times were worse. I see what you mean to take it easy as I don't really want to hurt myself.

For the food logging portion I think I can trust it. However, I don't want to be cheating myself do you think the FitBit food database is better than the MyFitnessPal one?

[Milian]

Thanks @Tave, I appreciate the motivation! Right now it takes me roughly an hour and twenty minutes to complete the five miles, but my goal is to narrow that down.

I was actually thinking on buying a kitchen scale I hate trying to eye ball things, since I've been reading alot and macros are very important it seems. Thanks again.

[Milian]

@emili, so even if I am on a run (and using the in-app tracker) and I want to lets say max out a sprint. I can hold it down to start the stop watch and then once I am done do it again to end the stop watch, it will sync that info while merging into the run? 

[SebringDon]

@Milian

From what I understand, MFP has a better food database than Fitbit. However, I'm lazy, and I find the FitBit database works well enough for me. I've built a few custom meals and added a few things to the database, and I can get by without having to maintain two different applications. Maybe I'll eventually get into the process of MFP and integrating the two, but for now Fitbit alone takes up enough of my time. I'm trying to keep it simple.

Oh, and add my vote for a kitchen scale. One that has grams, since that's the measurement you'll find on most packages. Nothing expensive, but definitely digital. You can't eyeball portions and be good enough.

[emili]

it will give you stats for your sprint and then sync to overall calorie burn, active time, steps, etc. so for example, if you want to know how long before you enter peak HR or if you want to know how many calories you burn during a sprint- which is all really good data for you to have- then yes, start the stop watch- run like mad- when you stop - end the time and see how long you sprinted for, your HR during that time, how many steps and miles you did during that time and how many calories you burned. I find that super useful so I can plan my workouts. For example- Christmas Eve and Christmas day are coming. I know my intake is going to be higher than normal and there is no gym on Christmas day. I know I need to burn X on Eve and the day after. I know what workout I will do, because I know which ones rev my HR way up to achieve max burn. For me, that is run, sprint, walk on the treadmill for 8 miles. I get 700 calories. Feel free to send a friend request if you want to chat more 🙂 happy to help- if you find this helpful

[emili]

and ditto Don on the scale- if you are serious about food logging and losing you need to get a scale. they are not expensive. I got a pretty simple one from best buy and I love it. all you need it to do is weigh your food in oz and grams (some food comes with nutrition info in grams only- I am not ambitious enough to convert)- keep it simple- no need to go super fancy where it tells you what time it is and how you're feeling.