Not sure about calories intake

[JenHarness]

Hi,

I'm kind of worried about how much calories I should really eat. These days, I'm at less than 1500 cal per day (around 1480). I count them very carefully as I'm using a kitchen scale to weight what I eat and spoons to measure everything. I'm careful with hidden sugar and everything because I have a fragile pancreas since recently.

I'm working out a little (30 min to 1 hour in two sessions, depending on my appointments) and I'm burning between 2700 and 3100 (depending on one or two exercises sessions).

Is that ok to eat 1500 cal? I really want to loose weight and once a week, I take a little treat (always counting it and plans my meals of the day accordingly). 

I already lost weight, especially in the first month but now, it's kind of going slower, which is crazy because I upped a lot my working out! I'm not sure if I'm on the right path, regarding my calorie intake or if I have some things wrong?

Any advice/insight appreciated, thanks!

[Esya]

A 1500 calories deficit will be very hard to maintain and I personally think it is better to increase the amount you eat if you burn 3000. However, calories burned are an estimation and HR enabled trackers tend to overestimate them. So you will have to find out how much you lose over a period with a certain calories deficit to know how much the estimation is off. But instead of wanting it to lose fast, I think it is better to focus on a lifestyle you can maintain and that will get you to a healthy life in the long run.

Weight loss is never linear. Seeing you are a woman, our cycle comes into play. Possible water retention due to other reasons etc. etc. Therefore, you should not look at the day to day fluctuations, but at the trend. You can get a free account with https://trendweight.com/ and link your FitBit account to it. It plots your weight data in a graph and adds a trend line. Based on that trend line it will also tell you how much more you are burning than eating (so just based on your weight data). This is good feedback you can use to adjust where needed.

[JenHarness]

Thanks for your reply.

I'm not sure about TrendWeight, as I was saying in another post but I will try, again. It's already linked. It says that I'm burning 668 cal/day more than I eat.

Like you suggested I will try to monitor my calorie intake and compare with weight loss. I don' try to lose fast, specifically, just to lose.

[Esya]

If trendweight says your weight loss translates in a 668 calories deficit then I think you are on the right track. The more data it gets the better it works. Don't get disappointed when there are days when you don't lose, as weight loss is not linear. Also the closer you get to your goal weigh the more slow it will become.

[Dominique]

I’ll comment on the energy expenditure reported by your Fitbit: 2700-3100 sounds really high for a female who does 30-60 minutes of formal exercise per day. Of course, I don’t know the other factors affecting your metabolism (age, height, weight): you do look young, but even if you were much taller than average and having a very high step count, you’d still have a hard time hitting 3000+ calories. So your actual deficit maybe a lot smaller than Fitbit and you think it is. This is in essence what TrendWeight is telling you: it doesn’t "know" anything about your intake and your expenditure, it just derives your average deficit from the pace of your weight loss. In a way, a real deficit of 700 calories is better than 1500, because it will be more sustainable over the long term. I’ll also address your comment about TrendWeight in another post of yours.

[JenHarness]

I had no idea that my fitbit was over-estimated my calories so much. The only thing I know is that when I'm doing exercise, I nearly always reach the maximum point (even sometimes staying into the maximum zone for half of my workout) and it does seems that I burn some during. My fitbit says (well, I'm not sure about it anymore now) that I'm burning around 440 calories per session. It's probably less, I imagine now. 

But seeing that there is a problem with the calories burned, I understand better. Thanks.

[Daves_Not_Here]

@JenHarness For what it's worth, I think it's possible that you would burn 440 calories during an exercise session where you spend 50% of your time near your max heart rate.  (Is that what you're saying?)  Are these half-hour or one hour sessions? 

I'm lucky that Fitbit seems to estimate my calorie burn pretty accurately (based on comparing with Strava and Trendweight) but I'm a complete OCD Nazi in logging every nibble of food.  (you mentioned you are careful -- I assume you are accounting for the olive oil you use to saute vegetables, granola added to yogurt, all fruit, etc.).  Also, I noticed how now that I have better cardio fitness, Fitbit estimates I burn less calories.  I have a cycling route that used to burn over 1,000 calories -- now I only burn 560.

[JenHarness]

@Daves_Not_Here It's exactly that, yes. For example, Monday morning I did two session and there is the screen cap of the fitbit app. Monday, fitbit says that I burned 3189 calories. Tuesday, I could do only one session so it says I burned 2715 calories. And yesterday, one hour divided in two sessions (I don't have time to do more than half an hour, with my son) but I was less in the maximum zone so I burned 3032.

Yes, I'm counting oil and everything that I eat. I'm measuring with a spoon to be sure.

You burned nearly half less? Well, I guess it's because your heart is more used to it?

[mattymoo]

I'm not sure if it is overestimating your calories - I have been doing 5km walks daily (about an hour of light effort) and I am burning on average 2300 cal per day - so I can imagine if I pushed myself a lot harder like you are doing I would easily hit 2700-3000. I am 5"2 and overweight. I am also eating about 1500 cal - so interested to see how it goes for you because if your fitbit is overestimating then there is a good chance mine is too!