Nutrition/Diet

[GarciaKarlo]

Hi Fitbit Community, 

My question is about the Food-Calories In vs Calories Out graphic. Is it that you have to burn the calories in that you ate from your calories out from your exercise in order to lose 1kg a week. Please explain.

Thank you

[GarciaKarlo]

Hi Fitbit Community, 

I have a question about losing weight. How do you know if you are losing weight. Do you use the Calories In vs Calories Out food graphic to help you. If you have the green metre consistent does that help you lose weight.  

Thank you

[awood08]

Hello!

A pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories, so 1kg (2 pounds) would be around 7000 calories. In order to lose that 1kg you would need to burn 7000 more calories than you took in for the week.

Example:

Total daily take in for calories per day- 1,500 x (7 days a week) 10,500

Total daily calorie burn per day- 2,500 x (7 days a week) 17,500

Difference= 7,000

It's math, to lose weight you need to burn more calories than what you consume. Depending on your weight loss goals, 2 pounds or roughly 1kg per week is doable if you keep your deficit where it needs to be.

Hope that helps 🙂

[awood08]

Also to touch on the green meter question, that is what you have your goal set up to in your own Fitbit settings. If you have it set to keep a 500 calorie per day deficit than it will be green if you are within range of that deficit each day. The green meter all depends on your own personal weekly weight loss goal.

Keep in mind that meter will tell you that you are over your calorie budget early in the day if you put your food logs in ahead of time or if it thinks you ate too many calories for that time of day. I wouldn't rely on that meter throughout the day, but rather at the end of the day to make sure you are in a good range.

[Jerseyhank]

Something to keep in mind when counting calories in vs calories out, It not only depends on the amount of calories but the main focus should be the type of calories. For example if the majority of your calories are bad such as sugar based calories you will not lose weight as effectively as if your calories were healthy calories such as proteins, vegetables and natural fats. In simple terms don't starve yourself all day so that you can eat a large peice of cake at night to stay within your calories and expect to loose weight because your calories in vs out works out on paper. I not only look at my calorie intake but pay even more attention to my sugar intake. Be sure to stay within or even under your allowed sugar intake and you will notice a differance right away.

Good Luck!!

[Dominique]

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@Jerseyhank wrote:

Something to keep in mind when counting calories in vs calories out, It not only depends on the amount of calories but the main focus should be the type of calories.

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Still, the hierarchy is: 1) total calories, 2) macronutrients, 3) micronutrients. You can have the most optimal split between macronutrients, all of them from the finest and healthiest sources, if your total intake exceeds your expenditure, you will gain weight. Conversely, you can lose weight with a diet that includes mostly "unhealthy" food, as long as your total intake is smaller than what you expend.

You may have heard of the professor who lost 27 pounds in 10 weeks on a (totally "unhealthy") diet of Twinkies:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/

In the same vein, I recently came across this guy who loss 100 lbs eating pizza everyday:

http://metro.co.uk/2016/01/29/chef-loses-almost-seven-stone-in-a-year-on-the-pizza-diet-5651020/

Of course, neither diet was optimal, but the point is calories in vs. calories out is still the primary factor in weight loss.