Nutrition/Diet

[GarciaKarlo]

Hi Fitbit Community, 

I am just a new user of fitbit, I am using the fitbit app  & I am logging my foods & how many cups of water I am eating & drinking each day on a day to day basis. I am following the food/Calories In vs Calories Out graphic. My question is as long I am hitting the metre were it shows the colour, yellow, green & red. I am hitting the metre to green, does that mean if I am consistent I will reach my goal weight refereing to the fitbit estimates. 

Thank you 

[JohnRi]

Your fitbit calculates how many calories you burn, based on how many steps you take, your height, your weight, your age, and if you have it, the heart rate monitor.

The catch is, this is a rolling number.  Meaning as the day goes by, the amount of calories you burn, increases.  So you could be in the green at 6:00 PM, and then be 250 short at midnight.

And you can be in the red at 6:00 PM, and then in the green by midnight. 

The idea is by the end of the day, if it's red, you ate too many calories.  Green you ate just the right amount, and yellow you didn't eat enough.

So most people setup up a goal to lose, maintain, or gain weight.  And based on those goals, the meter will adjust how many calories you need to eat.

Keep in mind that men should not eat less than 1800 calories a day, and women should not eat less than 1300 calories a day.  When you eat too few calories, your body tends to burn muscle, and not fat!  So you have to eat enough calories each day.

Now say you decide you want to lose 2 lbs a week.  That requires a 1000 calorie deficient a day.  So if your app says you've burned 2000 calories today, and you try to maintain a 2 lbs loss, you are going to be way under the minimum that day.  You would need to do some kind of exercise to increase your calories burned, so that you can still eat the minimum calories.

Most people are trying to lose, if that is your case, then if you keep it in the green, and at least the minimum calories, you will reach your goal.

BUT if what you eat is mainly sugar, and even if  you keep it in the green, you probably won't lose any weight.  You have eat nutritious meals of fruits and vegetables and not pure sugar!

[GarciaKarlo]

Thank you for your advice, I was just making sure I am on the safe side
while reaching my goal because somehow I was always paying attention to the
colour metre on the Food-Calories In vs Calories Out graphic. Now I have
the hang of it.

[divedragon]

JohnRi makes some good points in regard to the fitbit calculations and how all that works. 

A method that has helped me is intermittent fasting and their are many resources and protocols you can invoke.  To his point on burning muscle, intermitent fasting allows you to eat fewer calories without the typical muscle burning aspect common in just calorie restriction.  Because your body learns to breakdown fat and use the ketones produced for energy, you don't sacrifice either your metabolism nor your muscle mass.  Your liver uses the triglicerieds in ketone bodies to produce glycogen for those brain and muscle cells that can only function on glucose; however, the majority of muscle and even brain cells tend to thrive on ketones even better than glucose.  Other benefits include increased growth hormones and a reduction in insulin production that overcome insulin resistance.  You can google intermittent fasting and find tons of resources on it, but the most informative is a Dr Jung, a kidney specilist working out of Toronto, Canada who has been studying nutrition since early 2001.  Here is a link to his website and all his blogs and video lectures.  https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/author/jfung/

He has actually cured type 2 diabeties using IF.  Good luck and feel free to contact me if you have any questions from someone who practices this technique.