Sloth that does not find this intuitive at all

[Webgypsy]

I have come to the conclusion that I am a sloth in disguise.  I don't seem to burn calories and if I want to lose weight I have to eat less than 900 calories a day according to Fitbit.

I am walking the dog, exercising with the Wii, and even my sex only burned 41 calories.

I had set it to lose 2 lbs a week which has never been this difficult in the past.

I think I was hoping for magic in a monitor because I have a horrible Internet connection and logging every activity I do is impossible. 

I thought this baby would monitor the stuff for me and I wouldn't have to write it all down.

Obviously I have not figured out the key to making this thing work. 

What is the point of this item?  I'm not sure.

I have looked for a quick start guide that would explain why I bought this thing but in this day no one provides documentation anymore.  They expect you to get it off the Internet.  Well and good if you have Internet.

[slysam]

First, I think you have your rate of loss set too high--from what you say. 2 pounds a week means eating 1000 calories less than you burn every day. If this was easier in the past if you were perhaps younger or heavier--that may be because you were burning more calories. A lot of people try to eat at least 1200 calories a day to ensure adequat nutrition, by this guideline, a 2 pound a week loss only works if you burn at least 2200 calories a day. I can barely do that on a very active day with a couople hours of exercise and over 15k steps (that is around my Fitbit burn on a 15k-20k step day with a lot of activity). This will vary by your stats (height, weight, age and gender as well as how active you are). For most people with a moderate amount of weight to lose, the one pound a week loss usually works better (a daily deficit of 500 calories). Set with a slower rate of loss, you might still lose more weight at first because often when people start losing weight the body releases some retained fluids in addition to the fat--some types of diets make this happen more than others. But while this is encouraging and possibly a sign you are off to a good start, some of that is really only temporary fluid weight. 

Also, if it is your first day, give it a day. If you are set to sedentary it will generally start low since it is based on the assumption you have a sedentary activity level. I prefer the setting titled "personalized" in the food plan--it uses your average calorie burn over the past few days as the starting point. I think it takes a few days to get a good average, but when it does, I would be fine eating my starting allowance on the personalized setting. Your allowance may change throughout the day as you sync your fitbit device because it ends up your fitbit burn minus your deficit. In your case, it will be whatever you burn minus 1000 calories.

You don't need to log the activities you mentioned. I mainly only log non-step intenional exercise like weight lifting, swimming, cycling. I don't log household chores, physical work, general recreation though some people do and it is fine. But my Fitbit calorie burn seems pretty close to accurate as I maintain my weight if I eat what I burn and lose weight if I eat considerably less. 

Logging food intake is pretty important though, but there are different ways to do that which work for different people.

[whome]

Hi Webgypsy - Sorry to hear that you have an internet connection problem - I have had that problem myself in the past and still do some days and times - it is SOOO frustrating - hurry up and wait -

You don't mention your phone (or how smart it is) but you may want to look at MyFitnessPal.com for food tracking software - this can be set uo to sync with the Fitbit software and it even has a barcode scanner to make it easier to log food intake with fat/carb/protein breakdown.

Good luck 

Craig

[Webgypsy]

I am afraid I have to give up on the One. I have had almost three weeks and all of my time is spent trying to access the Internet. If I spent the same time exercising I would have lost weight by now.
It is unfortunate but I have chosen to live with deer, cougar, and other wildlife. That choice means I can’t have Internet too.
I do have a smart phone but because of my location I only receive texts and I would have to move to town just work with the app, let alone download it.
Oh well, I tried, but there are some things you just cannot do without high speed access.

Maybe some day they will provide a stand alone app for those of us in the boonies. Then again, I guess I could move to town if it were that important.

In the meantime the box should call out High speed Internet as a requirement for the end user. It does not.

[Webgypsy]

Thanks for the info. That would help but the bottom line is I don’t have high speed Internet, therefore I can’t play.

[whome]

Sorry to hear it is working out that way for you, I also use my phone for my internet and finally figuired out that I needed to get the phone upstairs in the house to get a decent connection. 

Do enjoy your time with the wildlife - there are things in life more important than the internet -

Good luck

Craig