Weight loss disappointment

[Shortandsweeter]

Okay, so my fitbit was a surprise Christmas present from my husband. I didn't know what it was when I opened it, but I like gadgets and I'm usually weight watching so he thought it was a good idea.

Alas, he knows me well.

January 2, 2015 I put it on and I haven't taken it off except to shower and charge it. I'm fascinated. I've linked it up with myfitnesspal and I'm loving it. Everything I eat and drink, down to the last calorie, is being logged. Myfitnesspal has a great log and it's so easy. I prepare family meals at night from recipes than I can import into myfitness pal. I only eat things during the day I can log; porridge sachets made with water and sprinkled with oatbran, packed fresh fruit salads, weighed ingredients etc. I love the fact the fitbit logs my activity and allows me extra calories for hard work.

I am stupidly delighted to win a badge and I'm running up and down the 7 flights of stairs to my office, I'm not even huffing and puffing now. I feel better. I'm into my 3rd week now and I've been under my calorie goal everyday - even when I've sneaked in a cabury's mini eggs or few and I have been brutally honest!

I have started back running again and, with the running app, I can input the exact time and distance.

However, I need to lose 8 kilos and nothing is happening.

Any ideas why this is?

I've stopped drinking wine in the evenings, and I know I'm definitely eating less as I'm just not snacking at all.

[JLMJR]

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@Melc29uk wrote:

Hi

I bought the fitbit for my new years resolution of getting fit and obviously losing weight in the process. After three weeks of achieving 10k steps (daily) and integrating additional exercise on top of that, I've found I've only lost 4 pounds. I was expecting a far bigger weight loss the first week as that was the week I started watching rigourously what I ate (I want to achieve a 1.5 lb weight loss a week) and have exercised far more than I have done in years. 

I was feeling a bit despondent today when I weighed myself as I felt that I had lost more than 4 pounds, so decided to see if anyone else was experiencing the same. Pleased I'm not the only one.

Bobcat your comments have helped, my body is changing, I definitely feel happier and other people have noticed the difference. A greater lb loss on a weekly basis would be great but as long as I can see and feel a difference I'll just keep going. I am going to drop the couple of vino's that I have snuck in as my reward (I still was below the daily threshold). 

Thanks for spurring me on!

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Melc29uk,

I have been using the fitbit for about 2 weeks and have lost nothing. I track every single thing I eat and have eaten between 1700 and 1800 calories per day with absolutely NO cheating. And the food I'm eating is Atkins shakes and meal replacement bars. In the evening I have some turkey with a vegetable on a 100 calorie wrap. No cheese, no snacks, no treats, nothing. I'm 6' 1" tall and 380lbs so you would think at a minimum I would have lost some water weight by now. 

[Dominique]

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@JLMJR wrote:

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I have been using the fitbit for about 2 weeks and have lost nothing. I track every single thing I eat and have eaten between 1700 and 1800 calories per day with absolutely NO cheating. And the food I'm eating is Atkins shakes and meal replacement bars. In the evening I have some turkey with a vegetable on a 100 calorie wrap. No cheese, no snacks, no treats, nothing. I'm 6' 1" tall and 380lbs so you would think at a minimum I would have lost some water weight by now. 

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@JLMJR: you say you have been using your Fitbit for 2 weeks, but your profile only shows steps for 5 days, with a gap of 3 days in between tracked days:

How can you possibly know the cumulative deficit obtained during your 2 weeks of tracking? Fitbit is pretty good at tracking your activity and the calories you burn ... if you're wearing it.

[JLMJR]

Yes because I had been wearing my wife's fitbit by accident and synced it to her account accidently. I wasn't paying attention when I pulled it out of the charger which one I had. She doesn't really use hers. 

[Heybales]

And for those scales to have any chance of consistency - you have to present an equally hydrated body to it - since water counts as non-fat and will throw off the calculations given.

So you want to minimize known water fluctuations on weigh-in day for BF% testing.

Morning after rest day eating normal sodium levels, not sore from last workout.

That help with conistency, which  means trends can be discerned.

They are usually only upwards of 10% accurate, or much worse. But at least conisstently inaccurate by same amount in same direction.

[Heybales]

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@JLMJR wrote:

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@Melc29uk wrote:

Hi

I bought the fitbit for my new years resolution of getting fit and obviously losing weight in the process. After three weeks of achieving 10k steps (daily) and integrating additional exercise on top of that, I've found I've only lost 4 pounds. I was expecting a far bigger weight loss the first week as that was the week I started watching rigourously what I ate (I want to achieve a 1.5 lb weight loss a week) and have exercised far more than I have done in years. 

I was feeling a bit despondent today when I weighed myself as I felt that I had lost more than 4 pounds, so decided to see if anyone else was experiencing the same. Pleased I'm not the only one.

Bobcat your comments have helped, my body is changing, I definitely feel happier and other people have noticed the difference. A greater lb loss on a weekly basis would be great but as long as I can see and feel a difference I'll just keep going. I am going to drop the couple of vino's that I have snuck in as my reward (I still was below the daily threshold). 

Thanks for spurring me on!

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Melc29uk,

I have been using the fitbit for about 2 weeks and have lost nothing. I track every single thing I eat and have eaten between 1700 and 1800 calories per day with absolutely NO cheating. And the food I'm eating is Atkins shakes and meal replacement bars. In the evening I have some turkey with a vegetable on a 100 calorie wrap. No cheese, no snacks, no treats, nothing. I'm 6' 1" tall and 380lbs so you would think at a minimum I would have lost some water weight by now. 

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Have you been weighing your food, not just measuring?

That's accurate, since calories is per gram, not cups or spoons. Liquids being the exception.

Even packaged items.

And indeed, you should have lost some water weight, unless you started up a big carb burning cardio routine just as you started diet.

Diet would have dropped normal carb stores with attached water, but intense cardio workouts would ask body to increase them, and increase blood volume. Usually not that fast though.

Probably not now, but I'm sure your body isn't going to like getting fed probably 1/2 what it would like to normally get. Isn't your daily burn about 2 x as much as you eat?

[Dominique]

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@Dominique wrote:

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@Bobcat84 wrote:

the aria is the only one i know that updates fitbit for you via wifi though (which is pretty cool) - i just need to convince the wife to let me buy one 🙂

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Actually, Withings also make smart scales that can sync wirelessly. They do it either via Bluetooth (iOS / Android) or wifi (802.11 b/g/n, vs. "b" only for the Fitbit Aria), more here. Data can be synced with your Fitbit account, as explained here.

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For a quick comparison of the Fitbit Aria and of the Withings Smart Body Analyzer, see this post.