calories burned suddenly lower than average

[Mimotouche]

Hello there! I am a little confused, and a little frustrated.

I've been logging food and keeping track of exercise with my ionic for about 4 months now while I have been getting back into cardio training (I like to hike big mountains so I try to keep my cardio game strong) and shedding the winter pounds.

While I know it is normal for your bmr to change while losing weight and for the body to adapt to exercise I'm experiencing some frustration. I did lose almost 30 pounds which according to calculations is about 100 calories of BMR change. 

I'm noticing on average that I am burning about 400 calories daily less than I did a few weeks ago. My exercise routine includes rock climbing 3 times a week for a few hours, intervals on the stairmaster at level 10 for 30 minutes twice a week, some running (nothing more than 2 miles for now, just changing things up a bit). On climbing nights I would sometimes double up with some cardio and would usually hit 2800+ calories burned for the day pretty easily. My total calories burned yesterday was only right above 2500 and I really hard to work for it.

In other words, I did lose almost 30 pounds and I apparently that's a 100 calorie change in BMR, does the heart fitness really make up for the extra 300 calorie not burned anymore? I'm frustrated, cardio is important to me because I need the endurance for my hobbies but it feels like it's shooting me in the foot for calories burned. 

[Dominique]

Your total energy expenditure (TDEE) is the sum of BMR (what you burn by merely staying alive) and your activity (if I simplify). Your activity itself is a multiplier of your BMR, so a decrease in BMR will also translate in a decrease of calories burned during the same activities. The TDEE of a sedentary person won’t be much higher than their BMR. However, the TDEE of a very active person can easily be twice their BMR. If you lost 100 calories in your BMR from being lighter, you will also lose something from your activity.

Anyway, I wouldn’t focus too much on those calories. Look at things like cardio fitness score: it should have improved quite a bit, as a result of being lighter and having trained.

[Mimotouche]

My concern is for losing the last 10 pounds and later on maintaining. It's now taking me a LOT of work to merely reach 2500 out a day which doesn't leave too much room for a decent deficit or when I'm done losing upping my calories. I was planning on easing up on the cardio when I would have reached my weight goal but it's starting to look like I'm going to be stuck in a loop.

[Dominique]

In what time did you lose your almost 30 lbs, and from what starting weight? What are your other main data (age, gender, height)? Trying to figure out the optimal approach for the "last 10 pounds" and maintenance.

[Mimotouche]

I started recording on January 17th and I have lost 26 pounds as of last week, starting at 187 (I had stopped exercising for a few months and picked up a little bit too much wine, I lost the weight about as fast as I gained it). I am female, 32, about 5'6

[Dominique]

Here are some general guidelines for weight loss that make sense to me:

• lose at no more than 1% of your body weight per week
• lose no more than 10% of your starting weight, and for no longer than 3 months, before taking a break

 You lost 14% of your starting weight and your weight loss has been going on for 4 months already, so your weight loss has been more drastic and longer than the stated boundaries. Losing too much/too fast/for too long is counter-productive because of the excessive metabolic adaptation it results in: your metabolism is likely less than what’s predicted based on your current weight. It’s something Fitbit has no way to take into account, but you will likely notice it in the fact further weight loss will require eating ever less and moving ever more.

All this to say I wouldn’t rush to lose the "last ten pounds", but focus instead on developing life-long habits (eating, exercising, life style) that will prevent you from getting in a vicious circle of "yo-yo dieting".

[Kris111]

Well it goes down if you sit more as to what you can eat..especially at the end of the day. Best thing to do is listen to your body in the day ...actually all around it is but if you follow your fitbit that way you can eat extra if you can at night ..that's what I would do. Lol.

Also I keep resetting my Fitbit because after my runs it minuses about 300 to 400 calories ..you may have the same problem and didnt notice ? I just lost my stuff and reset mine.everytime I complain they never resolve it but I've read it happens to others to. 

And I think it is common when you are heavier to be losing more right away. I wouldnt be so shocked at that. But once you are down to last 5 to 10 lbs it is tough and probably should go slower. 

[Mimotouche]

It's still weird to me. I'm a teacher so I walk and stand a lot. I went on a short 2 mile run and maybe 1 or 2 miles walk afterwards last night and my overall for the day was 2750. On nights when I rock climb for two hours and then hit the stairmasters it doesn't make any sense that I would burn much less than that. My guess is that my heart rate doesn't stay high long enough while rock climbing for the fitbit to really register is as an activity, it's just very weird to me. 

I'm not so worried about losing that last 10 pounds (that goal actually came later) as I am about maintaining without having to stay low on food intake. I move a lot so I'm hungry a lot, and this seems to be an issue right now with energy in and energy out