Can someone clever explain this? (Calories and maths)

[RoryGlory]

Going by the table below I need -410 calories a day to get to my goal.

If my resting metabolic rate is (I believe) 1800

So if I eat 1200 calories a day I have a deficit of 600.

So 1200 - 600 = 600

So to get to -410 ... I would need to burn a further 1010 calories? Is that right?

The bmr figures are included within 3427

If it’s any consolation Op, I thought I understood weight loss but after reading this thread I’m as confused as ever.

As an aside though, I do think you’re weight loss aims are unrealistic. However, I appreciate that’s not what you were asking!

You can either include your BMR (which is much easier if you're going to use the Fitbit, as it is including it) and aim to burn 3400 a day, or you can exclude it and aim to burn 1600 - both those figures assume you'll eat 1200 calories. What you can't do is what you tried to do earlier in this thread, which is include your BMR and aim to burn 1600 - well you can, obviously, but you won't get anywhere near your target.

You're actually doing really well with your calorie expenditure and diet, by the way, and you will lose weight if you keep that up, just not at the ridiculous breakneck pace that you want to lose it.

But I don’t understand why I can’t include my BMR?

Ok I’m just going to do

28x3500 = 98000

98000/44= 2227

2227+(calories are) 1200 = 3427

(Obviously rough guide as Fitbit won’t be that accurate and 1lb loss may not be equal to 3500 exactly)

But this is what I’ve taken from the thread. I’m also going to ignore the calculator I posted in my original OP.

Calories ate not are.

• sorry for being stress with anyone. I’m sure there’s one thing we can all agree on and it’s that this thread is a massive head fuck

2227+(calories ate) 1200 = 3427

AND I CAN INCLUDE MY BMR IN THIS RIGHT?!?

Rory you say you burnt 2788 calories - so (based on your BMR being 1800 as per your OP)...so 1000 calories of exercise? How?

And say, yes this is correct - which involves an awful lot of dubious assumptions about calories in food/calorie burn and the accuracy of a Fitbit - you created a 1400 ish deficit. But you are aiming to lose more than half a lb a day, requiring a deficit of 2,200 ish per day. So you need to nearly double whatever exercise you did today every day for 44 days ?

Well I just used my Fitbit so .. no idea how accurate that is but I have no other way of tracking my calories burnt?

I did a full body conditioning workout this morning.

Got around 10,000 steps in.

I also played in the garden with the kids for about an hour.

This is it -

Ok-I’m not an expert but I think Fitbits overestimate steps (see lots of previous threads on MN about how many steps ironing achieves) - also my phone counts 12000 steps as 5km whereas it seems Fitbit is 10,000 as standard? Shows point re accuracy. But again, even if you take the Fitbit and calorie intake (and indeed calorie values and individual burn rate) as correct - you still need to burn another 800 calories - do you think that is realistic?

To put it into context...probably adding a second conditioning class and doing nearly the same amount of steps again? On 1200 calories? Nuts.

Ok-I’m not an expert but I think Fitbits overestimate steps (see lots of previous threads on MN about how many steps ironing achieves)

I don’t wear mine when I iron or drive. I don’t even wear it when I’m brushing my hair or washing my face in the morning.

So I think my steps are as accurate as I can make them.

But if anyone has a suggestion of tracking calories more accurately then please share.

It doesn't take it into consideration but u already know your basic is 1800

But I don’t understand why I can’t include my BMR?

You can include it if you aim to burn 3400 a day. The problem is, that's hard. As a pp has already said, you need to double the amount of exercise you're doing, without eating any more.

I find Fitbit is fairly accurate for running (eg. A 5km run consistently counts 4500-5000 steps which would make sense with a 1metre stride approx). What it is very inaccurate for is little steps- filling the dishwasher, pottering in the garden, waiting for a bus- it counts these as the same as the running steps- which they are clearly not (I don't do 1 metre steps across my kitchen while emptying the DW). So that's the first issue. If you're seriously trying to burn that many calories, you need to look at your 'active minutes' as well, and double those, because that's what burns the calories. You'd need to look at the heart rate zones to push yourself into fat burning (and above) for a longer amount of time so that you're doing exercise that actually counts. 10,000 is the suggested bare minimum of steps really. It doesn't burn calories of any significant amount, especially if you are fairly fit. Doubling up to 20k won't help unless you actively double both the length and the intensity of your exercise. As you get fitter (which may happen?) your intensity/effort required will drop but so will the calories you burn- so you'll need to do more.

I think that to endeavour to lose the amount of weight you intend to on a restricted diet and exercising to that extent demonstrates that you are clearly failing to understand the basic needs and requirements of your body to be an athlete. If you are going to train as an athlete (eg. Daily intensive exercise, weights, intense cardio) then the first thing to do is to respect your body. Not once on this thread have you discussed how you plan to fuel and repair your body, and yet you're expecting it to perform day after day at a very intense level.

The stupid thing is, if you ate the right foods and nourished yourself properly, and trained like you suggest, you'd probably lose a substantial amount of weight.

Exactly averagebear - its impossible to repair and refuel a body exercising at the intensity required (or even, realistically, at a reasonable level, say if the 1000 calories were ‘true’ exercise calories - as opposed to general movement) on 1200 calories a day over weeks.

Rory what everyone is trying to tell you, is that what you are attempting is not only impossible to achieve, you really are risking you health, including your mental health I would say.

Personally I think what you did yesterday is reasonable and possibly sustainable (1200 calories is more of a challenge than the exercise which is really just the conditioning class, the rest is general movement which will burn calories but maybe not as much as Fitbit suggests). You will lose weight this way and should stay sane and healthy but it’s more likely to be at a rate of 2lbs or so a week I would guess. But let us know...

This drives me mad on MN and I've finally flipped!

1lb of fat weighs the same as 1lb of muscle

Of course they weight the same, that's because you're comparing weights (well mass really, but as we're all on planet Earth I won't worry about that). So a pound of anything is a pound because that's the unit of weight.

BUT saying that fat and muscle weigh the same is as nonsensical as saying feathers and lead weigh the same, or indeed air and water. Density has to be considered.

OP I did a 5 hour cycle ride and burned of 2400 calories on Sunday. I think you need to do one of those every day.

Well said @cathyandclare - I wanted to point that out but couldn't be arsed because I'm lazy

Another way of looking at it , one pound of fat is nearly 4000 calories

OP, I'm on a "weight loss journey" (boke) using My Fitness Pal and Runtastic as my only tools. I don't know if this helps you, but I'll just tell you how it's working for me. A bit rambly but hey ho.

I told MFP my weight and height and age, my activity level, what weight I wanted to reach and how fast. It recommended losing 500 g a week as a stable goal which I accepted, seeing that it's taken 25 years to gain the 20 kg so I should allow for some time to get it off.

MFP calculated that with my activity level (too fucking sedentary) I would maintain my weight if I ate X calories per day (can't remember the number).To lose 500 g a week I can't eat more that 1340 calories.

It is very hard to me to eat less than 1800 calories a day I've noticed (because food is normal!), so I have to make up the difference between 1800 and 1340 with exercise.

I connected the app to the step counter on my phone (you can probably connect a fitbit). It takes the steps from there and works out calories burned and adjusts my numbers. I've also connected the Runtastic app to MFP so if I go for a long walk, measured by Runtastic, it feeds those numbers in too. Then it somehow cancels the counted steps out against the Runtastic app in a complicated way I haven't understood (anyway, they're not counted double).

I have used Runtastic to measure how much I burn cycling to and from work, and added those activities and calories burned into MFP so I can choose them everyday.

So for example one Wednesday I ate 1894 calories. I walked around a bit and cycled to and from work, but those activites only burn a little. MFP showed me "red numbers", which means I'd gone over 1340 calories consumed. In the evening I took a long walk for 1 hour 19 minutes, which runtastic said burned 576 calories. So 1894-576=1318 calories consumed, which means I am below my threshold for losing. Since I started I've gone steadily down, 8 kg so far from beginning of June.

It is much easier to use an app like this to help, I'd recommend it. I also wouldn't recommend going in for losing too much, it's just unhealthy, unsustainable and generally stressful. You do have to log what you eat though.

Now I know that a muscular body will burn more calories when exercising (which is why my husband still fits into his wedding suit almost 30 years down the line). So if I start lifting some weights and gain muscle I might burn more. I've decided not to take that too much into account yet, since I'm still ok with just losing weight. Soon it's time to ditch weight obsession though and focus on my measurements instead and my fitness level in general. I'd rather weigh 70 kg of athletic muscle than 55 kg of sedentary flab.

I’m really not interested in losing slow and steady.

I didn’t ask for weight loss advice. I asked for the calorie numbers.

People do what’s best for them. It doesn’t mean that’s right for everyone else.

No, I’m sorry if I came off as annoying. I just wanted to recommend the app because then it thinks for you. If I wanted to lose more it would be easy to see the numbers.