Fit bit calorie deficit not losing weight

[nancybotwinbloom]

From 1st January I have decided to follow a vegetarian diet.

I'm eating lots of fresh veg, small amount of fruit and I'm not eating meat replacements a lot. Maybe once every three days. I'm not even eating bread. I've had three slices of dry toast in 12 days.

I'm not eating dairy except cheese and even that is reduced fat halloumi or feta.

I've been in a 1000 calorie deficit everyday by walking in the fat burn zone for an hour and a half every day. I'm racking up 20k steps as a minimum. The walks are 70 -90 percent in the fat burning zone.

I've had one day where I was over a 1000 calorie deficit (I was in a 500 deficit not 1000).

I'm drinking between 2 and 3 litres of water a day.

I've lost half a kilogram.

I am gutted.

I'm 41.

Is it my age?
What am I doing wrong?

Don't eat your exercise calories - they are massively overestimated.

Go to the TDEEcalculator.org, figure out your TDEE (how many calories a day you burn) and eat under that by 500 a day. Repeat don't count your exercise calories unless you're running marathons..

How many calories are you eating a day? I'm not convinced you'd burn 500 calories in 90 minutes of walking.

I don't think fitbits are very accurate at counting calories burnt. I would log your food into a calorie calculator and check how many you are eating/drinking a day. I never eat and calories burnt off. Also most of your weight loss will come from diet exercise is a nice to have really.

Don't eat your exercise calories - they are massively overestimated

This is completely accurate.

You would be welcome to join us on the weight loss chat thread

90 minutes of walking is closer to 300 not 500 calories.
Are you eating back your exercise calories? These tend to be hugely overestimated.
Are you factoring things such as cooking oils?

Would you mind putting down an average days food?

Make sure you weigh everything you eat including vegetables because the calories soon pile up. Also it might be that you are retaining water at the moment and then you’ll see a dip in your weight.
Also want to second the exercise calories idea, it’s best to stick to the allocated calories for weight loss. For most people a starting point is 1200 calories.

@2typesofjungle

Don't eat your exercise calories - they are massively overestimated

This is completely accurate.

Yes!

How many calories are you actually eating?

Dont eat back your exercise calories.

Fit bits are a rough guide, not gospel.

Do you track your calories?

Fitbit's can be wildly inaccurate. DD put hers (charge) on for the first time in months just the other night. She was in bed. When she got up it had registered 347 steps. She walked downstairs and she had done over 500. She took it off and binned it.

Here is a a screen shot of the calories in.

The light blue dial means it's 1000 calories less (at least) than what I have burnt according to fitbit.

It's just soul destroying isn't it.

But I'm still not quitting! I will have a healthier diet at least.

I will also head over to the weight loss chat thank you @IDontMindMarmite

I am weighing everything also.

What annoyed me so much is that I weighed myself after a week and I'd lost 4.5 pounds. Weighted myself today and most of it is back on.

I was really proud of myself and I thought "yes this is a good start keep it up you can see it working"

I've been out in the snow, sleet, rain, wind everyday, sometimes twice!

It's showing that I am burning between 800 and 1000 cals on these walks and they are not slow but not running either. Enough to get my heartbeat into the fat biting zone.

What are you doing when not actively exercising. Many of us are pretty much stuck at home so are using far less everyday energy. Also you are probably overestimating how much you are burning walking. My resting calorie requirement is only 1360 (was measured) so you can see how easy it is to gain. Adding walking only increased it by 200

The risotto rice portion is 100g dry, then split into four meals. So 25g of rice per meal.

Is that the total calories you are eating every day? It's far to high for you to realistically lose weight. You can't exercise weight off, you need to reduce the calories too.

Yeah you need to measure your TDEE.

I'd gain on an average of 1700.

My weekly progress report just came in to mock me

I don't understand why you are looking at calories burned by exercise, you can't out train a bad diet. If you are aiming to use weight you need to monitor what is going into your mouth and that is all. Exercise will help tone you and make you feel good.

Lastly all calories are not made equal. If I eat a salad with protein that equals 250 calories and someone else eats a white bread sandwich worth 250 do you think your body will deal with these in the same way? Do you think exercise will deal with them in the same way?

There was an interesting program on last night which showed how the body dealt with alcohol. Basically during exercise it burnt the alcohol off first and everything else that wasn't used was stored. I'm not saying you are drinking but it demonstrates my point.

I'm going to do my tdee

Wright loss isn't linear. Give it time.

@2021vision

My diet is 90% veg which is what I am so annoyed with myself about.

@PickAChew

I know it's so frustrating though.

I will do my tdee.

Lower my calories.

@2021vision

What was the programme called please? I will see if it's on catch up.

Also I'm
Not drinking.

[quote nancybotwinbloom]@2021vision

My diet is 90% veg which is what I am so annoyed with myself about.

[/quote]

If it's 2000 calories of veg though it's still 2000 calories

I don't use a fit bit so I'm not sure that even is the total per day but if it is I can see why you are not losing.

I'd never lose on those calories in.

My BMR is about 1300, I need to eat about 1000-1100 to lose any weight. Exercise has far less impact than diet.

I'd lower the rice/potatoes.

I'm afraid I am going to parrot the much hated line on MN

It's the carbs

Cut your carb intake to below 20g per day and you'll see the weight come off.

At your age (I am older), you will have built up a certain level of insulin resistance and it means carbs are even more likely to go straight into fat storage.

The 'fat burning' zone on your fitbit is TOTALLY inaccurate. The only reason you would burn fat is if you have used all your available glycogen. To give you an idea, you only use approx. 60g of glycogen if you RUN for an hour. A jacket potato has about 40g of carbs for a start, never mind anything else you might be eating.

But in a very simplistic way, walking for 90 minutes would barely use your jacket potato glycogen, and would be unlikely to get into fat burning zone. The most reliable way to get into fat burning zone is to limit your carbs - don't give your body glycogen in the first place!