September 09, 2015

Week 4 weigh in

Is it really Wednesday already? It feels like I just did Wednesday Weigh-in, and now it's already due again. Today is the start of week five of my calorie counting experiment. My weigh-in was another good one:


I was down another 2 pounds on the scale, bringing me back into the 140's. I am so happy to see the 140's again! When I reach 144, I will no longer be in the "overweight" category, so that is my next big milestone to look forward to. My waist measurement was the same as last week; and my body fat was down by 0.7%, so I was happy to see that.

I'm surprised to see that I've consistently lost two pounds per week for the last three weeks, and one pound the first week (so today's weigh in brought my total to seven pounds in four weeks). I thought it was going to take forever to get back to my goal, but it's going much smoother than I expected. I'm still doing really well with the calorie counting, so I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing.

My goal for last week was to get in a 20-30 mile bike ride, in order to help prepare for the Tour de Troit coming up quickly. And I did it! I rode 30 miles on Thursday. I also did the stair stepper once this week, several walks, and a few more bike rides (biking total was 66.6 miles this week!). I'm feeling really good; and getting real enjoyment recently out of cycling makes me feel almost back to "normal" as far as the depression after my running injury. Mentally, I was in a really bad place after re-fracturing my fibula, and cycling has helped a lot!

My legs were definitely feeling tired today, so I made it a rest day. I wish I'd have saved a long bike ride for today, though, because it was much cooler outside (78 degrees--haha, that actually felt nice compared to the 90's we've had for about a week). And it was overcast all day. I did take Joey for a walk through the marsh so he could run off leash, though, and then I took him to the boat launch to swim.


Having Joey is almost like having another child to entertain during the day ;) He has missed having the kids home the past two days while they've been in school. When we walked to the bus stop to pick up the kids after school, Joey got really excited to see the bus coming down the street.

Yesterday, the buses were SO late getting the kids home. I waited at Noah's stop for almost 45 minutes before the bus dropped him off. And at Eli's stop, I waited for an HOUR. When it was 25 minutes late, I got a text from the school saying that the buses were running a little behind because there was a car accident on the main road. But I didn't know how long it would be, so I just stood at the bus stop with Joey and waited. Things were much smoother today, both in the morning and the afternoon. The bus routes are much longer this year, though, so I may just start picking the kids up from school.

Tomorrow is our first cross country practice. I'm nervous to get started, but definitely excited for the season. When I got my certification a couple of years ago, I thought it would be really great to be able to help kids get into running at an early age; and now I'm actually getting that chance! My only goal is to get them to enjoy it enough to want to keep doing it. Since they are all second, third, and fourth graders, most of them haven't had any experience with running for sport. Crossing my fingers that all goes well!


I have a question for you My Fitness Pal users... Jerry has his Fitbit synced with MFP. He doesn't do a lot of "formal" exercise, but he gets in a lot of steps every day (about 12,000-15,000). My Fitness Pal adds in extra calories for his exercise, which is good; so, he eats those extra calories, and usually has a little leftover. Then, the following day, most of those calories that he was given were taken away, and it shows that he went over his calories!

It's kind of hard to explain. For example, his calorie goal is 1800 per day; the Fitbit might give him an extra 800 calories, so on MFP, it looks like 1800 - 2200 (his food intake that day) + 800 (the Fitbit calories) = 400 remaining. THEN, the following day, when he looks at that log, it will have changed to something like 1800 - 2200 + 200 = -200.

I have my Fitbit set up with my MFP account, and I've never had that problem. Do any of you know what is going on, and how to fix it? He wants to stay within his calories, but he never knows what his target is until the next day! Thanks in advance for any insight :)

22 comments:

  1. I really need some support. I am just feeling so down in the dumps. At the end of August I finally meet my personal goal to get under 200 pounds. I got down to 196.6 today I am back to 200 pounds. I really just want to cry and eat some more. I have got to get out of this funk!

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    1. Oh I forgot to tell you congrats! I am so happy for you doing so good!! Wishing you the best of luck!

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    2. Vickit, I'm so sorry you're feeling down! Please hang in there. You have done AMAZING work getting under 200 pounds, and you will get back in the game in no time. I have no good advice, except I think that when you feel like crying, hell, just cry it out. It's therapeutic. Then, it's OK to start again! Sending a virtual hug your way. xoxoxo

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    3. Vickit, congratulations for getting under 200! That's an awesome milestone. I agree with the person above me that if you feel like crying, do it! Sometimes a good, long cry is cathartic and can help us put things back in perspective so you can start fresh again. I don't know how much weight you lost to get to 196.6 but whether it was 5 pounds or 50, be proud of yourself, assess what worked for you and what didn't, what you like and what you don't like and get started again as soon as you can.

      I always try to keep Katie's advice in the back of my head....when you're trying to lose weight, don't do/eat what you don't think you can continue to do/eat for the rest of your life. Example: I'm never going to maintain an all vegetarian diet for the rest of my life, so I'm not going to do that just to lose weight. This helps take the "all or nothing" mentality out of the equation for me which allows me to feel successful. Try to focus on the things you have had success with cuz that will help you to feel motivated.

      Best of luck and girl, go have yourself a good cry ;)
      Bridgette

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  2. What I have kind of figured out with the fitbit and mfp is that it estimates the extra calories based on your activity and extends that level until the end of the day. I am very active from the time I wake up until around 7pm... But after that I'm not active at all. I think it estimates my day as if I'm going to remain active until midnight or something. And then after midnight it sees That you were not as active and takes them back. That is my guess. ...you can also set your mfp to not subtract calories you are given but to only add. I usually just eat half of my exercise cals and it evens out. Hope that made sense!

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  3. Congratulations on another great week. my dog seems sad that my kids are back in school now too.

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  4. I had wondered the same thing when I was using mfp and Fitbit. Here's a helpful article I found (see under calorie adjustment)

    https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/906763-why-am-i-not-getting-a-fitbit-calorie-adjustment-

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  5. Becky is right I think, and it's funny, because I JUST read that FB article Abby posted yesterday. One of the things that article said was to check the time zones in MFP and FB and make sure they were both accurate or you might see weird stuff happening with your calorie adjustment at night. Hope that helps! That article FInALLY helped me understand exactly how that adjustment was calculated and how I wanted to treat it.

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  6. Does he have his negative adjustments enabled? I had the same issue when I first got my Fitbit. I have no idea how to do it on the app (I'm sure there's a way but don't ask me how lol) but I fixed it on the desktop site. When you go to myfitnesspal.com, go to Settings and then Food & Exercise Diary Settings. Scroll down and make sure the "Enable Negative Adjustments" is checked. That's the only reason I can think his Fitbit would be off like that!

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  7. He might want to check his settings in Fitbit on the dashboard. There are two options - one to put you as sedentary and then you earn calories "real time", the other estimates your burn for the day. I've used MFP and I always had issues. My Fitbit wouldn't sync or it would take calories away in the night. I now use SP and I feel like it's more accurate in that I don't get wild fluctuations throughout the day.

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  8. I use Fitbit tied to MFP and don't get Jerry's problem. My suggestions (I see one of these mentioned elsewhere). On MFP from a computer, under settings, Negative Adjustments are enabled. (I have mine enabled without issue.)

    Another thought is to set your activity level in MFP and Fitbit to Sedentary. My thinking is the Fitbit will see I am NOT sedentary and give me my burned calories, but to have it start at my basic levels and let me earn more.

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  9. just curious I was trying to find it but can't how many calories are you allowing yourself each day for the weight loss. I have been keeping mine at 1000 and am not making any progress

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    1. I've been averaging about 1500 a day. When counting calories, less isn't necessarily better. If I cut my calories below 1350, my weight loss stalls. It takes some experimenting to find the right number for you. But just 1000 isn't enough! I would try adding 300-400 a day and see if you start losing.

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    2. Thanks for sharing this, I was curious too! Around 1500 is my comfy weight loss number, too.

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    3. By the way, congrats on getting in under 150!

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  10. you did great! Congrats!

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  11. Just found your blog and love it! My big goal is to lose 60lbs to put me at my comfortably healthy 125. I'm 35, have a 1 1/2 yr old son and have slowly crept up in weight, especially after injurying my ankle. No more excuses! Excited to get back to running (slowly) tomorrow. I have only completed 1 5k once and felt so good at that accomplishment. You totally inspire me!

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  12. I have had a ton of problems with myfitnesspal and fitbit syncing, not just in the calorie department, but in the exercise department! It sometimes duplicates them if I label them, and it was all around just a pain in the hoo ha. I eat what I set my calories for the day (1500-1650) and then if I get in a good amount of exercise, I'll count in a little extra based on what my fitbit tells me I've burned. I find it to be less of a headache! I apprecate the tips everyone has left tho. I'm going to try them, and try resyncing things for a bit.

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  13. Congratulations on your success the past 4 weeks! I'm curious about your thoughts on why you are able to have success with counting calories when you seemed stalked with points plus? Do you feel like you're eating more? less? Different types of food? I'm trying to fund a good fit for myself, and bounce between both, with no real success. My motivation comes and goes, because I'm only looking to lose 10-15 lbs, so I know that has a lot to do with it ;)

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    1. That's a great question that several people have asked. I'll make sure to address it tomorrow on my Wednesday Weigh-in post :)

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  14. You have given me a renewed sense of hope with tracking my food. You have done so well and now I need to stop talking about doing it and actually doing it. Good Job Katie!!!!

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  15. Congrats on getting back to the 140s!

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