[rdhdgrl1]

Hi guys-
I have aquestion for those of you who are using fitday.com.
Do you think the estimates for calories burned are accurate? I used it today for the first time (seriously logging everything on it). I had only played around with it here and there before. It gives basal calories burned, lifestyle cals. burned, and activity cals burned. It says I should burn almost 3,000 cals. a day. Wow that seems like alot. I always count lower though because I'm hypothyroid. I usually subtract about 200 calories from all the online calculators I've used. But even with that My calories in today were less than my calories out which was really neat to see on the graphs they have. I'm glad I tried to check it out again.

I've been doing really poorly staying on track lately. I think it's pretty neat to see everything you eat broken down onto a chart. I'm still just trying to find what works for me. I hope that as long as I see a cal. deficit everyday, even a small one, eventually I'll lose some weight. That's why I was wondering what others opinions on it is. I know everyone's different. Does anyone else using fitday use these charts as a visual for cals. in and out? Are there any other cool things you might like about fitday? Since it's fairly new to me I'd like to hear what ya'll that have been using it for a while have to say.

Thanks!

[Valerie Joy]

Fitday says I would lose weight eating less then 3000 calories a day but I dont' know how accurate that is. I try and stay between 1200 & 1600

[Deanna7272]

I use the fitday (I skip a day here and there) and just as any other "chart" I wouldn't believe it as an exact science. Different genders, ages, weights, etc can skew the chart. I just use as it a reference guide. You said it yourself, everyone is different...

How many calories are you taking in? 3300 to burn IS a lot... that's almost a POUND a day... (3500 calories is a pound of body weight)... That's a tough thing to do...

I like the journals on there also... it is nice to SEE what you are feeling and doing daily... I have my students track on fitday also. they are really surprised at what they are taking in..lol

[candoitby06]

I LOOOVE fitday.com, I think its a great tool! If I am not mistaken, fitday does take into account your age, gender and weight. Thats something you put in at the beginning when signing up.

I do find somethings that are slightly annoying with the site when you look up foods particularly, chicken. When I look up chicken breast, if I am trying to choose either baked or broiled its usually buddied up with the fried category which is not always true. Fried is always worse, so I have a hard time beleiving those numbers. I find I have to do a ton of custom foods. Which is ok with me.

One thing I have yet to figure out, are the actual nutrition requirements. I would like to see a nutritionist sometime to see if I am actually eating what my body needs. On my "am I burning the calories i eat" report, I am burning on average 4000 calories and only taking in 1500. I have been having rapid weight loss which I thought wouldnt last beyond the first week or two so i think I need to make some modifications.

I am on average losing 1 pound a day?! I am trying to fix that so it will be long term, but I dont know where I am going "wrong". Not that I mind losing a pound a day, but I really want it off for good! Any Ideas? How does one interept some of these reports to aid with this weight loss journey?

[srmb60]

I am a fitday fanatic! I love it!
Morgan ... if you go to reports in the left column and from there click on
"Am I meeting my nutrient requirements?" it'll tell you how you are doing. I had enough red numbers that I started taking a multi vit.

rdhdgrl! .... I'm not really sure which numbers you are refering too. Does fitday tell you that it is taking 3000 cals per day to keep you doing what you do normally all day?
I have found that the tricky part is setting your basal needs. Ya know on the home page where it says to select a lifestyle level? be very careful. If you say you are moderately active and then add things that you normally do each day, you are essentially adding those activities twice. Try setting your lifestyle level very low and then adding normal activities like laundry, cooking etc. Eventually you'll figure out that you always use ??? calories. You then can change your lifestyle level and only need to add exercise and unusual activities like shovelling or moving furniture.
Did that make sense? I'll check back here in case it didn't. I've found fitday to be a marvelous tool and would love to help anyone get to know it.

[coley144]

I don't use fitday but another online program. Whatever program I try it says I should burn something crazy like 3000 calories a day. Thing is I have never eaten that much so its soooo wrong! I have worked out my average pre-diet calories were about 2500. By the online calculators reckoning I should have been losing weight..which I certainly wasnt!

What I do is I look at how many calories I have eaten, then how many pounds I have lost (using 3500 calories per pound) - if you add that together then divide by the number of days it shows you how much you burn.

Soooo...here's an example.

If in 1 week you eat 1500 per day..1500x7=10500
You lose 2 pounds....3500x2=7000
10500+7000=17500
Divide that by 7=2500
So you are burning 2500 per day.

I did that with mine (its better to do over a month as we all have weird weeks) and figured out I was burning about 2200 much MUCH less than any online calculator says (which might well explain why I got so fat in the first place!). So my advice is, once the first few weeks speedy loss have finished and you settle in to it, work it out for yourself.

[rdhdgrl1]

Thanks for the replies.

SusanB thanks for the tip on the basal needs. I did have it set at moderate since I'm pretty busy all day but I have now set it lower and will add extra activities to it.

I really like it. I was trying to do WW points again for the umpteenth time and I just can't stick with it. I'm trying to make changes that are going to last forever.

Thanks!

[Tani]

I find that fitday overestimates calories burned for me by a few hundred a day. I just use it to log food and calculate my calorie requirements by trial and error