I think you can lose 8 pounds in 6 weeks easily even without exercise if you do a major food overhaul, especially if week 1 means a diet overhaul. I've lost 13 pounds since jan. 2 and I lost 8 of those pounds in the first 2 weeks because I switched over from holiday junk food mania to watching what I eat.

Hi Lauren ... oh no no no ... we are trying to figure out how to set Bobbidipity's fitday calorie expenditures. I was asking her if she agreed that she'd lost 8 lbs in 6 weeks. Then we'll do the math and find out what her deficit has been and work from there.

You sound like you're doing well

Ohhhh.....Thanks Susan! I am doing well this week. It's hard for me to gauge how I am doing sometimes because I work out so much so I gain weight and lose inches b/c I assume I'm getting some muscle. But I'm on track, I think.

Good luck helping Bobbidipity with the deficit for random activities. I wish I can help but Fitday confuses me tremendously in calculating the calories burned for daily activities so I don't do it (I guess I refuse to time myself every time I wash a couple plates).

I really think most folks who take care of a home and cook and do the odd thing outside probably are pretty safe using the life style setting just above bedridden (I think it's seated work) and then just adding their 'outside the home' work and exercise. We make things awfully complicated for ourselves and fitday does not help ... with that any way.

That is correct. Except here's how it happened (in case this matters):
weeks 1 & 2: lost 2.5 lbs./week
week 3: lost nothing
weeks 4-6: lost 1 lb./week
That's the same scenario that happened with me -- the junk food fest ended and my body said "Huh??!!"
I do have that "seated work, some movement" lifestyle selected. Even on the days I work outside of the home, it still applies. I will try doing what you are suggesting by adding any above-and-beyond exercise and activities.

Ok, I'm gonna get even more fiddly than that. Yup, I'm detaily and have toooo much time on my hands.
Eight pounds is 28,000 calories right?
So over 6 weeks or 42 days, that's an average daily deficit of 666 calories. How evil!
So theoretically, to represent what's really happened in your real life, you have to fool with expenditures to make them about 666 calories more than you ate and .... from now on your entries should be more accurate.
Clear as mud?

I don't know about that Susan unless she is saying that she does zero physical activity ever. Like I said, I sometimes gain weight because I may have lost 1 pound of fat but gained 2 pounds of muscle....does that make sense? So, you would have to assume that absolutely no muscle was built for the calculation to work like that....because technically I think I would have lost more than 13 pounds if I didn't build muscle. I don't know that I'm making any sense...

Does it mean we're both a bit ??? if I think I understood you then?
Zero activity? No, she has to be doing 666 cals per day more than she is eating. Let's suppose from a quick eyeballing that she (I wish she had a real first name ) is averaging 1500 cals of food per day. She must be using on average 2166 for her to have a sustained loss of 8 lbs in 6 weeks.
No, I'm talking purely fat loss and that's probably a 'close enough' calculation for weight loss.
I'd have to go reading the stickies in Ladies Who Lift but I think it's harder than we think to gain a couple of pounds of muscle.

Ok then for Lauren .... 13 lbs since Jan 02 is 45,500 cals over 38 days or an average of about 1197 calories a day. Theoretically, you must be using 1197 cals per day more than you're eating.
And since it looks like you've been eating about 1100 then your expenditures must be about 2300 or so.

Interesting! I'm actually catching on to the math here. (And it's Bobbie, hence bobbidipity. ) I'll have to think about this and figure out how I'm coming to a deficit of over 600 calories per day. Maybe it's been all that extra walking through grocery stores trying to choose better foods.

Lauren -- wow! 1197 calories per day!

Bobbie! That's sooo much better. I could hardly spell the other and that she she she business was just too disrespectful!

Isn't it nice to know that your using more than you thought?

If I really have a deficit in calories of 1197, then fitday is way off. As Susan said my calories expended would be 2300 because I eat 1100 calories per day (1100 plus 1197=about 2300).

But my basal metabolic rate is 1540 calories. I then do 80 minutes of cardio five days per week, which the machine says is 1100 calories (so let's assume it is really 600 calories).

So 1540 (bmr) plus 600 (known activity) is 2140.....so according to the 2300 calories expended calculation all of my other activities combined (I also do around 20-25 minutes of weights) would only be 160 calories.

Fitday seems to think my calories expended are over 3000. I think my actual expended must be somewhere in between.

Yes, that how all this started. We were trying to rig fitday so that it more accurately reflected what was really happening.

I don't understand this paragraph ....So 1540 (bmr) plus 600 (known activity) is 2140.....so according to the 2300 calories expended calculation all of my other activities combined (I also do around 20-25 minutes of weights) would only be 160 calories. .....

Why are you adding anything after the 2140?

600 is just the running for the day. bmr is the amount i would burn if i stayed in bed all day. that brings me to 2140..and since I do not stay in bed all day...i do laundry and clean and teach a class and walk around...those activities are worth something too. Thus, I need to add something else (the only thing left to get to 2300 calories would be 160. I think all the other daily stuff has to be worth more than 160.

oh..fitday by the way says I burn 982 calories for my workout. 96 for the weightlifting portion and 886 for the running. If that were accurate then it would be bmr of 1540 plus 982 which is 2552. That is already over 2300 even without adding in "lifestyle" things.