if you look at my fitday, it would appear I eat way less calories and excersize off way more calories than i take in. So, it would appear i should be losing weight. But, i keep shifting. When I started dieting on Jan. 10th, I was 186, then last friday I was 181 (which I had weighed 181 on January 23rd and went back up to 184) and then I went back up to 183.8. Each morning my weight is coming back down about 2 to 4 ounces. This morning I was finally 182.0 which i am happy about. I figure I should be back at 181.0 by the end of this week.....again!!! When in the world am I suppose to be down to 180 or gosh forbid 179?? My 5 pound a month weightloss is not going as planned. Although Fitday makes it look like I should be shedding weight like crazy!! I just don't understand??? It makes me so sad and disappointed. Although, I am not giving up. I guess it will just take time.

Fitday tends to waaaaaaaaaay overestimate calorie burn. Personally I ignore that feature, because it's SO misleading. I know what calorie number I'm shooting for because of this formula and I try to exercise at least an hour 6 times a week. Beyond that, I don't worry about the math. If I did, it would drive me nuts!

mousie thanks for that!!

its nice to know i can actually eat 1700 cal a day and not gain! at least according to that!

the thing is this..i am not actually losing either, and i eat about 1200-1300 a day i would guess ( i dont use fitday every day, cause i have learned what my ratios are etc.). my low end by that formula says 1096 to 1290 or something like that to lose. i dont know that i could actually sustain on 1000 for very long.

i run like crazy and my body definitely has shed fat ( i see it in definition of my body overall)...but i attributed that to eating so many fruits, veggies and protein now...

i guess its all relevant. its ok that the scale says what it says, but then part of me kinda wishes it would say about 5 lbs less

If the shape of your body is changing but the number on the scale is not, then your body is giving up fat at the same time it's building muscle. So you lose one pound of fat, and put on one pound of muscle. It's okay, you want this to happen--muscle burns far more calories than fat, and takes up far less room. It will at a certain point stop, since women can't build massive amounts of muscle without focused weight lifting and supplementation. At that point, you'll start to drop fat and show off *sexy* muscles!

I've really had to experiment and fiddle with fitday to make it a truer representation of what's actually going on. I'm going to go to your click thru and have a look, OK?

I find FitDay to be pretty far off. Even putting my activity level at "bed bound" it still thinks I'll maintain at about 1800 calories a day, which I know not to be the case(especially not if I was bed bound! )

As for tools to help you estimate, 3FC has scads here:
http://www.3fatchicks.com/diets/diet-calculators.php

Probably something closer to the your weight times 10 or times 12 would be closer. Anyways, I've found you just have to play around with your calories until you find what works for you. FitDay will probably overestimate your metabolism, and it might overestimate how many calories you burn through activity, so I wouldn't trust it for those. Just adjust your calories every few weeks until you are eating at a comfortable level but also losing. Hope that helps, don't get too discouraged.

thanks guys. and susan and anyone else who wants to, please have a look around my fitday and see what changes i may need to make. like today, if i eat what all is on my fitday, i won't even have enough to make it to 1000 calories. what can i add to it, that's not junk food? i don't want my carbs to be higher than my protein either.

so you mean take your weight times 10 or 12 to figure what you need to maintain??? and which is better 10 or 12?

As for tools to help you estimate, 3FC has scads here:
http://www.3fatchicks.com/diets/diet-calculators.php

wow that said i can have 2150 and maintain. thats nuts!

Keep in mind that that's utterly, completely clean calories--no treats, no added sugar, no fried foods. It's amazing how things change when you 'clean up' your diet! You can eat *lots* more when you cut out the junk food.

well i eat about as healthy as they come, so i guess i am good to go. granted i do cheat from time to time, so i guess i will stick with the 1500-1700 to maintain!!

at least now i have something to go by!

How much have you lost and how fast? Maybe we can do a reverse thinking thing and fix fitday in retrospect.

I don't think so. It may LOOK like more food because unprocessed, whole food is more bulky than calorically dense junk, and it's certainly better for you, but I can't eat more than a certain amount of calories no matter what their source. I choose to keep them clean because I feel better, don't have increased cravings, look better because of having adequate nutritional support for maintaining my muscles, skin tone, etc.

I find that fitday's "calories burned" or activites section is completely useless. Based on that, I should have ceased to exist several years ago. There is PLENTY of me still here!

That is nuts! It said I could maintain on 1950! I maintain on 1400 and will gain a pound or two a week on 1950 of squeeky clean food. Where did these numbers come from?

Mel

It seems to work for my body, but maybe my body is just more sensitive to additives and things like that. If I eat clean foods I can have more calories than if I have 'treats'. It's confusing, because a calorie is supposed to be a calorie, but my body disagrees. If I have 1900-2100 clean calories a day I lose, and if they're 'crap' calories I gain. Doesn't make sense, but that's my body for you.