(this is on the "Am I burning the calories I eat?" chart).

I have eaten a little over 2000 cal and Fitday says I burning a little over 3000 cal. This would me that I would lose 2lbs a week, which is my goal. But the thing is that I should only be eating 1500 (i'm working on it). So where is the differance coming from?

I'm no pro, but I'll see if I can round up some of the more educated ladies here to help you out!

In my experience, using the "calories burned" part of fitday is a fairly good waste of time. I know that a lot of people here use it, but it has never been useful for me. Based on fitday's calculations, I should have ceased to exist about 3 years ago. There's plenty of me still here! The nutritional tracking part is great, tho.

Are you eating 1500 and losing 2 pounds a week? If so keep on doing!
If not, try to get your eating in line, and stick to that workout plan. If the eating and workout plan are on target and you aren't losing, ramp up the intensity, or drop about 100 calories. How "clean" are your calories? That really does seems to make a difference for some people also.

Mel

Hi WannaB! Hope you don't mind me butting in -- though I'm far from in my 30's! But I have a bit of experience with helping people set calorie goals for weight loss, so maybe I can offer some insight.

In my opinion, the calculators that are supposed to tell you how many calories you burn in a day aren't to be trusted. Fitday especially tends to err on the very high side. Some people play with them and tweak them until they make sense (like programming in that they sleep all day! ) I say - just forget them. They're only going to make your weight loss needlessly complicated.

Better just to pick a reasonable number of calories, track what you're eating, and see what the results are at the end of each week. If you've lost two pounds - great! you're right where you want to be. If you've lost less, you can think about adjusting your calories and/or your exercise. Everyone's different and that's the only way to find out what works for YOUR unique body.

At your current weight, I agree that 1500 is a good place to start for calories, though that may even be a bit high if you're aiming for two pounds loss per week. But I honestly don't think it's possible to eat 2000 calories a day and lose two pounds per week unless you're over 250 pounds or so.

Can you tell us what you're doing for exercise?

I was typing when Mel was posting! I guess we both agree on Fitday re calories burned.

After a couple of years of fiddling, I think I finally have fitday just about where I want it. But it was work and most times I had to figure in arrears ... I lost a pound in two weeks so I must have had a 3500 cal deficit in that time ... sort of like that.

I really like that kind of fiddling and really didn't mind. But it's not for everyone. It might just be one of those things. You'll have to decide if you need it or not. Mel and Meg seem to have done very well without it.

I just want to clarify one thing ... I love the calorie tracking portion of Fitday and have used it for almost five years. The part I found to be useless - for me - is the calories burned part.

Ok, this all makes good since.
BTW here is what I do:

2days I walk 3 miles in 1 hr. (Im working on getting faster, may start jogging, but we'll see,)

Monday Wednesday, and Friday
1hr total
At the gym
4 sets of 25 on the ab machine

2sets to failure on the following
Shoulders

over head shoulder press (DB or smith machine)
Shoulder side raises (not sure this is the correct term)

bi's
Preacher curls
Alt db curls on incline

tri's
Overhead tri press or overhead cable pull down
tri pull down

chest

Bench press w/db or bb
peck deck

back
Smith machine Tbar
Wide grip cable pull down

legs
Leg press
Straight leg dead lifts

This usually leaves me sore the next day, but I am usually fine the day after, ready to do I t all over again.

I usually mix up the order, and I will do different exercises to hit each body part, for instance. I Will do squats and hamstring curls on legs, or on arms do concentrated curls, and standing hamercurls, and so on...

My diet is mostly calorie based. between 1200-1500cal a day depending on how hard I worked out. I try to get in high protein. Ive learned that I do better if I don't omit anyone food (with the exception of refined sugar, and I try to only eat whole grain)

So if you set your level at seated work and add 'walking at 3 miles per hour' and ' weightlifting' for an hour ... does that give you a deficit for the day that looks about right?

I'm assuming two things here ... one is that you still want fitday to work out more or less about right for you and two is that you are a most-of-the-time-housewife like me.

SusanB:

Yep you got me right, and I will give that a try. The only other thing about Fitday, is that I thing the measure the cal burned on certain activity's (like walking) on the low side. I calculated on another website, and always come up with more, so I adjust it. For instants, I put walking caring a load instead of just walking, and it comes out just right.

I pretty sure that I'm doing this right 'cause my weight is finally going DOwn

You do have to fiddle. But I really think that even if you have to kinda make stuff up, as long as the numbers come out right, you've got a valuable tool there. I really like it.

Yes, I absolutly LOVE fitday. I don't know what i ever did with out it. Oh, yeah, I stayed fat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!