In January and early February I tried to aggressively lose weight. I was exercising and kept calories at a loss rate of 1.5 pounds a week by fitbit. I didn’t lose a pound. As a 200+ pound female I should have loss and was frustrated, but I reminded myself that sometimes when I try too hard my body resists. I took a few weeks to reset my thought process.
In March I changed a couple things up. First I decided to reduce my weight loss goal to 1 pound a week. If I felt like eating less I did, but was totally fine with eating back exercise calories and losing just a pound a week.
Second I kept a note in my phone where I recorded calories in, fitbit calories out, the difference I “should” have lost if everything was accurate, and converted that difference to pounds lost over time. I’m a data nerd and was curious if my not losing in January was truly my body fighting it because I was too aggressive, or if I am not accurate with calorie logging or calories burned.
I DO estimate plenty. I try to be accurate but ultimately take my best guess and move on. Also I eat A LOT. I was sticking to 1600-1700 in January and it wasn’t working. In March I ate most days between 1850 and 2100. A couple of days I ate about 1400 because I felt like it. A few days I ate 2300-2400.
Most days my Fitbit had me burning 2400-2900 calories. I am active several hours at work and most often got 10,000 steps. Weekends usually 7,500. No other exercise.
On March 1st I weighed 222 pounds. On April 1st I weighed 216 pounds. My month of data estimated I should have lost 5.8 pounds.
2 HUGE takeaways for me. First, my Fitbit is pretty accurate and I do burn a lot of energy each day. Second, it is easier for me to lose weight eating close to 2000 calories than to restrict further.
Finally, weight loss is not linear. At one point I had estimated I had lost 4 pounds by data but the scale said 5, and then bounced to 2, for a few days. All the while I kept counting calories and eventually the scale figured itself out.
Hoping this gives hope to those struggling with weight loss. I plan to track through May.
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