As previously mentioned

Yesterday I wrote about my frustration with the calorie limits changing just before dinner on my Fitbit app so I decided to see what would happen if I didn't log additional activities until after logging my dinner food. My steps are synced every time I log onto my computer so the activity the app used to determine my caloric intake was based solely on the number of steps today. Sadly, that wasn't many because I did a lot more sitting for work that normal.

Tonight I logged my dinner and as I feared, I went over the allotted calorie level of 1048 from this morning. I ate a high carb dinner of linguine and red sauce with one meatball. This was before the evening smoothie which includes veges.

I needed to see the WHOOPS! I needed to see the crossed knife and fork. In red.

I then added in the other activities from today, such as laundry, the treadmill, cleaning the house, etc. And guess what happened again?

I was awarded with an additional 843 calories!. That would give me 2320 calories! Entering the additional activities after dinner suggests that these additional calories would need to be eaten in the evening.

So what does this mean?

I did some research and learned that a pound is worth 3500 calories. If I want to lose 1 pound per week, I need to cut 500 calories per day out of my diet. The ideal weight for my age is between 104 - 131.

Next, I determined what my activity level is based on the suggestions of the American Diabetic Association. While my ultimate goal is to be very active (walks more than 3 miles per day at 3-4 mph), on a good day right now I am moderately active (walks 1.5 - 3 miles per day at 3-4 mph. 

Today I was not active; I was sedentary.

According to Active.com to maintain my ideal weight (once I get there), I would need to eat 2100 calories a day if I were active, 1845 for a low active day, and 1642 for a sedentary day (like today).

I am thrilled to know that my total caloric intake today is even less than the 1642 required for a not active person to maintain a weight of 104-131. But first I need to get to that point.

I went to caloriecount.com  to use the weight loss calculator. In order to lose weight I need to adhere to 1200 calories a day. 

This only confirms what I already knew. I need to stop eating pasta and rice and stay under the 1200 calorie goal.

From now on I will know that Fitbit has its own formula, but I have guidelines now that make sense. I will continue to log my activities throughout the day and if fitbit says I can eat more at the end of the day, I will look at my totals and if they are within the above referenced guidelines, I will take that into consideration. But right now, to get healthy, I need to lose some of this excess baggage and I am not going to do that by eating 2300 calories on a sedentary day.

Now I can stop wondering if my fitbit is broken and stressing about it! 

In future posts, I will examine what the other numbers mean and how they affect my health.