Trying to make my calories data more accurate

Jennn

I use this mostly to track macros but have been trying to get 3-5 lbs off for 6 months to no avail.

I have it set to 0 for activity and I import activity from Polar which must be over reporting. I just looked at my nutrition report (screenshot below)

. I should be losing tons of weight lol! What is off??

This morning I unlinked my watch and set my TDEE to .7 (1000 calories) I’m more than a .5 but maybe not quite .9? I run 4 days a week about 30-40 miles and rock climb in the gym 3 days. Am I going in the right direction?

at least using TDEE in Cronometer I’ll have consistent calories instead of feeling like I can’t eat on my days off lol.

Jennn

Can anyone help?

I tried deleting my watch app and just using TDEE and I gained 2 lbs. I only need 3 to 5 lbs off, it shouldn’t be this hard.

p0wer_lifter

Ignore all inputs from external sources. Set your total calories based on estimates all within Cronometer.

Assuming your exercise is relatively the same from week to week, stick with the same total calories for 2 or 3 weeks - or as close as you can get. After 2 or 3 weeks, adjust total calories up or down by 200 to 300 calories based on weight gain or loss. Weight loss has more to do with total calories than macro ratios.

In my opinion, all you need is a good food tracker, a scale, and patience.

Jennn

Ok thanks

wmarler

I tried deleting my watch app and just using TDEE and I gained 2 lbs.

Over what length of time? 8 hours? 1 day? 1 week? Our weight is capricious and will fluctuate day-to-day (and even over the course of the day) due to gut content, glycogen and water. This can be very distracting/misleading.

I personally find myself obsessing over the numbers, and in an effort to combat that I record my weights in a spreadsheet, not in Cronometer, with white text on white background. After a week I'll compute the average and compare it to last weeks average, so the number that I see is the difference between this week and last. That is what we're trying to manipulate here.

I also agree with @p0wer_lifter: Remove external inputs estimating your energy consumption. They are notoriously inconsistent and inaccurate. Pick a kcal target & go with it; adjust it over time based on your real-world data.

+1 for patience.

p0wer_lifter

Weekly average weight is the way to go, I couldn’t agree more. I use Apple Health to store my daily weight data and it does the average calculation for me - weekly and monthly averages. Though I store the data daily, I ignore looking at - and thinking about - anything but that weekly average on Sundays and monthly average on the 1st of each month.

bracconiere

i find calorie calcs kinda off.

i weed eat 2-3 hours a week, no with a string trimmer

and watching my weight on the scale. i can reverse find out how many calories i burn, being my BMR goes from 2820 sedentary to 2920....

and don't forget it takes calories to maintain body weight too....in my experience about 8 per pound on avg...so when i lost a few pounds about 3-4, my BMR when down to 2890....

i like using the word 'nominal' A LOT doing this stuff!

if you have a standard routine , just weigh yourself every morning, for a couple months. keeping track of what you eat. and you can solve for BMR. and every pound you lose or gain is about 8 or so calories less or more on it.....

haven't been here in a while, sorry if i'm being stupid....

JorduSpeaks

Don't track your weight. Track your 7-day average. The reason why you should track your average weight is to minimize the effect of water fluctuation.

The way I track my rolling average is by using a spreadsheet program on my phone. I weigh myself every day, putting the value in a different cell for each day of the week. I then have a macro that automatically calculates the average of the seven values. The average is what I log.