4 years post op and have regained - HELP!

Good morning. I am 4 years post op. I have gained because of my own small mistakes but from also being on Cymbalta due to my recent diagnosis of Fibromyalgia. I am on MyFitnessPal.com and using a Fitbit. I feel stupid in asking but how many calories should I be eating verses burning through exercise in order to lose again?

SW = 340

LW= 183

CW=219

Total gained = 36 lbs

Welcome! Most people here find that they need to keep their carbs very low and their calories in the 600-800 range for losing weight. But to answer your specific question - you should ignore any "calories burned" with exercise. Exercise is great for your overall health, but diet is what matters for weight loss and there is no need to eat more to compensate for exercise when you've still got weight to lose.

Tracking everything you put into your mouth with MyFitnessPal is great - make sure to weigh/measure it so that your tracking is accurate.

Thank you Gwen. I DO have a question though about MFP. I have used it since before my surgery. However, I noticed that it will not allow you to submit your input at the end of the day unless you are eating at least 1,200 calories. Do you all just not worry about submitting? You know .. where it says, "If every day were like today, you would weight 190 lbs in 5 weeks" ...

I don't use it myself, but I've seen people say that they don't worry about submitting. It's not really set up for people who have had WLS.

I didn't think so but wasn't sure. I mean, I still use it to log and keep track of my water intake and all.

I've been using MFP to track for about a year now, and honestly I never even noticed the "submit" button until a couple months ago. Never tried pressing it. It still does a great job of tracking food, water, exercise, and vitamin intake without hitting submit. I also use it in combo with FitBit - I put my food/water/exercise into MFP, and then the FitBit app picks up the info from MFP. MFP doesn't seem to pick up the step count from FitBit, but I'm ok with that. I also use the Aria scale, which communicates to the FitBit app, which then sends my weight over to MFP. Very happy with the whole system

Oh, I used to think that MFP didn't pick up the step count from Fitbit either but I got it to work. I am going to try and figure out how the heck I did it and when I do, I will be more than happy to share that with you. Both sync up beautifully now. :-)

That would be awesome, thank you! I tried googling to figure it out, tried for about 15 minutes and gave up.

Verify the Accounts Are Linked
First, make sure MyFitnessPal and Fitibt have successfully connected. You can verify the connection on our full website at http://www.myfitnesspal.com . Once you are logged in to the site, click the main "Apps" tab. On the right-hand edge of that page you should see "Your Apps" and underneath, Fitbit should be listed. If Fitbit is not showing in Your Apps, click on Fitbit in the list of partner apps, and click the "Connect" option.

Forcing a Sync
Once you have verified Fitbit is connected, you can try to force a sync. First, make sure your Fitbit has synced to the Fitbit dashboard. If you are unable to sync your Fitbit device to the Fitbit dashboard, please contact Fitbit support at https://help.fitbit.com/

Once data is flowing from your device to Fitbit, you can manually add a cardio exercise to your MyFitnessPal diary, such as walking for two minutes (you can delete the entry later if you like). Within 15 minutes (usually sooner) this should force a sync for your Fitbit adjustment.

Please remember, even if the adjustment says "0" your accounts have successfully synced, and you can either click the "i" on the adjustment line on the MyFitnessPal website, or tap directly on the adjustment in any of our mobile apps, to view the details of the adjustment. For more information on the actual adjustment please see: https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1084232-what-is-the-calorie-adjustment-in-my-exercise-diary

You can verify sync has occurred by comparing your last Fitbit dashboard information to that shown in the adjustment explanation. Under the Fitbit Calories Burned, you should see in parenthesis "based on x amount of calories at x time". It is that information that should match your last Fitbit dashboard sync. If not, the sync has still not gone through.

Still No Adjustment?
If you do not see any line for Fitbit, or any number including a zero in the adjustment area, then there is still a problem. If you've already waited a few hours, you can then try following these Exact steps to see if they help.

- Go to our main website at www.MyFitnessPal.com, then to the Apps tab, then find Fitbit on the right, click on it and then disconnect.
- Then log into your Fitbit account at www.fitbit.com, click the gear icon, then settings, next click Applications, then Click the blue 'Revoke Access' button and revoke access for MyFitnessPal
- It's important to make sure Fitbit has been disconnected on both MyFitnessPal and Fitbit
-Once disconnected, please wait 15 minutes
- Go back to www.MyFitnessPal.com website (not the Fitbit or MFP app) and relink your Fitbit device via the main Apps tab, or https://www.myfitnesspal.com/apps/show/30
- Once you have reconnected, go back to the Apps tab online and make sure Fitbit is now showing on the right hand side of the page under Your Apps

Step Sync
Please make sure Fitbit has also been elected as the main Steps source (you can only use one Step tracker in the program at a time). To do this, in the apps, go to the Menu (or "More" screen), then Settings, then Steps, and make sure Fitbit only has a check next to it. Or online go to the Apps tab, then the sub tab Steps, or https://www.myfitnesspal.com/apps/step_trackers

If you have Fitbit elected as your Step source, but are still not seeing steps sync, try electing not to have a step source at all, then force quit the program, sign back in and elect Fitbit as yout Step source once more. If using an iOS device, please make sure to also activate motion.

If you are still having issues, please double check your time zones and profile information on both programs to make sure they are exactly the same. This should be available in the Settings of both programs.

If after trying all trouble shooting options, you still do not see a sync, we would recommend waiting 24 hours for any delays to catch up. We usually sync data within 15 minutes of activity, but in some instances there are technical issues that may prevent sync from being immediate.

If we are experiencing longer than usual delays, we typically post on http://status.underarmour.com/ or the announcement section of our Community Questions area.

If there is no indication we are experiencing issues and your sync is delayed over 24 hours, please email our team by clicking the "email us" option to the upper right of this page or https://t.co/a1pmDmaSg2. Let us know your MyFitnessPal username, as well as your Fitbit ID number, which can be found by signing into your Fitbit account, then clicking on your profile picture, which will take you to your Fitbit Profile. Once there, please copy the information in the address bar, and send it to us. If possible a screen shot of your last sync on your Fitbit dashboard would also be extremely helpful

Awesome!!

This is the part I was missing:

Step Sync
Please make sure Fitbit has also been elected as the main Steps source (you can only use one Step tracker in the program at a time). To do this, in the apps, go to the Menu (or "More" screen), then Settings, then Steps, and make sure Fitbit only has a check next to it. Or online go to the Apps tab, then the sub tab Steps, or https://www.myfitnesspal.com/apps/step_trackers

MFP was picking up my step count from my phone instead of from my Fitbit. I changed that setting and now I have matching step counts. Nice!

Thanks so much for the help!!