Understanding calorie terminology

[aubrey-jaye]

I'm a little confused with my calories on the app.

So I calculated how many I consumed (1,559) and the green dashboard tile told me that i had 368 calories left, but then once I tapped on it, it told me 1,559 calories had gone in, 1,643 cals. out with 84 calories left in my budget.

Can someone please explain this to me????

Moderator edit: Updated title for clarity

[FerdinandFitbit · Accepted solution]

Hi there @aubrey-jaye, welcome to the Fitbit Community Forums! 🙂

I'd like to help you out with this.

When it comes to the calories in vs calories out and the food plan monitor, this works basically like this:

If you've set a food plan, it's very important for you to log all the food you eat during the day to have a clear calculation of the calories you're eating vs the calories you're burning. If you're in a food plan to lose weight, you need to have a calorie deficit which means, you need to burn some more calories than the ones you're eating in order to lose weight.

Now, the terminology here should be reviewed carefully. Calories eaten or consumed are the same, it's basically the food you're eating. Calories burned, are the calories you've used through exercise.

Now, the food plan tile will do a calculation of the calories you've burned during the day and tell you based on that, how many calories you can still eat but this will be constantly changing through the day as you sync your tracker and as you burn calories.

The Under, On target and Over tile will let you know how many calories you've eaten vs how many calories you've burned and will let you know the status for you to be aware of how much more you need to be active to reach the calorie deficit.

For more detailed information on how a Food Plan works, click here.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need anything else!

PS. I'm moving your post to the Android app board for categorization purposes.

[aubrey-jaye]

Thank you very much! i followed the link but I am still slightly confused.

I have a food plan to lose weight with a -1000 calorie deficit. I have burnt 1325 calories, consumed 398, but am still being told i have 300 left. Is this an estimate based on calories I burn throughout the day simply by being alive? Any input on this is greatly appreciated. Thank you. 

[FerdinandFitbit]

Thanks for getting back @aubrey-jaye! 🙂

The estimate you see should be a combination of your BMR (the calories you burn just for being alive) and the calories you'r burning from exercise. This is why this number will change during the day because if you don't sync your tracker, your calories left will be based on your BMR and the calories you've consumed. Once you sync your tracker, you will get a more complete picture of the calories left to eat because you're also taking into consideration the calories you've  burned from exercise.

Hope this makes sense. If you have more questions, feel free to let me know!