Seriously. Still over budget??!!

[SDCfan]

Sometimes this can be discouraging. I log food, make right choices. Rice, chicken, vegetables. Nice Birdseye veggies. 308 calories. Screams your over budget!!!! What the crap!! Sometimes the app needs to calm it's crap. 3/400 calories a meal isn't over budget for my health. Especially when I get out and walk my hilly neighborhood thirty minutes a day!! And that's with being on my feet all day at the hospital! Anyone else have discouraging moments?

[momofthree2016]

Isn't that just for the meal? Hopefully if you continue to make good food choices throughout the day, the end result is that you are right on target. Mine is telling me that I'm over budget for the day as it currently stands...but by the end of the day, it all balances out. I think the main thing that you want to do is speak kindly to yourself. You are trying and that is deserving of a pat on the back! So good Job!!

[Ukase]

The truth is, the fitbit readouts are only as good as the information we give it. 

And, yes, the exclamation point at the end of "over budget" could go away; I wouldn't miss it. 

First - are you set at Sedentary or active. 30 minutes of walking in a hilly neighborhood is probably no more than 300 calories burned - depending on your physical build, intensity, etc. 

Let's say you were at a 1000 calorie deficit and you're set at sedentary. If your typical daily caloric burn - while the body is at rest - (or the basic resting metabolism) is 2000 calories a day, then according to Fitbit, you have to reduce your intake to the 1000 calories plus 300 calories for your walk. A total of 1300 calories. If your Birds-eye veggies were at the end of the day, and you being on your feet, but largely stationary, then I could see the dashboard giving you bad news. 

Sometimes, the fitbit you're wearing doesn't really do a good job of tracking your calories burned. Sometimes, it does. 

If I were you, I'd look at how your dashboard settings are set up. Maybe something needs to change. 

[emili]

is it over budget for the day or in the moment that you enter it? Because if you eat three meals at 400 calories that's 1200 calories for the day. Which is lower that most average size adults have as their BMR let alone their TDEE. So unless you are doing another 400 in snacks and not moving at all, you should be slightly under or right at. If its over budget in the afternoon, its OK. If its over budget at night when your day is done, then its an issue. If you are losing weight, its a moot point.

[callouj]

Fitbit can only guess what one needs to eat, so I wouldn't bother with its "over budget" or "hooray".

If one knows what he needs to eat, then the only thing to do is to stick with the plan, ignoring Fitbit.

The only useful feature is logging food and having calories and macros breakdown, as long as info entered are accurate. Unfortunately, if you don't enter all nutrition info manually, the risk is that you will log 100 grams of zucchini that will return back 300 cals.

[glitterNfunk]

How many calories in left in my day is where I focus.  My food tends to be upside down.....a big breakfast, snack, reasonable lunch, snack, small dinner.  So, because I start big, I'm almost always "over budget" throughout the day but I hit my goal by the end of the day. 

The only time I pay attention to the in/out range during the day is if I'm under budget.....it means I forgot to log something!  : )

[dragonpupps]

@SDCfan, what are you using to log your meals? It doesn't sound right that 300-400 calories a meal is overbudget. If anything it's underbudget, because 1,200 calories daily is barely enough.