calories over budget explanation

[jojomontyjohn]

newbie to this and not getting why it consistently tells me im over my calorie budget at the same time as it says i have a couple of hundred calories left?my output is way over my input too.any thoughts?

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[Momsbugs98]

I asked this a couple years ago and seen so many different answers, none of
which really explained the question I asked, either! Mostly they seemed
like excuses for why there's a bug in the program. I ended up ignoring
that. Mine was set to not lose weight, so no calorie deficit required, and
I'd have, after a completed day, a calories over budget showing, even if I
burned more than I ate. I wish you the best in figuring it out and meeting
your goals!

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello everyone, I hope you're doing well. 

I understand some of you have questions about how food plans work and how the two graphs for calories burned and calories in/out work. Please note that when you start a food plan (for losing, gaining or maintaining weight), depending on the aggressiveness of the plan you will only be allowed to consume a determined amount of calories, if you consume more calories than allowed you will be able to see these calories were "over" your total. Please note that the Daily Calorie Estimate uses your average activity to give you an estimate of how many calories you should eat for the whole day to meet your weight goal. This updates throughout the day if you are more or less active than usual. As you log food during the day, the calories you can still eat will update, you will be in your goal zone as long as you are within 50 calories of your deficit goal for the current time of day.

Daily Calorie Estimate tile.

The Daily Calorie Estimate  is an estimate of the total calories you can eat for the whole day, taking your BMR, Activity Calories, Food Plan deficit, and whether you're on a Personalized or Sedentary plan into account. The Calories In vs Out gauge, on the other hand, is specific to the current time of day, and includes the fraction of your food plan deficit that you should have earned by that time of day as well as the calories you've actually burned in the same time period. If you think of the Calories In vs Out gauge as an "Eatometer," showing how fast you're consuming your daily calories, it may make understanding the difference easier.

Calories In vs. Out tileFor example, consider someone who eats a big breakfast early in the morning. Even on the Sedentary plan, they may already have a Daily Calorie Estimate of 1300 calories or more first thing in the morning, reflecting their entire daily BMR, so eating a 1000-calorie breakfast would show that they still had 300 calories left to eat for the day.

The Calories In vs Out gauge, however, only gives credit for calories actually burned so far for the day. At 6AM, they may have burned only a few hundred calories BMR while sleeping, plus a few activity calories for stumbling to the bathroom, brushing their teeth, and making their way to the breakfast table. In addition, since it's 6AM, 25% of the day is gone, which means that the gauge needs to hold 25% of their daily deficit in reserve. If they're on the 500-calorie deficit plan, that's another 125 calories to be accounted for. So it's quite reasonable for the Daily Calorie Estimate to show 300 calories left to eat for the day, while the "Eatometer" is WAY over in the red zone, shouting "Slow Down, you're eating too fast!" Early in the day, that's not a problem; later in the day, you should be paying close attention.

To summarize, the Daily Calorie Estimate will often tell you that you have more calories available to eat, even if you're "over budget" at the current time. It's okay to be "over budget" early in the day, since it's better to eat earlier rather than later, but be careful about running over the Daily Calorie Estimate for the day unless you have a lot more exercise planned.

Also remember that the Daily Calorie Estimate will increase throughout the day as activities burn calories, so that 1300 morning estimate may turn into 2500 or more by the end of the day. Don't assume that the first number you see in the morning is your final daily food budget, unless you're planning to lay in bed all day.

I hope this solves your inquiries, if there's anything else I can do for you, please feel free to reply. 

[oomarr]

Mine always says it is over budget before I do anything

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @oomarr, thanks for joining the conversation, it's a pleasure for me to welcome you to the Fitbit Community. 

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Do you have a Food Plan already set on your account? Would it be possible for you to reply to me with a screenshot of what you're able to see in your Calories In vs Out tile in the app? That will be very helpful for me to check this further.

Thanks for your patience, I'll be waiting for your reply. 

[MaconBubbles]

I think what is happening is that it tells you what you can eat at that moment to be on target for that time of day.  For example, I may have 500 calories left that I can consume until midnight, but at 2PM, I may only have 100 calories that I can eat to be on target for 2PM.  If I had a 200 calorie meal at 2PM, I would be over target for 2PM only, not for the entire day (until midnight).

[Ninishka]

Thanks!!! That's the best explanation I've read!!! It is confusing, but I get it now 🙂 so if I want to loose 1 pound a week (that's what I've set) I follow the "under/over budget" part and if I don't care about how many pounds a week I want to loose, but still loose, I follow that "calories left" part!!! 😀

[Elisetravel]

Hello, thank you for your response. I get it now! 

[SunsetRunner]

on the main screen its shows 112 cal in 68 left but on the  graph screen calories in vs out it states i am over in calories.... ... just fix it

[Johodge86]

Finally an explanation that makes sense! Thank you 😊

[javniha]

That's all well and good but I do not have a food plan. I am logging my food and right now its 7 at night and I've burned close to 1900 calories in taking in 1400 calories and it's showing that I'm over budget. Based on my basal metabolism rate I'm likely to burn another 250 calories. How am I over a budget that I never even set?

[MagnusBane]

I hope they maybe fix this at one point so its not so confusing. 

[OhioLifeguard]

Exactly the same issue I have been experiencing. Yesterday I had a deficit of 800+ calories and it said I was "over budget." Impossible. Yes, they need to change the app!

http://imgur.com/gallery/9rGLYnW

[Familyparker]

This is a better explanation. However, I agree with many. Fitbit needs to make some adjustments so others understand how this works.

[Lonnah]

So  if I ate say 1197 calories in a -500 deficit and as of right now my calories out is 1152 but I know it's going to get up to around 1,600 calories  just based on what I have saw  what does this mean ?

[s.salinas]

I agree with you and @TTC425. This calorie budget is 100% not user friendly. Is it safe to eat 18000 calories as long as i burn 18500 calories? I think not. At very least it should give us a suggested daily calories number based on our weight, age, height, and lifestyle (sedatary, active, etc).

I'll be using a different app for my calories until this changes.

[CindyCh]

This calorie business is so not intuitive. I may go back to Myfitness pal, but I ate messing with getting the Fitbit steps to sync.  Seemed like a premium sub to Fitbit was a better idea, but this calorie business is just odd.

[CindyCh]

I saw the same thing this morning, I was over, and I hadn’t eaten yet. I’ll try to see what happens and send a screen shot.  

[Connie40023]

I am having a problem finding the setting that will include a calorie allowance greater than my BMR.  No matter what amount of exercise I do I don’t seem to have an increased calorie allowance.  I believe Fitbit is calculating my BMR at about 1340.  If I ride my bike 100 miles per week I’d expect to have my calorie allowance increased by a few hundred calories per day, and never be less than my BMR.  That’s not happening.  I want to maintain my current weight of 148 pounds.  I think the calorie allowance is set to the number I chose by guesstimating what Fitbit is calculating as my BMR, but it doesn’t update based on activity.