SO confused...under/over target :)

[CerriesM]

Hello lovely people!

I really hope someone can help explain this to me...because I'm still kinda confused. 

(I'm new to FitBit, so I'm so sorry in advance if this is a really basic question!).

When I set up my Versa, I set a goal to lose weight. 

I understand that FitBit is giving me a green 'zone' to try and stick within every day. And I understand that I'll go 'over target' if I eat more than I burn, and 'under target' if I don't eat enough.

I understand it all in theory, but I'm struggling to understand what it means in real-life terms.

For example - it's currently telling me I'm in the zone, but have 216 cals left for the day.

About 10 mins ago, it was telling me I'm over target - also with 216 cals left for the day.

Does that mean that if I eat the 216 cals, at some point later on in the day (before midnight) I'll get into the zone, if I'm over it?

Or is it possible for me to eat those 216 cals, and still go over by the end of the day?

Thank you so much for any insight or explanation to help me understand this better 🙂 

Cerries

[Paulioliolio]

Hi

This, for what it's worth is how I think of it. 

Let's assume that your plan allows you 1200 calories for the day. 

And imagine those calories spread around the outside of a clock with 24 hours on it.

That would mean each hour had 50 calories spread across it. 

You are 'on budget' if you consume those calories as the hour hand moves around the clock. 

So if you were on budget, at 4 in the morning you would have consumed 200 calories. 

If however you consumed 200 calories at 1 in the morning you would be 150 calories over budget. 

If you consumed nothing else over the next 3 hours, how much you were over budget would slowly count down, until at 4 in the morning, having consumed 200 calories, you would be on budget again. 

If you consumed no more until 8 in the morning, 4 hours later, you would at that point be 200 under budget, as another 4 lots of 50 have been added to what you would need to consume to keep pace with the 24 hour clock. 

The real fly in the ointment for me though is that if you have a very energetic day, you use a lot more calories than you normally would, which means that to end the day having consumed, say, 500 (depending on which plan you chose) less than you used, you have to consume more.

Say you decide to go for a run at lunch time and use 400 extra calories. Those extra calories you just used are added to your allowance for each hour of the rest of the day, so that at midnight you will still have ended up at your intended negative 500.

It's probably a lot more complex than that in the details, but I think that's basically how it works.

Does that make sense? 

[CerriesM]

Yes it does, @Paulioliolio! Thank you so much for taking the time to explain it to me! 

And I'm assuming that that's why my calorie 'allowance' keeps shifting throughout the day, based on how active I've been so far?

It just gets a bit confusing when I'm getting towards bedtime. It says I'm 'in the zone' with 300 calories left. So I eat a protein bar at 205 calories, and suddenly I'm 'over target'. I think that's where I was getting confused.

But I'm guessing that seeing as I was under the allowed 300 calories left, eventually, it'll come back in target before midnight?

I hope lol! 😉  

[Baltoscott]

That's a good explanation @Paulioliolio.  Thanks for spelling it out for the rest of us!

@CerriesM  -- I lost about 40 lbs a couple years ago and have kept it off.  One of the things that helped more than trying to stay in the zone was to just have a static calorie budget and to eat at regular times during the day with no 'unscheduled' eating.  If I got hungry, I would just acknowledge it, but wait until the next meal came around.  It was never really that long.  Currently, I eat 4x/day and usually allow myself some unsweetened yogurt and berries after dinner for a treat.   But if you are not hungry at the end of the day, listen to your body.  There is no reason to eat anything before bedtime just to get yourself 'in the zone.'  🙂  

Good luck in your efforts and keep on posting!  Cheers.

[gtg947h]

I just ignore the "in the zone" numbers because I don't spread my calories around like that; given my druthers I'd eat most of my calories before noon, though real life doesn't let me do that.  I just look at the "total remaining" number shown on the dashboard tile and make a couple small adjustments*. 

* I have a 250 calorie deficit selected right now because I know my average daily error is around 150-200 calories as calculated from burned vs eaten vs lost.  And I know that Fitbit always estimates me burning around 200 calories more by the end of the day than I actually do, because I go to bed well before midnight.  If I stop eating in the evening when it shows I have about 200 remaining, I'll look the next day and be "on target" for the day.