Under budget - calories in and out

[mfballard]

Hello, I am trying to understand the calorie tracking.  I was informed that I need to look at my calorie deficit if I am looking to lose weight which I set 500.  I had keyed in all the information in setup in the Versa.  I am trying understand how to look at this in the Versa.  Right now it reads

390 Cal in / 946 cal left

The other page says 436 cal in 1448 cal out 695 left in budget.  Since I am trying to lose I have to eat within my 500 calorie deficit.  So with these numbers which one do I look at.  

[Rich_Laue]

Hi @mfballard I've moved your post to the manage Wright Discussion Board. 

Here you should get a better answer than in the hardware support board. 

Sorry I can't really help much. I never bothered watching calories, but used the fitbit to monitor activity and keep my food portions smaller. 

As for in/out, this is up to the time of the day that you are looking at the stat. So yes you could be, at this time, under or over. This is ok because you still have the rest of the day. 

[Heybales]

If this is the gauge tile - frankly I think that's about useless.

As it's giving figures for right then and there - and rarely do people eat in such a way as to like keep up with their burn rate at that moment.

You don't need a 500 cal deficit to every moment in the day - only for the day as a whole.

So not sure which tile or page is giving the figures you are talking about. It sounds like the former is the gauge to remove, the latter is the daily estimated calorie burn with your deficit removed for an eating goal.

So the 1448 may not be what you have literally burned right then - but expected to at a minimum for the day as a whole.

You've eaten 436 so far, and have 695 left to go.

Your daily burn could easily go higher than 1448 though, so your eating goal will increase too.

Life lesson for weight management right there Fitbit is trying to teach:

You do more you can eat more.

You do less you sure better eat less.

In a diet a tad less in either case. Which it's doing for you.

To confirm which numbers are the good ones - look at your daily burn so far and subtract 500 - the gauge that says that is not the desired one.