Understand In and Out Calories

[lyshalou11]

My fiance and I both have our fitbit (Inspire HR for me and Inspire for him) and we are trying to understand the calories in and out. We have it set to lose 2lbs a week which tells us to be at a 1000 calorie deficit. Does the fitbit gives us the calories we are supposed to eat in a day to stay in a 1000 calorie deficit? Or are we supposed to eat 1000 calories less than what they give us? Mine has me set at about 1700 calories a day to eat.

[wtksk8r · Accepted solution]

There are two tiles in the dashboard. One is the over/under tile and the other is the calories left to eat tile.

The calories left to eat tile used an estimated average total calories (based on your history) to estimate how many calories you have left during the day to meet your target deficit. If you normally work out in the evening and don't on a particular day, it would still estimate the target based on your average exercise schedule so be wary of the number it gives you.

The over/under meter takes your target deficit and linearly amortizes it over the day. It would start at 0 at midnight and look for a 500 calorie deficit at noon and 1000 calorie deficit at midnight. The algorithm takes your intake calories and subtracts your expenditure AT THE TIME YOU CHECK IT. This means the number will swing wildly before and after a meal and before and after a workout.