Why am I over target but under calories?

[Karinac]

Ok so iv seen this question over and over on the site but I'm that thick and stupid that none of the answers actually help me understand. I don't understand how i still have calories left to take in and yet I am over. My calories in is like 850 and my calories burned it says is like 1200 but I am over target. How do I fix the over target? Am I not supposed to eat the full calories or am I not supposed to work out as much? Or am I not working out enough? I'm so confused I just want a simple answer for my simple mind to understand 😞

[SunsetRunner]

Hi @Karinac

The in vs out tile.

Under

More can be eaten (up to 'in range' / green zone) to stay within the food plan, when being under the deficit will be larger than the selected deficit and more weight will be lost instead.

In zone

Stay in this zone to keep on track to stay within the desired deficit, when watching the food plan, you are able to see how many calories can be eaten for the day.

The zone chart only looks at the total intake / calories burned since midnight 'till (now). When eating more calories (according to the food plan allowance) more can be eaten but the chart can display being over at the moment since the body didn't burned as many calories yet.

When staying within the food plan, even when being over at the moment (eating more at dinner), it will drop back to 'within range' during the day.

Over

More calories have been eaten than the food plan (desired deficit), there may still be a deficit, and still loosing weight, but not as much as the selected weight loss plan..

Deficit: 500

Eat over with 200, there's still a deficit of 300 and still being on track to loose weight however the weight loss will be a bit less.

It's allowed to be 50 calories under or above the food plan to stay on track.

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[RednCherry]

This is not what is happening. I was “on target” until the math is backwards 

my calories burned is MORE than what I ate. Yet it says I’m over target 

how can that be?

it shouldn’t be “over” until my calories out is SMALLER then what I consumed. Your developers need to check their math. 

[MarcoGFitbit · Accepted solution]

Hello @RednCherry, have a warm welcome to the Fitbit Community, it's great to have you on board. 

When you start a food plan, 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. 

[RednCherry]

If I could attach the screenshots I would 

but if it says 954 calories out ans 542 in

then i should be under my goal. 

Not over. 

Even if im agreissve with a loss of 750 per day that should be calculated in my “allowed” amount. If your basing it on the time of day. Then the next day when I view the day and I was allowed 1400 and ate 1200 then my day should note “under target” not over target. 

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @RednCherry, I hope you're doing well, thanks for taking the time to reply. 

Tell me, do you have a Food plan active at the moment? Would it be possible for you to send me screenshots of your tiles and food plan so I can check this further? Please follow these instructions to upload pictures in your posts. 

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

[Diver01]

It’s really not that difficult to understand and the responses are correct. This isn’t a simple ‘big number minus little number’. It is taking into account your desired weight goals over time (the target weight plan). You might have eaten less calories in than you burned out but still be over target i.e. you will still lose weight but not as fast as you wanted to in your weight plan.  

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @Diver01, have a warm welcome to the Fitbit Community, thanks for joining the conversation and providing your insight about this situation, I really appreciate it. 

In case you have some spare time, I would like to invite you to visit our Discussions board where you will find great tips and encouragement from other members and if there's anything else I can do for you, please keep me posted!

[ArchArchy]

Thank you @Diver01. This is the most clear and succinct explanation I’ve found. Cheers.

[LMYL]

Thank you so much.  I have been frustrated with this for a while now.  Sooo, basically the over under calories is relative to the information we input when initially programing the Fitbit NOT how many calories we burn.    We need to decide if we want to stay within the calorie range, the Fitbit suggested in the beginning to lose weight OR take in what we are putting out which if you burn a lot of calories during the day and try to intake the same, it will more than likely put you over the initial target calorie goal!!! This is relative to the over under figures at the end of the day.....Sometimes I put all my food in first thing in the morning when I have time....and at that time of the morning I am waaaay over target...lol

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @LMYL and @ArchArchy thanks for joining the Fitbit Community, it's great to have you on board. 

I appreciate your participation in the Forums and for letting us know @Diver01's post was useful for you. At this moment, I would like to suggest you to mark his post as a solution, this will be very helpful to other members of the Community who have the same inquiry. 

Additionally, if there's anything else we can do for you, please feel free to reply. 

[LMYL]

I would love to but the mark as solution icon does not show up on my iPad...I will try from a desk top when I get a chance

[elithea]

it’s still about as plain as mud. i don’t get why one would lose weight slower than indicated in the plan, as long as one stays within the plan. you're saying the plan doesn’t work? what’s the point?

what i’m getting here that does make sense to me is if i’m over target at 7pm, having consumed all my food for the day and done all the exercise i intend, since i still have 224 calories left at that time by the time midnight rolls around it will have evened out, and when i look tomorrow it will show today as under target? is this correct?

[Diver01]

Hi Elithea,

It’s not quite a simple ‘big number minus little number’. It is taking into account your desired weight goals over time (the target weight in your plan). You might have eaten less calories in than you burned but still be over target. This means you will still lose weight but just not as fast as you wanted to in your weight plan.  

[elithea]

no, this is not correct. i checked this and it is as i have outlined: all
worked out in the end.

thanks, anyway.


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e

[elithea]

the simple answer to this is: because you’ve eaten the calories, but not yet spent them! if you still have calories left (within the +/-50 range) you’ll come out on or under target by midnight. check tomorrow morning and see!

[maddie_t]

This is helpful! but how can I get back in the zone

[Diver01]

Stop overeating or stop over drinking. Simple... calories in needs to be less than calories out.

[Karinac]

So I wrote this question a long **ahem** time ago, but the issue was that I was staying under my calories and working out but at certain points of the day it would say I was over my target despite me being under the daily calorie intake. It ended up being because at certain points of the day I hadn’t burned of the amount for that point I guess.

Karina Duffy

[Sassifrassicaly]

Did your thing tell you that you still had x amount of calories for the day? Because mine says I’m over target but I should still have 90 calories left.