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 😞

[Sassifrassicaly]

And by that IT says I have 90 calories left. 

[sheryl34951]

I found an error in my set up that was throwing things off

[Deyvaen]

Ok, I came here for the same question and it just clicked with me...
"Over target" is not that you've necessarily eaten too many calories OR that you've eaten more calories than you have burned.
"Target" is the amount of calories you chose when you signed up to lose weight. (you can choose 500 calories a day to lose a pound a week, 750 to lose 1.5 pounds a week or 1000 calories to lose 2 pounds a week, this is now your calorie deficit target).

So if you've chosen the 500 calorie deficit target: (example) You've burned 1,000 calories so far today and eaten 800 calories, your current deficit is 200. You have gone over calorie intake target for the 500 calorie deficit. If you had eaten 500 calories (1,000-500=500) you'd be exactly on target, if you had eaten 300 calories (1,000-300=700) you would be under calorie intake target.

As the day goes on and you exercise/burn more calories this all evens out at the end of the day - the app is simply trying to keep your in/out at the deficit amount that you selected and it will generally not match up all day long, best to check that at the end of the day.

[Fi_Filmmaker]

I hope you see this. I've been in the same boat with this problem. Do you have a fitbit device tracking your activity?

I don't have one, so my calories burnt through tracked activity is not logged. And I think this is why I'm under my calorie target but still over my daily budget at the end of every day. Without the fitbit watch info, the app only tracks BMR calories, minus your chosen calorie deficit. I'm assuming we must burn about 500 calories through normal activity and exercise each day and this isn't added to our totally calorie burn in the app.

Is this the reason we're always  frustratingly over budget for a completed day (in the app and not in real life 🤓)?

And a note on this thread -  if it was "really not that difficult to understand" we wouldn't be here would we? Comments like this help no one.

[Budder]

This is very confusing. For example I ate 280 calories for breakfast. It says I have over 700 available. Why am I over?  It makes this tool useless. 

[Budder]

Then why only 280 calories in for breakfast. Shows 700 available yet I’m over. It makes the tool useless to use throughout the day. It tells you nothing. 

[Budder]

That’s not so. 

[KatieMidd]

Ok, it seems to me I understood your explanation. I just need to see it in practice. I was thinking about starting a https://betterme.world/articles/calorie-deficit-diet-plan/ diet plan, so I needed to understand the indicators. Thanks again for clarifications!

[maize516]

Clear as mud. At 8:30 pm, I was "over". I had consumed my allotted 1297 calories and burned 1500 calories. I assumed I needed to be in the zone. So back to the treadmill until I upped my steps and activity. THEN I was under. My dashboard says I can now have 209 more calories. I logged a Keto ice cream bar (170 calories) just to see what the meter would show me and it would be over again. MAKES NO SENSE. 

[maize516]

PLUS - if I have to wait until the end of the day for it to all "even out", it will be too late to make any adjustments. 

[Stephanieglinsk]

Same for today shows I'm over budget when I just frigging woke up i feel the way they calculate is inaccurate and unsustainable 

[Stephanieglinsk]

Ok then how can it calculate that i just woke up and is saying I'm over budget how is that even close to possible I can't not be able to eat I'm a diabetic type 2 and I feel the way there calculating this stuff is not accurate at all

[Stephanieglinsk]

I so agree it's tottaly inaccurate 

[Stephanieglinsk]

Ok says u i just woke up to find im over budget when I never ate anything it's deffinitly not accurate at all

[Diver01]

Because it’s taking into account your long term goals. When you set up your goals in the app you would have said you’d like to lose xxx amount of weight in xxx many months/weeks. It’s telling you that OVERALL on your journey to THAT goal that you’re off target. Your app works out a rough daily target to achieve that long term goal you specified at set up. So if you are on target everyday it will always stay on target. If you have a day or two where you eat more, or exercise less then your Fitbit recalculates your progress against the overall plan, so you will appear to be over target whilst you catch up to meeting that long term goal. 

I’ll now give you an example based on a 1000 calories a day allowance to in order to lose xxx weight by xxx date:
If the Fitbit just recorded your daily target without accounting for your long term goal i.e. if every morning you woke up and it said you’ve got 1000 calories today and breakfast was 200, you’d expect to see 800 left for the day. All that tells you is what you did today, it doesn’t tell you if you’re on track to lose the weight you said to wanted to lose at the start. So let’s say you’re allowed 1000 calories a day, but yesterday was a special occasion or you couldn’t resist some treats, and you ate 1400 calories instead… in order to still reach your long term weight loss goals you need to make up for that extra 400 calories you ate yesterday. The FitBit helps you make up for that treat day by recalculating your new target calories so you can still lose xxx weight by xxx date.  So yesterday was a treat day, you ate 1400 calories, today you eat 800 calories, but your Fitbit says you’re over target - that’s because you still need to catch up another 200 calories from the treat day. Obviously this example doesn’t bring exercise into the equation. The FitBit will recalculate making up that extra 400 calories from the treat day if you do some extra exercise too. Catching up doesn’t always need to come from food. It can come from exercise. All I’m trying to say is the FitBit always keeps in mind your long term weight loss objective in its calculations, not just what you do day by day. I hope this helps. 

[Diver01]

This might also help to explain it. This results in the same thing as I mentioned above but is a different way of describing it. 
https://blog.fitbit.com/fitbit-calories-in-vs-out/

[Dinglydell]

This is the best response. Whoever wrote this gets it and is very good as explaining.