Hello All!
I am new to calorie count and I'm loving it! I have previously tried lots of ways to lose weight which are supposed to be simpler than counting calories (Weight Watcher etc.) but this seems to be the easiest for me. It keeps me accountable and it is free :) Could someone explain the burn meter to me? I have read the help thing a zillion times. Am I supposed to eat my allotted calories plus the extra that have been burnt? If I do extra exercise do I get to eat some extra calories? I'm not starving or anything, but I know, from experience, that if you aren't eating enough calories your body hoards them and you don't loose anything. So... can someone explain this to me? Thank you so much!
The burn meter is defnitely the most confusing and, um... iffy part of this site. Often it's very hard to figure out what activity level you should be setting it to in order to get the most accurate result. If you're feeling ambitious one day, try setting it to sedentary and then logging all your activities (including things like sleeping) for the entire day and see what it comes up with. Then play with the settings and see which one fits you best. Some people find that they can pick an activity level and then only log any unusual excercise. I did that for a few weeks, but now I've got mine set to light activity and I'm logging my workouts.
The main idea is to try to keep your calorie deficit between 500 and 1000. So eat 500 to 1000 calories fewer than what your burn meter says for the entire day. So yes, on very active days, you should be eating a bit more. Hope that helped!
The burn meter is an estimate of how many calories you burn per day. I set my preference to sedentary and add activities like walking. If you like math, see my journal entry for basal metabolic rate. As mentioned by dolphinclick, you want to stay 500 calories below the number in the upper right of the burn meter.
Jeff
Thank you so much! That was very helpful!
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