Is it just me, or does the burn meter overestimate?

Apparently, I burn 1700 calories a day, but if I ate 1700 a day, I would most definitely gain weight; I gain if I eat around 1500. No entiendo!

Just wanted to vent/see if anyone else has the same problemo.

I do find it overestimates as well, but are you sure you gain at 1700? That sounds pretty low. you sure the portion sizes are right?

I can't decide if it overestimates or what! I burn 1600 when I'm sedentary and then I log excersize, yesterday I went to the gym for 90 minutes and took an hour long rollerblade and my burn meter was up to 2700. I couldn't believe I could eat 2000 calories and still have a 700 cal defecit! I ended up eating 1725. Today I logged an hour rollerblade and an hour of gardening (I was actually out there for 2 hours but I took a couple breaks so I didn't overestimate) and my burnmeter was up to 2300. I ate 1600. We'll see how this works out for me in the longrun, tomorrow is my graduation and we're going out to dinner plus I'll have no time to excersize so I'll probably eat about 13 or 1400 and hopefully I won't gain this week.

It just seems like so much, I can't figure it out.

Well I have been keeping close track of all my calories going for a weekly deficit of 5250 a week - and I have been losing just a little over a pound a week. So it is hard to say.

I also thought it seemed off, but it's resulted in me losing 71 pounds so far, so I'm not going to argue. It told me I would burn 2500 calories a day. I ate approximately 1500 a day, and as long as I stuck to that, I dropped a pound every other day. There have been a few times when I've veered off the track, but as long as I kept the deficit around 1000, I would lose pretty consistently. Now that I've lost this much, I'm finding that I have to cut back the amount of calories I eat to continue losing. The burn meter will go down as you lose weight.

Just a side note...it amazed me that I can eat what I'm eating now (3 full meals and 3 full snacks) and lose weight. It's really made me stop and think about what I was eating before. It's horrible! How much was I eating that I put on that much weight?!?!

yeah, i think it overestimates a little bit but my problem is more that i underestimate how much i'm actually eating. :)

I think the burn meter overestimates. When I calculated myself, I burned 2100 at rest not 2400 like the burn meter says..

Hi

I AM NEW TO THIS, I REALLY DON'T UNDERSTAND THE BURN METER.  PLEASE HELP EXPLAIN WHAT IT MEANS?

dnice67-The burn meter is supposedly how many calories you burn in a day, calculated based on your height, weight, age, and daily level of activity.

Yea, I am sure I gain at 1700, I never usually eat close to that much because of it. Well, i mean i eat enough, but not that much.

I've also thought it HAS TO be overestimating.  I do exercise a lot (due to my job and I love exercise) but I just can't believe that I can eat 2300 (giving me a 1000cal deficit) and still lose weight.  I'm scared to even try it b/c I think I'd gain. 

So how do you guys deal with it?  Go for a larger deficit to make up for the overestimation?  I was thinking of trying to pay some attention to the burn meter and eating 1000 less than what it said unless that means eating over 1800.  Good idea or dumb?  (I've currently been eating between 1500-1800 and lose weight on that but get hungry on some days).

Good thread!

I had what I think are results from:

Your Estimated BMR (calculated at http://phord.com/cc):

I was just coming on to post the same question.  Well not exactly the same but similar.  The meters just don't seem right now.   Part of me feels like I need to eat less than what it says and on the same token, the burn meter really seems to overestimate how much I am burning. 

So assuming it is correct - how much can you expect to gain/loose if you do follow the meters?  1 lb every few days?  1 lb/week?  1 lb/2 weeks?  Just curious.

It takes a deficit of approximate 3500 calories to lose one pound. So if you daily deficit is 500, you should lose about a pound a week on average. If you deficit is about 1000, then lose about 2 pounds a week. My deficit is about 300 calories so it's more like a pound every 10 to 12 days if I behave myself.