How does the burn meter work?

What is it exactly?

There are two parts to the burn meter. The big number that is always changes is counting up the number of calories you've burned since midnight. The little number on top is the total that you will reach at midnight tonight.

It works by taking your stats, and figuring out how much you burn per minute, and adjusting each time you refresh.

So as of this minute, I've burned 903 calories, but it tells me I will have burned 1920 by midnight tonight. If I added that I exercised today, both numbers would go up.

Really, the total number is the important one - by the end of the day, you want to have eaten 500-1000 calories less than that total number burned.

Hi all, I asked this question in another thread in under Weight Loss but I figured I might should ask it here as well. 

I'm new to the site and think I have most of it figured out (and am already obsessed!), except for one thing.  I selected sedentary originally as my status because for the most part I sit at school all day.  I do tend to work out 5-6 times a week, and after a week of logging my activities, CC switched me to "light activity" (i'm assuming because I meet the "no more than 2 hours a day of activity criteria), which obviously boosted my "calories burned" for the day. 

My question is, when light activity is checked, are you still supposed to fill in your workouts?  Does checking light activity increase your calories burned based on the assumption that you'll work out most days, or does it increase because of some metabolic increase from getting daily exercise?  I'm trying to make sure I'm between 500-1000 on my calorie deficit and obviously this is important!  Thanks so much!

As far as I know, CC does not switch you to a light activity - you would have to do that - it isn't automatic.

Plenty of people keep it on sedentary, and log all exercise. If you are set to light and the qualifications for that are that you are exercising (you don't have a lightly active job, for instance), don't log your exercise.  If your daily life is lightly active (lots of walking around, as opposed to desk-bound), plus you exercise, you can set your settings to light AND log exercise.

So three options:
  Sedentary (deskbound) and log exercise
  Light (still deskbound) and don't log exercise
  Light at job/daily life, plus log exercise.

Thanks!  Maybe I switched it to light activity at some point and didn't realize it.  I think I'll keep it on sedentary since for the most part I sit at a desk, I enjoy seeing the "calories burned" go up! Thanks for your help!