Hi Guys I'm also new at this and confused as well. I'm a 62 year old obese male. My eat meter states 2350 calories. I assume that should be my daily calories intake. Now, my burn meter states 3040 calories. I assume that means the amount of calories I should burn per day. Since I don't know exactly how many calories I burn per each vigorous workout I have to rely on this sites estimated calorie burn per workout hour which is about 560 calories. If all of my numbers are correct it would mean I would have to workout for 5.5 hours per day. If correct, weight loss becomes a moot point because they would find that I had croaked on the gym floor.

It can be a little daunting at first -- give it time, you can't learn it all in one day.

The EAT meter TOP number shows the number of calories you have selected as your target goal (in your account settings -- you can change it)

The EAT meter BOTTOM number reflects the calories you are logging into your food log.

The BURN meter TOP number is the total estimated calories you burn based on your age, height, current weight, gender, and activity level -- if you set yourself as "sedentary" and then add in your activity calories -- those are added into the TOP number.

The BURN meter BOTTOM number shows how many calories you have burned at the moment you are looking at the meter. This number starts at 0 at midnight, reflects all the calories you burned throughout the night while sleeping, all the calories you burn just by living, and calories normally expended at your listed activity level. When (If) you add in activity minutes -- it will also reflect that added to the total.

If you stay up til midnight you can see both meters switch over to 0

In order to lose one pound in a week you must EAT an average of 500 calories LESS than you BURN each day

edit: Coach_K gets credit for this great explanation :)
I am just relaying it for you :)

MCDerin,
Volunteer Moderator

So helpful! I was pretty confused as well. I'm new, too, just joined today! I've never logged my calories before or my activity...so this might just me what I need to get where I want to be :)

Thank You very much for the information - John

Thank you for the explanation- it was very helpful.

I do have another  question--how do you find out your calories burned in the past? When I try to look back all it tells me is the information I logged, not accounting for calories burned the rest of the day.

Thank you

 

I just found this post after I wrote mine.  Okay, I must be slow, because I still dont understand the Burn meter.  The top number changes as you add in activities, seems to get lower as you do more activity.  But Im not sure why and I still dont understand how you use that to compare what youre intake is as far as the food log.  Im sorry if Im making this waay more complicated than it is.  Thanks again for the help!

Doug --

Your burn (top number) is the estimate of all the calories you will burn off during 24 hours -- through normal living and exercise -- it goes up when you add in exercise or change your activity level (through your account settings).  The bottom number simply represents the calories actually burned (based on the top number), at that particular point in time.

Most people want to achieve at least a 500 calories per day deficit -- that is, they want to eat 500 FEWER calories than they burn.  This should give you a weight loss of about 1 pound per week.

So -- your eat meter BOTTOM number (or the total number on your food log), should be about 500 LESS than the top number on your burn meter.

The top number on your eat meter is totally controlled by you and is simply a target number you want to either reach or not exceed each day.