HELP! Burn Meter question...

I am pretty new to the site... I understand the calorie counting and have been doing it for a few days now (pretty good too I might add!)

I just do not understand the burn meter... AT ALL!!!

Every time I add an activity, the numbers rise.... does that mean I have to work out more???

And what's with the dotted line?  Am I supposed to reach that every day on both the calorie meter & the burn meter???

Sorry if I sound dumb, I just can't grasp the concept of this!!!

I don't think you sound dumb at all!! I have the same question. Hopefully somebody knows.

well, I also am new but here is how my son explained it to me..When we signed up and put in information it gave us the top number in the burn meter. That is the number of calories we burn in a typical day with information we entered. Mine for example is 2100. The number on the bottom of the meter is the number of calories we have burned at the time of day on your meter. For example mine said I have burned 1046 by noon(which would make sense if I burn 2100 in a day). 

The target number in the top of your calories area is how many you can eat and lose weight at the rate you want to reach your goal. 

The way I understand it is, if you go to activities and put in something you do not typical to your day, for example shoveling snow, then the activity meter wil increase your calories burned (bottom number). And here is where I get confused, but I think that the idea is to burn more than the target number at the top of the calorie meter every day. less in, more out+success.

I am glad yo asked this question so I could take time and try to figure it out as well.

My son told me to use the activity meter as a game and  every time I did something go to the meter and add it so my numbers would change.  Well, I needed to understand the concept first...but I don't think I have made any big changes in my 3 days so far on the diet! I AM STILL NOT GOING TO SHOVEL SNOW!

Good luck, hope this helps and, if nothing more, maybe someone else will be inspired to write it out so we can all understand it

Thanks,

that actually makes it understandable. I'm glad somebody understood.

I don't blame you. I won't shovel snow either.

Oops, I don't think that's quite it.

The number at the top is how many calories you're going to have burned by the end of the day. This is the only important number. The bottom number just takes time into account, and shows you how much you've burned so far. It's kind of a novelty Here's an example:

The counter goes from midnight to midnight, so if you look at the meter at 12:01 am on a monday, the top number will say something like 1800. This is how many calories you'll burn all day long. The bottom number will say like 2, because you've only been burning calories for one minute.

If you check back at noon, the bottom number will say 900, because you're halfway through the day

Make sense so far?

Then, if you add an activity, both numbers go up. If you ran for an hour, you'll get to add something like 500 cals to your daily burn*.  The top number and the bottom number will both go up by that amount, because the total you'll burn that day will be higher, and (since it guesses you exercise before you log) the number you've burned so far today will go up too.

Still good?

So, "the idea" is to make your top number bigger than your Eat Meter number. The top number on the burn meter minus your total calories for the day is your deficit.

* the activity calories you log and the calories that get added to your burn meter will not match exactly. this is ok, and I can explain it, but I don't want to overload you with info too quickly.

The burn meter shows you how many calories you HAVE burned that day, which is why it keeps going up over time. And the little number in the box is your estimated total for the whole day which shows how many calories you WILL burn before midnight. the aim is to keep that number higher than your eat meter, which shows how many calories you've had that day.

Where is the burn meter?  I haven't been able to find it!

Click on the My Account tab.  It's the right hand box at the top.

Found it, thanks!

Okay, it makes sense now...

Thanks!

I couldn't figure out why the top number kept going up, but I get it now!

Thanks guys!