Making sense of the calorie consumption target screen

Jness
Jness
in Weight Management & Weight Loss

Hello! On the screen that shows calories consumed, burned, and the deficit (or surplus), does this factor in weight loss or muscle gain goals? Am I supposed to shoot to hit the goal with as little a deficit as possible because the deficit I need is factored in? Or if I don't have a deficit does that mean that I'm not losing weight? (I'm trying to lose weight and gain muscle so I need to be sure I'm eating enough while also having a deficit of calories for the day)

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Answers

  • frozenbubble
    frozenbubble

    In the Energy Settings you have the option to choose between "target" and "balanced".
    There you have your explanations. To my knowledge target is what you looking for, as this includes your surplus/deficit and tells you by reminaing/over.

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  • Jness
    Jness

    @frozenbubble Thanks so much for your response. I'm still not clear. Can you please clarify the rest of my question? ARe you saying that if set at "target" I should not go over into surplus?

    Here is further clarification of my questions...

    It WAS set to balance. Today, for example, set to balance it says I'm at a 480 cal deficit.

    When I change it to target, it says for today I'm 19 kcal over.

    However, what is further confusing about that is that my studies show you should not eat less than your resting burn rate. (for example, if I burn 1200 cal a day by just existing, I should not eat less than 1200 a day). Today it shows 1523 burned (including the 70 min I added in spent at the gym). If I am to eat at a deficit of 500 cal a day to lose what I want to lose, but that puts me eating 1023 cal today, I cannot understand how I could do that consistently and still be healthy?

    Every other weight loss calculator I've looked at has said I should be eating around 1500/day to lose weight (sometimes more).

    To further clarify, I'm 5'3" and weigh 119 lbs. I want to lose at least 5 lbs of fat and gain as much muscle as I can.

    Thanks so much for your help!!

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  • frozenbubble
    frozenbubble

    If you set it to target it says "over". by over means it goes over your set targets in the same setting screen.

    Lets start easy by taking my example.

    It's 9am here:
    Consumed 103 kcal (coffee with milk)
    Burned 1832 (currently exactly my BMR as I haven't moved)
    Remaining 1355 kcal
    Planned deficit 374 kcal

    Set to target
    Lets do some math:
    1832-1355-103-374=0 means if set to target, as long as it says remaining you're below your target. If it says over, you're over. But be aware, it'll change if you have any tracker connected or add excerise

    Set it to balance
    It says "Deficit" instead of "Remaining" and therefore shows me a deficit of 1729 kcal. If I add my coffee I go exactly to my BMR. Not taking into account any caloric deficit.

    Don't go below you're BMR. It won't be healthy and sustainable. I guess your confusion comes from the setting, that is called "Baseline Activity Level". It takes your BMR and multiplies by a certain factor, depending on your activity level. Therefore if your BMR is at 1200 and shows burned at 1500 I assume, the setting is set to "sedentary". Which leads into "Burned 1500 kcal".

    Hope this helps. I'm no expert though, but just trying to make sense, by what trial & error :)

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