Calorie Tally

Your Calorie Tally is a report showing how many calories remain in your budget today (or remained at the close of the working date, if you're looking at the past). The tally appears in four places¾in your Food Log, in your Exercise Log, in your Diet History, and in the "Calories" section under any Body History graph displayed on your Home Screen.

Five figures* are always reported in the tally:

• "Budgeted" is the number allotted for your diet¾or for maintaining your weight, if you aren't (or weren't) on a weight-change diet.

• "Eaten" is the number of calories in the meals you've logged. These are subtracted from the calories budgeted and earned through exercise.
   

• "Burned" is the extra calories you've earned through exercise. These are added to the "budgeted" figure to yield the total you should eat today.
   

• "Remaining" is the number you can still eat today before going over budget.
   

• "In the Bank" or "Bank Balance" is the number of leftover calories from earlier days' budgets. (It doesn't include the calories remaining in today's budget, because calories are banked only at the close of each day.) A running balance is kept as long as your diet lasts. When you start a new diet, the balance is reset to zero. (In addition, Diet Power sometimes corrects the balance to keep it in line with your weight. See Calorie Bank.)

What Negative Numbers Mean

In the "Budgeted" column, a negative number means:

• you're near the end of a weight-loss diet and haven't done very well¾only a few days remain and you still have a lot of weight to lose

or

• you're on a weight-gain diet and have either overshot your goal weight or been gaining too fast.

If your balance drops below -10,000 and you're on a weight-loss or maintenance diet, you are probably about three pounds over your target weight, and should probably start a new diet. (To do that, open the Goal Setter.) The same is true if your balance rises above 10,000 and you're on a weight-gain diet.

In the "Remaining" column, a negative number means you've overeaten by that many calories today, and the excess will be withdrawn from your Calorie Bank at the end of the day unless you earn it back through additional exercise. (If the number seems suspicious, check for mistakes in the day's Food Log.)

In the "In the Bank" column, a negative number means you've overeaten or underexercised by that many calories since your current diet began. To work off the debt, try to bank extra calories each day by eating less or exercising more.

What Large Positive Numbers Mean

In the "Budgeted" column, a big number means:

• you have an unusually high metabolic rate

or

• you're near the end of a weight-gain diet with too many pounds to go

or

• you're on a maintenance diet but have been losing weight rapidly

or

• you're on a weight-loss diet and have been losing too fast.

A typical maintenance budget is 1500 to 3500 calories per day. Tour de France bicycle racers, famous for prodigious eating, pack away 6000 to 8000 calories daily. If your calorie budget has climbed into that range, either you're a world-class athlete or you've fallen so far behind in your eating that it's time to begin a new diet.

In the "Eaten" column, a big number obviously means you've consumed a lot of food¾or that you made a huge mistake in your Food Log.

In the "Burned" column, it means you've gotten a lot of exercise or perhaps logged your activities incorrectly.

If your Calorie Tally and your Nutrient History don't agree...

...the difference probably stems from rounding errors. In most cases, the disparity will be insignificant. A 100-calorie error represents half an ounce (1.5 teaspoons) of body fat.

To view your Calorie Tally:

In the Food Log: look in the bottom pane of the Scoreboard.

In the Exercise Log: look at the line underneath the bottom window.

In the Body History: look under the graph.

In the Diet History: look at the line for the date you're interested in.

Got a Suggestion for This Page?

Last Modified: 6/30/07