How we calculate your expenditure

Your expenditure is the energy PlateLens estimates you burn in a day. Balance shows it, and the targets PlateLens suggests are built on it. Your expenditure shows that number, where it comes from and what to do now, and gives each of its settings its own screen: whether PlateLens learns it each week from your logs and weigh-ins, where its resting part comes from, and whether digestion counts. These settings are free on every plan, and your targets change only when you apply new ones.

Open Your expenditure

Phone and web change the same account settings, so what you change on one appears on the other.

Your daily expenditure

The main screen opens with the expenditure of an ordinary day, such as 2,270 kcal a day, and a line that says where it comes from. On the phone, once there are weeks with a dynamic expenditure, a small chart beside the number shows the latest ones, and tapping the number opens Your expenditure over time. It starts with Today: the same number, where it comes from and its two parts, Basal metabolism and Activity. With digestion counted the second part reads Activity and digestion, and with a dynamic expenditure Activity and other. Both figures are rounded to 10 kcal, so the parts always add up to the total. On the web, Balance shows the parts of each day.

• Estimated from your profile, or With your measurement from its test date: your basal metabolism plus the activity your activity level adds on a typical day. On days with more measured activity, Balance counts what was measured.
• Dynamic · from your logs and weigh-ins: your dynamic expenditure, the same every day because it already includes your activity. It reads Dynamic · paused while the adjustment keeps its last value.
• Estimated while it learns, or With your measurement while it learns: the adjustment is on and has no value yet.

If your profile is missing your date of birth, sex, height or a weigh-in, the number shows a dash and the card under it says Complete your profile, with Complete profile; the settings still work.

What to do now

Under the number, one card shows the one thing that matters now, with its button:

• Check 2 days, with Review, when days with much less food than usual need an answer (see days with much less food than usual).
• Your measurement doesn't add up, with Review measurement, when your measurement is above your dynamic expenditure (see when your measurement is above your dynamic expenditure).
• Checking your recent weeks, just after you turn the adjustment on.
• Learning, with This week, and Log weight while the week has no weigh-in.
• Weigh in this week, with Log weight: on the main screen it replaces the card of an active value from Thursday to Saturday while the week has no weigh-in. Learning and Paused keep their own card, with Log weight.
• With an active value, the date of the last update and the change from the week before, such as Updated Sun Oct 11 · +40 kcal or Updated Sun Oct 11 · no change, with the line on why it changed.
• Paused · keeping 2,380 kcal, with the reason and This week, and Log weight while the week has no weigh-in.
• While the adjustment is off: PlateLens can learn your expenditure, with Learn more, which opens the introduction; Your weeks already qualify, with Turn on; or Dynamic expenditure is off, with Turn on, when your last dynamic expenditure is kept.

Then How it's calculated shows only what decides today's number: each setting with its current value, opening its own screen (on the web, a panel). Dynamic expenditure (On or Off) is always there. Basal metabolism (Estimated or Measured) follows it, except while a dynamic expenditure is in use, that is, while the line under the number starts with Dynamic: that value is already your whole expenditure, so Basal metabolism moves inside Dynamic expenditure (see basal metabolism). Count digestion (On or Off) shows only while the adjustment is off, because with the adjustment on, digestion is part of what it learns. Your activity level is in Fitness Goals and the 14-day review of your targets in Daily Targets (on the web, Goal and Daily targets): see activity level and your targets.

The ? at the top right (on the web, next to the section title) opens About your expenditure, which explains it and links to this guide.

What these settings change

These settings decide the Expenditure in Balance, on the phone and on the web. The same figure feeds the energy balance and the Your expenditure section of PDF reports, the targets PlateLens suggests, the Coach and the PlateLens connection in ChatGPT and Claude. The Coach knows which source you use and how the adjustment is doing, and can point you to these settings; changing them is up to you.

Your daily ring, Add burned calories to goal, Daily Score, leagues and Apple Watch keep the same numbers whatever you choose here. Device activity and logged exercise are measured as before.

Each change counts from the day you make it, and each update of your dynamic expenditure from the day it arrives. Earlier days keep the settings they were calculated with.

Basal metabolism: estimated or your measurement

A measurement replaces only the resting part of your expenditure. Your measurement then shows its test date and is marked In use, your estimate stays above it for reference, and Balance uses it in the Basal metabolism row and names it as the source; activity is counted exactly as before. It applies from the day you save it, whatever the test date. If your targets would change with it, saving, changing or deleting a measurement offers you new targets, and they change only if you apply them (see your targets). To go back to the estimate, delete the measurement: on the phone, tap Edit measurement and then Delete measurement; on the web, choose Delete in the Basal metabolism panel. PlateLens asks you to confirm first.

When a device reports your activity, Balance notes that the device's own total can differ: the device estimates your resting energy its own way, while Balance uses your measurement.

While a dynamic expenditure is in use, Basal metabolism is the last setting inside Dynamic expenditure, with the line It splits your expenditure into rest and activity. The dynamic value is then your whole expenditure: your estimate or measurement splits it into Basal metabolism and Activity and other in Balance, and the first dynamic value starts from the expenditure PlateLens estimated with it. Turn the adjustment off and Basal metabolism is back on the main screen.

Activity level

Your activity level, such as Lightly Active, is set with your goals: on the phone in More → Nutrition & Goals → Fitness Goals, and on the web in Targets → Goal. Without a dynamic expenditure, your expenditure is your basal metabolism plus what your activity level adds on a typical day; on days when your device or workouts measure more, Balance counts what was measured, once. A dynamic expenditure already includes your activity, so your level is used whenever there is none. While one is in use, Fitness Goals and Goal say so under the level: With a dynamic expenditure, your calories follow that value. The activity level is used when there isn't one.

Count digestion

Digesting food also burns energy, more after protein. This is the thermic effect of food (TEF). Count digestion stays off until you turn it on. Then PlateLens calculates it each day from the day's protein, carbs, fat and known alcohol, and Balance shows it in a Digestion row.

Your everyday activity estimate already includes digestion, so it is never counted twice. On a day with little measured activity, your expenditure stays the same and the Digestion row shows the part of the estimate that digestion accounts for. When your device or logged exercise measures more activity, digestion can raise that day's expenditure, by at most the Digestion row.

While Adjust with my logs and weigh-ins is on, the main screen does not show Count digestion, and Balance shows no Digestion row: digestion is part of what the adjustment learns. Your choice is kept for when you turn the adjustment off.

Adjust with my logs and weigh-ins

With this switch on, PlateLens compares each week the food you logged with how your weight changed, and works out the expenditure that fits both: your dynamic expenditure. Because it learns from what you log, logging whole days makes it more useful.

New accounts start with it on. If you have never turned it on, turn it on in Your expenditure → Dynamic expenditure whenever you like, or at the end of the introduction, with Turn on dynamic expenditure or with Turn on when Finish asks. When your recent weeks already have what it needs, the main screen says Your weeks already qualify, with Turn on, and Home shows PlateLens can learn your expenditure once, with Turn on.

What it needs

• Meals on at least 4 days of each Sunday-to-Saturday week. A day counts once it is finalized, has meals and counts in Balance, so partial days are left out.
• At least one weigh-in each week, and two weigh-ins at least 6 days apart across the weeks used: with a single week, one on its Sunday and one on its Saturday. Weigh-ins you enter and weigh-ins synced from Apple Health or Health Connect both count; several on the same day count once.

How to weigh in so it learns better

Weigh yourself right after you wake up, before eating, so every weigh-in is taken under the same conditions. Meals on 4 days and one weigh-in a week are the minimum. With meals on 5 days or more and weigh-ins on 2 different days or more, every week, your expenditure adjusts twice as fast, because a week that only just meets the minimum moves it by half as much (see when it updates).

While the switch is on, PlateLens shows the tip For your expenditure: best right after you wake up, before eating. It appears when you log a new weigh-in: on the phone under the weight, and on the web when you choose Weight in the logging flow, log from Progress → Weight or use Log weight in Targets → Your expenditure.

When it updates

You can turn it on at any time, even before you have data. PlateLens checks your logs and weigh-ins shortly after you turn it on, usually within the hour, then every Sunday once the week has closed, looking at up to the last three weeks.

The first value comes from the first complete week that meets the minimums, so it can arrive shortly after you turn the switch on if your recent weeks already do. It starts from the expenditure PlateLens estimated for those weeks, and each later update starts from your last value. Every update moves it by at most 5%, and by half as much when one of the weeks it uses had a single weigh-in or exactly 4 days with meals. A larger difference takes several weeks to reach. Values are rounded to 10 kcal.

What you see

The status shows in the main screen's card or under the switch in Dynamic expenditure, on the phone and on the web, and changes as soon as you flip the switch or an update arrives:

• Checking: just after you turn it on, while that first check can still find a value: Checking your recent weeks, with The result shows here within the hour.
• Learning: there is no value yet. This week marks the days that already count, with Days with meals out of 4 and Weigh-ins out of 1, and Log weight while the week has no weigh-in. Next update gives the date of the next Sunday check.
• Active: on the phone, Dynamic expenditure shows Active · updated with the date of the last update, and the change from the week before, such as +40 kcal vs the week before; the main screen's card puts both in its title, such as Updated Sun Oct 11 · +40 kcal. On the web, the Now card puts both in its title too, and the status shows in the Dynamic expenditure panel only while Now is showing something else, such as Weigh in this week or Check 2 days. For the first three weeks after the first value it says Active · based on 10 days: early values are refined every Sunday.
• Paused: see paused, off and on again.

In Dynamic expenditure, Days used, such as 19 of 21, counts the days the last update used: on the phone, it opens them; on the web, See days used shows, in the panel, the days that update left out (see days with much less food than usual). On the phone, Dynamic expenditure always shows This week while the adjustment is on, after its first check, and Home also shows Your dynamic expenditure is ready once, when your value is in use.

While the switch is on, Home on the phone shows Weigh in this week from Thursday to Saturday as long as the week has no weigh-in, with Log weight. In the morning it comes first, after the Premium card if that one is showing. Swipe it away and it stays hidden for the rest of that day, then returns the next morning while the week still has no weigh-in. A weigh-in removes it until next week.

Why it changed

On the main screen's card, under the date of the last update, or in Why it changed in Dynamic expenditure, on the phone and on the web, a line explains the last update: how much you ate on average on the days it used, and how your weight changed over the weeks from the first to the last weigh-in it used, such as You ate 2,150 kcal on average and your weight went down 0.3 kg over 3 weeks. The change comes from the trend of your weigh-ins, not from a single weigh-in, and is shown in your weight unit. It counts whole weeks: two weigh-ins a week apart say over 1 week, even when the update used more weeks.

When your expenditure moved less than that data points to and the difference is 20 kcal or more, Why it changed adds a second line with the figure it points to and the reason, such as That points to 2,700 kcal; your expenditure moves at most 5% a week. The reason is one of these:

• your expenditure moves at most 5% a week. Each update moves it by at most 5% from your last value.
• the first value starts from your estimate and moves at most 5% a week. Your first value moves by at most 5% from the expenditure PlateLens estimated.
• this time it moved half as much because one week had a single weigh-in. One of the weeks it used had weigh-ins on only one day.
• this time it moved half as much because one week had only 4 days with meals. One of the weeks it used had exactly 4 days with meals.

Your expenditure over time shows the same figures for each updated week.

How Balance uses it

With a dynamic expenditure, the day's expenditure is that value, the same on a rest day as on a training day. It already includes your activity: device activity and logged exercise still appear in Balance, but they are not added on top. Basal metabolism keeps your estimate or measurement, Activity and other is the rest of that value (activity, digestion and everything else), and Balance says Dynamic · from your logs and weigh-ins. Until the first value arrives, Balance calculates your expenditure as before, without digestion.

Paused, off and on again

Once you have a dynamic expenditure, a week that falls short of the minimums pauses the adjustment, which keeps your last value: Paused · keeping 2,380 kcal, with the reason, Last week had meals on fewer than 4 days. or Last week was short of a weigh-in. Meanwhile, Balance keeps your last dynamic expenditure. A kept value does not expire, and the next update that has enough data continues from it.

Turning the switch off returns Balance to your estimate or measurement from that day. The main screen then shows Dynamic expenditure is off with Turn on, and says Your last dynamic expenditure, 2,380 kcal a day, is kept: turn it on and it continues from there. Turn it back on and Balance uses it again from that day, and the next update continues from it. Earlier weeks stay in your history.

Days with much less food than usual

A day with much less food than you usually log may be missing meals, so PlateLens leaves it out of the adjustment until you confirm it. That means less than half of your usual intake over the last three weeks, judged once there are at least 7 counted days with meals to compare. A day you have confirmed is never left out this way.

When a weekly update leaves such days out, the main screen of Your expenditure shows Check 2 days, with Review, Dynamic expenditure shows it too, and Home on the phone shows Review your week, such as “2 days had much less food than usual”. Tap any of them (on a card, Review): Days used for learning opens with those days under Check these days. Days used opens the same list. On the web, the days appear in Balance under Check these days, and in the Dynamic expenditure panel of Targets → Your expenditure, which the card's Review opens.

• It was complete: you logged everything. The day counts, as with Count this day in full in Balance.
• Food was missing: the day is marked partial, as with Mark as partial, so it stays out of the adjustment and out of Balance's averages.

Your answers count from the next weekly update; weeks already published do not change. Choosing Count this day in full or Mark as partial on the day itself answers too. Once every day is answered, the card disappears on all your devices; a card you swipe away returns only when new days need checking.

Days used for learning also lists each day of the week as Used or with the reason it was left out: Partial or not closed yet, Left out: much less food than usual or No meals logged.

Your expenditure over time

On the phone, tap the number on the main screen of Your expenditure. After Today, with today's number and its two parts, come the weeks; tap an evaluated week to see the days it used. On the web it is a section of the Balance page, linked from Targets → Your expenditure. Each evaluated week shows the day it ended, its status (Learning, Updated or Paused; the web says Active for an updated week), the value and its change from the week before, and the days with meals and weigh-ins it used. An updated week also shows the average you ate on the days it used and its weight change, such as 2,150 kcal avg · −0.3 kg; one published before these two figures were recorded shows its value without them, because a published week is never recalculated. A paused week shows the value that was kept. Before your first evaluated week, it shows your recent closed weeks instead, each with its average expenditure per day and where it came from; Show older weeks loads earlier ones. The web also lists the days left out of the last week. The history stays available after you turn the adjustment off.

In your PDF reports

Weekly, monthly, yearly and custom-range PDF reports, on the phone and on the web, include a Your expenditure section right after the energy balance. It describes the period from its own days and weekly updates, whatever your settings are today:

• Dynamic expenditure: the value the period used, such as 2,380 kcal a day, from your logs and weigh-ins; when it applied on only some of the period's days, on how many, such as 10 of 23, and where the rest came from.
• Your expenditure over time: each weekly update published during the period, with its value, its change from the week before and what you ate on average with your weight change, such as 2,150 kcal avg · −0.3 kg. A paused week shows the value that was kept, and a learning week why it had no value yet. Reports longer than five weeks sum the updates up instead, such as From 2,270 to 2,380 kcal a day over 12 updates.
• Latest update: the lines of why it changed for the last week of the period that has them.
• Learning: while the adjustment had no value yet, Estimated from your profile while PlateLens learns your expenditure, with what each week needs.
• Your measurement: such as Basal metabolism: your measurement, 1,720 kcal (test on Sep 3), with your estimate for reference, on how many days it applied when it was not all of them, and the notice when it was above your dynamic expenditure.

When no counted day of the period used your dynamic expenditure or your measurement and no learning week was published during it, the section is left out: the energy balance already says so. Weight changes are shown in your weight unit. The section starts selected, like every section; to leave it out, uncheck Your expenditure in the report's Advanced options, and PlateLens remembers your choice for the next report (see nutrition reports).

Your targets change only when you apply them

Review my targets every 14 days is on unless you turn it off; it sits with your daily targets: on the phone in More → Nutrition & Goals → Daily Targets, and on the web in Targets → Daily targets. Every two weeks, the phone's check-in, Time for a check-in, suggests targets built on your current expenditure: your dynamic expenditure when you have one, otherwise your measurement, otherwise the estimate. It says where the number comes from, such as Your dynamic expenditure is 2,380 (before 2,228). or With your measurement of 1,850.

There you also see, at any time, whether your targets are up to date: Your targets are up to date, or New targets available with the suggested calories, which opens the same review as the check-in (on the web, Review).

Your targets change only when you choose Apply New Targets. Keep My Current Targets leaves them as they are, and when nothing would change the review says Your targets already match. A weekly update changes your expenditure, never your targets by itself. On the web, targets waiting for you appear at the top of Targets under Your targets could change, with Use the recommendation and Keep what I have.

Turn off Review my targets every 14 days to stop the check-in; your expenditure keeps updating in Balance, and the same place still says when new targets are available.

When your measurement is above your dynamic expenditure

A measured resting energy higher than your dynamic expenditure does not fit your logs and your weight. Balance then uses the dynamic expenditure: the basal shown drops to it and Activity and other is 0. Balance says Your measurement doesn't match your logs and your weight, with Review measurement (on the web, Review the measurement), which opens your measurement; the main screen of Your expenditure says Your measurement doesn't add up, with Review measurement, and Basal metabolism shows both figures, such as Your measurement, 1,720 kcal, is higher than your dynamic expenditure, 1,600 kcal. Nothing is deleted. Check the figure and the unit on your report, and whether meals or weigh-ins are missing in Days used.

Watches that report only total calories

Some Android watches send Health Connect a day's total calories without active calories. PlateLens works out your activity from that total and your estimated resting energy. On those days digestion is not added, because the watch's total already includes it, and with a measurement Balance's expenditure can differ from the watch's total.

Phone and web

• Both show the same number, settings, status and history for your account.
• On the phone each setting has its own screen; on the web each opens in its own panel.
• The introduction in three steps is on the phone; on the web, About your expenditure shows the same three steps, opens from the ? next to the section title and from Learn more, and ends with Turn on while the adjustment is off.
• On both, switches apply as soon as you change them, and a measurement saves with Save.
• The Home cards, Review your week among them, and the 14-day check-in are on the phone. On the web, days to check appear in Balance and in Targets → Your expenditure, your expenditure over time is in Balance, and targets waiting for you appear at the top of Targets.
• These settings live on the phone and the web; Apple Watch keeps the same numbers whatever you choose.

Your data

PlateLens saves your measurement (its figure, test date and optional weight), your switches, your dynamic expenditure with its status and one record for each evaluated week. Each day in Balance keeps the settings it was calculated with. All of it belongs to your account: it is part of your account export (Export My Data) and is deleted with your account. It never appears on your social profile or in PlateLens emails.

If something looks wrong

• It says Checking: the first check of your recent weeks runs within the hour of turning the adjustment on; the result then shows on its own.
• It still says Learning: your weeks fall short of the minimums, and This week shows what is still missing. Log meals on at least 4 days and weigh in at least once each week, with two weigh-ins at least 6 days apart. Partial days, and unconfirmed days with much less food than usual, do not count.
• It says Paused: the last week fell short, and the line under it says why. Balance keeps your last value; keep logging and weighing in, and the next Sunday's update continues from it.
• A day is flagged as much less food than usual: answer It was complete or Food was missing. Until you do, the day stays out of the adjustment.
• The value barely moved: each update moves it by at most 5%, or half that when a week had a single weigh-in or exactly 4 days with meals. The second line of Why it changed, in Dynamic expenditure, gives the figure your data points to and the reason, when the difference is 20 kcal or more. With meals on 5 days and weigh-ins on 2 different days every week, it moves twice as fast.
• Your targets did not change: they change only when you apply new ones, with Apply New Targets on the phone or Use the recommendation on the web.
• Your device shows a different total: devices estimate resting energy their own way, and with a dynamic expenditure Balance uses that value instead of adding device activity.
• Your measurement does not match your logs: see when your measurement is above your dynamic expenditure.
• Your PDF has no Your expenditure section: the period used only the estimate from your profile and no learning week was published during it, or Your expenditure is unchecked in the report's Advanced options (see in your PDF reports).

To check which days count, or to correct a day, see which days count in Balance. For how burned calories can raise your daily target, see activity-adjusted targets; for weigh-ins, see weight and goal weight. Still need help? Write to support@platelens.app.