Weekly Calorie Average Calculator

How the weekly calorie average is worked out

The average is the total of the days you entered divided by the number of those days. To compare it with a target, the calculator multiplies your daily target by the same number of days, then subtracts: week versus target = total − (daily target × days entered).

The fields start out with an example week. Monday to Sunday add up to 14,700 kcal, and 14,700 ÷ 7 = 2,100 kcal a day. At a 2,000 kcal target, the target for the week is 7 × 2,000 = 14,000, so the week ran 700 kcal over, or 100 kcal a day. Those are example numbers, not recommended intakes.

A blank day is left out, and so is a day of 0. Dividing by 7 no matter what would make a week with two logged days of 2,000 kcal read as about 571 kcal a day. Leave today blank until it's over, too: a half-logged day still counts and pulls the average down.

Each day and the target are rounded to whole calories first. The average is rounded once, with halves rounding up, and every difference is worked out from the rounded figures on screen. So the average can say "Right on your target" while the week is a calorie off: 1,999 and 2,000 average 1,999.5, shown as 2,000, yet together they are 1 kcal under a 4,000 kcal target.

Reading each day against your target

Each day you enter is marked under, on target or over. On target means within 5% of your target either way, both ends included: at 2,000 kcal, anything from 1,900 to 2,100. Below 95% is under and above 105% is over. It's the same band Counter44's History calendar uses when it tints each day.

The day counts and the week's total answer different questions. A week can land right on target overall without a single on-target day: 1,800 and 2,200 average 2,000, but one day is 200 kcal under and the other 200 kcal over.

In the app, a day's goal is your daily target, plus the calories burned in logged exercise when Track exercise is on, plus up to 200 rolled-over calories when calorie rollover is on. Both settings stay off unless you turn them on (setup asks about each). With either on, a day the calendar tints on target can show as over here, where the target doesn't change. The exercise calories eat-back calculator shows how much a workout adds to a day's goal.

Why weekends move the average

Eating often shifts at the weekend. The National Cancer Institute's Dietary Assessment Primer notes that intakes of many foods and beverages, "and thus energy intakes and macronutrient distribution, tend to be different on weekends than on weekdays." This calculator counts Saturday and Sunday as the weekend.

In a one-year trial of 48 adults aged 50 to 60, Racette and colleagues (Obesity, 2008) found that Saturday intake averaged 2,257 kcal at baseline, against 2,021 kcal on weekdays. During the study, the calorie-restriction group "stopped losing weight" on weekends.

The weekday and weekend averages show whether your own week follows that pattern. In the example week, weekdays average 1,980 kcal, just under the 2,000 target, and the weekend averages 2,400. The two weekend days come to 800 kcal above target between them, which turns a run of weekdays 100 kcal under target into a week 700 kcal over.

The calculator only looks back at days you've already eaten. It doesn't plan the days ahead.

When your average and the scale disagree

Logs tend to run low. In the OPEN study, Subar and colleagues (2003) compared 24-hour recalls from 484 adults with a lab measure of energy use (doubly labeled water): men underreported energy intake by 12 to 14% and women by 16 to 20%. In a much smaller study, Lichtman and colleagues (1992) found that 10 people with a history of "diet resistance" underreported intake by an average of 47%. That was a small, selected group, but missed snacks, drinks, cooking oil and portions judged by eye push any log down. Weighing helps: the food calories by weight calculator scales a label to the grams you ate, and the recipe calorie calculator covers homemade meals.

Weight also responds slowly. A 2011 modeling paper in The Lancet by Hall and colleagues put the half time of the body weight response to a change in intake at about a year, and the scale shifts with water from day to day. Compare averages across several weeks rather than reading too much into one.

Keeping a log may help. A 2011 review of 22 studies by Burke and colleagues consistently found an association between self-monitoring and weight loss, but the authors rated the evidence as weak because of the studies' methodological limitations.

If your average comes out under 1,200 kcal a day, the calculator shows a note: that's below the lowest target Counter44's setup works out for anyone. MedlinePlus describes low-calorie diets as usually allowing about 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day for women and 1,500 to 1,800 for men, and says you should still be supervised by your provider.

In Counter44 you log each day from about 7,200 built-in foods, your own custom foods or Quick add, and past days stay editable, so a forgotten meal can go in later. History's Calories card is headed with your average over the last 7 days you logged food, and its calendar tints each day under, on target or over. Track your days in Counter44.

Other Counter44 calculators are listed on the tools page as they are published.

This calculator and the figures on this page are arithmetic on the numbers you enter, not medical advice. If you have a medical condition, are pregnant, or have a history of disordered eating, talk to a doctor or registered dietitian before changing how you eat.