Understanding Energy Balance
CalorieQuest uses net energy to connect what you eat with what your body uses. It is a simple daily comparison, not a medical diagnosis.
Calories from food and drinks. In the app, actual intake comes from meals you log, while recommended intake comes from your profile, activity level, and goal.
Calories your body uses through resting metabolism, digesting food, everyday movement, and exercise. CalorieQuest estimates the full-day expectation from your profile and uses health sync for today's actual movement data.
A negative net means intake is below expenditure. A positive net means intake is above expenditure. Which side is desirable depends on whether your goal is weight loss, maintenance, or gain.
Expected vs actual
The expected bar compares your recommended intake with your expected daily expenditure. The actual bar compares logged intake with today's measured and estimated expenditure.
Reference
This explainer is informed by Klaas R. Westerterp's 2013 review in Frontiers in Physiology, which describes total energy expenditure as including resting or basal needs, thermic effect of food, and activity-induced expenditure.