Calories IN vs OUT, Made Clear
Weight management comes down to one equation: Calories IN vs Calories OUT. IMCAF’s Calorie Tracker shows both in one place, giving you the complete picture of your daily energy balance.
The tracker pulls your consumed calories directly from the meals you log in the app. Every meal you enter—whether through AI analysis or manual logging—automatically updates your daily calorie count. No separate tracking needed. Log your meals regularly, and your calorie picture stays accurate.
Understanding Your Numbers
Calories IN (Consumed)
Everything you eat and drink throughout the day gets automatically tracked from your meal logging. Whether you use AI meal analysis or manual entry, IMCAF adds it all up for you. The key is consistency—log your meals throughout the day, and your consumed calories update in real time. Skip logging meals, and your numbers won’t reflect reality. No spreadsheets, no mental math, but you do need to actually log what you eat.
Calories OUT (Burned)
Your total daily burn comes from two sources. First is your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), which represents calories burned at complete rest—breathing, heartbeat, cell function. This is calculated from your age, weight, height, and gender using the scientifically-validated Mifflin-St Jeor equation. Second is your Active Calories, the energy burned from your daily steps. IMCAF calculates approximately 0.04 calories per step, so walking 10,000 steps equals about 400 calories burned.
Net Balance
The difference between what you consume and what you burn tells your real story. A negative number means you’re burning more than eating, creating a deficit for weight loss. A positive number means you’re eating more than burning, creating a surplus for weight gain. Zero means perfect balance for maintaining your current weight.
See It All On Your Dashboard
Your main dashboard displays everything at a glance. You’ll see your consumed calories with progress toward your daily goal, your total burned calories combining BMR and step calories, your real-time deficit or surplus, and how many calories you have remaining for the day.
The consumed number comes directly from your logged meals. Log breakfast, and it updates. Log lunch, and it adds to the total. Log dinner, and you see your full day’s intake. When you want more detail, dive into the Analytics tab to see daily trends, weekly averages, and monthly patterns.
Getting Accurate Results
Complete these profile fields for precise tracking. Set your Daily Calorie Target based on your weight objectives. Enter your Basic Info including age, weight, height, and gender for accurate BMR calculation. Add your Step Goal to establish your daily activity target. The more accurate your profile, the more precise your calorie calculations.
But even with a perfect profile, your calorie tracking is only as good as your meal logging. Log meals consistently—ideally right after eating—to keep your consumed calories accurate. Miss logging a snack, and your tracker thinks you’re eating less than you actually are. Log everything, and your numbers tell the real story.
How IMCAF Calculates Your Numbers
Calculating your calories consumed is straightforward—it’s just the sum of all logged meals today. Breakfast plus lunch plus snacks plus dinner equals your total consumed. The app pulls nutrition data from each meal entry and adds it up automatically.
For calories burned, IMCAF follows a scientific process. First, it calculates your BMR using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation. For men, that’s 10 times your weight in kilograms, plus 6.25 times your height in centimeters, minus 5 times your age, plus 5. For women, it’s the same calculation but minus 161 instead of plus 5. Next, it calculates your active calories from your daily steps by multiplying steps by 0.04. So 5,000 steps equals about 200 calories, 8,000 steps equals about 320 calories, and 10,000 steps equals about 400 calories. Your total burned is simply your BMR plus your active calories.
Your net balance is then calculated by subtracting calories burned from calories consumed. A negative number means deficit and weight loss, a positive number means surplus and weight gain, and zero means maintenance and stable weight.
Perfect with Intermittent Fasting
Calorie tracking and fasting create a powerful combination. You can see exactly how much deficit you’re creating during your fasting hours, calculate how many calories you need during your eating window, and verify whether you hit your goals before closing the window for the day.
During fasting, your consumed calories stay at zero because you’re not logging any meals. Your burned calories continue accumulating from BMR and movement. When you break your fast and log your first meal, your consumed calories update, and you can see how much of your eating window budget you’ve used.
Making It Work
Log everything that passes your lips. Coffee creamer, cooking oils, sauces, and those little bites all add up faster than you think. Don’t wait until the end of the day to log everything from memory—log meals right after eating while they’re fresh in your mind. This keeps your calorie tracker accurate throughout the day.
Update your weight regularly because your BMR changes as your weight changes—weekly updates work well during active weight loss. Track your steps consistently since more movement means more calories burned—aim for 8,000 to 10,000 steps daily. Most importantly, focus on weekly trends rather than daily perfection. One high day or one low day doesn’t define your progress.
When it comes to eating back your step calories, your approach depends on your goal. If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t eat them back and let them add to your deficit. If you’re maintaining, you can partially eat them back. If you’re building muscle, eat them back plus a small surplus.
The Bottom Line
No guessing. No mental math. Just clear numbers showing exactly where you stand. Your formula for success is simple: BMR from your profile plus step calories from movement equals total burned. Your logged meals equal total consumed. The difference between them is your weight management story.
Complete your profile. Log your meals regularly and consistently. Track your steps. Adjust based on results. The calorie tracker shows you the truth—but only if you feed it accurate meal data. Simple. Transparent. Effective.