Posted on November 22, 2008 at 11:54am EST. More.

Can I declare “undereating” a word?

A recent support email made me realize that FatWatch’s Trends screen could be clearer with regard to energy surplus/deficit information. Currently it displays:

The above is supposed to convey, “On average, you are burning 69 calories more than you are eating each day.” It could probably be clearer. I had the idea of adding a label, such as: The word “burning” might help get that across. If your weight was trending up, it could instead display: I feel like that’s a slight improvement, but it could be better. Alternate ideas: My spell check objects to “undereating” as a word, but acknowledges “overeating”. I think I prefer the symmetry, and although I like “burning” conceptually, the explanation seems clumsier. Maybe it would look better without the parenthesis: Internet, what say you?