You want it to be negative. What I do is put in base metabolic calories into the app. Then I wear a Apple Watch that tracks calories I burn from exercise. What ever calories I have left at the end of the day is my calorie deficit for the day. Every 3500 I m deficiency i loss a pound

In this app, your net calories should be close to your calorie goal. You should only track deliberate exercise, not steps or daily activity. Track exercise conservatively.

Do not sync any fitness device to this app. They aren't accurate enough for tracking calories burned.