New to the site, how does the net calories work?

Summerxx13

New to weight loss, new to the site. I'm generally confused with their calorie system.

Under my goals section it says:
Net Calories Consumed* / Day- 1,200
From Normal Daily Activity- 1,570
Daily Calorie Deficit- 370

Depending on the kind of work out I do, I burn between 550 and 650 calories a day, seven days a week. I'm 5ft 2, 115 pounds, 18 years old, female.

How much should I be eating?

I don't quite understand "eating back your exercise calories". Isn't the point of exercising to burn calories? If you eat them back, it's like you never exercised. How do you lose weight?

These probably all seem like stupid or obvious questions, I apologize, but I want to make sure I do this right.

khall86790

I don't quite understand "eating back your exercise calories". Isn't the point of exercising to burn calories? If you eat them back, it's like you never exercised. How do you lose weight?

No because at 1200 calories you are already creating a deficit which in turn will cause you to lose weight. Exercising is incorporated into your deficit.
E.g. If you need 1700 calories per day to maintain your current weight, you eat 1200 calories per day and it creates a 500 calorie deficit which means you will lose roughly 1lb per week.
If you then exercise and it burns 300 calories, you can eat 1500 calories that day and it'll net to 1200 calories per day as you've burned an additional 300 cals to the 1700 cals your body burns through daily activity.

Summerxx13

I get it, so at the end of the day I want my number to be 1200 after subtracting exercise calories from calories consumed.

So if tomorrow I work out and burn 550 calories, that means I would have to eat 1,750 calories for the day? That seems like a lot, or is it normal?

lcfairbairn74

That's absolutely right! Just checking - are you using a heart rate monitor to calculate you calories burned?

Summerxx13

Yes, it's not the best quality, but probably better than guessing!

lcfairbairn74

That's fabulous! You aren't guessing! So yes, you do eat your exercise calories back! Some people prefer to eat about 75% of them back to allow for the inbuilt error in the machine, but I have eaten all of mine back from day 1 and it hasn't affected my loss.

Best of luck! :flowerforyou:

Summerxx13

Thank you so much! Good luck to you as well!

lcfairbairn74

Thanks!