Net calories

Kushy8

Can someone help me understand what the Net Calories mean? I understand it is the difference between what I log that I eat and what I burn with logged exercise... but what do I want that number to be?

Thanks!

psuLemon

It's like a paycheck after taxes. Just think of exercise as taxes.


You eat 1200 calories, you burn 300, your net calories is 900. Essentially, it's like you only ate 900 calories. The way MFP is designed, you are supposed to eat back exercise calories unless you include it into your lifestyle.

Kushy8

Thanks for the reply.
So should my net be about equal to my goal before exercise?

psuLemon

Just eat at least 50% of your exercise calories if mfp is estimating or 80% if you have a heart rate monitor. Or my personal favorite is include it into your lifestyle and do not eat back exercise calories. I eat a standard 2500 calories a day as I am set to moderately active since I workout 5 or 6 days a week.

herblackwings39

Thanks for the reply.
So should my net be about equal to my goal before exercise?

The easiest thing to do is look at the bottom of your food diary where it says "Your Daily Goal" and eat close to that. On no exercise days it will be the usual number. On exercise days it will be higher. By eating close to that number you should be netting your goal calories.

Kushy8

Thanks to you both! That helps!

heatherkallhoff

ok, so i need help. my goal is 1300 calories, i did 463 calories burned in exercise, but just ate a piece of paleo banana bread and my net went -77 but i have 1377 calories left for the day...

HELP? what the heck. i'm very very confused!

psuLemon

ok, so i need help. my goal is 1300 calories, i did 463 calories burned in exercise, but just ate a piece of paleo banana bread and my net went -77 but i have 1377 calories left for the day...

HELP? what the heck. i'm very very confused!

So you are saying you over ate by 77 calories? If so, not big deal.

heatherkallhoff

no, here is my day so far: 1300 goal, +386 food, -463 exercise, -77 net, 1377 remaining.

how does that equal out??? i have 1377 left for the day, right? but why would my net be negative?

RRB2000

no, here is my day so far: 1300 goal, +386 food, -463 exercise, -77 net, 1377 remaining.

how does that equal out??? i have 1377 left for the day, right? but why would my net be negative?

Your net is negative b/c you exercised more than what you have eaten so far today. You still have 1377 calories for the remainder of the day.

heatherkallhoff

ok, thank you! so, for weight loss...am i wanting to eat ALL my calories or try to leave the 463 exercise calories untouched? i'm doing t25 and weights... i have 15 more to lose in 3 months.

psuLemon

ok, thank you! so, for weight loss...am i wanting to eat ALL my calories or try to leave the 463 exercise calories untouched? i'm doing t25 and weights... i have 15 more to lose in 3 months.

That goal may be a bit aggressive.. at this point 1/2 - 1lb per week is ideal. Second, you should eat all those calories pending you are using a good method to measure of measuring calories burned. If anything, I would eat at least half. Then again, 1700 calories is pretty average for a person losing weight that workouts 6 days a week...

RRB2000

ok, thank you! so, for weight loss...am i wanting to eat ALL my calories or try to leave the 463 exercise calories untouched? i'm doing t25 and weights... i have 15 more to lose in 3 months.

That's a big debate. Some say don't eat back exercise cal's some say eat them back. I personally eat them back, or most of them. I guess its whatever you find that works best for you. Good luck!!!

heatherkallhoff

thank you! you have helped tremendously!! yes, aggressive, but wedding coming up, so DETERMINED!

psuLemon

thank you! you have helped tremendously!! yes, aggressive, but wedding coming up, so DETERMINED!

Keep in mind that weight is pretty meaningless for the most part. Body composition determines leanness more so that weight does. If you retain your muscle mass, you will be a lot more lean than just losing weight (fat, muscle, tissue). Just look at staci from her 10 lb gain from 120 - 130 and you will see what I mean. Set your account to 1 lb per week, eat adequate protein and if you want, a week or two before the wedding, go low carb (it may be temporary) but cutting carbs can lead to a 5-7 lb loss of weight in a few weeks. Low carb leads to less glycogen/water storage. Set carbs to 50g a day and increase protein/fat intake.

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

dbashby

I'm sure your question applies only to MFP net calories but there is another area net calories apply and that is when it comes to exercise. Most notably but not limited cardio machines you find in the gym. For example; When a person climbs on an elliptical rider or some other piece of exercise equipment and performs their routine in this case lets say they burn off 350 calories over the entire hour. That is 100 percent of the calories you burned the last hour or the gross calories you burned that hour but in order for you to remain alive if you had done nothing you may have burned 75 calories anyway. So truthfully your Net calorie burn for that hour was 275 as most likely when you figured BMR it already counted on you burning those 75 so you really can't count that twice. This is one of the reasons exercise tends to be overemphasized in the weight loss process it just doesn't burn as many calories as one thinks.

cecsav1

psulemon wrote: »

Just eat at least 50% of your exercise calories if mfp is estimating or 80% if you have a heart rate monitor. Or my personal favorite is include it into your lifestyle and do not eat back exercise calories. I eat a standard 2500 calories a day as I am set to moderately active since I workout 5 or 6 days a week.

Whoa... moderately active is working out 5 - 6 days a week? I think I have my activity level set too high.

amusedmonkey

cecsav1 wrote: »

psulemon wrote: »

Just eat at least 50% of your exercise calories if mfp is estimating or 80% if you have a heart rate monitor. Or my personal favorite is include it into your lifestyle and do not eat back exercise calories. I eat a standard 2500 calories a day as I am set to moderately active since I workout 5 or 6 days a week.

Whoa... moderately active is working out 5 - 6 days a week? I think I have my activity level set too high.

"Moderately Active" is the equivalent of walking about 2 hours a day.

CattOfTheGarage

Don't overthink it if you're just starting out. look at the number at the right hand side - that's how many calories you have left for today. If it's green, you can eat more. If it's red with a minus, you ate too much. If you log exercise, it will increase that number so you can eat more.

Stick with the system at first, you can tweak it when you get more confident.

If you're worried it might overestimate your exercise, just enter slightly fewer minutes than you think you actually did. I far prefer doing that than all this "eat back whatever percentage of exercise calories". That involves too much maths for me. I want to know that when that number's green, I can have a cupcake, and no argument.

malibu927

RepkeFitness wrote: »

Kushy8, It's a hard concept to grasp if you aren't very family with recording your food/weight loss.

My only flaw with MyFitnessPal is the fact that if you burn 300 calories via exercise they automatically add that 300 more calories to your daily allowance. It's why I recommend to people to NOT enter exercise as an exercise in MFP (that way it won't add burned calories to your remaining calories which can cause you to eat back all of your exercise (burned) calories). Instead I recommend recording it as a status that way you won't have to do math.

If your net is negative, it means you burned more calories via exercise than you ate that day.

That's how MFP is set up...you lose weight without exercise. When you burn more calories, you should be eating them back to both keep your deficit consistent and fuel your body. And negative net calories should not be happening...ideally your net should be your goal, but since the burn estimates are often too high, many will only eat back 50-75% of those calories.

ShereeCrow

What if your net calories are both more than your goal and your total calories? I'm really confused about this net calorie thing. You guys are speaking a response of calories you have left and it doesn't make any sense because I never, even when I exercise, get my net calories.