TDEE and NET Calories???

JacquiRose1913

I need some help understanding the NET and TDEE calorie difference... at the moment i am working off of the calorie goal that MFP gave me of 1590. But I have absolutly no idea what the NET and TDEE calories are.Please help me out, if there is anything i need to change to assist in my weight loss it would be very helpfull to know, Cheers.

Vailara

It's confusing because they are two different systems!

NET calories are what you use with the MFP system. MFP works out your daily burn without exercise according to the information you entered, then subtracts a figure according to how quickly you want to lose (usually 500 calories to lose 1lb a week). So if you burn 2090 calories a day before exercise, MFP would give NET calories of 1590 a day. Then if you exercise, you eat those calories back to give you the same net calories of 1500. If you are NETTING 1590 calories, it means that's what you've eaten outside of your exercise calories. You might actually have eaten 1790 calories that day, but you did 200 calories of exercise then ate it back. Keeping the same net calories instead of the same total calories means that you have the same deficit of 500 calories from day to day.

TDEE just means total daily energy expenditure, i.e. how much calories you burn in total per day, including your exercise. It's usually calculated as an average. Some people (including me) like to work out their TDEE and then substract a percentage from that and set their own calorie goals in MFP. If you use the MFP system you don't need to work out your TDEE but it might be interesting. There are various online calculators which you can use to work out your TDEE, or this post http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/975025-in-place-of-a-road-map-short-n-sweet gives the formulae. Personally, I like http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/ because it lets you try four different calculations, and also tells you how many calories to eat for different goals. If you were using this system, you would work out your TDEE, subtract a % (usually 20%), then use that figure in "custom goals" in MFP. You wouldn't log or eat back exercise calories because they are already included in your TDEE.


TL:DR

Net calories - The calories you eat through the day after you've subtracted calories burned in exercise. (If you eat back your exercise calories, as MFP prompts you to do, then this will be the same every day).

TDEE - the calories you burn in total throughout the day, including exercise. You won't see this figure in the MFP system, but some people use it to work out their own calorie goals.

Audrey24HisSuccessStory

Very helpful in explaining the difference! Thanks.

yoster28

I would like to read this later... Thanks for posting