someone PLEASE explain net cals to me. stuck

FromFattie2Fittie

So I am 23 years old, female, 5'8, 230lbs, and active. Well, I consider myself active. I work all 7 days and move around as much as a teacher does (constant standing and walking) but I go to the gym everyday. I usually burn between 300-500 (yoga, strength training, cardio, etc). I am so confused on net calories. MFP has me eating about 1700 a day..for starters, does that sound correct due to my stats? Also, say if I ate 1700 a day, and burned 500..my net would be 1200. I am hearing net calories have to be positive and then I am hearing they have to be negative. What the heck? I am so confused. Am I eating to much/little within my budgeted calories? Someone told me my net always has to be -500 a day...if that's the case, I have to eat 1700 and burn 2200?? As you all can see I have no understanding of this whatsoever. I have no idea how much to eat in general, whether or not I should eat back exercise cals, what a net is or what it should be to see weightloss, etc. Please help me understand..thanks in advance.

Female
5'8
230
GW 160
23 years old

BMR: (I think) 1860-1900 roughly

I also have no idea what TDEE and BMR is...I just want to know what it takes to lose weight. What do I do?

KT_3009

From what I understand and have seen in these posts, Net calories for you which is 1700 is your base calories for the day.. So if you do burn 500 calories you need to eat back those calories so you are still on your net worth of 1700 calories

stevencloser

Your net calories should be 1700 if that's what MFP tells you.
Also TDEE is what your body burns total in a day, just from living + normal daily activities + exercise. Your calories should be about 500 lower than that to lose 1 pound per week.
BMR is what your body would burn if you were in a coma and not moving at all.

Faithful_Chosen

Okay, so, the body's energy expenditure has two basic values: BMR and TDEE. BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is the amount of energy (calories) your body burns if you lie in bed all day and do absolutely nothing else but breath and push blood around. TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is the amount of energy (calories) your body burns doing the things you do every day: eat, walk around, work a shift, cook dinner, run groceries, etc. If you work out for roughtly the same amount of calories every day, you could also add those calories to your TDEE.

Your BMR is the basic amount of net calories you should always put into your body because it needs it to keep your body healthy and happy. Makes sense, right? If you burn x amount of calories doing absolutely nothing, then run around all day and proceed to eat less than what your body needs, your body is going to burn out eventually.

If you net your TDEE's in calories every day (goal - exercise + food), you maintain weight. If you eat less than your TDEE, you lose weight. If you eat more than your TDEE, you gain weight. It's simple math, but figuring out your exact TDEE always takes some doing. There are basic formulas, but all bodies are a little different so there will be tinkering. Thankfully, setting a goal for weight loss is a lot easier.

I think you either have incorrect stats here or in MFP. Even at 2 pounds a week loss, it shouldn't put you lower than roughly 2000 calories. Your stats:

BMR: 1861
Estimated TDEE based on info provided: 3210
Suggested net goal calories for ~1.5 pound loses a week: 2500 calories a day.

This goal includes exercise. If you would like to log and eat back your exercise calories separately, try a net goal of 2200 calories to start with and monitor your loss for a while.

As always, I will leave the link to my evil ovation on why you should be eating back your exercise calories: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Faithful_Chosen/view/why-you-should-eat-to-your-mfp-goal-including-true-exercise-calories-763982

Good luck!

earlnabby

Basically, net calories are the calories you eat minus what you burn from exercise above and beyond your daily routine activity.

What do you have MFP set for as far as activity level?

With your stats, 1700 seems about right as far as a net calorie goal. The way MFP is set up, you would eat 1700 calories if you do no extra purposeful exercise. On the days you go to the gym, the calories you burn there would be added to your 1700 so you should eat them. How do you determine your extra calories burned? MFP's exercise database is known for being a bit high so most people eat back 1/2 to 3/4 of exercise calories earned. Other ways of determining calories burned, like a heart rate monitor or fitness tracker, may be more accurate.

Example:
Daily calorie target = 1700
Gym workout = 400 extra calories earned

Actual calories eaten should be 1700 + 400= 2100 for a net of 1700 (2100 - 400). To allow for inflated burn numbers, you would actually eat 1900-2000.

Days when you do not work out, you would just eat 1700.