can somebody explain net calories

aniqa109

Hi all
I don't normally focus on net calories and try to eat at my calorie goal for day however today my net calories are -116? Normally it's a number never negative number. I was confused as I Google it and found few websites saying a negative number in net calories means weight loss and is good but that doesn't make sense to me.
Could some one explain in simple terms lol

janejellyroll

If you eat 1,500 calories and then burn 500 through exercise, all your body's needs must be met through the remaining 1,000 calories. This could be way too low. A net of -116 (assuming you are logging correctly and your calorie burns are accurate) means that your body has nothing left -- less than nothing left -- to meet needs.

If someone was netting -116, my first question would be "how are you logging exercise and are you sure that the burns aren't inflated?" If it truly is correct, I would encourage that person to eat more because regularly netting negative calories means that you are trying to run your body on nothing and we shouldn't do that even when we are trying to lose weight.

sijomial

Net calories explained (and much more) - http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1

See you are getting calorie adjustments from your Fitbit so maybe a Fitbit expert can help?

Ninkyou

Calories Eaten - Calories Burned = NET

Your NET should be what your goal was before exercise. For example, let's assume your calorie goal is 1500 calories. And you exercise, say, 300 calories.

1500 calories goal - 300 calories exercise = 1200 NET

But since you are meant to eat your exercise calories, it should be

1800 calories Eaten - 300 calories exercise = 1500 NET

If your calories are in the negative, I'd question 1) The accuracy of your burns and 2) whether or not your exercising too much. You should never be negative.

aniqa109

I've never had negative net before it was the first time ever!
Yes I get my calorie burns from fitbit I don't log exercse separately.

lemurcat12

Looking at the two days I see logged there are two issues: a 1200 calorie adjustment is questionable (not impossible, however) unless you have yourself down as sedentary and are really active. How many steps are you getting, according to the Fitbit? Do you log exercise in the Fitbit? Second, but more immediately important, if you have logged correctly you are eating far too little -- 700 and 1000. Are you really skipping dinner?

aniqa109

I cant remember if I set it to sedentary or lightly active. According to fitbit I get over 20,000 steps weekdays weekends normally under 10,000 maybe once a month il get over 30,000 such as today. But I walk my kids to school ..I walked to the town centre...I danced at home..done housework I then collected kids from school then I take them to evening classes so I am on my feet a lot!! The last few days I have been stressed and I have skipped I eat depending on how I feel if im hungry I will eat. I don't understand net calories and was worried I'd do something wrong so I try to just eat 1600 calories regardless and I'm losing a little over 0.5kg a week .I don't log exercse on my fitbit I set the timer on it and stop it when exercse is done so I thought it would factor it in to calories?

aniqa109

And yes I think I log correctly. I weigh food using scale and I'm losing weight so I am happy with what I'm doing so far. Was just confused seeing the - number of net calories. For the first time ever I'm not yo yoing I log weight daily on libra app and some days I'm up and down but overall trend is going down

lemurcat12

With those steps the adjustment is probably correct. You are definitely eating far too little over the past couple of days (if it's not normal it might not be a big deal, but I didn't see anything else logged). Like others have said, net calories are supposed to be your MFP goal (1200 or 1600 or whatever), so negative is WAY too low.

If your average is 1600 and you are losing around .5 kg/week, that's reasonable (and great job!), but it's going to be counterproductive to go so low as the last couple of days and not sustainable or healthy with all your activity.

aniqa109

Thanks for taking time to reply!it's helpful!!
Before I was eating under 500 calories daily and one cheat day was wiping away my deficit. So now I'm trying to eat what fits in my calories. Il try and focus on net calories now I was just avoiding it as I didn't completely understand. I normally eat more on weekends and have a takeaway so I'm not under eating and I'm not as active as I am today everyday. Thankyou for your help again!!