Total vs net calories

newheavensearth

Good afternoon. I need some advice on total vs net calories. Almost every week I'm either over or have a small deficit on my total calories, but I'm under my net by a few hundred calories post exercise. Is this okay? Should I just ignore the total and focus on my net? Or am I blowing my deficit out of the water?

TIA

toxikon

Most people track net calories, but often don't eat back their entire exercise-burned calories because estimates can be way off.

A lot of gym machines might tell you you burned 600 calories but the real number is more like 300 calories. So if you eat back 600 calories, you may end up ruining your deficit. So most like to play it safe and only eat 50-75% exercise calories.

newheavensearth

toxikon wrote: »

Most people track net calories, but often don't eat back their entire exercise-burned calories because estimates can be way off.

A lot of gym machines might tell you you burned 600 calories but the real number is more like 300 calories. So if you eat back 600 calories, you may end up ruining your deficit. So most like to play it safe and only eat 50-75% exercise calories.

Sorry I didn't specify- I don't eat all of my exercise calories. I don't tally exercise into my diary, I only go by calories earned through steps. But still, I don't eat them all. Maybe 50 to 75%.

NorthCascades

Your net calories are what matters, just like in finances. It doesn't matter what your salary is, it's important what's in your check after the tax man taketh.

newheavensearth

NorthCascades wrote: »

Your net calories are what matters, just like in finances. It doesn't matter what your salary is, it's important what's in your check after the tax man taketh.

Thank you!

Tacklewasher

The trouble is, the net calorie number includes exercise calories, which MAY be overstated.

For instance.

Say your base for MFP is 1500 calories. That should be your net target. If you do no exercise, that is what you should eat. But then you send 60 minutes on a treadmill. And the treadmill says you burned 1000 calories. So you should eat 2500 calories that day. What most find is that the 1000 is overstated and reality is you burned 500. So if you eat 2500, even though MFP has you on track, you've overeaten your goal by 500 calories (in reality).

So, in this case, you should adjust your calories from the treadmill time to 500 and eat 2000.

The problem is that you don't know if 500 is correct, or 750, or 1000. So the best you can do is eat your base and 1/2 of your exercise calories and continue doing this until either you feel too fatigued or you lose weight too fast or too slow (over 6-8 weeks).

Now you say you don't eat your exercise calories back. That's now how MFP is set up to work. But the big question is are you losing at the expected rate? If you are then keep going. If you are losing too fast, eat more.

newheavensearth

Tacklewasher wrote: »

The trouble is, the net calorie number includes exercise calories, which MAY be overstated.

For instance.

Say your base for MFP is 1500 calories. That should be your net target. If you do no exercise, that is what you should eat. But then you send 60 minutes on a treadmill. And the treadmill says you burned 1000 calories. So you should eat 2500 calories that day. What most find is that the 1000 is overstated and reality is you burned 500. So if you eat 2500, even though MFP has you on track, you've overeaten your goal by 500 calories (in reality).

So, in this case, you should adjust your calories from the treadmill time to 500 and eat 2000.

The problem is that you don't know if 500 is correct, or 750, or 1000. So the best you can do is eat your base and 1/2 of your exercise calories and continue doing this until either you feel too fatigued or you lose weight too fast or too slow (over 6-8 weeks).

Now you say you don't eat your exercise calories back. That's now how MFP is set up to work. But the big question is are you losing at the expected rate? If you are then keep going. If you are losing too fast, eat more.

Thanks for the advice. I had a massive 7 lb gain after coming off Topomax (causes appetite loss, and I admittedly went nuts). 2 of those came off this weekend. I'm going to take your advice and see what happens. But before this I was losing about 1lb per week or less. I have it set to 1 lb per week. I'm trying to lose another 25.