Net Calories

holfarb81
holfarb81 Posts: 20 Member
edited November 27 in Food and Nutrition
I have a question about net calories. MyFitnessPal has me set up for a calorie goal of 1270. This is to lose about 1 pound a week. I consider myself to be a fairly active person. And I hardly ever eat back my exercise calories. I truly feel satisfied with what I eat already. However I just noticed these net calories. For example yesterday my calories were a little over 1200 but my net calories only say 500. does this mean that at the end of the day I actually only eat 500 calories worth of food? I'm sorry I'm so confused thank you for your answers and help.

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    yes, thats pretty much it.
  • holfarb81
    holfarb81 Posts: 20 Member
    yes, thats pretty much it.

    Could this be why I am having a hard time losing any weight and only maintaining?
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    yes, thats pretty much it.

    Could this be why I am having a hard time losing any weight and only maintaining?

    its unlikely.

    do you weigh all your food on scales? how are you measuring calorie burn?
  • netitheyeti
    netitheyeti Posts: 539 Member
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    yes, thats pretty much it.

    Could this be why I am having a hard time losing any weight and only maintaining?

    Doubtful unless the large deficit makes you really hungry/overeat on some days and kinda evens it out
    Mind you, unless it's been more than a month or so - sometimes weight just decides not to drop for a few weeks even though you're doing everything "right" (I had a month around february to mid march where I started new exercise on abour 1300cal and I lost literally nothing for a month, then 5lbs in 1 week)
  • holfarb81
    holfarb81 Posts: 20 Member
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    yes, thats pretty much it.

    Could this be why I am having a hard time losing any weight and only maintaining?

    its unlikely.

    do you weigh all your food on scales? how are you measuring calorie burn?

    Travis I do use a food scale and I measure with Fitbit
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    yes, thats pretty much it.

    Could this be why I am having a hard time losing any weight and only maintaining?

    its unlikely.

    do you weigh all your food on scales? how are you measuring calorie burn?

    Travis I do use a food scale and I measure with Fitbit

    my name isn't Travis...

    looking in your diary you have a cups for solids (a cup of mushrooms for example), a mixture of oz and gram servings etc so you could probably tighten that up.

    how long have you been eating 1200 cals and no exercise cals?
  • holfarb81
    holfarb81 Posts: 20 Member
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    yes, thats pretty much it.

    Could this be why I am having a hard time losing any weight and only maintaining?

    its unlikely.

    do you weigh all your food on scales? how are you measuring calorie burn?

    Travis I do use a food scale and I measure with Fitbit

    my name isn't Travis...

    looking in your diary you have a cups for solids (a cup of mushrooms for example), a mixture of oz and gram servings etc so you could probably tighten that up.

    how long have you been eating 1200 cals and no exercise cals?

    A long time... Some days I don't even make it to the 1200....
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    yes, thats pretty much it.

    Could this be why I am having a hard time losing any weight and only maintaining?

    its unlikely.

    do you weigh all your food on scales? how are you measuring calorie burn?

    Travis I do use a food scale and I measure with Fitbit

    my name isn't Travis...

    looking in your diary you have a cups for solids (a cup of mushrooms for example), a mixture of oz and gram servings etc so you could probably tighten that up.

    how long have you been eating 1200 cals and no exercise cals?

    A long time... Some days I don't even make it to the 1200....

    and how long have you not lost weight for?
  • holfarb81
    holfarb81 Posts: 20 Member
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    yes, thats pretty much it.

    Could this be why I am having a hard time losing any weight and only maintaining?

    its unlikely.

    do you weigh all your food on scales? how are you measuring calorie burn?

    Travis I do use a food scale and I measure with Fitbit

    my name isn't Travis...

    looking in your diary you have a cups for solids (a cup of mushrooms for example), a mixture of oz and gram servings etc so you could probably tighten that up.

    how long have you been eating 1200 cals and no exercise cals?

    A long time... Some days I don't even make it to the 1200....

    and how long have you not lost weight for?

    It's been a few months at least... All I can do is maintain..
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    yes, thats pretty much it.

    Could this be why I am having a hard time losing any weight and only maintaining?

    its unlikely.

    do you weigh all your food on scales? how are you measuring calorie burn?

    Travis I do use a food scale and I measure with Fitbit

    my name isn't Travis...

    looking in your diary you have a cups for solids (a cup of mushrooms for example), a mixture of oz and gram servings etc so you could probably tighten that up.

    how long have you been eating 1200 cals and no exercise cals?

    A long time... Some days I don't even make it to the 1200....

    and how long have you not lost weight for?

    It's been a few months at least... All I can do is maintain..

    how long before that were you eating 1200 cals?
  • holfarb81
    holfarb81 Posts: 20 Member
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    yes, thats pretty much it.

    Could this be why I am having a hard time losing any weight and only maintaining?

    its unlikely.

    do you weigh all your food on scales? how are you measuring calorie burn?

    Travis I do use a food scale and I measure with Fitbit

    my name isn't Travis...

    looking in your diary you have a cups for solids (a cup of mushrooms for example), a mixture of oz and gram servings etc so you could probably tighten that up.

    how long have you been eating 1200 cals and no exercise cals?

    A long time... Some days I don't even make it to the 1200....

    and how long have you not lost weight for?

    It's been a few months at least... All I can do is maintain..

    how long before that were you eating 1200 cals?

    IDK honestly ... I have only been really been using MFP consistently since like February maybe..
  • holfarb81
    holfarb81 Posts: 20 Member
    Before that I was just using Fitbit to track everything
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    yes, thats pretty much it.

    Could this be why I am having a hard time losing any weight and only maintaining?

    its unlikely.

    do you weigh all your food on scales? how are you measuring calorie burn?

    Travis I do use a food scale and I measure with Fitbit

    my name isn't Travis...

    looking in your diary you have a cups for solids (a cup of mushrooms for example), a mixture of oz and gram servings etc so you could probably tighten that up.

    how long have you been eating 1200 cals and no exercise cals?

    A long time... Some days I don't even make it to the 1200....

    and how long have you not lost weight for?

    It's been a few months at least... All I can do is maintain..

    how long before that were you eating 1200 cals?

    IDK honestly ... I have only been really been using MFP consistently since like February maybe..

    and how much have you lost since february?
  • holfarb81
    holfarb81 Posts: 20 Member
    Nothing
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    Nothing

    so, using yesterday as an example:

    breakfast - you have tablespoons of egg whites - use a measuring cup. an ounce of avocado; weigh in grams, same with the yoghurt, cup of spinach; weigh in grams. hopefully the feta was weighed.

    Lunch - you havent logged any oil for cooking the chicken? same comments as above for yoghurt and avocado

    dinner - cauliflower rice; use grams not cups, same comment as above for the chicken

    snacks - unless the cheesecake is your own recipe, there is no way a normal serving size of cheesecake is only 146 cals. granola is really calorie dense so needs to be weighed in grams.

    there are a lot of things that may have more calories in than you think.

    what are your stats, how much are you trying to lose?
  • holfarb81
    holfarb81 Posts: 20 Member
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    Nothing

    so, using yesterday as an example:

    breakfast - you have tablespoons of egg whites - use a measuring cup. an ounce of avocado; weigh in grams, same with the yoghurt, cup of spinach; weigh in grams. hopefully the feta was weighed.

    Lunch - you havent logged any oil for cooking the chicken? same comments as above for yoghurt and avocado

    dinner - cauliflower rice; use grams not cups, same comment as above for the chicken

    snacks - unless the cheesecake is your own recipe, there is no way a normal serving size of cheesecake is only 146 cals. granola is really calorie dense so needs to be weighed in grams.

    there are a lot of things that may have more calories in than you think.

    what are your stats, how much are you trying to lose?

    The cheesecake was my own recipe... Made with Greek yogurt it's a Weight Watchers recipe... The chicken is boiled.. I'm really enjoying trying to lose like 5 lb..
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    Nothing

    so, using yesterday as an example:

    breakfast - you have tablespoons of egg whites - use a measuring cup. an ounce of avocado; weigh in grams, same with the yoghurt, cup of spinach; weigh in grams. hopefully the feta was weighed.

    Lunch - you havent logged any oil for cooking the chicken? same comments as above for yoghurt and avocado

    dinner - cauliflower rice; use grams not cups, same comment as above for the chicken

    snacks - unless the cheesecake is your own recipe, there is no way a normal serving size of cheesecake is only 146 cals. granola is really calorie dense so needs to be weighed in grams.

    there are a lot of things that may have more calories in than you think.

    what are your stats, how much are you trying to lose?

    The cheesecake was my own recipe... Made with Greek yogurt it's a Weight Watchers recipe... The chicken is boiled.. I'm really enjoying trying to lose like 5 lb..

    Since you're only trying to lose 5 pounds, accuracy is going to be even more important. Are you weighing your calorie dense foods like avocado? I'm asking because you're logging it in ounces, but it's always exactly an ounce. Are you really weighing out an ounce each time you eat avocado and saving the rest for later? Or is the ounce an estimate of what you think you are eating?
  • holfarb81
    holfarb81 Posts: 20 Member
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    holfarb81 wrote: »
    Nothing

    so, using yesterday as an example:

    breakfast - you have tablespoons of egg whites - use a measuring cup. an ounce of avocado; weigh in grams, same with the yoghurt, cup of spinach; weigh in grams. hopefully the feta was weighed.

    Lunch - you havent logged any oil for cooking the chicken? same comments as above for yoghurt and avocado

    dinner - cauliflower rice; use grams not cups, same comment as above for the chicken

    snacks - unless the cheesecake is your own recipe, there is no way a normal serving size of cheesecake is only 146 cals. granola is really calorie dense so needs to be weighed in grams.

    there are a lot of things that may have more calories in than you think.

    what are your stats, how much are you trying to lose?

    The cheesecake was my own recipe... Made with Greek yogurt it's a Weight Watchers recipe... The chicken is boiled.. I'm really enjoying trying to lose like 5 lb..

    Since you're only trying to lose 5 pounds, accuracy is going to be even more important. Are you weighing your calorie dense foods like avocado? I'm asking because you're logging it in ounces, but it's always exactly an ounce. Are you really weighing out an ounce each time you eat avocado and saving the rest for later? Or is the ounce an estimate of what you think you are eating?

    I literally weigh out an ounce each time and save the rest in an air tight container for later
This discussion has been closed.