Total calories vs. Net calories

Options
court8325
court8325 Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone!

I've tried to search for the answer to this but still am a bit confused. Theres a section on MFP where you can see you calorie breakdown for the week - what is the difference between "Total Calories Under Weekly Goal" and "Net Calories Under Weekly Goal"?

Thanks for your help!

Replies

  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,131 Member
    Options
    Total Calories is the total amount you've eaten. Net calories is the amount you've eaten, less exercise calories.

    Say your calorie goal is 1500 and then you do a 1 hour walk which adds 300 calories to your total and you ate all 1800 calories.

    Your total calories would be 1800, your net calories would still be 1500 because you've burned the equivalent extra food in additional exercise.

    If you didn't eat the exercise calories back, your net calories would be 1200 (1500 goal - 300 exercise).
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 978 Member
    Options
    To add to Tinkerbell's response, MFP is designed for you to eat back your exercise calories* so you should aim for your NET calories to be the figure MFP set for you. It's OK if you're over some days and (a bit) under on others, if your average net calories for the week are roughly in line with your goal. A lot of us prefer to eat like that, to save a little for a planned nice meal or night out (I wish!) or a glass of wine etc.

    *In some cases, people think MFP overestimates exercise burn and not all fitbit-type gadgets are accurate either. The only clear way to know how accurate your figures are are to stick to your net goal for 6 weeks, note your weight at the start and end of those 6 weeks then calculate how much you've lost and see if it matches your goal rate of loss. Adjust accordingly if it doesn't.

    MFP is based on averages and most of us aren't average.

    If you haven't already, take a look at the Useful Posts at the top of this forum as there's a lot of great advice in there.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
    Options
    It's like money. You make XXXX dollars total. You have expenses of XXXX. At the end of the day if your dollars in (CO) is more than your dollars out, you have a net surplus...your bank account is going to get fatter...you're going to get fat...if your expenses (CO) exceed your dollars in, you have a net deficit and you would have to make that up with savings (your body fat)...and your bank account is going to get smaller as you borrow from savings (body fat) to make up that difference.

    Problems arise when your deficit spending exceeds your income (CI) and savings (body fat) are overly excessive...you have a finite amount in savings, and your body, unlike this example, can only use so much savings at any one time to keep things going.

Categories