Do you also feel like Net Calories is useless, and just a confusing metric?

drewsapps8004

OK myfitnesspal team—I have a real bone to pick with whomever the Product Manager is within myfitnesspal that created the Net Calorie measurement. I might be missing something, but I feel the Net Calorie goal is just another way to view your Remaining Goal for calories. For example, if you take your Base Goal and subtract Net Calories, you get the same result as your Remaining Goal. Thus, I don’t see why the Net Calorie goal is necessary.

I vote that myfitnesspal removes this confusing, useless metric. The discussion board is FULL of questions on Total vs. Net Calorie.

But, in reality, it’s a useless metric, and you can derive the same metric from the homepage of the app displaying your remaining goal.

If you vote that Net Calorie should continue to exist, can you please explain your reasoning? I want to know how to make use of this metric, but I need a reason to. Right now, I don’t see it.

drewsapps8004

Yes, Net Calorie needs to be removed.

Yes, I understand the calculation of Gross Calories vs. Net Calories, and the concept. But, why is this needed beyond the Remaining Goal?

MargaretYakoda

No; I find Net Calorie useful

I don’t understand why you would want to remove a feature just because you personally don’t like it?

Also, I usually view the net calories in week view. It helps me see how close I am to my daily calorie goal as it averages out over time. I’m disabled and it’s important not just that I don’t overeat, I also need to pay attention to how my exercise is impacting my nutrition needs over time, as I can occasionally go too far below my nutritional needs, which will have a negative impact on my overall health.

AnnPT77

No; I find Net Calorie useful

Like @margaretyakoda, I mostly find the net calorie concept useful for looking at data over time, not so much the current day. My main forms of exercise vary seasonally and many are weather-dependent. When I'm looking at my calorie balance over time, such as in the week view, that metric is more useful to me than gross calories. Obviously, I could go through and math out the equivalent by hand, but that would be less convenient.

I also wonder why you want to remove this because you don't like or use it. There are a bunch of features I don't like or use personally, but some of them seem to be useful to others. Those features I don't use aren't an obstacle to me in any way that I can think of.

Is the net calorie calculation an obstacle for you in some way? If so, could you please explain?

Thanks!

cmriverside

I like the Net Calorie thing.

My exercise is not consistent, nor is it necessarily every day at the same rate/time/intensity. I like the granularity of the calculation.

I don't enjoy football, so I don't watch it. Not sure why this is such a burden to you? If you don't like it, don't look at it.

AnnPT77

No; I find Net Calorie useful

Having thought it over longer, I'm going to be more specific about why net calories are useful to me in the weekly view, just to make it crystal clear.

I have a calorie goal that I want to come close to, but I mostly care about that as a weekly average, not strictly each single day. I'm in maintenance now. My goal calories are a little below my estimated actual maintenance calories, because I like to have an indulgent treat now and then, and eating just a small bit under maintenance calories creates that wiggle room. I think of it as a "calorie bank".

Like I said, my exercise calories vary. They're usually zero at least once a week (rest day), more often somewhere in the 200s-300s, but occasionally up to 500s-600s. That makes my gross daily calories available to eat anything between 1850 and maybe 2500, a pretty big swing.

When I look at weekly totals (because of relying on averages, variable exercise, and the "calorie bank"), average daily gross calorie intake is a completely meaningless number for managing my compliance with goal.

It's the net calories, not the gross calories, that will suggest whether my weight will remain stable in maintenance or not. If my average daily net calories for the week are close to my calorie goal, I'm on track.

Honestly, even on a daily basis, it's easier to glance at the net calories that MFP's calculated, than to do the arithmetic myself.

In my experience, the Community is not FULL of questions about gross vs. net calories. There are quite a few questions that are repeated over and over in the Community, and that long-timers answer over and over reasonably patiently (usually). Some of them are about gross vs. net.

I wouldn't even say that's the most common repeat question, but I haven't done a statistical analysis. I suspect you haven't either?

P.S. The MFP staff doesn't read all posts in the Community. If you want to make a feature suggestion, including "remove a feature", post that here, where the staff does read:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/categories/feature-suggestions-and-ideas

There, your fellow MFP users can up-vote your suggestion if they agree with it, in a place where MFP staff read and often reply to posts.

Wynterbourne

No; I find Net Calorie useful

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Having thought it over longer, I'm going to be more specific about why net calories are useful to me in the weekly view, just to make it crystal clear.

I have a calorie goal that I want to come close to, but I mostly care about that as a weekly average, not strictly each single day. I'm in maintenance now. My goal calories are a little below my estimated actual maintenance calories, because I like to have an indulgent treat now and then, and eating just a small bit under maintenance calories creates that wiggle room. I think of it as a "calorie bank".

Like I said, my exercise calories vary. They're usually zero at least once a week (rest day), more often somewhere in the 200s-300s, but occasionally up to 500s-600s. That makes my gross daily calories available to eat anything between 1850 and maybe 2500, a pretty big swing.

When I look at weekly totals (because of relying on averages, variable exercise, and the "calorie bank"), average daily gross calorie intake is a completely meaningless number for managing my compliance with goal.

It's the net calories, not the gross calories, that will suggest whether my weight will remain stable in maintenance or not. If my average daily net calories for the week are close to my calorie goal, I'm on track.

Honestly, even on a daily basis, it's easier to glance at the net calories that MFP's calculated, than to do the arithmetic myself.

In my experience, the Community is not FULL of questions about gross vs. net calories. There are quite a few questions that are repeated over and over in the Community, and that long-timers answer over and over reasonably patiently (usually). Some of them are about gross vs. net.

I wouldn't even say that's the most common repeat question, but I haven't done a statistical analysis. I suspect you haven't either?

All of this. I use weekly net calories exclusively. Daily or even weekly gross calories would be completely and utterly useless for me personally, but I'm not going to demand they remove it just because *I* don't have a use for it.

neanderthin

Well, if someone needs to use calorie counting in order to lose weight and maintain then any data is useful and suspect most would agree it's useful.

paperpudding

No; I find Net Calorie useful

I like it because you can see easily how many calories are left after you add your exercise on and how many you have left for the week.

Lietchi

No; I find Net Calorie useful

I only use gross calories to compare with my estimated TDEE according to Garmin and deduce my true TDEE (based on my actual weight trend).
Otherwise I always look at net calories, since my active calories (and calorie goal) vary daily.