what sohuld my 'NET' calories be at?

TheSwiwi

Over the past few hours of asking questions and exploring the internet i have gotten super-duper confused about how much to defecit a day/week to lose a kg and how to work out this defecit.

from what i gathered, MFPs NET calories are what i should be looking at, but i dont know whether the number should be big or small for weight loss

so if i want to lose a kg a week (which is apparently the reccomended healthy loss) how many calories should it say above the word NET on the homepage of MFP?

Im a 20 year old 5ft 5.5 female who is 219 pounds, and im comfortable eating 1200-1600 a day

EolAcalia

It's simple, you need to work out your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) for you is around 2122 calories per day.

To lose weight at 1 pound a week you need to have a deficit of 500 calories, so daily you need to eat 1622 calories.

To keep it simple, don't eat back calories you work off through excercise.

This is what i'm doing and have lost 18lb's since that start of the year.

BigTireFlipper

It's simple, you need to work out your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) for you is around 2122 calories per day.

To lose weight at 1 pound a week you need to have a deficit of 500 calories, so daily you need to eat 1622 calories.

To keep it simple, don't eat back calories you work off through excercise.

This is what i'm doing and have lost 18lb's since that start of the year.

Wait. You do eat back your calories in order to not widen the deficit.
If she eats 1622 calories she's made her goal of a 500 calorie deficit.
If she eats 1622 calories and exercises 500 calories she's now at a 1000 calorie deficit which is outside what MFP recommends for her. This is what's getting her confused.

(Edit) Assuming that a 1 lb per week weight loss is what she's going for. If she's going for 2 lbs she goes under 1200 and it becomes even more important that she eats back her calories.

EolAcalia

It's simple, you need to work out your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) for you is around 2122 calories per day.

To lose weight at 1 pound a week you need to have a deficit of 500 calories, so daily you need to eat 1622 calories.

To keep it simple, don't eat back calories you work off through excercise.

This is what i'm doing and have lost 18lb's since that start of the year.

Wait. You do eat back your calories in order to not widen the deficit.
If she eats 1622 calories she's made her goal of a 500 calorie deficit.
If she eats 1622 calories and exercises 500 calories she's now at a 1000 calorie deficit which is outside what MFP recommends for her. This is what's getting her confused.

It depends, my goal is to lose 0.5kg a week, by not eating back the exercise i'm losing a kg a week, I only exercise three days a week, so its much simpler for me to not worry about what I burn whilst working out. It's far more sustainable that worrying about eating 1600 on exercise days, and eating 1200 on non-exercise days.

BigTireFlipper

It depends, my goal is to lose 0.5kg a week, by not eating back the exercise i'm losing a kg a week, I only exercise three days a week, so its much simpler for me to not worry about what I burn whilst working out. It's far more sustainable that worrying about eating 1600 on exercise days, and eating 1200 on non-exercise days.

Nope. Sorry. When it comes to following the MFP program there is no depends. You do A, B, and C. Once you choose to deviate from tracking calories and exercise to ensure you are only having a daily 500 calorie deficit for 1 lb a week or 1000 calorie deficit for 2 lbs you are no longer following the MFP plan, just your own version of it. The fact that you are losing weight is great, but she's trying to understand how this program works and doesn't need the added confusion of individual versions of it.

EpsilonGamma

1kg is not a healthy target unless she is quite overweight to start with.

ChrisM8971

It's simple, you need to work out your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) for you is around 2122 calories per day.

To lose weight at 1 pound a week you need to have a deficit of 500 calories, so daily you need to eat 1622 calories.

To keep it simple, don't eat back calories you work off through excercise.

This is what i'm doing and have lost 18lb's since that start of the year.

Wait. You do eat back your calories in order to not widen the deficit.
If she eats 1622 calories she's made her goal of a 500 calorie deficit.
If she eats 1622 calories and exercises 500 calories she's now at a 1000 calorie deficit which is outside what MFP recommends for her. This is what's getting her confused.

It depends, my goal is to lose 0.5kg a week, by not eating back the exercise i'm losing a kg a week, I only exercise three days a week, so its much simpler for me to not worry about what I burn whilst working out. It's far more sustainable that worrying about eating 1600 on exercise days, and eating 1200 on non-exercise days.

I think this is becoming confused between two systems, MFP and TDEE

TDEE calculations generally include your exercise calories, which is why its your Total expenditure

MFP is based in NEAT and sets a deficit for you based on the assumption that you do not do additional exercise. For me this is the simpler system because I do not have a set exercise routine.

Set MFP to lose say 1 lb per week and eat what it tells you to eat calorie wise, which will be more on the days you burn calories because you eat them back.

Word of caution though, many sites over estimate calories burnt (I eat 80% of what my HRM tells me approx) and the only way to really tell if you are eating the right amount back is if you are losing the amount of weight you expect

BigTireFlipper

Word of caution though, many sites over estimate calories burnt (I eat 80% of what my HRM tells me approx) and the only way to really tell if you are eating the right amount back is if you are losing the amount of weight you expect

+1 for this. Absolutely.

TheSwiwi

Set MFP to lose say 1 lb per week and eat what it tells you to eat calorie wise, which will be more on the days you burn calories because you eat them back.

ok i have set my MFP goal to 2 pounds per week. so should i eat until my 'calories remaining' is at 0?

BigTireFlipper

ok i have set my MFP goal to 2 pounds per week. so should i eat until my 'calories remaining' is at 0?

Zero or thereabouts. The exception is on exercise days where calories are added to your daily goal but are probably not a realistic amount. This is where some acceptable fudging of the numbers comes in. For example, lets say you exercised and MFP says "Wonderful! You've earned 350 calories!" Does that mean you should eat back all 350? Probably not. This is where folks make their recommendations of only eating back 50%-80% of those 350. That's the only part of the MFP plan that I deviate from myself because I get a more accurate calorie burn from my heart rate monitor.

I hope this trying evening has cleared some of the mud out of this for you.

TheSwiwi

ok i have set my MFP goal to 2 pounds per week. so should i eat until my 'calories remaining' is at 0?

Zero or thereabouts. The exception is on exercise days where calories are added to your daily goal but are probably not a realistic amount. This is where some acceptable fudging of the numbers comes in. For example, lets say you exercised and MFP says "Wonderful! You've earned 350 calories!" Does that mean you should eat back all 350? Probably not. This is where folks make their recommendations of only eating back 50%-80% of those 350. That's the only part of the MFP plan that I deviate from myself because I get a more accurate calorie burn from my heart rate monitor.

I hope this trying evening has cleared some of the mud out of this for you.

it has helped. i was concerned that i would be working out too much for my low calorie goal and catabolise. so i just eat my regualr 1200-1400, and then if i exercise, eat back some of them but probably not all?

BigTireFlipper

it has helped. i was concerned that i would be working out too much for my low calorie goal and catabolise. so i just eat my regualr 1200-1400, and then if i exercise, eat back some of them but probably not all?

:flowerforyou: Tada! You are now considered armed and dangerous. As dangerous as you can be with a flower that is. Now go slay some fat cells. Sweat is their tears.