NET??

1111renee

what does the number represent under net? mine says -67 today don't know lol

baisleac

Ouch.

Net calories = calories eaten - exercise calories burned.

Net calories should equal your daily starting target. i.e. if you start with a "budget" of 1300 calories, your Net calories at the end of the day should be 1300.

meggonkgonk

MFP as a tool is designed for you to eat to your goal calories in NET. On your home page you see:

GOAL FOOD-EXERCISE = NET

You want your NET calories to be as close to your GOAL calories as possible. And you definitely want to keep them OVER 1200. If you've been doing less than this you could be hurting your metabolism.

1111renee

my food calories today are 587 and exercise was 654 burned.............. so I burned more today than I took in? confused LOL

baisleac

You're not giving your body any calories to function on.

Just lying in bed, you burn calories to keep your heart pumping, your lungs breathing, your brain thinking. You need to have a Net balance that will at least cover those basic functions.

Hype

I made a topic ten mins ago, called Calories.... I asked the same and people have explained it - take a look

WarmDontBurn

what does the number represent under net? mine says -67 today don't know lol

Your NET should be the same or very close to your GOAL if you are looking at your home page under Your Daily Summary.
Your NET should NEVER be below 1200.

meggonkgonk

You should really do some research on this because you doing your body a huge disservice.

Each day your body 1) requires a certain amount of energy(calories) to perform basic functions - like breathing, 2) expends a certain amount of additional energy doing any and all of the actions you perform during the day (standing, walking, working out, talking, chewing).

1) This number is known as your BMR (you can figure out your estimated BMR with the TOOLS tab function on here). Your body NEEDS this many calories just to keep you alive. Your NET calories should not go much below this if you can help it.
2) This number is your "Calories burned from daily activity" (found on your GOALS page) PLUS any additional calories you burn from exercise. This should be the highest your NET calories can go- if you eat this many calories you will neither gain nor lose weight.



MFP works a bit differently than most calorie/point counters. Most nutrition plans incorporate workouts into your overall activity level- ie I have a desk job, but if I workout 5 days a week most plans would put me at "lightly active". This would figure into my daily calorie goal - so most nutritionists would probably recommend that I eat 1500-1800 calories everyday, regardless of my workout. MFP has you manually account for specific workouts or anything outside your normal level of activity, so you get a lower "starting goal" everyday (so you continue to lose regardless of whether or not you workout), but when you workout more, you should be eating more.

This is where NET calories come into play. There is an equation on your homepage:

GOAL FOOD -(minus) EXERCISE =(equals) NET

Your goal, as far as MFP is set up, should be to get your NET calories to match your GOAL calories. The NET calories are a way of taking exercise into account, so that you eat enough to fuel your workout.

This has in turn become known as "eating your exercise calories" and is highly controversial because people believe that less calories = higher weight loss. But for many, if you do not eat enough on a daily basis, your body begins to shut down your metabolism so as to stave off possible hunger/starvation not only effectively stopping loss but also causing gains anytime one goes even minimally over on calories.

Sorry this was far more than you asked for but the context seemed relevant. Check out the boards (specifically the "NEWBIES PLEASE READ ME" if you need more info or any clarification.