Net??

angtodaycounts

I am pretty new to this site...I am not sure I understand what the "net" is on the front page. I understand how many calories I should eat, and how the exercise gives me more calories to eat but the "net" number is not making sense to me.

Also, do you eat ALL your exercise calories everyday???

Thanks!!

xraychick77

when i cut, i dont eat back.

but it all depends on you and how you feel. there are NO rules saying you should eat back what you work off. why bother working out at all then?

if you feel full and satisfied with what you eat without eating back, then dont..no need to stuff yourself or force feed. if you feel you need those extra cals, then eat them back, or eat partially.

Elzecat

I honestly try to eat enough back to reach a net of 1200 calories AFTER exercise...I am now adding in more protein and trying to eat more at lunch so I have less of a deficit this late at night.

someone passed this on to me when I first started on MFP not too long ago:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/23912-links-in-mfp-you-want-to-read-again-and-again

Good luck! Feel free to add me if you are in need of support

elliecolorado

Personally I never eat back all of my exercise calories, but I try to eat back at least some of them. However I don't force myself to eat if I'm not hungry just to eat them back. Also the calories burned are an estimate since I don't have an HRM yet, so to be safe I don't want to eat back calories that I didn't actually burn and end up over eating.

ladyhawk00

Ideally, you want your Net to meet/come close to your initial daily goal. Here is a good explanation of the Net -

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/188509-my-take-on-exercise-calories-please-read-if-you-are-new

Celo24

there are NO rules saying you should eat back what you work off. why bother working out at all then?

Actually, that's not really true. In many cases, it would be and certainly there is more than one method of achieving your goals. However, the way the MFP method is set up, you already have a deficit built in to your daily calorie target. So, even without exercise, you will lose weight. However, we all know exercise is necessary for overall health and muscle tone. When you exercise, you need to replenish the calories you lost in order to avoid falling too far below your target. If you fall too far below, your body many not be getting the fuel it needs to function properly.

There are many, many threads about this on MFP and there are a couple of more detailed ones linked in my signature. Feel free to read those and if you have any questions, you are welcome to message me and I'll answer your questions to the best of my ability. Good luck!

Denibabe94

What I've learned is that the smaller the net the more rapidly you are losing weight. You dont want to be losing more than 2 pounds per week when starting, and even that much can be too much for some people.

However, no matter what your net is your body still has caloric needs based on your bmr. If you eat below your bmr for extended periods of time your metabolism will drop, making it harder for you to lose weight, and therefore making you have to work harder than if your metabolism were high and your body was burning calories even when your not exercising.

So in order to both:
eat above your bmr and meet a net that will help you lose weight safely, you exercise off the calories that are more than your net.

Using myself as an example,
My bmr is about 1550. In order for me to lose 2 lbs per week, my net per day is 900 calories.
So ideally I should eat over 1550 calories a day (maybe 1580) and then lose 680 calories through exercise, so that I meet my net of 900 calories a day.

So to answer your question, yes you are eating your exercise calories after you adjust the net to a number in which you are losing weight safely, in order to keep your metabolism up. Essentially, you don't have to eat all of your exercise calories if you ate above your bmr already, you'll just lose weight faster.

(Net calories) = (Calories eaten) - (calories burned through exercise)

Hope I helped. Feel free to add me or ask me to clarify. And Good Luck!