hello, new girl here with questions...

arollason

Hello, My name is april. I'm from good ole' PA. Just started using MFP the begining of May, was using another colorie counter before and did well but wasn't able to "track" calories burned till I found MFP and I love it!! Question is...what does the net number mean? It's kinda taken me till now to figure things out. Please correct me if I'm wrong... I think I wanna keep my "food number as close to the goal number as I can and the remaining number (after I workout) as close to 500 to lose a pound a week, is that right?
Thanks for any input

LesliePierceRN

Your net is your surplus or deficit, calories calculated thus far after eating and exercising.. You should have set up your MFP to let you lose a pound a week if that's what you want, so you don't have to do any math now.. If you stay close to the goal calories, you should lose the weight. Your net should roughly equal your goal to make that happen.

bmiller211

you have to have a deficit of 500 cal. per day to lose a lb a week but that is already considered when you have the target calories of say 1200. If you exercise you get to eat the extra calories that you burn without any harm to the 1 lb per week. I am not saying you have to eat then just that you can.

unmitigatedbadassery

the way I understand it - please correct me if I'm wrong - is that your calorie goal is basically an allowance. Every calorie you eat comes out of that allowance. When you exercise you get a certain amount of calories back into your allowance.

As long as you stay under (calories left over at the end of the day) you are good to go.