Need Some Explanation

kkova811

I currently weigh 202lbs, im about 5'10, 20 year old male. I posted a topic "Goal vs Net" calories a little while ago and while the answers were helpful, im still a little confused, especially with the terminology like deficit and net, etc.

Heres a little catch up, my goal is 1560 calories a day before doing anything, and I usually eat between 1300 to 1500 calories every day (or at least try to) BEFORE i add calories from the gym. So far I burn between 600 - 1000 calories a day (started at 600, built up to today's high of 1030, hope to do more). My net for today is 130 calories.

it says I am allowed another 1400 calories, ( since today I only ate a little bit over 1200) but I was under the (wrong?) impression that eating more would just negate the exercise that I did. Can someone explain how much I should be eating and the idea of deficit and net calories. Im afraid that I am now under eating and that is hurting my weight loss. Its not like im hungry or anything. Any help would be great everyone

loombeav

I don't really understand it all but here's what I do. I always eat my daily recommended calorie goal, I try very hard not to be under that. I workout 5-6x a week and track it, sometimes I eat those calories back sometimes I don't. Basically if I'm hungry I'll eat them if I'm not I don't. I know from reading through various threads that eating them back won't hurt me, so too me they're "bonus points"
I do know if my calorie intake is too low I will not lose weight, so I ensure that I eat healthy filling foods to fuel my weight loss.

kdelost630

You want your "food calories" aka calories you ate for the day minus your "exercise calories" to be AT LEAST 1200 "net calories". Example: if you eat 1500 calories but you burned off 600, your net cal intake is only 900 and you would want to eat AT LEAST 300 more calories for the day. So you don't have to eat back ALL of your exercise cals, just enough to get you up past 1200 net. Hope that helps.

LorinaLynn

You should be eating the amount your given (1560) PLUS the calories you burn at the gym (1000 or whatever). And before you say, "That's too many!" keep in mind that I'm a girl, twice your age, five inches shorter than you, and only 130-ish pounds, and I'm losing weight eating about 2000 calories a day.

You are an active young man. You NEED more calories than a short middle-aged woman.

Most weight loss programs take into consideration the amount of calories you'll burn through exercise when they give you your calorie goal. MFP doesn't take that into account UNTIL you burn those calories.

So another program would likely tell you to eat about 2000 calories a day, assuming you'd burn about 500 through exercise. The math is the same, it's just adding things at different times. The 1500-ish that MFP gives you, plus the 500 for a reasonable amount of exercise, equals 2000.

Now, what you're doing is taking the minimal calories they give you, which is based on doing NO exercise at all, and doing a hefty burn on top of it. That's a quick way to lose your lean muscle mass. You don't want to do that. You want to lose fat, not just weight. In order to lose the fat, and keep the muscle, you need to refuel yourself... not only those minimal calories they give you, but what you've burnt through exercise.

Your body needs a certain amount of calories just to function. To keep your organs functioning. An estimate for a lad of your stats on here... you need 1,933 calories just to maintain your weight if you were completely bed ridden. The second you get out of bed and do even the most basic task, like go to the bathroom, you're burning more calories than that. By netting only 130 calories, you're expecting your body to be able to do everything it has to do all day on 130 calories. If your car needed 20 gallons of gas to, say... drive roundtrip to the shore, and you only put a 1.3 gallons in the tank, how far do you think you'd get?!

EAT!!!! :happy: You're not undoing the work you did exercising by eating. You're reinforcing and strengthening the muscles you used when exercising.

Elle408

Fantastic post LorinaLynn... Very well written and completely to the point!

Kkova811... you'd be wise to listen to the lady! And FEED your body, don't punish it in your pursuit of weight loss!