Please help me understand Net cals!!

Queen_JessieA

I don't know what they are or where they should be!! Please help!! My daily cal goal is 1610. I have planned out my food for the rest of the day and I am at 1703. I burned 813 doing over an hour of different cardios this morning and it says that my net is 890. I really don't want to eat my exercise cals...but I have read that I shouldn't let my net go below 1200. Help?

lilybug13

Why do you really not want to eat your exercise cals?

shortee75

from my understanding the Net Cals are what you have actually consumed after your exercise calories are subtracted from what you eat throughout the day; therefore, it is saying that you have only consumed 890 calories for the day because you burned 813 with exercise.

I would try to bring your Net up 1200...that would only require eating 310 more calories - maybe you can have a protein shake or something and that will take care of it.

cowpoke06

Well...the decision is between do what you want to do and not eat the exercise calories, or follow the advise of pretty much every weight loss and nutritional specialist and eat back your exercise calories at least up to 1200.

I would eat up to 1200 calories

watcherII

okay. your daily calorie allowance is the calories your body needs to function and still lose weight. when you exercise, you burn some of those calories, so you need to eat more to replace them so your body has enough calories to function. daily allowance cals minus cals burned equals net calories. when your net calories are too low, your body can go into starvation mode, where it perceives a famine and lowers your metabolism. it holds on to every calorie it can, and it also starts using your muscle for fuel instead of fat. so you need to eat your exercise calories to lose weight and stay healthy. sounds counter-intuitive, i know, but there you are. hope this helps.

Dragonwolf

The stickies at the top of this forum category go into quite a bit of detail about MFP's system. I highly recommend reading through them to gain not only a better understanding of the system, but also of why it's highly recommended to eat at least up to 1200 net.

And, as lilybug asked, why don't you want to eat your exercise calories back?

kapeluza

"Hello Folks,

So often people personal message me asking me if I think their calories are correct. It seems that people think there is some magical formula that only a very few can figure out. I see so many people on here just popping in numbers and following them heedless of what the numbers mean. I feel it's ULTRA important to know why MFP (and me, and a few others) gives you certain numbers. To that end I will try to empower YOU to be able to understand the basics about calories, calorie deficits, and why we recommend eating exercise calories. With this knowledge you should be able to easily figure out what your calories should be at for reasonable, healthy weight loss. So without further ado, lets get started.

1st things first, a few givens must be stated:

-Everyone's body is slightly different. ALWAYS keep in mind your numbers may not be exactly what MFP thinks simply because everyone's bodies all burn energy at a different rate. Tweaking may be needed.

- MFP's goals wizard is a "dumb" tool. That means it doesn't care whether a specific goal is healthy and/or right for you, it just subtracts the goal deficit from projected maintenance calories. This means that even if you shouldn't be trying for a 2 lb a week loss, MFP won't care, it will still try to help you get there.

-1200 calories is a generic number. It's not right for everyone. It's a baseline minimum given out as a floor by MFP based on prior research by the medical community. NOT everyone will need a minimum of 1200, very small people can go under, and bigger people need more.


OK with those facts firmly set in your mind (please go back and re-read the givens until you have them firmly planted in your skull!), we can continue. Figuring out your perfect deficit isn't magic, it's a few simple formula's base on some basic, worldwide standards, and generally with slight modefication, will work for just about anyone who (besides weight) is generally healthy.

Here's what you need:
Height, weight, age, activity level, sex

NOTE: activity level isn't as mysterious as it sounds. If you have a desk job, and do very little walking throughout the day and don't really perform any sports or physical activities, then you are sedentary, if you do some walking every day (or at least 4 days a week) or other light activity for at least 30 minutes cumulative at least 4 times a week, you are lightly active. If you do 60 minutes of light activity 5 days a week or do some kind of sport that requires walking or light jogging (say swimming or mailman or warehouse employee) then you are active, If you do a physically demanding activity (one that makes you sweat) for 4 days a week or more and for more than 1 hour a day, you are very active (like a coach that runs drills or you play volleyball). When in doubt, go down 1 level, you'd rather burn more than you think than less.

With all these numbers you can generate your BMI. Now I realize BMI is flawed, but for what we're doing it's good enough. After years on here, and doing lots and lots of research, I've been able to associate general BMI ranges with approximate goal levels. This works for about 80 to 85% of people out there (there's always a few that are outside the curve).

So now we can figure out where your goal should be.
Go to the tools section and figure out your BMI:

Generally someone with a BMI over 32 can do a 1000 calorie a day (2 lbs a week) deficit
With a BMI of 30 to 32 a deficit of 750 calories is generally correct (about 1.5 lbs a week)
With a BMI of 28 to 30 a deficit of 500 calories is about right (about 1 lb a week)
With a BMI of 26 to 28 a deficit of about 300 calories is perfect (about 1/2 lb a week)
and below 26... well this is where we get fuzzy. See now you're no longer talking about being overweight, so while it's still ok to have a small deficit, you really should shift your focus more towards muscle building, and reducing fat. This means it is EXTRA important to eat your exercise calories as your body needs to KNOW it's ok to burn fat stores, and the only way it will know is if you keep giving it the calories it needs to not enter the famine response (starvation mode).

With this quick guide you can figure out your goal rather easily. I know many people will say "I can't eat my exercise calories, I gain weight when I do". Well I have news for you, that's not correct. I submit this, if you eat your exercise calories and gain weight 1 of 3 things happened:
1 you were previously in starvation mode, and you upped your calories, and had an immediate weight gain, that's normal, to be expected, and necessary to get your body on track. Give it a month, that will stop, and you, once again, will begin to lose, but this time, in a healthy manner.
2 you incorrectly calculated something, either your exercise calories, your calorie intake, or you put in to large of a goal. Go back and check all your numbers.
3 you haven't given it enough time to work. This site promotes HEALTHY weight loss people. Healthy weight loss doesn't happen in days or weeks, it takes months and years. Each change you make in how you eat needs a month or more to work, be patient, give it time. It will happen.

And to everyone who has a trainer that doesn't agree with eating your exercise calories. I also submit this: In 90% of the cases (and I have talked to a LOT of trainers about this exact topic) they actually DO agree with this method, you just explained it wrong.
Just saying to a trainer "should I eat my exercise calories?" isn't enough, you have to explain to them that MFP already generates a deficit prior to any exercise, therefore the deficit will remain whether you exercise or not. Once you give them that idea, and you are relatively sure they understand the concept then I'll bet they change their tune.

I hope this helps, it's pretty straight forward if you've been here a while, and to you new guys, I recommend going to the message boards link, clicking on the "general diet and weight loss" area, and clicking on those first few posts that have the little mouse trap next to them, they are sticky and will always be there, and are a wealth of knowledge about this site, exercise calories, starvation mode...etc.

regards,

-Banks "

jah1165

GOOD INFORMATION

holly_v

i must be stupid because i still dont get it. i have been stuck at 139-140 for about a month or more. i have been trying my best to eat 1200 cals a day and have been exercising daily 30mins or more. i just got my ft4 so i know how many cals i am burning.

i am 5'5" bmi 23

so from what i understand maybe i am in starvation mode?
this is what mfp says right now
Goal Food Exercise = Net
1200 1004 - 542 462

if i were to eat the 542 i would feel like all that sweat was for nothing.

please just tell me what do to, no science or studies or calculations.

eat the exercise or eat the net?

at the end of the day where abouts should my net be?

jpamplin28

It was really hard for me to eat more cals too. When I wasn't exercising I had no problems shedding the pounds but after I started to focus more on fitness and not just weight loss I was seeing no movement in the scale. I look at it like fueling my workouts. If you can't handle eating back all of the cals you burn during exercise try eating back only half and see if that helps.

jpamplin28

I saw it described like this: most plans take exercise into account when they set the number of cals you should eat in a day but MFP doesn't it. It only accounts for basic daily activity and not exercise since that varies from person to person. So the calories goal is set by how much you want to lose a week. When you exercise that's a calorie deficit in addition to what the program already calculated. It is recommended that your net not go below 1200.

Queen_JessieA

You should be eating back up to 1200 cals ~ bring your net back to 1200. I still had 400+ cals from what I worked after I did that today.

holly_v

so goal and net should be pretty much the same??!! oh my god thats a lot of food.

auntiebabs

WHAT YOU EAT - (minus) WHAT YOU BURN = (equals) NET CALORIES

1703 calorie intake -813 calories burned = 890 net calories

You should eat at least 310 more calories to reach a minimum of 1200 net calories.
You can eat as much as 720 calories to reach your target of 1610 calories.

I set a range for myself of 1200 at the low end, my weight loss calories as my target and my maintain GOAL weight as the high end of my range as long as I'm bouncing around in that zone (not always at one end or the other). It's all good.

auntiebabs

Also... Account for your exercise in only one place.

I have a desk job... I like to set my activity level at sedentary and track everything I do. It gives me a greater sense of accomplishment.

Some folks are very consistent dedicated to their workouts and take that into account when they set their activity level. So they don't have to track their exercise everyday/week.

I'm pretty sure that If you count it both places MFP will give you way too many calories.

Queen_JessieA

Why do you really not want to eat your exercise cals?

Because I worked hard to get rid of them!!

But I totally understand now. Thanks for all the info, guys!

KimmyEB

It still seems ridiculous to me, in a way. Right now, as of 8:15pm today, my net calories are only 547. I am not going to eat anymore today. I had very filling breakfast, a very filling lunch, and a very filling dinner. No snacks, because I wasn't hungry except at meal times. I am COMPLETELY FULL...if I eat anymore, I'm going to have a stomach ache/not feel well in general. I think if anything, I may have a glass of milk later. That's certainly not going to put me up to my "goal" calories. I think it's like someone else said prior to this response...it's different for everyone. People can say "eat more" but MY body is telling ME that I'm full.

withchaco

It still seems ridiculous to me, in a way. Right now, as of 8:15pm today, my net calories are only 547. I am not going to eat anymore today. I had very filling breakfast, a very filling lunch, and a very filling dinner. No snacks, because I wasn't hungry except at meal times. I am COMPLETELY FULL...if I eat anymore, I'm going to have a stomach ache/not feel well in general. I think if anything, I may have a glass of milk later. That's certainly not going to put me up to my "goal" calories. I think it's like someone else said prior to this response...it's different for everyone. People can say "eat more" but MY body is telling ME that I'm full.

Your body may very well be right, but unfortunately that's not the case for everyone! Lack of hunger/ appetite can indicate slower-than-normal metabolism. Or it can indicate that your body really does have enough nutrients to function and does not need any more for the day. It depends.

KimmyEB

It still seems ridiculous to me, in a way. Right now, as of 8:15pm today, my net calories are only 547. I am not going to eat anymore today. I had very filling breakfast, a very filling lunch, and a very filling dinner. No snacks, because I wasn't hungry except at meal times. I am COMPLETELY FULL...if I eat anymore, I'm going to have a stomach ache/not feel well in general. I think if anything, I may have a glass of milk later. That's certainly not going to put me up to my "goal" calories. I think it's like someone else said prior to this response...it's different for everyone. People can say "eat more" but MY body is telling ME that I'm full.

Your body may very well be right, but unfortunately that's not the case for everyone! Lack of hunger/ appetite can indicate slower-than-normal metabolism. Or it can indicate that your body really does have enough nutrients to function and does not need any more for the day. It depends.

That's exactly my point--it's NOT the case for everyone...nor is anyone else's advice when they say "You should eat back your exercise calories."