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?

Queen_JessieA

I have no clue why this posted twice. Only hit the button once! Sorry about that

Shweedog

NET cals are the amount of cals you have given your body to function off of after cals burned through exercise have been considered. If you eat 1600 and burn 800 you have only given your body 800 to function off of (1600-800=800 NET). Your body needs at least 1200 cals (1500 for men) to function properly on a long term basis. So you really should eat back at least enough exercise cals to make your NET a minimum of 1200.

AliDarling

dont panic! you're fine. you just bruned off cals. just eat them back. if your cal goal is 1700, and you want to be a 1200, just burn off 500. if you burn off more, then just eat them back.

Qarol

Net Cals = Cals eaten minus Cals burned

To make sure your Net Cals=1200, then you need to eat an extra 310 calories today (1200-890=310). Whether you believe in eating back your exercise calories or not, MFP recommends that your net cals not go below 1200.

talysshade

You should eat your exercise cals to get your net over 1200. Or at least, it's advised, everybody's body works different, but you've got to think that if you don't eat those exercise calories back, effectively you'll have only eaten about 800-900 calories today and that is too little to live on! Your body needs more than that just to sleep at night.

If you don't want to eat all of your exercise calories back, try eating at least half of them, preferably half an hour to an hour after your workout.

Nerdy_Rose

MFP sets up your goal so that even if you don't exercise at all, you still have a calorie deficit (and will lose weight).

When you exercise, you burn even more.

So Burn = BMR + exercise

Net calories = consumed - burn.

It is recommended to keep your net calories at least at 1200. If you are hungry, eat.

That said, it is not required to eat all of your exercise calories.

Queen_JessieA

Ok, thank you so much for explaining that! I really just didn't get it. So...1200 is my magic number. I will aim for that!! Thanks again, guys!

CaptainMFP

You need to fuel your body during exercise; weight loss comes from an overall increase in metabolism, not from exercise itself. If you don't give your body the fuel to do the exercise it cannot maintain the higher metabolism you need to lose weight efficiently and permanently. My brother -- an experienced runner with multiple marathons and 3/4 of a 100 mile ultramarathon under his belt -- explained it this way. If you are going to do vigorous cardio exercise on any given day, you need to eat AT LEAST 200 - 400 additional calories that day. I personally eat nearly all my exercise calories and have averaged better than 1.5 lbs. per week loss. If you're really too scared to eat all your exercise calories (the fear is understandable, but realize that it is not rational...if your cells don't get enough fuel to match energy demands then metabolism WILL slow down!), then I'd eat 200 additional calories per 30 minutes of intensive cardio at a minimum. This will help fuel your body and keep you going. Net calories below 1200 every now and then will not push your body into starvation mode; doing it daily eventually will and that should not be your goal. If you are worried about over-eating, then get your additional calories with calorie and nutrient dense foods (e.g. Greek yogurt with almonds, protein shake with peanut butter, etc.) that will get the calories in but not demand that you eat a large volume. But if you exercise hard, you NEED more calories to lose weight.

Edit: I just finished a 30 min run at a 9.7 min mile pace. Avg HR was 158, so an intense workout for an estimated 499 calories. Immediately after -- while not super hungry -- had a protein shake with 2 tbsp low sugar/low salt peanut butter. Very yummy, don't feel over full, and got 420 calories in one glass. Cheers!

Queen_JessieA

You need to fuel your body during exercise; weight loss comes from an overall increase in metabolism, not from exercise itself. If you don't give your body the fuel to do the exercise it cannot maintain the higher metabolism you need to lose weight efficiently and permanently. My brother -- an experienced runner with multiple marathons and 3/4 of a 100 mile ultramarathon under his belt -- explained it this way. If you are going to do vigorous cardio exercise on any given day, you need to eat AT LEAST 200 - 400 additional calories that day. I personally eat nearly all my exercise calories and have averaged better than 1.5 lbs. per week loss. If you're really too scared to eat all your exercise calories (the fear is understandable, but realize that it is not rational...if your cells don't get enough fuel to match energy demands then metabolism WILL slow down!), then I'd eat 200 additional calories per 30 minutes of intensive cardio at a minimum. This will help fuel your body and keep you going. Net calories below 1200 every now and then will not push your body into starvation mode; doing it daily eventually will and that should not be your goal. If you are worried about over-eating, then get your additional calories with calorie and nutrient dense foods (e.g. Greek yogurt with almonds, protein shake with peanut butter, etc.) that will get the calories in but not demand that you eat a large volume. But if you exercise hard, you NEED more calories to lose weight.

Edit: I just finished a 30 min run at a 9.7 min mile pace. Avg HR was 158, so an intense workout for an estimated 499 calories. Immediately after -- while not super hungry -- had a protein shake with 2 tbsp low sugar/low salt peanut butter. Very yummy, don't feel over full, and got 420 calories in one glass. Cheers!

Makes a lot of sense! Thank you for explaining that I just didn't want to waste my time working out and then eating it all back. That definitely does scare me! I used to really enjoy exercise...but since my accident (while exercising) a few years back, I haven't enjoyed it. I don't wanna waste the effort by overeating!

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 "