I don't understand "net calories."

Michelle_M2002

I see threads talking about net calories, and I have my MFP that tells me I need to net about 1200 calories to see my weekly goal. But I just don't get it.

I have a Bodybugg. It tells me what I'm burning daily and compares it to my goal intake as well as my actual intake that I log.. .. .my goal calorie burn is 2,600 calories a day. So my goal calorie intake is 1,600. The 1,000 calorie deficit each day SHOULD turn into a 2 pound a week fat loss.

So that's what I've been doing.

But can someone explain to me the "net calories" and compare them to the "deficit" method?

Thanks,
God bless!

juliapurpletoes

Hi!

Your bodybugg is a great tool (which I had one)!!

Your net calories is the amount of food you eat minus the exercise calories that you burn. So if you eat for example 2000 calories in a day BUT you exercise 500 off in a cardiovascular or strength training situation....Your NET would be 1500 for the day.

Keep in mind if you've told MFP that you want to lose 2 pounds a week, it has adjusted your calorie total DOWN by 1000 a day from your BMR plus daily activity level that you have chosen.

So, with your Bodybugg, you may want to enter your own setting, under "goals" tab, custom set up rather than their guided one.

Hope that helps!

Michelle_M2002

I think I get it now. Thanks.

I LOVE my Bodybugg. We were blessed to have some money come in that we weren't expecting. My husband was gracious enough to not only let me get a gym membership, but also buy a package of personal training sessions. My trainer suggested I get the Bugg, and I said "What is a Bodybugg?" Then she lifted up her shirt sleeve and showed me hers, and then explained what it is and how it works.

It was pricey, and it pretty much broke us. LOL but bless his heart, my DH wasn't upset at me. I had been telling him about wanting one and so he wasn't upset about the purchase, even though it overspent us a little bit. He has been so very supportive. It's a really cool tool and it actually accelerated my progress, as well as my understanding of calories and how they affect us.

God bless!

av8rblond

Net calories are the calories you gain vs the calories you burn. If you have a positive net calorie intake, then you're intaking more calories more than you're burning. Having a negative calorie intake means that you're burning more calories than you are taking in.

Let's say you run for half an hour, and the treadmill reports that you burned 350 calories. If you're counting calories to lose weight, then you should be aware that that 350 calories might not be what it seems. The treadmill probably calculates the total calories you burned rather than the net calories burned.

What's the difference? The total calories burned includes not just the extra calories you burned by performing a cardiovascular activity, but also the calories you would have burned anyway if you'd been sitting back on the couch watching television. Net calories burned, on the other hand, is what you burned on top of what you would have burned anyway.

So how many calories would you have burned in that 30 minutes, if you'd been sedentary? To get an accurate count, you'd have to breathe into a machine that calculates the calories you burn based on your respiration. However, there are several formulas that can give you a pretty good estimate of the number of calories your body burns just to keep itself alive day after day. The more accurate of these take into account your weight, height, age, and sex. For a more general estimate, you can figure that a sedentary lifestyle requires about 12 calories per pound per day. If you weigh 150 pounds, then that's 1800 calories. At that rate, you burn 37 calories every 30 minutes.

To figure the net calories you burned on the treadmill, you have to subtract those 37 calories from the 350 calories you burned in total. This means you burned 313 calories in addition to what you would have burned anyway doing nothing.

Source(s):

http://amos.indiana.edu/library/scripts/…

auntiebabs

I see threads talking about net calories, and I have my MFP that tells me I need to net about 1200 calories to see my weekly goal. But I just don't get it.

I have a Bodybugg. It tells me what I'm burning daily and compares it to my goal intake as well as my actual intake that I log.. .. .my goal calorie burn is 2,600 calories a day. So my goal calorie intake is 1,600. The 1,000 calorie deficit each day SHOULD turn into a 2 pound a week fat loss.

So that's what I've been doing.

But can someone explain to me the "net calories" and compare them to the "deficit" method?

Thanks,
God bless!

Net calories vs. deficit method is comparing apples to oranges.

NET calories is
WHAT YOU EAT - (minus) Calories YOU BURN exercising = NET CALORIES
It is not a method for weight lost but a way of tracking that your intake.

The prevailing wisdom here is that you need at least Net 1200 calorie a day to give your body proper nutrition and what you need to build muscle and support health.


DEFICIT...
When you enter your height, weight, age and gender into MFP, it calculates what you need to maintain your current weight.
When you select lose 1 lbs a week it subtracts a 500 calorie DEFICIT from that amount (1,000 cals deficit for 2 lb/wk, 750 cal deficit for 1.5lbs/wk and 250 calorie deficit for 1/2 lb/wk)

I find I am most successful when I give myself a range.
1200 calories as my rock bottom, MFP calories as my target and MAINTAIN MY GOAL WEIGHT as the top end.
As long as I'm bouncing around in that range I figure I'm doing okay.

BTW...
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.