Quick question about calorie counter

GammaSigMommy

If I have to consume 1760 calories in a day, and I plan on losing a pound a week (500 calories) am I supposed to eat a total of 2260 calories in order for the net calories to be at 1760? I heard that the net has to be close to the goal in order for me to meet it? Also, if I am under my caloric goal, what does that mean?

emleeo

No you don't add on the 500 calories, unless you mean that is how much you will burn due to exercise? To loose one pound a week (providing 1760 is your total energy expenditure not your BMR) you should be eating 1260 calories per day. And in reply to the second part, If you are too far below your calorie goal (under 1000-1200 ish) then your body enters starvation mode, where it will conserve as much of what you eat as it can, slowing down weight loss, as well as using up your muscles for energy. Hope that helped a bit anyways!

4bschram

If you are planning to lose 1 pound a week you would need to be below your necessary daily caloric goal for maintaining your current wait. Based on your numbers, you would have to do the following:

Required Daily Caloric Intake: 1760
Minus food calories to lose weight: -500
NET daily caloric intake: 1260

At that level, make sure you're getting all the essential nutrients each day or you won't have enough energy. A good approach would be to at least find an exercise each day that burns 250 calories so you only have to reduce your food consumption by 250 calories. In other words:

Required Daily Caloric Intake: 1760
Minus Calories burned from exercise: -250
Minus food calories to lose weight: -250
NET daily caloric intake: 1260

This will give you more energy and better health overall.

Good luck.

mnec2010

But doesn't MFP generate your daily intake BASED on your goals that you enter? I entered that my goal is to lose 1 lb/per week and it says that based on that, I need to eat 1460 cals per day. If she is saying that MFP said she needs to eat 1760 to lose 1lb/week, why does she need to recalculate and eat 1260? Im confused lol.

4bschram

It should be doing the math right on your home page. You can't miss the big green number. Good point.

GammaSigMommy

Lol I think I understand now! Last night, I tried to find the "solution" to net calories, whether I needed to eat more than 1760 or at 1760, but now I got it So what I could do is eat 1260 and exercise off 500, or exercise 250 calories off and not even consume 250 (this is all so confusing, but worth learning haha). Thank you so much for the answers!

glassyo

No.

What you want to do is NET the 1260 which means, if you exercise 500 calories off, you'll want to eat those back for a total of 1760 eaten since mfp already takes into account your deficit to lose 1-2 lbs (whichever you chose).