Can someone explain this NET calorie thing to me.. please?

hybridscientist

Sometimes I find it hard to get my head around things... when people talk about NET calories what do they mean? How is this different from the calories that come up under the food section for your target and what you've actually consumed?

yesiwillbeloosingit

Net calories are what you have been consuming - so it can be this:

Net calories = your consumed calories - your burned calories (exercise ect)

Or

if you aren't exercising : Net calories = your consumed calories

So lets say if your daily calorie budget is 1500 calories - through the day you have eaten and consumed those 1500 calories. but you went out for a jog and burned off 500 calories - that makes your net calories 1000.


PS: hope that made sense

MaximalLife

Sometimes I find it hard to get my head around things... when people talk about NET calories what do they mean? How is this different from the calories that come up under the food section for your target and what you've actually consumed?

You burn calories just by being alive. So let's say your sedentary burn is 1800. Then you did 500 in exercise. That's 2300 in burn so, for a nice 500 deficit, you eat 1800 that day, see? To lose weight, your average net calories must be a negative number. In theory, you need to eat 3500 calories fewer than you burn in order to lose one pound per week.

Depending on how you want to calculate, set your activity level to light or sedentary and add in your exercise. That's "net" - all your calories for the day. Below is a great article:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/485760-what-are-net-calories/

AngelJordan

Sometimes I find it hard to get my head around things... when people talk about NET calories what do they mean? How is this different from the calories that come up under the food section for your target and what you've actually consumed?

You burn calories just by being alive. So let's say your sedentary burn is 1800. Then you did 500 in exercise. That's 2300 in burn so, for a nice 500 deficit, you eat 1800 that day, see? To lose weight, your average net calories must be a negative number. In theory, you need to eat 3500 calories fewer than you burn in order to lose one pound per week.

Depending on how you want to calculate, set your activity level to light or sedentary and add in your exercise. That's "net" - all your calories for the day. Below is a great article:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/485760-what-are-net-calories/

Oh wait, so our net calories are meant to be in negtives to be loosing weight?

AngelJordan

My intake from food is meant to be about 1740 calories. At the moment i can only eat about 1200. And from 40mins of excersise i burn off 604 calories. Does this mean i need to step up my excerises to burn off 1740 calories??
Sorry to hijack your thread, i just really don't understand and have been going about this all wrong!!

MaximalLife

My intake from food is meant to be about 1740 calories. At the moment i can only eat about 1200. And from 40mins of excersise i burn off 604 calories. Does this mean i need to step up my excerises to burn off 1740 calories??
Sorry to hijack your thread, i just really don't understand and have been going about this all wrong!!

No, eat back your exercise calories.
Simply stated MFP has already figured out your total calories you need to eat per day to lose 1lb etc. a week.
That's WITHOUT exercise. You'll notice that when you actually add exercise in, the calorie limit goes up.
Why? Because it's telling you to eat your exercise calories.
Large deficits aren't really good to do because while you will lose weight, what kind of weight will it be?
In many cases you'll lose lean muscle tissue which LOWERS your metabolic rate even more.
Then you have to eat even less to compensate for less of a calorie burn to continue to lose the same amount of weight each week.

Be efficient.
Exercise hard and eat back the calories. The hard exercise will RAISE your metabolic rate and burn more fat at rest.

MaximalLife

Sometimes I find it hard to get my head around things... when people talk about NET calories what do they mean? How is this different from the calories that come up under the food section for your target and what you've actually consumed?

You burn calories just by being alive. So let's say your sedentary burn is 1800. Then you did 500 in exercise. That's 2300 in burn so, for a nice 500 deficit, you eat 1800 that day, see? To lose weight, your average net calories must be a negative number. In theory, you need to eat 3500 calories fewer than you burn in order to lose one pound per week.

Depending on how you want to calculate, set your activity level to light or sedentary and add in your exercise. That's "net" - all your calories for the day. Below is a great article:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/485760-what-are-net-calories/

Oh wait, so our net calories are meant to be in negtives to be loosing weight?

MFP already sets the deficit based on your settings.
Just look at your daily goal on your home page. That green number is what you should be eating.
That's your daily net calories.

Bysshe

Net Calories are simply the calories you consumed=excercise.
You want to eat around your goal, I usually try to eat at least within 100-200 from my goal... granted I have a big goal.
I do not always eat my excercise calories back, unless I'm super hungry.
On the other hand, I try to keep my net calories at least 1200 calories. You don't want too many days with your net below 1200, because 1200 is the average amount of calories needed for the body to function proprerly even without working out.