HELP? What does "net" mean?!

kearneyj

Hi everyone! I had my first MFP week last week and lost 3 lbs! Yay! This week, I am adding in exercise and I have no clue about "net" calories? What should I be aiming for? Soooo confusing! HELP!!!

KaosLynnRose

bumpin this i wanna know this also

Fitness4Paul

Net is you food intake less (minus) your exercise. You want you net to match or come close to your goal. Mfp wants you to eat back exercise calories

rileysowner

Basically on your "MY HOME" page it will say how many calories you need to eat to meet your goal. Eat those.

Net calories is your base calories plus the calories you burned exercising. That is the amount you need to eat.

This may help you understand as well http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/225765-how-mfp-works?hl=how+MFP+works&page=1#posts-2976434

kearneyj

Thanks everyone! That MFP post was EXTREMELY helpful!!!

emylianasmommy

dosnt that defeat the purpose of losing weight if thats what you want to do. you dont want to eat up the calories your burning off

susannamarie

dosnt that defeat the purpose of losing weight if thats what you want to do. you dont want to eat up the calories your burning off

It depends on whether your sole purpose is losing weight, or maintaining fitness.

MFP assigns you a big enough calorie deficit that you should be losing weight at the rate you chose without any exercise. This is why MFP numbers often end up lower than other diet trackers. Eating the exercise calories (assuming you have a decent idea what you're burning) will maintain the same deficit that you chose in the first place. Getting too big of a deficit may make you feel unwell, and may also result in a higher amount of muscle loss, so that you end up low weight, but still flabby.

Some people prefer to include their exercise in their lifestyle calculation and eat the same calories every day. I prefer to enter them daily because I like seeing the numbers go up, and also my exercise is not consistent by calories burnt.