Net calories: a word problem

taso42

Mark is trying to lose 20 lbs. He joins MFP and fills out his profile, targetting 1 lb of loss per week. MFP gives him a 500 calorie per day deficit to reach that goal. Mark's target calories are set to 2000.

On day 1, Mark does 300 calories worth of exercise, and eats 2300 calories. What are Mark's net calories on this day? What is his calorie deficit?

On day 2, Mark does no exercise and eats 2100 calories. What are Mark's net calories on this day? What is his calorie deficit?

On day 3, Mark does 400 calories worth of exercise, and eats 2300 calories.

On day 4, Mark does no exercise and eats 2000 calories.

Day 5: 250 calories worth of exercise: Eats 2250 calories.

Day 6: 350 calories worth of exercise; Eats 2350 calories.

Day 7: No exercise; Eats 2000 calories.

What is Mark's calorie deficit for the week? Is Mark on target with his goals?

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Melinda also wants to lose 20 lbs. She joins MFP and fills out her profile, targeting 1 lb of loss per week. MFP gives her a 500 calorie deficit, and her daily calories are calculated to 1400.

Day 1: 500 calories of exercise. Eats 1400
Day 2: 500 calories of exercise. Eats 1200
Day 3: 500 calories of exercise. Eats 1300
Day 4: 500 calories of exercise. Eats 1800
Day 5: 500 calories of exercise. Eats 1400
Day 6: 500 calories of exercise. Eats 1500
Day 7: 500 calories of exercise. Eats 1200

What is Melinda's calorie deficit for the week? Is Melinda on target with her goals?


** Edit: added in Mark's missing day 5!

Farfourah

Homework

CoryIda

Oooh! Pick me pick me pick me!

I know the answer!

Unless you enjoy being tired, hungry, and inadequately fueled, don't be Melinda

Hayesgang

I chose Mark!!

Melinda will be on the boards complaining her weight loss has stalled and she doesn't know why!!

patricknsmith

Nope, my math homework isn't due til next week.

sarah44254

Way to go Mark! Mysterious missing day 5 ignored, he is following his plan really well. Hooray Mark!

Melinda needs to come with me for a week. I will feed her candy and force her to sit on her bum for hours. Maybe that will help her body adjust to the undereating / overworking that she has been doing to it.

taso42

Way to go Mark! Mysterious missing day 5 ignored, he is following his plan really well. Hooray Mark!

ooops! I fixed it now, thanks!

hapoo100

as i read this i kept thinking about a train leaving chicago at 60 miles an hour while another train....then my brain stopped

niightwind

Aww, I thought I was finally done with having to do math homework!

OSC_ESD

Are you Mark ??? Who's Melinda ???? Who's on first ??? I'm sooooo confused !

Silverkittycat

Way to go Mark! Mysterious missing day 5 ignored, he is following his plan really well. Hooray Mark!

IF?

StrongGwen

as i read this i kept thinking about a train leaving chicago at 60 miles an hour while another train....then my brain stopped

so...if a train leaves Chicago with a goal of using 2400 calories of fuel, and another train chug chugs up a mountain with 7 tons of coal, will Mark and Melinda ever get together after the gym and go out to eat?

CoryIda

as i read this i kept thinking about a train leaving chicago at 60 miles an hour while another train....then my brain stopped

so...if a train leaves Chicago with a goal of using 2400 calories of fuel, and another train chug chugs up a mountain with 7 tons of coal, will Mark and Melinda ever get together after the gym and go out to eat?

Only if Mark can pick Melinda up, drag her under-fueled butt to the restaurant FIRST, and then take her to the gym.

Silverkittycat

Only if Mark can pick Melinda up, drag her under-fueled butt to the restaurant FIRST, and then take her to the gym.

Ooooh... I love a Hollywood ending.

killagb

Mark is trying to lose 20 lbs. He joins MFP and fills out his profile, targetting 1 lb of loss per week. MFP gives him a 500 calorie per day deficit to reach that goal. Mark's target calories are set to 2000.

On day 1, Mark does 300 calories worth of exercise, and eats 2300 calories. What are Mark's net calories on this day? What is his calorie deficit?

Net calories are 2000, his deficit is 500 for the day.

On day 2, Mark does no exercise and eats 2100 calories. What are Mark's net calories on this day? What is his calorie deficit?

2100 net calories, deficit is 400 for the day.

On day 3, Mark does 400 calories worth of exercise, and eats 2300 calories.

On day 4, Mark does no exercise and eats 2000 calories.

Day 5: 250 calories worth of exercise: Eats 2250 calories.

Day 6: 350 calories worth of exercise; Eats 2350 calories.

Day 7: No exercise; Eats 2000 calories.

What is Mark's calorie deficit for the week? Is Mark on target with his goals?

His calorie deficit for the week is right on target with his 1lb a week goal, which is equal to 3500 calories. :drinker:

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Melinda also wants to lose 20 lbs. She joins MFP and fills out her profile, targeting 1 lb of loss per week. MFP gives her a 500 calorie deficit, and her daily calories are calculated to 1400.

Day 1: 500 calories of exercise. Eats 1400 1000
Day 2: 500 calories of exercise. Eats 1200 1200
Day 3: 500 calories of exercise. Eats 1300 1100
Day 4: 500 calories of exercise. Eats 1800 900
Day 5: 500 calories of exercise. Eats 1400 1000
Day 6: 500 calories of exercise. Eats 1500 900
Day 7: 500 calories of exercise. Eats 1200 1200

What is Melinda's calorie deficit for the week? Is Melinda on target with her goals?

Melinda's deficit is 7300 for the week. She's not meeting her calorie goals and losing weight faster than she really should. She's probably losing muscle mass in addition to some fat loss. 7300 is over 2lbs for the week. If you only have 20lbs to lose, 1lb is the tops you should really be doing, possibly only .5lb/wk. :drinker:

onedayillbamilf

*flips to back of book for answer sheet*

taso42

Thanks killagb.

Follow up. What could Melinda have done differently? Well, the easiest thing is she could have just eaten 500 calorie more every day. But perhaps psychologically, she needs to see "500 calories remaining" at the end of every day. So an alternate approach for her might be to to change her MFP settings to "maintain weight", but then continue eating 500 below target every day. That would get her to the 3500 cal/week deficit, with the psychological benefit of being "way under" on calories every day.

Just food for thought.

kennethmgreen

I wish this wasn't so hard for people to grasp. I don't think people are dumb. I think they are blinded by a desire to lose weight fast. I think they are blinded by misinformation, and buy into something that sounds right because it gets repeated so much. I think people place way too much value on anecdotal evidence (my brother lost 50 pounds eating only wheat thins - it worked for him!) and too little value on context, details and science.

And then there is the context/details issue. We spend so much time arguing apples to oranges. Too many people come from other weight loss programs that take activity level into account and use that to create the calorie deficit, failing to understand how MFP is designed. So the idea of eating back exercise calories sounds crazy and counter-intuitive (and *is* counter-intuitive for many other weight loss programs that factor in exercise when creating a cal deficit). And too many people forget that MFP isn't the ONLY way to lose weight. It's one method of applying the calories in/calories out equation. It's not the only way to do it.

FitLink

I have always argued that only the story problems count, and this is why. Math IS ABOUT real life, so we need kids to learn it!

jetscreaminagain

I really like you Taso, Kenneth, Killa, Cory, and Milf. This is great.

As to the counter-intuitive nature of eating the exercise calories back rather than setting a goal for exercise and eating according to that, if you can get your head around it, it makes the most sense for people like me. I'm full of big talk in my head about how many days a week I will lift and how much I will run. Then life happens not according to plan. MFP's way means I just don't get those extra calories to eat, which may have been weight gain if I did it the way the other systems work.

Keep trying, Taso, to help people understand. When you can understand you can decide to do it that way or not. But if you just ask the muscled guy at the gym, well he doens't know the system MFP uses, so eating back calories DOES sound dumb.

SMarie10

It took me about four months to figure out the eating deficit vs exercise calories concept. TASO is like Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady...by Jove I think we've got it.

are Mark and Melinda a couple and he keeps eating off her plate?

Pebble321

But Melinda says: "I can't eat another thing, I'm not hungry, My Special K for breakfast, lean cuisine for lunch and salad with no-cal dressing for dinner completely filled me up".

Should she FORCE herself to eat more?











Personally, I think she should! Build up gradually if she needs to, but eating at such a large deficit just isn't a good plan for long term health. As most of the people who have posted here understand, but so many people just don't get!!

Pebble321

Thanks killagb.

Follow up. What could Melinda have done differently? Well, the easiest thing is she could have just eaten 500 calorie more every day. But perhaps psychologically, she needs to see "500 calories remaining" at the end of every day. So an alternate approach for her might be to to change her MFP settings to "maintain weight", but then continue eating 500 below target every day. That would get her to the 3500 cal/week deficit, with the psychological benefit of being "way under" on calories every day.

Just food for thought.

Yup, this is a good idea and would probably work well for some people.
Or, she could change her activity level settings so that her exercise is included in her daily calorie allowance - if she made her settings "active" then she would get more cals each day and wouldn't have to feel like she was "wasting her time exercising if she is just going to eat those calories back".
I know that's not the way MFP is designed, but for some people it might take away the mystery about "eating back calories".

killagb

But Melinda says: "I can't eat another thing, I'm not hungry, My Special K for breakfast, lean cuisine for lunch and salad with no-cal dressing for dinner completely filled me up".

Should she FORCE herself to eat more?











Personally, I think she should! Build up gradually if she needs to, but eating at such a large deficit just isn't a good plan for long term health. As most of the people who have posted here understand, but so many people just don't get!!

Yep, those people need to quit getting fat free everything then...get calorie dense foods!