Net Calories???

Maiducali

Ok I put it so that I eat 1200 calories a day, but the whole net calories confuse me. Do you know if it's the net calories should end up being 1200 calories or do you need less? Anyone want to explain it to me?

Karalopolous

Net would be after your exercise and eat those cals back.
So let's say you ate 1500 calories and hit the gym and burned 300 working out. Then you are at 1200 net.

AngelTwin27

If your net is lower than your goal, you'd lose more weight!

I spent a few weeks not eating any of my exercise calories and I lost weight faster than when I was eating them all back.

My calorie goal was 1500, so I was netting an average of 1100 with at least 400 exercise calories most days....

Athena98501

Ok I put it so that I eat 1200 calories a day, but the whole net calories confuse me. Do you know if it's the net calories should end up being 1200 calories or do you need less? Anyone want to explain it to me?

You have it set at the maximum deficit that is medically considered safe. Yes, you need to eat your exercise calories, and you shouldn't try to net lower. You'd be more successful long term if you changed your goal to losing 1#/week (keeps you metabolism up).

beccadaniixox

my net is always a negative, eat less than you work out it's a good motiviation not to eat a bad food because you tell yourself "am i really going to want to run for 4 hours just to burn this" xD

That's... bad.

People say you should aim to net 1200 cals.
I think as long as you net 1000 you're fine.

Amanda13108

i net around 500 is that terrible?

danifuoco

My base goal, no exercise, is 1200 (1 lb/week) and whenever I come in under 1200, even if it's only by say 23 calories, MyFitnessPal warns me that I need to be eating at least 1200 or I risk putting my body into starvation mode...so you need to be eating 1200 minimum, regardless of exercise.

Pebble321

i net around 500 is that terrible?

I think it depends how much weight you have to lose and whether you are wanting a "quick fix" diet where you drop a heap of weight in a month and then lose momentum because it's too hard, or whether you want to lose weight slowly and keep it off.

My personal opinion is that, yes, it's terrible to net such low calories on a regular basis. As a one off, it really doesn't matter but if you are doing this every day, you aren't giving your body much energy to survive on. If you have LOT to lose you can probably get away with it for a while, but for the long term there is a risk that you just aren't getting enough nutrition to stay healthy.

As you can probably gather from my post, I'm a fan of eating and exercising in moderation. I set out to make changes that I could keep up for a lifetime and that has worked well for me over the last 18 months or so. I just don't see the point in cutting calories really low and exercising madly for hours each day - for me, that would never be sustainable and I'd end up back just where I was in a few months time.

But, other people will tell you different things, I guess its something you can only try and then decide for yourself.

I will say that if you are using MFP to calculate your daily calorie allowance then the intention is that you eat the calories suggested plus those you burn from exercise
If you are using a different calculator to work out how much to eat, they probably already include the exercise calories in the recommended number.

For the OP: MFP doesn't include your exercise when it works out how many calories you need to stay healthy and lose weight, so you should eat the extra 300 (or near enough).

For the poster who aims for negative net calories - I suspect that most people on this site have very different goals to you, so your suggestion is probably not going to apply to most peope here. OP, this is not recommended.

atlbelle1223

I am confused by this net calorie issues as well. I will get to the end of my day and be full. Look at my food diary and freak out. Yesterday I had a net of 347, and it said I needed to eat 853 more calories. I just don't think that eating calories that you are not hungry for is a bit crazy. I would have been sick to my stomach if at 7pm I had to figure out how to eat that many calories.

I also use the MyTrek heart rate monitor that tracks how many calories are burned as well, so I know that I am not over guessing on the calories burned.

What should I do on days like this?

danifuoco

atlbelle1223 I was confused by your "net" 347 so I looked at your food diary for yesterday. It looks like your original calorie goal is 1200 like mine, and you exercised and gained nearly 700 cals (way to go!) but then only ate just over 1000. From what I understand, and I'm not a nutritionist, you should be trying to consume 1200 calories each day at least. So while you might be full at 7pm and 853 cals sound like a lot, you could try to do another 200 that evening to at least get up to 1200. If you feel like this happens regularly, you could plan a mid morning snack, or more calories at breakfast or lunch so you're not leaving extra calories for the evening.
Usually what I do when I encounter a calorie deficit in the evening and know that MFP is about to scold me (does it warn you about starvation mode as well?) is eat a banana, or drink a cup of almond milk, maybe eat some crackers or snack on raspberry chocolate chip sorbet (mmmm).