Gross vs net cals

rebrcca3434

As I have been learning more about fitness and nutrition I came across an article discussing gross and net calories. My question is what does the MFP fitness calculator utilize and does anyone use net cals as opposed to gross cals because it seems you may inadvertently overestimating you burn. Also if you eat exercise cals at all this could be detrimental to weight loss?

17ChargerGirl17

Yes, please someone answer this question.
I am wondering this myself

Lrf486

I've been wondering this as well as it relates to food intake on exercise days ...

sunrise611

Interesting question ...

cersela

Gross calories is the total amount you eat in a day, net calories are total calories minus any calories you burned from cardio exercise.

If you are tracking here, it will say at the bottom, "*You've earned 402 extra calories from exercise today." So your net calories would become 402 calories lower. Some people eat more on days they exercise and some don't. People use the phrase 'eating back your exercise calories' when they talk about it on here.

For example http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/cersela?date=2012-07-24 On this day, I ate 1,635 and burned 402, and did not eat them back so I ate 1,233 net calories. If I had ate them back I would have consumed 2,037 calories for the day.

onikonor

MFP calculator is an estimate based on your age, weight, and height so it's not 100% accurate anyway. I presume they would use Net since your target on MFP already includes BMR calories. I find MFP overestimates my calorie burn after I compared it to my heart rate monitor.

There is only a slight difference in Gross vs Net calories and depending on how much you are cutting. The difference between gross and net will only make up like 50 calories in an hour so it's not a big deal. Sometimes I eat all my "Gross" calories back sometimes I eat 200-300 calories under, so it evens out anyway.

I personally eat my exercise calories back, because if I did not I would not have the energy to complete my exercises.

kwilson7445

I have not done the research, but it seems counter-productive to eat the exercised calories. I guess the assumption is you are eating less calories than you normally would therefore you should see the weight loss. I personally dont' eat "extra" just because I have exercised unless it is a special occassion or "treat".

cersela

I have not done the research, but it seems counter-productive to eat the exercised calories. I guess the assumption is you are eating less calories than you normally would therefore you should see the weight loss. I personally dont' eat "extra" just because I have exercised unless it is a special occassion or "treat".

I have been trying to start eating mine back. The logic is your target calories are already reduced to what you need to lose weight, and exercise is not taken into account. So on days you burn a lot from exercising you have created a greater calorie deficit than you need for your week's target weight loss.

bcampbell54

I have not done the research, but it seems counter-productive to eat the exercised calories. I guess the assumption is you are eating less calories than you normally would therefore you should see the weight loss. I personally dont' eat "extra" just because I have exercised unless it is a special occassion or "treat".

Please search the forums for more information on this. The calorie deficit is built into the MFP suggested calorie program; so you can, and some say should, eat back your exercise calories.

rebrcca3434

Well I am trying for 500 cal in exercise and stopped eating exercise cals mostly because weight loss is a bit stalled. But maybe I should be w/o more if calculator is double counting cals.....

scgbball

Basically MFP takes the math out of the equation for you. If you are trying to lose 1 lb a week, MFP takes out 500 calories a day. Most people try to cut calories based on diet AND exercise. So basically, you're just cutting it from your diet here on MFP. That's why it's not detrimental to eat back your exercise calories. I know it seems weird and counterproductive to eat back everything you exercise, but you will still lose if you do. With that said, I try not to eat back all my exercise calories. I use it as a cushion.

lollilady

hi i invested in a fitbit and its worth every penny i eat my daily allowance of calories and log all my exercise on the fitbit site that way im not tempted to eat my exercise calories but they do say u need to burn off as many cals as u eat

onikonor

Well I am trying for 500 cal in exercise and stopped eating exercise cals mostly because weight loss is a bit stalled. But maybe I should be w/o more if calculator is double counting cals.....

It's hardly double counting.

First if you are using MFP instead of HRM, you are most likely already overestimating calories.
If you using HRM or elliptical, then the difference between gross would be, for example, 330 gross vs 290 net exercise calories in 45 minutes)

PaveGurl

Well I am trying for 500 cal in exercise and stopped eating exercise cals mostly because weight loss is a bit stalled. But maybe I should be w/o more if calculator is double counting cals.....

You probably should - you may be too far under your BMR to lose effectively - I had to increase from my MFP reccs 'cos I wasn't losing anything. I increased by about 250 cals a day, and started to drop the weight. I just wasn't getting enough fuel, so my body was holding onto every single bit.

Jessel0001

I have to disagree on eating back your calories. I usually burn 1000 or more calories in the gym (according to my Polar FT7) and just last night I had cheat night, I ended up eating half a large pizza, drinking a german beer, and having half a pint of ben and jerry's for desert. After consuming all this on top of my normal "clean" daily diet I was still under my calorie goal of net 1900 which is designed to lose half pound a week.

Before this I was speaking with a nutritionist who told me I was eating too many calories everyday (2700 average) all the while I was always under my MFP calorie goal.

Net calories may work for some but I highly suggest everyone speak with a nutritionist and try to have metabolism test performed to find their personal GROSS calorie goal and stay somewhere between their net and gross goal.

Briko3

Net cals only to lose weight. Like you said, you get an unrealistic sense of what you're doing if you do gross. Just use the BMR calculator on here and divide by 1440 (number of minutes in a day = 24 x 60). That's the calories you burn per minute just being you and not doing ANYTHING. For me that's 1.4 calories per minute. If I go for a 30 minute run, I burn around 500 or so calories, but would have burned 42 sitting on my butt. So net, I burned 452 calories. That's 1 and a half candy bars per week, so it adds up if you're calculating wrong.

mcarter99

As I have been learning more about fitness and nutrition I came across an article discussing gross and net calories. My question is what does the MFP fitness calculator utilize and does anyone use net cals as opposed to gross cals because it seems you may inadvertently overestimating you burn. Also if you eat exercise cals at all this could be detrimental to weight loss?

You came across an article that mentioned 'net calories' elsewhere or here on MFP? I've never heard of 'net calories' before reading here.

onikonor

You came across an article that mentioned 'net calories' elsewhere or here on MFP? I've never heard of 'net calories' before reading here.

I think OP is talking about this article.

http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/articles/net-versus-gross-calorie-burn.aspx

drgndancer

OK, so all of this is based on a combination of factors, several of which MFP tries to estimate. If you're honest in your profile, it's probably pretty good in its estimation. The concepts we're looking at have to do with BMR and TDEE. BMR is essentially the number of calories that your body requires to live. If you have a BMR of 1500 calories then you use roughly that number of calories to sleep, breath, digest the food you eat, and do very little else. MFP takes your BMR and your answer to "how active are you" and tries to estimate your TDEE. That's the number of calories that MFP thinks you burn everyday doing your day to day life, BMR plus the calories burned by your job, getting up to go to the bathroom, etc. It then subtracts a sufficient calories deficit from your estimated TDEE to allow you to lose the amount of weight you want to lose. You'll note that when MFP asks for your activity level, it DOES NOT ask about workouts or trips to the gym. This is because those are entered into MFP separately. You're meant to put your activity level based on your day to day life, not your workouts.

So, I have my MFP setup with a sedentary activity level. I have a desk job, and I spend the vast majority of my day sitting in front of a computer. I also work out 5-6 days a week, running 22-25 miles and doing some weights and other stuff. That doesn't improve my overall activity level. If I got a job as a personal trainer and did exercise all day every day, or I was a construction worker or something, then I could up my daily activity level. Instead I just add my workouts into MFP as discreet calorie buffers. So even if I "eat back" all my exercise cals, I'm still eating a deficit. Why? Because I'm a "sedentary" person. My daily calories assume that I'm sitting on my butt all day. If I don't sit on my butt all day, then those calories are "extra"

if I say to myself, "Self, we're running a lot and doing lots of exercise, we should up our activity level to "active"" then I should probably stop putting those runs into MFP. I'd be (at least partially) double counting those calories. Because I'd be basing my "active" activity level on exercise that I'd also be entering to get calories back.

Long story short, as long as you are being honest about your activity level, and not counting your workouts toward that activity level, then a calories deficit is built into your calorie goal every day. You can feel free to "eat back" your exercise cals, because they are in addition to the calorie deficit you already have built in. You don't *have* to eat them back if you'd prefer not to, you'll just have a bigger deficit. That said, if your calorie goal is already very low (say, because you're trying to lose two pounds per week or something), or you do a very serious workout (something that burns in excess of 750 calories in a sitting) you probably want to eat at least some of them back. You don't want to starve yourself.

Casey45

Long story short, as long as you are being honest about your activity level, and not counting your workouts toward that activity level, then a calories deficit is built into your calorie goal every day. You can feel free to "eat back" your exercise cals, because they are in addition to the calorie deficit you already have built in. You don't *have* to eat them back if you'd prefer not to, you'll just have a bigger deficit. That said, if your calorie goal is already very low (say, because you're trying to lose two pounds per week or something), or you do a very serious workout (something that burns in excess of 750 calories in a sitting) you probably want to eat at least some of them back. You don't want to starve yourself.

Good plain language explaining the MFP approach. I do wish the makers would add a FAQ-like page to do the explaining themselves. And that they would cite the research/science behind the foundations of the calorie goals.

Izzyrb1234

So then, what's the ideal for losing - in a healthy way? Every time I think I get it, I get confused again....Is the idea to get the net as close to zero? Thanks..."