Feel like I speak a different language

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mscote12
mscote12 Posts: 220 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Someone speak to me like I am a 5 year old...lol...
Calorie deficit, net calories, consumed calories, BMR, RMR, TDEE...whaaaat?! I've looked up meanings, but that doesn't tell me what to do with it all....

If I eat 1200 calories a day....work out and burn 300 calories...my net calories are-what and what do I do with them?

Ive read my calorie deficit is already calculated into my daily consumed calories-which for me is 1200....sooo what? Is that good, do I just focus on eating the 1200...

Holy confusing mess...hahaha I have to laugh at myself because I thought I knew what I was doing until I joined MFP yesterday...

Replies

  • gingerjen7
    gingerjen7 Posts: 821 Member
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    If I eat 1200 calories a day....work out and burn 300 calories...my net calories are-what and what do I do with them?
    Your net calories are 900. You don't do anything with them. However, "eat back your exercise calorie" advocates will tell you to then eat an additional 300 calories to bring your net calories back up to 1200 (and they'll also probably tell you to eat more than 1200 calories and say that 1200 is probably too few calories for you).

    You CAN just focus on eating the 1200, and you can exercise or not because you're already at a deficit. Exercise is good for toning and improving the way you look, though.
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
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    Calorie deficit, net calories, consumed calories, BMR, RMR, TDEE...whaaaat?! I've looked up meanings, but that doesn't tell me what to do with it all....

    Calorie deficit - when you eat fewer calories in a day than you burn during that day, you are eating at a caloric deficit.

    Net Calories - used by MFP to be your "baseline" calories, e.g. the absolute minimum that you should eat. So if you burn additional calories by exercising, you should eat more calories in order to still "net" the number of calories MFP gives you.

    Consumed Calories - the calories in the food you eat.

    BMR/RMR - the minimum number of calories that your body uses to stay alive each day. If you were in a coma, this is how many calories you would burn each day to keep your body functioning.

    TDEE - the total number of calories that you have burned in a day. This is what you need to eat less than in order to create the caloric deficit.


    Example - your BMR/RMR is 1400 calories and your average TDEE is 2000 calories. In order to lose 1 lb a week, you will need to eat 1500 calories each day in order to create the proper caloric deficit for that loss schedule. If you then work out, on top of your normal average TDEE, and burn an additional 300 calories, then you can eat those 300 calories back again and still have your 500 calorie deficit to continue losing.
  • vmekash
    vmekash Posts: 422 Member
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    There is a lot of good advice on this site, but often the advice makes things complicated. I don't remember where I picked this up, but here's the way I handle MFP. Very simple.

    Every morning, MFP sets my daily goal w/ a no. of calories. I treat those calories like cash in my wallet, and that cash I have is all that I have to spend (eat), and I should spend (eat) all the cash (calories) each day. To earn more cash (calories for my wallet), I work (exercise) for it. When I earn extra cash (calories), I have more to spend (eat).

    At the end of the day, my net calories should be at zero. And, I don't panic if I slightly overspend and end up w/ negative net cal. It is not that big of a deal.

    I hope this helps.

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