HELP!! Im confused!! Net Calories??

Soooo I was looking at this net calorie thing and most days im around 400 ish.... but i was really really sick and couldnt eat anything and it got down to -200... Im not exactly sure what is a healthy net calorie... When i work out i (2 times a day usually) I burn from 700-1100 calories a day and I am a waitress a good 9 to 10 hours a day (heavy trays, busing tables,...) My main goal it to be healthy right now because of some medical issues and I just want to know if I am achieving that or not... Help?!

Some will say your net calories should be 1200 (as a women, some will say your BMR should be your net). I personally don't worry about net and here is why. I include my exercise and work into my TDEE calculation (I am moderately active as oppose to sedentary). This assumes my calorie deficit over a weeks time period.

Now for you, make sure you have your account set up to at least lightly to moderately active since you are a waitress and then eat back some of your exercise calories or set it up as very active and don't sweat exercise net calories.

Ok, my main advice would be go onto this calculator http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced and work out your TDEE - that's the total amount of calories you BURN in a day, from keeping your organs going, working out, and working (waitressing's hard work, so I bet you'll have a very high TDEE!!)

Then we need to work out how many cals you should eat to lose weight. Most experts recommend eating about 15-20% below your TDEE (no more, and CERTAINLY not netting 400!)

So, for example, my TDEE is around 1780 - I'm short and lazy :P - so I aim for 1300-1400 calories eaten per day.

So:
- work out your TDEE
- work out what 20% of your TDEE is (the number, divided by 100, then multiply the result you get by 15. That's 15% of your TDEE - subtract it from your TDEE, and that's the cals you should be eating )
- go into goals in mfp and custom alter them, enter your calorie goal to whatever you have figured out you should be eating. Now aim for that, and don't worry about logging excersize - if you still want to, DONT eat back excersize cals.

Good luck! This is what I did and it work soooo much better for me than following the guidlines mfp set for me did.

Thanks! I did that TDEE thingie it was pretty high! I think i need to eat more though...

As a point of reference, I know 5'2", 120 women who do programs like insanity that require 2200 calories a day to cut fat. Gotta fuel the machine.