Confused on net calories versus actual calories consumed

honu178
honu178 Posts: 13 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I just started using MFP and I'm confused as to how many calories to eat. I have it set to 1200 calories daily however my question is to do with net calories. For example if I decide to eat 1750 calories but I hit the track and burn 500 calories, that would bring my net calories down to 1250.

So am I supposed to eat 1200 ish calories and work out on top of that? OR am I supposed to eat more calories if I work out more? I'm confused...In the past I have always eaten 1200-1500 calories and exercised on top of that. Someone please help me understand. Thanks!!

Replies

  • fishgutzy
    fishgutzy Posts: 2,807 Member
    Net is calories consumed minus exercise calories.
    Total calories is net plus exercise calories.
    My Net calories chart is pretty wacky because I often can't eat back the excise calories.
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
    If you are following MFP the way it was designed to work, you're supposed to eat those extra calories burned when working out.

    When you set up MFP, it asks for your normal daily activity level - not including any extra exercise you do in planned workouts. It then gives you a calorie goal based on that activity level. If you then never do any extra exercise, you are still eating at a calorie deficit and should still lose weight. It gives you that goal based on the assumption that any additional exercise you do, you will log and eat back those calories. An alternative way of working out your calorie goal would be to include planned exercise in your activity level when setting up (similar to what many online calculators will do). You would then not need to log exercise and eat back those calories because the exercise would already be accounted for in the (higher) calorie goal. Some people choose not to account for their exercise at all, because they wish to make a bigger calorie deficit than is recommended by MFP. With only about 20 lbs to lose, I wouldn't recommend that. Bigger calorie deficits are more sustainable for people who are obese and have large fat stores.

    If you are logging exercise and using the MFP database to calculate burns - bear in mind that the database can be very inaccurate. For this reason, a lot of people choose to only eat back a certain percentage of their exercise calories.
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    This is the way this site works:

    - You enter your statistics and how fast you want to lose weight. The site calculates a caloric budget for you. If you eat that budget, in theory, you will lose weight at the pace you chose. Real life is less pure than theory, and the math is based on averages and estimates, but by and large it works out pretty well for most.

    - If you choose to exercise, you are burning more calories in a day than MFP has accounted for. You have also burned off more nutrients than MFP has accounted for. So the idea is to increase your healthy, balanced caloric intake to offset the calories you burned off, so you are getting all the nutrition your body needs to continue losing weight at a healthy pace.

    The basic theory is that you eat at a modest deficit to lose weight, and you exercise to get stronger and increase stamina.

    The risk of using exercise to accelerate weight loss is that you might not be getting all the nutrition you need, especially vitamins and minerals, and particularly protein. If you start starving the body of calories at a low deficit, and if you exercise and eat well, your body will burn mostly fat as you lose weight. Try to accelerate that, and don't give your body enough protein, and your body will start going into protein reserves to get what it needs. Those reserves are called "muscles". You want to avoid losing muscle as much as possible.
  • honu178
    honu178 Posts: 13 Member
    Thanks all...I set it on sedentary since I do work a 9-5 desk job and I sit in a desk afterwards for school. I will eat more when I work out. Everyone who contributed, thank you so much!!
  • honu178
    honu178 Posts: 13 Member
    I also wanted to add that in the past when I had personal trainers/worked out on my own I would still eat 1200-1500 calories and burn 500-1000 calories a day. This must have been why I was so fatigued. My weight wouldn't change too much though. Could creating such a big deficit contributed to me not reaching my body fat/weight loss goals?

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