Confused about Net Calories and Calories Consumed

sweetgrasswoman
sweetgrasswoman Posts: 99 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Its my 5th day- Under Report in Net Calories consumed I'm about 1500 under, Calories Consumed is at 1800 is it because of exercise? someone please explain! Im about 189 lbs 5"4 and tryna lose 50 lbs by spring....should I be exercising more and eating less? I do not want to starve myself LOL

Replies

  • postrockandcats
    postrockandcats Posts: 1,145 Member
    Yes, it's because of exercise. When you add exercise, it MFP "gives" you calories back. The idea is that you eat your net calories.

    Some people do, some people don't. I do :)
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
    I do too and have lost my pound a week every week since May.

    Focus on your net. If you're under your goal a bit on net but eat your goal calories that's fine. Eating exercise calories back makes keeping weight loss off long term much more sustainable, and that's what you really want.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
    Eating exercise back is great if you know for sure what you burned and you know for sure that what you logged as eaten was exact. When you're in the process of losing a lot of weight you can get away with some differences because in general you're probably eating a lot less than you did before anyway. When you get to maintenance it's a much finer line to walk so getting used to not eating everything you can find from exercise is a good idea.
  • AliciaStinger
    AliciaStinger Posts: 402 Member
    So here's the deal:

    Let's say (using the numbers you gave) that you ate 1800 calories. That is "calories consumed." No matter how much you work out, you still ate 1800 calories worth of food. However, if you work out and burn off 300 calories (good job!), then your net calories will be 1500 because you burned off some of what you ate. Consumed calories - calories burned = net calories.

    Also, from what I've learned from the Internet and other MFP users, if you plan to exercise more, you should also eat more. Your body needs the fuel for the exercise, and you need to make sure that you don't NET less than 1200 calories a day. (Again, I'm not an expert - I've been on MFP for two years and I'm still trying to figure out how much I should be eating - but that seems to be what the nutrition-lovers on MFP say.)
  • olliekat3
    olliekat3 Posts: 1,801 Member
    I'm glad someone brought this up, I was sure about this either. Thanks for the info.

    Lynn
  • olliekat3
    olliekat3 Posts: 1,801 Member
    I meant to say "not sure about this either".

    Lynn
  • venustrinity04
    venustrinity04 Posts: 1
    Wow... apparently I knew nothing about net calories because I have only been meeting my target calories of 1200 and I come in waaaaaaaay under that in net calories on a daily basis unless its a cheat day. I thought I should only be eating my 1200 and my exercise just made me that much closer to losing weight. Now I know I can eat a little bit more in food after reading these blogs. I have been using my fitness pal for 4 weeks I should have researched back then what everything meant I guess.

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