cal/net cal confusion!

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LiviLouLou
LiviLouLou Posts: 15
in Food and Nutrition
hi everyone
I only just got MFP so am a bit confused about the net cals. I set my daily cal intake at 1250. I workout 4-5 x a week for 1-2 hours. Today for example, I worked out and burnt 536cals.
'i wasn;t monitoring my food as closely as i should have been and at the end of the day saw I had consumed 1338 cals. (That is the number under where it says 'food') but it says i still have 398 to consume and a net of 852.. So should I be aiming for 1250cals NET exercise or not? or can i eat more the days i am not exercising? If on the days I exercise (say I burn off 500 cals) why am i allowed to eat those back? surely the point of exercise is to burn off more than what you eat?
I guess very simply my question is should I aim for 1250 cals under where it says "food" or under where it says "net"..hope this make sense. thanks for anyones help.

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  • tabi26
    tabi26 Posts: 535 Member
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    You should net 1250. MFP already gave you a deficit depending on the goal you set (lose .5, 1, 1.5, 2 pounds/week). The deficit is built in so you can eat back those exercise calories.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    MFP sets your goal so you lose your desired amount of pounds per week just by restricting your food intake alone. It does not assume you will exercise. Then when you DO exercise, you need to eat more for fuel for those activities. Your Net cals should be no lower than 1200.

    Now, that said, some people assume that the exercise cal estimates are inflated so they only eat partial of those back.

    A less confusing way to do it is find out your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and eat 20% less than that all the time, then there is no confusion about how much to eat every day, it doesn't fluctuate from day to day depending on what exercise you log.

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