Net Calories vs Calorie Goal ?

ell5bell5
ell5bell5 Posts: 38 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi ! Just a real slight bit of advice needed really. I think I know the answer...I've read up on it, but I can be a bit slow and would just like a bit of reassureance in simple terms if that's ok....

Basically.... I've been given a 1200 cals goal per day. Now is this just what I can eat or not ? I generally do eat 1200, but say for example I burn 400 by doing excecise , should I then be eating 1600 that day to make my net calories 1200?

And if I didn't would that class as going into starvation mode ?

I'd started off thinking I should only eat 1200 regardless of excersise. But now I'm not too sure. Now I think the 1200 is the net calories (so intake -food = net calories ?) Is this right ?

I guess by not reaching the net I would then be at risk of not loosing and also putting myself into starvation. Which is something I don't want to do.

Thanks for reading /the help !


Edit. I've just looked at the BMR calculator, it gives me a total of 1317 .... So I'm really doing this wrong? What on earth shound my net calories be ?!

Replies

  • chantey16
    chantey16 Posts: 27 Member
    yes you're correct :) your net cals must be AT LEAST 1200 :)
  • babsmoran
    babsmoran Posts: 29
    Wow great question! I'm kind of new to this and didn't realize I should be eating those extra calories! Thanks for the info!!
  • ell5bell5
    ell5bell5 Posts: 38 Member
    Ahh that does make more sence. Thanks for the advice It will be the end of my 3rd week tomorrow ( took me a year to get into this ! ) , and last weigh in I was wondering why the loss was so little - I'm not expecting huge amounts and at least it was in the right direction , but , maybe I wasn't eating enough.

    I will try and now make sure my net it at least between 1200 and 1317 if that's my bmr .
  • chantey16
    chantey16 Posts: 27 Member
    if your bmr is 1317...you should really net that. 1200 is the amount a very short, small framed elderly woman would need to be healthy. i know a lot of people are stuck on jumping straight into 1200 for some reason...but imagine, everyone reaches a plateau at some point, and to get over this...you may have to drop your calories. if you are already on 1200 - there is nowhere to drop to because it is dangerous to eat below that. so my advice would be to eat as much as you can to lose weight and slowly drop down as you lose weight and your bmr gets lower. you said your bmr is 1317, so if you are sedentary, you would burn 1580, so lose about half a pound a week, you should eat at your bmr. if lightly active, you burn 1810, so you could eat around 1450 and lose around 3/4 of a pound a week. if moderately active (exercise 3-5 times a week intensely), your daily burn is 2040, so you could eat 1540 to lose a pound a week, as it seems you are in a rush, but ideally you should eat 1630 to burn almost a pound a week.

    as your bmi is very low, i am assuming you havent got much weight to lose. at this stage, weight loss can be very slow and you should only be having a small deficit.
  • ell5bell5
    ell5bell5 Posts: 38 Member
    I went to 1200 purely because My Fitness Pal told me that's what I needed to have....but actually I'm a bit concerned now its not enough !

    I found a site that also gives me the calories I need to stay at my weight. I'm anywhere between sedentry and lightly active ...I'd go with sedentry. Which gave me 1707
    I walk to work and excersise occasionally , the dog is walked daily. (At lightly active it gave me 1956)

    I am 142 lbs at the moment. Wanting to get between 126 and 133 , which would put me in a healthy BMI range. In no way do I want to be loosing quickly, a pound to a pound and a half a week is ideal.

    I guess I'm just trying to find the ideal amount I should be eating and its going to take some trial and error.like you Said I need to at least net my BMR.

    You've been really helpful. Thankyou :)
  • swilkaitis
    swilkaitis Posts: 3 Member
    I have been struggling with this as well. I'm finding if I don't eat enough, I'm STARVING at bed time, wake up, weigh myself, and have gained back the pound or two lost! It's hard to get into the mentality that you need to eat more :)

    Keeping up with all this is like a full time job sometimes!
  • Ge0rgiana
    Ge0rgiana Posts: 1,649 Member
    Do not eat below your BMR. Eat your exercise calories. Only weigh yourself once a week. The scale going up overnight is fluid. This is normal.
  • eyeshuh
    eyeshuh Posts: 333
    I went to 1200 purely because My Fitness Pal told me that's what I needed to have....but actually I'm a bit concerned now its not enough !

    I found a site that also gives me the calories I need to stay at my weight. I'm anywhere between sedentry and lightly active ...I'd go with sedentry. Which gave me 1707
    I walk to work and excersise occasionally , the dog is walked daily. (At lightly active it gave me 1956)

    I am 142 lbs at the moment. Wanting to get between 126 and 133 , which would put me in a healthy BMI range. In no way do I want to be loosing quickly, a pound to a pound and a half a week is ideal.

    I guess I'm just trying to find the ideal amount I should be eating and its going to take some trial and error.like you Said I need to at least net my BMR.

    You've been really helpful. Thankyou :)

    You set your weight loss goals waaaaaay too high for so few pounds to lose is probably why MFP only gave you 1200. Set your goal to only .5 or 1lb loss a week.
  • punkinkat
    punkinkat Posts: 85 Member
    The MFP app/site tells you what your net calorie consumption is, makes it super simple!

    Food - Exercise = Net calories.

    To eat or not to eat? I don't feel like I'm "eating them back" so much as I feel like working out enables me to eat at a level that feels satisfying, and like it will sustain me. Without a workout, I have to eat less than my fill at dinner, and avoid snacks in order to reach my goal. Usually, I come within 100 cals of my 1200 NET CALS goal.

    Hope this is helpful :)
  • ell5bell5
    ell5bell5 Posts: 38 Member
    So, set my net calorie goal at at least my BMR , of 1317 will be ok ? Because 1200 is too low ?

    Set my weight loss goals around 0.5 to 1lb per week.

    Eat any excercise calories.

    Jobs a good un ?
  • chantey16
    chantey16 Posts: 27 Member
    So, set my net calorie goal at at least my BMR , of 1317 will be ok ? Because 1200 is too low ?

    Set my weight loss goals around 0.5 to 1lb per week.

    Eat any excercise calories.

    Jobs a good un ?

    yup you got it :)

    good luck! i promise you the journey gets much easier when you realise you can actually eat a fair amount and still lose weight :)
  • ell5bell5
    ell5bell5 Posts: 38 Member
    Thanks, 5th weeks starts today with a weigh on loss of just 0.2 lbs which is nothing.

    I can honestly say after 4 weeks of happily eating 1200 cal a day (I've netted at around 1100) I'm really worried about upping this to 1300 net..

    Will it really be ok ? And I should still definetly eat back excersise cals ?

    One more the bmr on MFP and the BMR on the Scooby site both give me quite varying answers.... What's that about ?

    Seriously again. Thankyou everyone for your input , it sounds so silly. I just want to know to do it right before I mess up
  • JAT74
    JAT74 Posts: 1,081 Member
    I am also on my 5th week on here and so far have lost 3lbs. I am 144 lbs now wanting to get to 118.

    I started by manually setting my calories to under 1000 per day and after reading about my BMR/TDEE I increased my calories gradually every few days or so as my BMR is 1450 and TDEE around 1950. I didn't want to eat less than my BMR so have now set my calories to 1500 net.

    I exercise daily and usually burn 300-600 calories per day so I try and make sure to eat back most of my exercise calories so I don't go below my net of 1500.

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