Net Calories - How little is too little?

susanmarnold
susanmarnold Posts: 142
in Food and Nutrition
I typically eat around 1600 calories each day. However, my exercise burn is typically between 500-900 calories a day (use a Fitbit and HRM to calculate... so they are accurate). So, my net calories can go as low as even 600-700 calories some days. I don't eat my exercise calories ever. I have not hit a plateau yet but sometimes I worry that my net is too low. Just looking to hear what others thoughts are on where the net should bottom out at.

I will go open my diary now if that helps any!

Thanks!

Replies

  • PurpleTina
    PurpleTina Posts: 390 Member
    I'm sure everyone will have different ideas, but I recently increased the amount of exercise that I do again, and my net calories went down to about 1200. Weight loss promptly stalled. I upped my food intake and the weight is coming off again. I don't think that net calories of 6-700 is either healthy or sustainable, you need to fuel all that exercise.
  • chljlleal
    chljlleal Posts: 229 Member
    I'm sure everyone will have different ideas, but I recently increased the amount of exercise that I do again, and my net calories went down to about 1200. Weight loss promptly stalled. I upped my food intake and the weight is coming off again. I don't think that net calories of 6-700 is either healthy or sustainable, you need to fuel all that exercise.

    This!
  • RachelBiancaxx
    RachelBiancaxx Posts: 62 Member
    Everyone is going to say 'net 1200 at a minimum' xx
  • DebbieLyn63
    DebbieLyn63 Posts: 2,654 Member
    Be sure you deduct your TDEE rate from your calorie burns to get your 'net' calorie burn. And at 1600, it sounds like you are doing the TDEE way of calorie deficit so then you wouldn't add exercise cals back. If you were only eating 1200, then there might be some concern, but since you are not plateauing, and if you are having plenty of energy to do your workouts, I wouldn't worry about upping your cals. Also, if you have lost weight, then your BMR may have dropped as well.

    I'd say not to worry about it.
  • twelfty
    twelfty Posts: 576 Member
    i've known a couple of over weight people requiring surgery and been on diets this intensive.... the gastric band is minimal calories, i think if it loses you weight quickly and you're doing well it's always good, a good idea (imo) would be to take a multi vitamin every now and then to keep your imune system up and keep on attacking it, when you get to a point where you feel the need to eat more then maybe think about increasing to a higher amount, your body (not your mind v.important) will tell you when you need to eat, aslong as you decide how much that is and what it is you should listen to it.
  • ladymiseryali
    ladymiseryali Posts: 2,555 Member
    From what I hear, 1200 is the minimum net one should have .
  • susanmarnold
    susanmarnold Posts: 142
    Thanks for the responses. I think I will need to do a little research into it. I do think 6-700 is too low for a daily net. I wonder if 1200 will be too high as a net when I have burned a ton... ie: eating 2000+ on those days. I think I would have a hard time eating 2000 plus calories. (ETA: both mentally and physically hard to eat 2000+ calories!)
  • ourglasswalls
    ourglasswalls Posts: 44 Member
    netting 1200 calories will never be too low. If you have a hard time getting 2000+ calories in healthy foods try nuts or cooking in olive oil. Adding any good fat will do.
  • da_bears10089
    da_bears10089 Posts: 1,791 Member
    I eat roughly 2000-2200 calories a day. You need to figure out your TDEE and eat at about 15% under that number. I hear the excuse all of the time of "i'm so full when i eat 1200, i don't know if i could eat anymore" and it's a load of crap. None of us, myself included, got overweight from eating 2000 calories a day. We all ate FAR MORE than that in order to gain as much weight as we have. Losing weight doesn't mean you need to go on a diet of veggies and chicken and that's it. You can still eat everything you did in the past, but just be more aware of how much of everything you are eating. If you restrict yourself too much, then losing weight is going to be flat out miserable.
  • sozisfitnow
    sozisfitnow Posts: 209 Member
    After 2 weeks on a very low calorie diet it is a good idea to increase calories to loose fat not muscle or other body tissue from organs. This is because the body holds onto fat by this time for dear life!
    Even with a fitbit, calories burned are still an estimate so if weight loss is the goal then never eat all of them!!!
    I would however eat more and more of them as you progress, because you dont want your body to adjust to only needing a
    very frugal diet to maintain in the end. who wants to live on Victoria Beckhams starvation diet? Not me and I wouldnt wish it
    on you.

    best of luck!
  • susanmarnold
    susanmarnold Posts: 142
    Oh and I do track my BF% and have maintained the same amount of muscle. Ie: percentage has gone down and fat has but not muscle mass.
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
    There's two issues when it comes to low calorie dieting:

    1) nutrient availability
    2) energy (calorie) availability

    With regard to 1 you can certainly cover that off on 1,600 calories. I would suggest eating a little more protein though (protein requirements go up when dieting so 0.8 - 1g per 1lb of lean body weight is a good starting point.

    2) is where things get tricky for you even if you have dealt with 1).

    Over time if you do not provide your body with enough energy calorie wise your metabolic rate will slow down greater than that which could be expected with lower body weight. You may not perceive this to be the case but it usually happens and often leads to weight loss stalling.

    There are a number of ways around this. Have one or two high calorie days per week. Alternatively, have a diet break every 3 months or so where you eat at maintenance for a few weeks. Alternatively eat back a % of your exercise calories per day (say 50% or so.

    The real issue is using this kind of approach as a long term strategy rather than a short term solution.
  • susanmarnold
    susanmarnold Posts: 142
    Is a NET of 1200 usually a consensus amongst the community? I am really just trying to decide it intake or net is really what matters. I wouldn't go 1200 for intake ever.
  • susanmarnold
    susanmarnold Posts: 142
    There's two issues when it comes to low calorie dieting:

    1) nutrient availability
    2) energy (calorie) availability

    With regard to 1 you can certainly cover that off on 1,600 calories. I would suggest eating a little more protein though (protein requirements go up when dieting so 0.8 - 1g per 1lb of lean body weight is a good starting point.

    2) is where things get tricky for you even if you have dealt with 1).

    Over time if you do not provide your body with enough energy calorie wise your metabolic rate will slow down greater than that which could be expected with lower body weight. You may not perceive this to be the case but it usually happens and often leads to weight loss stalling.

    There are a number of ways around this. Have one or two high calorie days per week. Alternatively, have a diet break every 3 months or so where you eat at maintenance for a few weeks. Alternatively eat back a % of your exercise calories per day (say 50% or so.

    The real issue is using this kind of approach as a long term strategy rather than a short term solution.

    Thank you! This is the info I was trying to get out of my poorly worded question!!!! I am trying to work on upping my protein to 100 g. Some days are better than others with it.
  • DebbieLyn63
    DebbieLyn63 Posts: 2,654 Member
    I eat roughly 2000-2200 calories a day. You need to figure out your TDEE and eat at about 15% under that number. I hear the excuse all of the time of "i'm so full when i eat 1200, i don't know if i could eat anymore" and it's a load of crap. None of us, myself included, got overweight from eating 2000 calories a day. We all ate FAR MORE than that in order to gain as much weight as we have. Losing weight doesn't mean you need to go on a diet of veggies and chicken and that's it. You can still eat everything you did in the past, but just be more aware of how much of everything you are eating. If you restrict yourself too much, then losing weight is going to be flat out miserable.

    This thinking is a great misconception for many people. It is quite common for people who are overweight, short, older, hormone imbalances, sedentary, etc to have TDEEs of much lower than 2000 calories a day.

    Just because you can lose weight eating 2000 cals a day, doesn't mean that everyone can.

    My TDEE is between 1600-1700. It was much less than that when I was even more immobile than I am now. Simply eating 100 cals a day over TDEE can add 10 pounds a year to your weight. In 10 yrs, that is 100 pounds overweight.

    This is why we really need to know what our ACTUAL TDEE number is, not just what a calculator tells us it is.
  • wibutterflymagic
    wibutterflymagic Posts: 788 Member
    Personally I would never allow myself to go under 1100-1200.
  • da_bears10089
    da_bears10089 Posts: 1,791 Member
    I eat roughly 2000-2200 calories a day. You need to figure out your TDEE and eat at about 15% under that number. I hear the excuse all of the time of "i'm so full when i eat 1200, i don't know if i could eat anymore" and it's a load of crap. None of us, myself included, got overweight from eating 2000 calories a day. We all ate FAR MORE than that in order to gain as much weight as we have. Losing weight doesn't mean you need to go on a diet of veggies and chicken and that's it. You can still eat everything you did in the past, but just be more aware of how much of everything you are eating. If you restrict yourself too much, then losing weight is going to be flat out miserable.

    This thinking is a great misconception for many people. It is quite common for people who are overweight, short, older, hormone imbalances, sedentary, etc to have TDEEs of much lower than 2000 calories a day.

    Just because you can lose weight eating 2000 cals a day, doesn't mean that everyone can.

    My TDEE is between 1600-1700. It was much less than that when I was even more immobile than I am now. Simply eating 100 cals a day over TDEE can add 10 pounds a year to your weight. In 10 yrs, that is 100 pounds overweight.

    This is why we really need to know what our ACTUAL TDEE number is, not just what a calculator tells us it is.

    Which is exactly why i said that she needed to figure out her TDEE. My TDEE is over 2300, so i used 2000 as an example.
  • gemmaleigh1989
    gemmaleigh1989 Posts: 241 Member
    I was netting at 800 most days or even less because I couldn't bring myself to eat back exercise calories. Fat loss had slowed down to almost a stop. I bit the bullet and consistently ate back my exercise calories so I was netting at 1100-1200 and it started falling off again :) (my bmr is 1200 as I'm only small so netting at 1100 most days doesn't affect me, only in positive ways!)
  • susanmarnold
    susanmarnold Posts: 142
    I used a calculator to figure out my TDEE (don't know how to calculate any other way) and it came out to 2,100. So I feel comfortable with an intake of 1,600 but think I need to up it on my big workout days. I guess I am just trying to wrap my head around the idea of eating my exercise calories. I was always under the impression that not doing so was the good way to lose weight!
  • gemmaleigh1989
    gemmaleigh1989 Posts: 241 Member
    You have probably heard about why you shouldn't eat below 1200 calories and the same applies if you eat 1200 and then burn off more during exercise. Your goal should be for your NET calories to be at the minimum, 1200 a day.

    Some people think that then defeats the purpose of exercise. Why exercise if you just eat back those calories burned? Why exercise if your calories are going to end up the same as days where you don't exercise? (if you eat 1200 a day). You may as well not exercise then right? Wrong. There are more benefits to exercise than calorie burn and getting to eat more. Fitness, cardiovascular health, and it changes your body composition. Strong is the new skinny ;)
  • da_bears10089
    da_bears10089 Posts: 1,791 Member
    Since you figured out your TDEE, which includes your exercise, then you don't have to eat back your calories, AS LONG as you don't go less than 20% under your TDEE. The recommeneded reduction is 15% under TDEE, but so if you would meet in the middle and shoot for 1700 a day, then you won't have to worry about that dilemma.

    Edit: And like you said, if you are going to have a crazier than usual workout, add a couple hundred more to compensate.

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