what are net calories? help me!

tyleia000
tyleia000 Posts: 15
in Health and Weight Loss
i have no clue what the net calories are.. im no longer losing weight and i know that i should eat exactly 1200 cals a day to maintain my weight. which myfitnesspal tells me to consume that amount as well. okay so im starting to lower my caplrie burn tomorrow since im just maintaining my weight. so ill probably be burning about ehh 300-400 at the most daily. so lets say i burn 300 tomorrpw and i log that in on myfitnesspal. itll then say i have 1500 to consume. well wouldnt i just eat 1200 like it said before i added my burnt calories and leave the 300 i burnt on the calorie goal?? im not understand the net calories. and i need to know what do. would i eat the whole 1500 it puts on there from my exercising? because wouldnt that take away the calories i burned for that day? or would i still have burned them? im not wanting to put my weight back on so i wouldnt understand why id eat all 1500 if it said to eat 1200. help me someone please!

Replies

  • vikkiitoria
    vikkiitoria Posts: 110 Member
    I've just had this explained me to maybe like 10 minutes ago, I was also very confused about this (and maybe still am a bit) but basically I have a calorie goal of 1200. if I burn lets say 200 I am allowed to eat 1400 calories because I need to eat my calories back. If you go into my posts you'll see it explained a little bit better by others :) but I'd love to know how you to lost the weight I've been struggling!
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    The way MFP is designed, is so that you don't have to exercise to lose weight. Your net should match your goal.

    Example:

    On a normal day without exercise you burn 2200 calories. So to maintain your weight you need to eat a net of 2200 calories if you decide to exercise just to maintain your weight. You want to lose 2lbs a week, so MFP gives you a goal of 1200 cals a day.

    Maintain: 2200
    MFP Goal: 1200
    Exercise: 300
    You Eat: 1200
    Net: 900
    Deficit: 1300 calories

    Netting extremely low calories for a prolonged period of time can slow your metabolism eventually (I say eventually, because your body will adapt to the low calorie intake, but how long that takes will vary from person to person) or you could:

    Maintain: 2200
    MFP Goal: 1200
    Exercise: 300
    You Eat: 1500
    Net: 1200
    Deficit: 1000 calories

    This gives you the benefits of your exercise health wise and you're still at a deficit so you will still lose weight.
  • tyleia000
    tyleia000 Posts: 15
    thank you ill go look! i just though that eating the calories back that i burnt through exercise would just take them away and that would mean i actually didnt burn anything.. i dont get it.. and for a while i only ate like 600-700 worth of cals a day. and i burnt up to 500-600 a day. i had no idea it was bad for me to eat that less until recently. all i did was cardio everyday. ive always been athletic though. plus, im vegetarian. i also eat NO fast food. i eat mostly fresh produce. and i go out to a fancy restaurant once a week with my boyfriend. but no im just trying to maintain my weight and trying to understand net calories. ive gone this long without knowing i was eating too less and without knowing anything about net calories..
  • vikkiitoria
    vikkiitoria Posts: 110 Member
    May I ask where you're getting this 2200 from? (Like is a bmi, bmr they all confuse me) I know it was an example but I'd like to figure mine out and figure out my deficit. and 1200 wouldn't slow down your metabolism would it? But very well explained :wink:
  • tyleia000
    tyleia000 Posts: 15
    yes id like to know to. i did my calculations and it said since im 5'5 and weigh 100 lbs that to maintain my weight i should eat 1200 a day. so im still confused! why would i eat the calories i earned back through exercising? wouldnt that just take away those calories causing me to eat more than i should? and make me gain my weight back? please please explain.. maybe im just not understanding.. :/
  • tyleia000
    tyleia000 Posts: 15
    also i just want to maintain my weight now. im not losing more weight..
  • dynamitegalxo
    dynamitegalxo Posts: 299 Member
    ok, if you eat 1200 and then burn 300, if you don't eat those 300 calories back, you're going to lose weight.

    here's what happens. 1200 calories of food - 300 calories burned from exercise = only 900 calories a day for your body to live on. if you're not trying to lose weight, you need to eat all of the calories you burned off with exercise. that will basically leave your body even at the end of the day. you ate what you burned, so it keeps your body even. i understand how that might make you think 'ok well then what's the point of working out?' but exercise is good for your body and will keep you healthy. so just eat back the calories you burned and then you'll not only stay the same weight but be stronger and healthier in the process.

    here's another example. if you eat say, 700 calories a day, and then burn 600 off in the gym with cardio, that's only leaving your body 100 calories to live on for the whole day! which is hardly anything. so when you work out, you need to eat back the calories you burned off so your body has enough energy to keep you going and you don't start burning your muscles for energy. if you're not trying to lose weight, the calories you burn at the gym and then eat back cancel each other out so all you do is get the benefits of the exercise.

    eat 1200, burn 300, eat 300 back, your body has 1200 to live off for the day.

    does that make sense? i hope i helped!
  • vikkiitoria
    vikkiitoria Posts: 110 Member
    And what if you're trying to lose and not maintain?
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    May I ask where you're getting this 2200 from? (Like is a bmi, bmr they all confuse me) I know it was an example but I'd like to figure mine out and figure out my deficit. and 1200 wouldn't slow down your metabolism would it? But very well explained :wink:

    It's all estimates really. MFP gives an estimate based on your age, weight, and daily activity (might take height into consideration, not sure). So for me, MFP says through normal activity I burn about 2230 from normal activity (exercise not included). My fitbit on the other hand says I'm burning about 2251 (exercise included), but I've only had it for 3 days and it will adjust as it collects more data.


    So I have my goal set to 1695 on MFP and eat my exercise calories back. I've been losing at a steady (although rapid, might need to increase my goal) rate of a little over 2lbs a week since Feb. I have a lot to lose though, so for me 2lbs a week is easily doable.
  • jzammetti
    jzammetti Posts: 1,956 Member
    maintenenace is 1200? I highly doubt that... Are you sure you calculated correctly?
  • MysticRealm
    MysticRealm Posts: 1,264 Member
    Unless you never get out of bed and even just walk to the bathroom you will not maintain your weight on 1200. Your BMR (calories you would use in a coma) is 1271 or so, your TDEE (takes into account exercising 3-5 days a week as a guestimate) is 1970 or so. THIS is what should maintain you weight (though you may have to build up to it if you have wrecked your metabolism eating way below calories). To lose weight you should eat about 1576 or so.
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
  • dynamitegalxo
    dynamitegalxo Posts: 299 Member
    And what if you're trying to lose and not maintain?

    go to this link and fill out the information. it will give you a chart with different activity levels, pick the one that's closest to what yours is and eat those calories.

    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/
  • blwenz
    blwenz Posts: 16
    I'll try and explain it like this. Your body whether you exercise or not burns Calories, from the time you get up in the morning to the time you go to bed at night, and yes, even when you are sleeping, your body burns calories. simply from breathing. The amount of activity determines how many you burn. MFP, going by your height and weight determines an average of how many calories you burn a day from just normal everyday activity. for you, its 1200 calories just from normal activity throughout the day, so your body needs that many calories to maintain your weight. If you exercised today, then it is most likely that the amount of calories you burn will be higher than 1200, so if you only consume 1200 calories, and you exercise and burn say 300 calories, then your body will most likely use 1500 calories, so it will have to get those 300 calories from somewhere else, either from fat on your body, or muscle, or combination of the 2 and you will lose weight. So if you want to maintain your weight, then you need to eat back those 300 calories. I hope that this helps
  • vikkiitoria
    vikkiitoria Posts: 110 Member
    It says that my bmr is 1617. So that's how much I'm supposed to be eating? I eat that much daily and I'm
    Still over weight, so would 1200 be unhealthy?
  • tyleia000
    tyleia000 Posts: 15
    thank you BLWENZ. that makes more sense. and another question (no, my metabolism still works perfectly fine) anyways since i was eating 700-800, which i have built my way back up to that this past week just to make, well since i wanna go to eating at least 1200 like im supposed to eat to maintain my weight, will that make me gain weight? im scared of that especially that ive worked so hard to lose 40 pounds. so will i gain weight back by doing this? :(
  • MysticRealm
    MysticRealm Posts: 1,264 Member
    If you read my post, you should not be able to maintain weight on only 1200 calories a day, as your TDEE is a good 1900 calories. You SHOULD be able to eat 1900 calories to maintain, but since you have eaten at such a severe calorie deficit you body's metabolism may need to reset to where it should truly be. Try to raise your cals by 100 a week, till you get to about 1900 calories then you can fiddle slightly up or down. You probably WILL gain some weight at first as you bring your calorie intake up to a more normal proper range, however give it a couple months and it should hopefully fix your metabolism and level off.

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