Can someone explain the NET cals thing to me?

SillaWinchester
SillaWinchester Posts: 363 Member
edited January 28 in Health and Weight Loss
Its 6 P.M. I have 561 calories left and my net is at 1099... I'm full. Should I eat later? Do I NEED to eat? I heard having a net below 1,200 is bad.. HELP!

A few friends have tried to explain the net cal thing to me but I just don't get it.

I'd prefer not to eat ALL the calories I burned.

Do the net cals help you figure out if you'll lose weight?

Thanks in advance to anyone who helps out.

(Just in case extra info is needed, I'm a 19 year old female. I'm 5'7. My weight is currently 211.)

Replies

  • 55in13
    55in13 Posts: 1,091 Member
    "Net" is when you take the estimate of how many calories you burned and subtract it from the estimated number of calories you burned. One line of thinking is that this rough estimate is what you should be trying to adjust by eating and/or working out to hit the number of calories for the day as your diet goal. It does work for a lot of people, but it is not the only way and the other methods are not doomed to failure.

    1200 calories is the minimum amount recommended by dietitians because it is not difficult to get the proper mix of nutrients in a carefully constructed diet at that level. It has nothing to do with "net" calories. What you burn in day minus what you eat is your deficit. Your body fat can provide 31.4 calories per pound per day toward the deficit. Take your weight and your BF% to compute how much you have, multiply by 31.4 and you will get the maximum deficit your fat stores can support. After that it will come from lean body mass and you don't want that. Some will come from LBM even before that, but that can't be helped.

    Some people refer to diets at or below 1200 as Very Low Calorie, VLC or VLCD. That is not correct. Dietitians use numbers in the 500-700 range as VLCD and they do sometimes recommend that for short periods for the very obese, but not without medical supervision.

    Anyway, whatever is easiest for you to understand and implement to make sure you get a reasonable deficit will cause you to lose weight.
  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
    Yes, you are technically supposed to eat them back. One day of not eating them back won't hurt, but to do it on a regular basis would mean not enough nutrition for your body. Basically, mfp has you set up on a deficit and gives you a calorie goal. Exercise on top of that gives you extra calories to eat to net the calorie goal and leave the same deficit. Did you set your goals to lose 2 lbs a week? Then you have a 500 calorie deficit a day. If you set up your goals to lose less, than your deficit is less and not eating ALL of the calories back won't be as bad as if you had 500 deficit to start with. This all changes a little if you are morbidly obese, because you have more fat stores to use for energy and it is ok to have a larger deficit. Clear as mud, right?
  • Denjo060
    Denjo060 Posts: 1,008
    Im sorry I cant help but 55in13 thanks for that info :)
  • 55in13
    55in13 Posts: 1,091 Member
    Yes, you are technically supposed to eat them back. One day of not eating them back won't hurt, but to do it on a regular basis would mean not enough nutrition for your body. Basically, mfp has you set up on a deficit and gives you a calorie goal. Exercise on top of that gives you extra calories to eat to net the calorie goal and leave the same deficit. Did you set your goals to lose 2 lbs a week? Then you have a 500 calorie deficit a day. If you set up your goals to lose less, than your deficit is less and not eating ALL of the calories back won't be as bad as if you had 500 deficit to start with. This all changes a little if you are morbidly obese, because you have more fat stores to use for energy and it is ok to have a larger deficit. Clear as mud, right?
    Actually, 2 lbs a week gives you a 1000 calorie deficit. And only if you happen to be following a particular school of thought should you bother using the two estimates to come up with a third. There is no "technically supposed to" about whether you do this or not.
  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
    Yeah, sorry a 500 calorie deficit is to lose 1lb/wk and 1000 for 2lb/wk. I meant "technically" because it is the way mfp is set up. Many people do something different. IDK, it worked for me:) Good luck.
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