Confused on NET/GROSS calories
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Danni5574
Posts: 3
Hi,
I workout 2 hours a day, and although MFP told me to lose weight efficiently I should be at a 1300 calorie goal, I have been told by numerous people that with an hour of strength training, and an hour or so of cardio that I need to be more in the 1600-1800 calorie range of total daily calories. Now here is my question- when I set my calorie goal for 1600 total calories for the day, then say I burn 800 calories. Now MFP tells me that I am under my calorie goal, and that I need to eat those 800 calories back just to be at my 1600 calorie net goal. Which means, that I take in a total of 2400 calories a day which is NOT optimal to lose weight. So I am confused basically, because it tells me to eat those calories back. Does anyone else have this problem? Do you eat those calories back? Someone told me today to just enter in my calories and workouts, and no matter what MFP says, once I have eaten a TOTAL of 1600 calories, thats it.
I workout 2 hours a day, and although MFP told me to lose weight efficiently I should be at a 1300 calorie goal, I have been told by numerous people that with an hour of strength training, and an hour or so of cardio that I need to be more in the 1600-1800 calorie range of total daily calories. Now here is my question- when I set my calorie goal for 1600 total calories for the day, then say I burn 800 calories. Now MFP tells me that I am under my calorie goal, and that I need to eat those 800 calories back just to be at my 1600 calorie net goal. Which means, that I take in a total of 2400 calories a day which is NOT optimal to lose weight. So I am confused basically, because it tells me to eat those calories back. Does anyone else have this problem? Do you eat those calories back? Someone told me today to just enter in my calories and workouts, and no matter what MFP says, once I have eaten a TOTAL of 1600 calories, thats it.
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Replies
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I'm agreeing with that process (eat your total once) workout may cause it to be negative. I've seen lots of people talk about disregarding the undercalorie messages because it can be misleading. I just stick with the calorie intake and try to eat around that much daily. Hope this helps.0
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I have noticed this problem, too. Just because you workout and burn, say 232 calories, doesn't mean you SHOULD eat 232 more. This is what mine said. Yes, you can eat the 232 to maintain the weight but not lose weight.0
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If you eat 1600 calories & your burn 800 calories .... your net = 800 calories. Your body needs more than this for BASIC bodily functions .... heart, lungs, kidneys, etc. Even comatose people get feeding tubes. A basic minmum for many (not all) women is 1200 net calories.
MFP builds the calorie deficit up front (without exercise). By exercising you are creating a larger deficit. If the calorie deficit is too large your weight loss will stall. If the calorie deficit is too large you may burn off muscle mass along with fat.
One factor to consider ..... are your exercise calorie counts reliable? Are you using a heart rate monitor? Many machines overstate calories burned. Most machines cannot take into account your fitness level. Calories burned for fit people are much lower.0 -
The simplest way to do it is to set your lifestyle factor to account for the regular activity and workouts you do. If you're lightly active or whatever, put that in and just eat the target MFP gives you. Don't add your exercise each time you do it because the lifestyle factor accounts for that.
I set my lifestyle factor as sedentary but then add in each workout and eat all the calories I burn. I do this so I make sure I fuel my running... it's less about weight loss. If you're just focusing on weight loss, set your calorie goal using the lifestyle factor and don't log your exercise.0 -
You want to calculate your BMR and make sure you never eat below that. You are working out hard, you NEED to fuel your body. I only do an hour workout 6x a week and I am eating @ 1700 and still losing. I started out eating the standard 1200 but your body needs more than that, and eating too low also will slow down your metabolism. You also risk losing muscle, not just fat. So eat!0
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This^^ If you don't feel like eating ALL of your exercise calories back, try to have your NET calories be at the very LEAST, 1200. I try to have my net calories be about 1500 at the least, 1800 at most. And definitely get a HRM if you don't have one, it really helps!!If you eat 1600 calories & your burn 800 calories .... your net = 800 calories. Your body needs more than this for BASIC bodily functions .... heart, lungs, kidneys, etc. Even comatose people get feeding tubes. A basic minmum for many (not all) women is 1200 net calories.
MFP builds the calorie deficit up front (without exercise). By exercising you are creating a larger deficit. If the calorie deficit is too large your weight loss will stall. If the calorie deficit is too large you may burn off muscle mass along with fat.
One factor to consider ..... are your exercise calorie counts reliable? Are you using a heart rate monitor? Many machines overstate calories burned. Most machines cannot take into account your fitness level. Calories burned for fit people are much lower.0 -
I have noticed this problem, too. Just because you workout and burn, say 232 calories, doesn't mean you SHOULD eat 232 more. This is what mine said. Yes, you can eat the 232 to maintain the weight but not lose weight.
THIS is not a problem with MFP... it's the way the system is designed. If you are more active (dieting or not) .... you get more calories. That's just the way life works.
The deficit is already built in. MFP ASSUMES you do not exercise. Some people will not / or cannot exercise. Non exercisers will lose weight too - the deficit is still there.
Example: 3500 calories are needed for 1 pound of weight loss. I need a 500 calorie deficit for 7 days to acheive that. I can use a COMBINATION of eating less and/or exercising more to acheive that 500 calories. But if I reduce food intake by 500 AND exercise for another 500 ...... that's a 1,000 calorie deficit. I'm only 15 pounds over weight ......1,000 calories a day is too severe (for me). For larger people 1,000 calories is reasonable.
Think of calories earned from exercise as FUEL. I want to burn away fat .... when I don't eat enough .... I burn muscle too.0 -
I read through all the replies, I really appreciate the feedback! I have lost 34 pounds since starting last August, I started P90X and added in Turbo Fire. I dropped 28 pounds by the first of January...then only 8 pounds since then even though in January I started P90X2. Six weeks ago I started Les Mills Pump, and I walk about 7 miles fast paced 6 days a week. I do use a HR monitor and it counts calories burned, it has a chest strap and watch. I am 5'3 and 168, I have gained quite a bit of muscle tone but unfortunately still have the fat to lose too. I am 23-28 pounds away from my goal but have been in a plateau. I have been told to up my calories that 1600 wasnt enough but this week I got so frustrated I dropped to 1350, which is what MFP suggests for my size, but they dont take into consideration that I lift weights and do cardio...total for the day is anywhere between an hour and 45 mins and 2 hours 15 mins. I was advised that I should have a total daily caloric consumption of about 1800- and that to me just sounds so high for weight loss. But, nothing else seems to be working. So, if I am reading all the posts correctly, what I am reading is that if I set this 1800 calorie goal, it may help because my body is getting all the fuel it needs now, and not going into safe mode (starvation mode) so to speak, and help me to lose weight faster now? And, also-when I say my calorie goal is 1800 TOTAL calories for the day- basically when I get to GROSS 1800 calories, that is ok because that is my daily calorie goal? so I would go by at that point the gross total, instead of the net?0
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I read through all the replies, I really appreciate the feedback! I have lost 34 pounds since starting last August, I started P90X and added in Turbo Fire. I dropped 28 pounds by the first of January...then only 8 pounds since then even though in January I started P90X2. Six weeks ago I started Les Mills Pump, and I walk about 7 miles fast paced 6 days a week. I do use a HR monitor and it counts calories burned, it has a chest strap and watch. I am 5'3 and 168, I have gained quite a bit of muscle tone but unfortunately still have the fat to lose too. I am 23-28 pounds away from my goal but have been in a plateau. I have been told to up my calories that 1600 wasnt enough but this week I got so frustrated I dropped to 1350, which is what MFP suggests for my size, but they dont take into consideration that I lift weights and do cardio...total for the day is anywhere between an hour and 45 mins and 2 hours 15 mins. I was advised that I should have a total daily caloric consumption of about 1800- and that to me just sounds so high for weight loss. But, nothing else seems to be working. So, if I am reading all the posts correctly, what I am reading is that if I set this 1800 calorie goal, it may help because my body is getting all the fuel it needs now, and not going into safe mode (starvation mode) so to speak, and help me to lose weight faster now? And, also-when I say my calorie goal is 1800 TOTAL calories for the day- basically when I get to GROSS 1800 calories, that is ok because that is my daily calorie goal? so I would go by at that point the gross total, instead of the net?
Wow. With all of that you should be eating at least 1800 I'd say.
Here's me: BMR is 1550-ish. My MFP goal is set to 1640 and I burn about 2500-3500/week in exercise. For the most part, I eat all of it. I eat about 2100 calories/day now (net 1640). I have only been on MFP 3 weeks now but I was following Weight Watchers since January. I lost about 14 lbs on WW but knew I wasn't eating enough to really fuel my running. I switched to find out just how much I was eating and burning. In the last 3 weeks of increased intake my losses have been:
Week 1: -1.0 lbs
Week 2: -0.8 lbs
Week 3: -3.0 lbs
And I'm down another pound and a half since Tuesday. No joke. It's melting off me now that I've had a chance to adjust to the higher intake. I also am REALLY paying attention to trying to get over 80g protein (up to 120 - my lean mass is 120 lbs).
Try to eat more and hold out for longer. Give it a month, maybe, at the higher intake. See what happens. I bet you feel amazing after having lost 34 lbs... if you gain 3 or 4 back in the process of boosting your metabolism, it will only be for the better down the road.
Just my opinion. I'm not a professional.
Edited to add: 1800 might be your gross if you're burning about 500/day as measured by HRM. Your net would then be 1300.0 -
Go with the Net. For me, I will go on my long bike rides on Saturday or Sunday and will generally burn about 1900 calories. I am currently allowed 1810 for my daily goal. If I only ate 1810, then I will be in the negative by 90 calories. This is not good because I need to fuel my ride from earlier. This would be essentially eating nothing all day and then going for a walk.0
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the 1300 calorie goal MFP gives you is NET, and a deficit is already included.
Its just the way MFP is set up. Say you do 500 cals of exercise a day, any other site would include this in your allowance so you would just be given 1800, mfp gives you 1300 and you log and eat back 500 exercise so result is the same.
If you look on your goal page under the calorie allowance its says 'calories consumed - calories burned = net calories', so in order to meet your NET goal you have to eat back exercise.
have a look for helloitsdans post 'in place of a roadmap'. This explains about BMR (the least you should eat just to keep you alive) and TDEE (the most you should eat when daily activity and exercise are accounted for) and has links to work out your calories.
ETA: i just saw your last post so I ran your numbers for you.
BMR is 1503 so your NET should never be below this.
These are your TDEE numbers.
Sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) 1804
Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) 2067
Moderately Active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) 2330
Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) 2593
Extremely Active (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.) 2856
Based on the amount of exercise I would say you are between moderately and very active, so to maintain you would eat 2330-2593.
With around 28lbs to go you should be aiming for 1lb per week loss so that would give you 1830-2093 cals.
I would start there for a few weeks and see how it goes. If your exercise puts you too much below BMR, then reduce it to an hour 4-6 days, or 2 hours 3-4 days. Its really not necessary to do 2 hours every day. Its pretty much impossible to build muscle in a calorie deficit / with high amounts of cardio, you can just maintain what you have, but too much exercise and too little calories will burn this away, so your metabolism slows and you stop losing.0 -
Here's me: BMR is 1550-ish. My MFP goal is set to 1640 and I burn about 2500-3500/week in exercise. For the most part, I eat all of it. I eat about 2100 calories/day now (net 1640). I have only been on MFP 3 weeks now but I was following Weight Watchers since January. I lost about 14 lbs on WW but knew I wasn't eating enough to really fuel my running. I switched to find out just how much I was eating and burning. In the last 3 weeks of increased intake my losses have been:
Week 1: -1.0 lbs
Week 2: -0.8 lbs
Week 3: -3.0 lbs
And I'm down another pound and a half since Tuesday. No joke. It's melting off me now that I've had a chance to adjust to the higher intake. I also am REALLY paying attention to trying to get over 80g protein (up to 120 - my lean mass is 120 lbs).
totally agree. your BMR / TDEE / Cals are pretty much the same as mine and I'm losing more than when I ate 1600 and netted 1100. Ive been on here since october, on higher cals since Jan and it WORKS!!!!0 -
Just upped my calories from 1300-1400 TO 1800-2000 per day now so yea, I have noticed my body is luving me more, being more forgiving and finally starting to lose weight again. Also, its never bugging me sayin its starving so yea.. DEF. gonna stick with proper dieting this way instead of eating low *kitten* calories and feeling like utter *kitten*! and yeaup on to better health!!0
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Just upped my calories from 1300-1400 TO 1800-2000 per day now so yea, I have noticed my body is luving me more, being more forgiving and finally starting to lose weight again. Also, its never bugging me sayin its starving so yea.. DEF. gonna stick with proper dieting this way instead of eating low *kitten* calories and feeling like utter *kitten*! and yeaup on to better health!!
YAY! Awesome
I'm sure you won't regret it. 0 -
I aboslutley agree with this statement. Especially about the heart rate monitor. I work out with it all the time and I have some for time now. That is the most accurate way to find out exactly how much you've burned. The elliptical at my gym is always off by 50-150 calories at the times.0
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Ok, here is one for you guys. 5'10 male 37 my "original weigh in was 228 but I really believe i was heavier, or the scale just is not doing it math right!
My Goal is to be at 175-180.
This is not a joke as I cant wait until I stop training so hardcore, but here it is as I too am a litte confused with everything on the calorie intake blah blah blah.
I will start from Sept 2012.....I burnt in Sept 10,358 cal, Oct 25,000 Nov (lazy month 19,000) Dec 38,000 and now in Jan I do the following:
Monday 3250 Cal on elliptical + 2 hours of Aikido martial arts
Tues-Fri 3250 Cal on the elliptical per day and weight training for toning purposes
Sat - Sun 1,500 cal on the elliptical per day + weight training
all weight training from Push ups, sit ups, shoulder press, skipping, jumping jacks (20 mins approx) the elliptical is 3-4 hours per daydepending on my intensity and speed and trust me I hate it now and cant wait to drop to 1500 to just be in shape.
Today being Jan 17 I am 212 pounds this really ticks me off as I have been busting my behind on this machine!
My meals are 1 bowl of oatmeal breakfast (160 cal)
grapefruit (pink) lunch 72 Cal
Either a ensure or a protein bar ranging from a max 355 cal to 310 cal per for lunch
Dinner is a range of 500-1200 Cal intake.
I believe I should be a lot less in weight but in the morning when i wake up to weigh myself I range from 217-215 and then drop during the day, with out a huge water intake.
However that being said I do drink a min 2.7litres of water a day min, and understand that water weight plays into this (hence the drop during the day) but what the heck am i doing wrong to shed these pounds of quicker!
I am drinking 5-7 cups of green tea, 2-3 cups of Peppermint tea, eat lots of veggies, reduced my Milk, bread sugar, potatoes, eggs, alcohol and Im still lard assed!
I have and notice yes a difference but I want a pound lost every 2 days any suggestions, should I stop my weight training until I have gotten to my goal and then start training? I don't want to fall sick and I do understand things take time, and as everyone else want the weight gone yesterday, but do reliase that it took a while to gain it so unfortunate need to bear with time, but there has got to be a trick or something I am not doing right.
All and any suggestions are welcomed, BUT I don't want to hear from someone who has not had weight issues as if you have always been toned and fit to me....get fat first then loose then talk!0 -
So I was reading through this thread and noticed my own reply to the OP. I don't remember it. It was early, EARLY on in my weight loss here at MFP. But to the new poster... ^^^ here is a link to a blog post I wrote about why it's important to eat exercise calories back if you are using the MFP method (rather than the TDEE/%-cut method):
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/mrsbigmack/view/finding-the-sweet-spot-452184
I ended up losing a total of almost 40 lbs now eating over 2000 calories most days. I do work out a lot though, but you have to fuel the training. If you want the body of an athlete, you need to treat it like one.0 -
Yes, if you eat your daily goal calorie range (say 1400 calories) then burn 350 (bringing your intake/burn to 1050) and paired with your Basal Metabolic Rate (how much your body burns naturally with normal functioning) say, 1350/day, putting you at a deficit total of -350 calories/day. Say your Recommended Daily Intake for maintaining your weight is 1850, and you're consuming 1400, in addition to what you burn working out and your BMR.. that means your body is running on a daily deficit of -750 calories/day. If maintained every day, your weekly deficit is -5250, equalling 1.5 lbs/week.
From what I understand,
(Recommended Daily Intake) - (Calories Actually Consumed) - (Calories Burned with Cardio/Activity + Basal Metabolic Rate) = total deficit.
For me:
My RDI is 1,880 calories/day
My BMR ranges from 1384 - 1500 depending on the calculator
My Daily cardio ranges from 200-500 calories/day.
My Target Calories are 1,100-1,200/day.
So,
1880-1100= deficit of 780 calories in RDI/Actual consumption
Plus BMR of 1384 = 284 deficit
Plus 300 calories burned
Results in an overall daily deficit of 1,364 calories.
Which would equal 2.73 pounds lost/week (3500 calories per pound.)
If I ate back all of those calories, I don't know that I could actually successfully do that, but I also think it would only put me at maintenance weight, rather than losing, unless my BMR increased with increased activity and muscle mass.
I don't know if this is accurate, as of yet, and I've heard if you cut too low, meaning 2lbs or more per week, that your body can halt weight loss, by killing your metabolism, and other factors such as sleep and types of food can hinder loss as well.0 -
Gross calories come from eating things like bugs or roasted snake.0
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LOL, bugs and snake. Good one!0
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