Confused about NET calories at end of day?

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  • mindy_moorehead
    mindy_moorehead Posts: 17
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    Okay....so My goal is 1440 and thats just what I need to eat to function.....? But usually I excercise alot sometimes as much as 2000 calorie burn a day.....so in order to net my goal id have to eat 3440 in calories to net that and I know my body I'd NEVER EVER lose ANY weight at that rate......so I'm at a loss here????? Am I making it more complicated than it should be????
  • skeeter2584
    skeeter2584 Posts: 34 Member
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    In order to lose weight, you have to expend (that is, use up/burn) more calories than you take in from food. The "net" in net calories is the calories you've taken in from food minus those you burn in exercise. The human body needs 1,200 calories minimum in order to maintain itself, so you want a net (aka overall) intake of AT LEAST 1,200 calories. Having a negative net intake is actually very bad; your body goes into "starvation mode" and holds on to its remaining supplies. For example, suppose that you burn 300 calories during exercise on a given day. Recall that you want at least 1,200 calories after you've taken all of your daily food AND exercise into account. And so, the million dollar question is..... what number of calories, minus 300, will give you a net of 1,200? Or, as you may have encountered in algebra...... x - 300 = 1,200. Anyhow, you'd need to consume a minimum of 1,500 calories because 1,500 - 300 = 1,200 as required. If, on the other hand, you only ate 1,000 calories during the day and still burned 300, your net would be 1,000 - 300 = 700. Uh oh.... you're 500 calories short of what you need!!! Sorry that my explanation is so long - I hope this helps. Best wishes for a healthier life!!! :smile:
  • chlorisaann
    chlorisaann Posts: 366 Member
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    Okay....so My goal is 1440 and thats just what I need to eat to function.....? But usually I excercise alot sometimes as much as 2000 calorie burn a day.....so in order to net my goal id have to eat 3440 in calories to net that and I know my body I'd NEVER EVER lose ANY weight at that rate......so I'm at a loss here????? Am I making it more complicated than it should be????

    So maybe start with trying to eat back about half of your exercise cals and see how you do!! That would be a good start.... Being in the negative all the time your body will start to burn lean muscle mass for energy and you dont want that, Because it would slow your metabolism...


    Also, you said, you know you would never lose at 3400 cals, but was that before or after you started exercising off 2000 cals a day???
  • Kanlassak
    Kanlassak Posts: 101 Member
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    If you're going by what MFP says you burn from exercise, I'd double check the burns if you can with another way of measuring. MFP is way off on the exercise calories for some people, because it's only basing it on height/weight/gender, not level of fitness or heart rate. A lot of people only eat maybe half of their exercise calories because of this.
  • EmilyTwist1
    EmilyTwist1 Posts: 206 Member
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    Okay....so My goal is 1440 and thats just what I need to eat to function.....? But usually I excercise alot sometimes as much as 2000 calorie burn a day.....so in order to net my goal id have to eat 3440 in calories to net that and I know my body I'd NEVER EVER lose ANY weight at that rate......so I'm at a loss here????? Am I making it more complicated than it should be????

    Is that 2000 just from exercise? If so, are you using a heart rate monitor, or are you using the MFP number? MFP way overestimates the calories you burn during exercise. If you actually are burning 2000 calories on top of what your body burns to stay alive, then yes, you would need to eat around 3440.

    If the 2000 is exercise + body staying alive, then you would just need to eat 2000.
  • mindy_moorehead
    mindy_moorehead Posts: 17
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    I just use MFP to calculate my exercise calories but I'm thinking my next paycheck I may buy a HRM.......but When I'm hungry I eat and when I'm not I don't .....I cant imagine eating that many calories and losing weight???? IDK??
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
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    I was the same way, and eventually bought myself a HRM (make sure you get one with a chest strap - they are much more accurate than watch-only varieties) - huge difference between the HRM and what MFP or my running app was telling me. Measuring and weighing food helps, too.

    Don't be afraid of food! Feed your body the proper nutrition and amounts, and it will use it and burn it efficiently. Give it too little, it wants to store fat; too much and we all know what happens - we grow sideways! :tongue:

    I think I gave you the links already, but just in case - read these, and check out the In Place Of A Road Map group, as well as the Eat More to Weigh Less group - lots of people there sharing their stories, eating plenty and losing the fat.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/3834-eat-more-to-weigh-less
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/7965-in-place-of-a-road-map
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/709987-how-wrong-i-was-600-days-of-mfp-lotsa-pics

    All of those links are great, but one of my recent favorites is the last one, especially the part where she shows a picture of two pairs of jeans - size 8 when she got down to 130lbs, eating about 1000 calories a day, and a size 5 juniors she's wearing now, while eating twice as much. :smile: Don't give the body a reason to store fat!
  • fatgimp88
    fatgimp88 Posts: 5
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    Last week I was 2416 under my calorie goal for the week. I have religiously logged everything I ate and even went with myfitnesspal's estimation of how many calories I've burned at the gym although the machine told me I had burned more. My weight just fluctuates by about 1lb either way at 136 and nothing I do seems to work. I'm constantly told I should be eating more but I find that really hard to do and you would think that not eating much would make you thinner. Does anyone have any suggestions? That don't involve me eating until I feel sick.
  • marshall_lovee
    marshall_lovee Posts: 16
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    you should never be netting minus, I regularly net minus like today I'm on -980 and I have an eating dissorder and am constantly warned about the health risks, so make sure you eat back your exercise calories basically, thats why it says 'you've earned an extra .... calories from exercise today' (: xx
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    If you want to lose weight in a healthy sustainable way then your net should be equal to your goal.

    If you don't care about being healthy, or keeping the weight off, or being able to keep up the loses, or don't care about your well being then keep being in the negative.

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