Calories or NET Calories?

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apaden4
apaden4 Posts: 137 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello, I am just a bit confused about the calories and NET calories. Maybe someone out there can help me out. I am supposed to consume 1200 calories a day - after I exercise it tells me I earned an extra so many calories from exercise for the day. Should I eat those extra calories I earned, or just keep it under 1200 no matter how much I exercise? Thanks in advance!

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  • apaden4
    apaden4 Posts: 137 Member
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    Hello, I am just a bit confused about the calories and NET calories. Maybe someone out there can help me out. I am supposed to consume 1200 calories a day - after I exercise it tells me I earned an extra so many calories from exercise for the day. Should I eat those extra calories I earned, or just keep it under 1200 no matter how much I exercise? Thanks in advance!
  • avr1321
    avr1321 Posts: 96
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    i'm the same way, i'm supposed to eat 1200 a day. but i usually burn about 250 when i work out so i get all those calories back. the thing is that if you burn 250 calories it means you can eat 250 calories more. now for me i usually get close to 1200. its hard for me to go over just because i don't eat that much and fast food and i arent friends.
    your allowed to go over that 1200 if you burn the caloires. its pretty much saying look you have 1200, now you burn 250. there for you have 1450. so you can eat 1450 if you want! you shouldn't go under 1100 calories a day though, because less then 900 a day is anoriexic cause you body needs the food to get ur heart to pump. you don't have to eat all the caloires you burn back up, its just giving you the oppurtinity. so if you want to, you can!
  • apaden4
    apaden4 Posts: 137 Member
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    OK I get what you are saying BUT how about this.... Say I have eaten my 1200 calories, and then I burn 300. So that would mean I would have 300 calories left to eat (if I want to) . If I do NOT eat those additional 300, it shows that my NET calories are only 900. Is it bad if my NET calories are under the 1200? Will my body go into starvation mode, or does that only apply to calories? I hope that makes sense, I think the more I think about it, the more confused I get.
  • avr1321
    avr1321 Posts: 96
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    lets so if this helps
    you eat 1200 calories in one day. just the total about of calories you ate. through out the day you excercised and burned 300 calories. out of that 1200 ur body used 300 to work out. now your body has only 900 calories to use so that you can raise ur hand, move ur head, use ur brain, get ur heart to pump. so yeah, its ultimately bad. you should try to eat within 500 calories of 1200. so if ur at 1100 one day its okay, and then the next ur at 1150 stil okay. you should really try to eat back at least half the calories you burn. so if you burn 300 eat something to gain back no more then 150 of that.
    get it? it is confusing. but pretty much if your burning calories its good but you should still try to eat back some of those calories purely because ur daily allowance is only 1200. which is actually a very low calorie amount.
  • apaden4
    apaden4 Posts: 137 Member
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    Yes that helps a lot! Thanks so much! I was concerned about it because I golf about twice a week for about 3 hours each time, the exercise counter says that burns like 948 calories! And since my calories are only 1200, it shows the NET calories for those days to be just a few hundred. Thats why I wasn't sure if I should be concerned or not.
    Thanks again, you have been very helpful!
  • donyellemoniquex3
    donyellemoniquex3 Posts: 2,384 Member
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    NET
  • donnat0511
    donnat0511 Posts: 9 Member
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    Hi, thanks for that post I have just started and I am really confused about NET calories. I am on 1200 calories a day because I want to lose 2lb a week. Yesterday I walked my dog for 40 minutes then went to a 45 minute spin class, it said I burned 845 calories, it wasn't possible to eat another 800 calories so what do I do? I managed to eat about 300 extra calories. I got on the scales this morning and I had gained 1lb. How is that possible?
    I want to keep exercising to help me tone up.
  • j6o4
    j6o4 Posts: 871 Member
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    Yes, eat back your exercise calories because that is how MFP works. You might find people who dont because they are using the TDEE method which is different from the MFP method because it already accounts for exercise in their calories. MFP gives you a number with a deficit already without exercise, so when you work out you make that deficit even larger! When eating back your exercise calories, just make sure that the number of caloriees you burn is correct, best bet is to get an HRM to get a more accurate calorie burned.
  • XTSH
    XTSH Posts: 129 Member
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    Holy Necro thread!
  • melaniecheeks
    melaniecheeks Posts: 6,349 Member
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    This is a really old thread that has been revived for some reason.

    Eating back exercise calories is debated every day here on MFP - use the search function and you'll find a whole range of opinions.
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
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    Just goes to show, people have been asking the same questions over and over and over and over for more than 6 years. I'm guessing it won't stop anytime soon.
  • donnat0511
    donnat0511 Posts: 9 Member
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    Thanks j6o4. Do you recommend a good HRM? I was thinking of getting one. I am new to MFP so I want to make sure I am getting it right the first time.
  • donnat0511
    donnat0511 Posts: 9 Member
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    This is a really old thread that has been revived for some reason.

    Eating back exercise calories is debated every day here on MFP - use the search function and you'll find a whole range of opinions.

    Thanks I have just seen the search feature. i guess I should have done that first. It's all a learning curve.

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