Net calories vs Calories

^^^^what she said.
I'll also add: if you are eating more than you "should" be you might need to re-evaluate your food & your goal. Eating more protein helps me stay full on less, and I dropped my loss per week goal in order to increase my calories figuring a slow loss was better than being miserable and cheating on my diet all the time.

As for net vs gross: I go off of net, and I generally don't eat back all my calories. My goal is 1700 and most days I net around 1500.

If you eat your goal in calories, you won't lose weight but rather maintain it. I found a website that explains perfectly how calories and weight loss/gain works, and after that I understood that if I eat my goal calories and still burn about 500 calories a day (with not eating those 500 calories back), that's where the weight loss comes from. So, you should consume your goal calories and workout normally and you will see weight loss. Working out extra hard just to balance it all out to even again won't do anything for you in terms of losing weight!

Hi. I have 2 questions I'm new to this..
I weigh 145 but look almost 20 lbs smaller.. but i want to loose 10 pounds by march 15th.. if possible
If I take in 1,500 calories a day and workout both the elliptical for 30 mins and the bike for 25-30 mins could i loose the 10 pounds by then? or should i eat less calories. Today I had a net of`1,036. is that good? i ate 1,563 and exercised 527

MFP guidelines indicate netting under 1200 calories is bad; unless you're exceptionally short and/or small boned, this is probably true for you. So, you should probably be eating a little more.

Why are you mixing two different steady state cardio machines each day? Is it just to alleviate boredom?

Haha ya it is i can't do 40 minutes on one of ill just die of boredom. I am actually 5'5 so should i be eating more?

If you eat your goal in calories, you won't lose weight but rather maintain it. I found a website that explains perfectly how calories and weight loss/gain works, and after that I understood that if I eat my goal calories and still burn about 500 calories a day (with not eating those 500 calories back), that's where the weight loss comes from. So, you should consume your goal calories and workout normally and you will see weight loss. Working out extra hard just to balance it all out to even again won't do anything for you in terms of losing weight!

^This is incorrect. MFP already has a calorie deficit built into your daily calorie goal based on your goal loss per week, which means if you only ate your calorie goal and did not do any exercise, you would still lose weight. MFP is designed for you to eat your exercise calories back on top of your daily goal. Most people only eat a portion of those calories back to account for any inaccuracies in their exercise calorie burn estimates or food logging.

The number of calories MFP says you have remaining for today, in green? Get that as close to zero as you can. You want your net calories eaten to be as close to your 1380 daily intake goal as possible. So yes, you should eat those 710 calories you have remaining.

Depends where you're getting the figures for you exercise burns. If it's the MFP database, I wouldn't eat them all back as it tends to run high. But if it's a heart rate monitor with chest strap, you should be ok. You might want to start by eating 50% back, give it a couple of weeks and adjust if necessary. I eat all mine back and it hasn't impeded my weight loss.

Isn't it if you go by the TDDE approach you don't need to worry about the net calories?

Do you log exercise? That will increase your calories.

Yes I do, and now it makes sense. Thank you.