Net calories??

lf4179
lf4179 Posts: 37 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I know this has been asked before and I am sorry for asking again. I have tried reading posts related to my question but still seem confused. So I will ask for my personal situation... MFP has my daily goal at 1200 calories. I exercise 5x a week most weeks. Nothing huge, just treadmill mostly until the weather gets nicer. So MFP says my daily goal is 1200 cal per day. On days that I exercise, should I be making my "NET" calories 1200 or just my food intake 1200 cal? So if I make my NET cal 1200 then technically I am eating more than 1200 calories in a day. I looked back through my diary and most days my NET has been under 1200 because I having been trying to eat only 1200. Should I be eating more on days that I exercise? I am 5'5 and right now around 159 lbs and looking to lose 1-2 lbs. a week. Thanks in advance.

Replies

  • Fitz6998
    Fitz6998 Posts: 1 Member
    I'm in the same boat!
  • ChrisM8971
    ChrisM8971 Posts: 1,067 Member
    Its fairly simple if you follow your calorie counter.

    When you exercise you eat the amount of calories your calorie counter says you yes when you exercise you eat more food.

    Make sure the calories you burn from exercise are accurate though
  • ottermotorcycle
    ottermotorcycle Posts: 654 Member
    You should be eating more on the days that you exercise, yes.

    Your body needs to refuel after a workout and that is very difficult to do on 1200 calories flat. Your BMR is above that anyhow, so you will be losing weight even if you eat them back. The question is, do you have a reliable measurement of what you've burned? I'm not sure about the accuracy of what it says on MFP or what it says on the machines at the gym...
  • lf4179
    lf4179 Posts: 37 Member
    So I should be making my "calories remaining" as close to ZERO as possible? I was thinking that if I had my "exercise calories" left over that it would help me to lose more weight but now from reading I am wondering if I am not eating enough by not bringing my "NET" calories up to 1200.
  • lf4179
    lf4179 Posts: 37 Member
    You should be eating more on the days that you exercise, yes.

    Your body needs to refuel after a workout and that is very difficult to do on 1200 calories flat. Your BMR is above that anyhow, so you will be losing weight even if you eat them back. The question is, do you have a reliable measurement of what you've burned? I'm not sure about the accuracy of what it says on MFP or what it says on the machines at the gym...

    I have a watch that has the Heart rate monitor on it but I don't know how accurate it is. I try to go in between what my treadmill says, MFP says and my watch says. I plan on looking into one w/ a chest strap. Just no money for it right now.
  • FJDodd
    FJDodd Posts: 140 Member
    When you originally set up your calorie goal, did you set your activity level to Sedentary?

    If yes, then you should be eating back any calories that you lose in exercise. Net should be as close to Zero as possible.
  • lf4179
    lf4179 Posts: 37 Member
    I'm in the same boat!
    I hope we get it figured out. Looks like we have the same goals :)
  • ChrisM8971
    ChrisM8971 Posts: 1,067 Member
    So I should be making my "calories remaining" as close to ZERO as possible? I was thinking that if I had my "exercise calories" left over that it would help me to lose more weight but now from reading I am wondering if I am not eating enough by not bringing my "NET" calories up to 1200.

    Thats what I do, try and get calories remaining close to zero. I do have a chest strap HRM and that tends to give me burns of around 70% of the one listed on MFP so maybe that would be a good starting point and then see if you are losing at the rate you expect over a couple of weeks
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    when you log exercise you get calories to eat back...because exercise is an unaccounted for activity in your activity level setting...MFP gives you a calorie goal based on your day to day hum drum without exercise and that goal includes your weight loss deficit...if you didn't exercise at all you would lose weight eating those calories. When you exercise this decreases your net intake...thus you have to up your calories to net to that 1200 and your gross will be higher. Here's how the numbers look using my numbers.

    MFP calorie goal assuming a light active activity level without any exercise to lose 1 Lb per week is 1,850 calories. Given that 500 calories per day deficit would give me roughly one Lb per week loss, MFP is estimating my NON EXERCISE maintenance to be 1,850 + 500 = 2,350 calories...in other words, I would maintain my weight with no deliberate exercise on 2,350 and I would theoretically lose 1 Lb per week with zero exercise eating 1,850 calories.

    Now...I know exercise is beneficial to overall health so I start doing that...and lets say I burn a solid 400 calories in a given session. This activity is completely unaccounted for in my calorie goal so it brings my net calories down to 1,850 - 400 = 1,450 calories. This is pretty low calorie for a man of my size and activity level and leaves very little for my body to work with for just general operations. So I eat those back to net to 1,850...1,45 + 400 = 1,850 calories.

    Your gross calories go up...1,850 + 400 = 2,250 calories...but the 500 calorie deficit is still there because my non exercise maintenance number has changed as well to 2,350 + 400 = 2,750 gross calories...and 2,750 - 2,250 (my new calorie goal) = 500 calorie deficit still.

    MFP is designed for you to use your diet for weight control and exercise for fitness...you're not trying to build a calorie deficit with exercise.
  • lf4179
    lf4179 Posts: 37 Member
    When you originally set up your calorie goal, did you set your activity level to Sedentary?

    If yes, then you should be eating back any calories that you lose in exercise. Net should be as close to Zero as possible.
    Originally I set it to sedentary but then I moved it to lightly active (or whatever the next step up was) since I noticed that I am always busy doing housework or something. At the end of the day I think about how I have hardly sat all day long.
  • KatherinesRiver
    KatherinesRiver Posts: 128
    Wow, now I understand! This forum is very enlightening. I'm told by my calorie tracker that I need 1,440 calories a day. Okay. Let's see how this goes.
  • lf4179
    lf4179 Posts: 37 Member
    Ok. Thanks all. I will give this a go and see how it works out for me. :)

Categories