NET Calorie Value confusion

iEviliProdigy
iEviliProdigy Posts: 3
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Okay so I am aware that to reach the NET goal you must minus your total exercise calories from the calories that you consume through food/drink however, what I am confused about is what the NET Goal value represents.

The average for an adult man is 2500.

Ive read in several places that eating roughly 200 calories less than the average GDA will help you lose weight.
My NET goal as per my information input on My Fitness Pal is 2330. Therefore my question is simple.

Is the 2330 the result of My Fitness Pal minussing 200 calories from the Average GDA
OR is 2330 a more accurate measurement of my own GDA, and I should be aiming to eat 200 less than that, therefore, i should be eating 2100 roughly.

Can someone help me out on this because Im concerned that if Im eating 400-700 LESS than the Average GDA of 2500 then my muscle will start to break down to fuel my body which is not what I want.

Im not looking to body build as my fat % has been reduced so much,

Can someone clarify?

Replies

  • iEviliProdigy
    iEviliProdigy Posts: 3
    Im NOW* looking to body build as my Fat % has reached a comfortable low.
  • redfiona99
    redfiona99 Posts: 116 Member
    Yes, the number is produced by taking 200 from your GDA, but if you do exercise you have to add that in, otherwise you will not eat enough because your exercise expenditure is not automatically calculated.
  • Rayman79
    Rayman79 Posts: 2,009 Member
    The truth is these numbers are all estimates. The one calculated here based on your individual details (height weight and activity level) is going to give you a better starting point than the general recommendation for the 'average person'.

    With that said, pick a calorie level, stick with it for a couple of weeks and see how your body responds. Then adjust up or down a couple of hundred cals based on whether you are gaining/losing at the rate you desire.
  • garethbridges
    garethbridges Posts: 5 Member
    I completely agree with the above. Absolutely everything is estimated; everything from the plate of food you order in the restaurant, to the calories you burn from exercising, to what you expend as part of your daily life. Set a reasonable number of Net Calories, weigh yourself only once a week (at the same time of day) to track the trend of your weight loss...and adjust the target number for calorie intake accordingly.

    I was targeting to lose weight at a rate of 0.5kg/week, over the past 12 weeks it's been dropping at 0.75kg average. I would attribute this largely to the discrepency between the two methods I used to estimate calorie burn from running. Strava (website) calculated a higher value than my GPS watch, so I always took the lower value. On reflection, the Strava website is probably more accurate and I could have eaten a bit more food...but I couldn't have known this unless I went through the process of monitoring my weight loss over a longer period of time.
  • iEviliProdigy
    iEviliProdigy Posts: 3
    Oh okay, so I NEED to be eating 2330 instead of undercutting that by 200 to ensure my body doesnt use muscle as fuel aswell as any fat?

    In 4 months ive lost 1 Stone.
    Im at a point now where Im in no rush to thin out my fat % anymore.
    Am i to understand that I now need to be eating more than my GDA by about 200/300 based on my height / age / gender giving my body 'surplus calories' to build muscle mass? As with my current diet protein intake will remain high with saturated fats and fats other than trans and mono staying low to promote growth.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Okay so I am aware that to reach the NET goal you must minus your total exercise calories from the calories that you consume through food/drink however, what I am confused about is what the NET Goal value represents.

    The average for an adult man is 2500.

    Ive read in several places that eating roughly 200 calories less than the average GDA will help you lose weight.
    My NET goal as per my information input on My Fitness Pal is 2330. Therefore my question is simple.

    Is the 2330 the result of My Fitness Pal minussing 200 calories from the Average GDA
    OR is 2330 a more accurate measurement of my own GDA, and I should be aiming to eat 200 less than that, therefore, i should be eating 2100 roughly.

    Can someone help me out on this because Im concerned that if Im eating 400-700 LESS than the Average GDA of 2500 then my muscle will start to break down to fuel my body which is not what I want.

    Im not looking to body build as my fat % has been reduced so much,

    Can someone clarify?

    BMR x non-exercise Activity Level factor (say sedentary of 1.25) = MFP calls maintenance.

    If goal is to maintain weight - eating goal = maintenance (non-exercise maintenance, caught that).

    You do a workout and you just increased your literal maintenance for that day.
    You log it and your eating goal goes up by the same amount.

    So say BMR 1800 x sedentary 1.25 = 2250

    You eat 2250 on non-workout days.

    You do a workout and log it, and estimated calories is 250.
    Your maintenance went up to 2500.

    You eat 2500 on that workout day.

    So indeed, the idea of NET calories is if you took what your body burned just for mechanical movement in exercise, and subtracted that from what you ate - that's what you left your body to use for normal life outside exercise. Which would include making improvements from the exercise later.

    Hence the reason you could eat at dead-on correct maintenance with lifting say, and your body burns extra fat in order to make improvements - but your weight stays the same.
  • garethbridges
    garethbridges Posts: 5 Member
    If you want to get bigger, it makes sense you will need to eat more. If you burn more than you eat, your body will need to take the energy from wherever it can...which will result in weight loss. Maybe start by adjusting your Net Calories up to the breakeven point and track it for 3-4 weeks. See if you're getting bigger, staying the same, etc. and if necessary look at eating 100-200 extra calories per day. Does it result in muscle or fat weight gain? Take some measurements so you can see where the changes are occurring.

    I'll soon be getting to to the point where I need to decide whether being a lighter, but less powerful athlete will make me any faster. So far the weight loss is helping, but I'm sure there will come a point where it's less effective to be any lighter. Unless I have big training sessions planned, I'm less generally not too concerned where my calories come from (protein, carb, fat, etc.). I just track the total consumed and use this to ensure I'm heading in the right direction. For you, I think you're doing the right thing by controlling what comes from protein, etc.

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