confused about "net calories"

Great question!
I too am confused.

My understanding of net calories is that they are what you end up fueling your body with. You said you have a goal of around 1300 and that you often get a burn of 600 calories in. That means that 600 of the calories you ate went to fuel your excise, leaving 700 net calories from your 1300 to fuel the rest of your day. You want to make sure that you are giving your body enough fuel for your lifestyle.

Whether to eat all of your excise calories back depends partly on where you got the number from what I have been able to figure out. If it is from MFP, a lot of people seem to say eat back part to most of them (50-75%) as MFP apparently overestimates calorie burns. Personally I try to eat back only about 25% of my burns.

ETA: It looks like you have only a few pounds to lose so they will probably come off slowly. Be patient, keep your focus, eat mostly healthy (allow an occasional treat to help prevent binging), exercise regularly and it will eventually work for you.

to make my goal weight I'm supposed to eat 1360 calories a day but then I work out and earn about 600 calories. By the end of the day I've eating 1300 calories but usually have about 600 calories left; am i supposed to eat those extra calories? am i not eating enough? Why isn't my weight going down?

Yes, you should eat back SOME of your exercise calories. MFP tends to overestimate calories burned for exercise, so eating them all back may lead to eating at closer to maintenance. Try eating back about half the calories and see how things go. If you are having a hungry day, eat them all back for that day. You won't gain and keeping the hunger at bay will keep you from binging.

How long have you been on MFP? Your ticker says you've lost 2 lbs. That's a great start! Patience. It will come off, one pound at a time.

food - workout = net

I guess I must be a little dense or something, because I still don't get it. I am here to lose weight. A substantial amount of it. I would like at least a 1000 cal/day deficit to ensure that the weight comes off. But when I look at my numbers, right now it says

Goal 1500
Food 1109
Exercise -392 (from my fitbit)
Net 767

Don't I actually want my net to be -1000? Or am I just looking at this totally wrong.

Yes - you are confused. And not at all do you want your net to be -1000. You don't understand how MFP is setup.

Confirm you have the bigger picture in mind first, so you can understand what is being done there.
You have a total day maintenance figure - eat that you neither gain or lose weight.
Non-exercise days it's smaller, exercise days it's obviously bigger.

MFP starts with non-exercise maintenance. Say 2500.
Takes off your selected deficit, you selected 2 lb weekly loss, so 1000.
That is your eating goal - on non-exercies days.
2500 - 1000 = 1500

But now you exercise and log it, or Fitbit picks up the increased activity, and reports it to MFP.
So now your non-exercise maintenance estimate is still 2500.
Fitbit saw or you logged exercise of 392.
Your total maintenance for the day went up.
2500 + 392 = 2892

Same 1000 calories comes off.
2892 - 1000 = 1892 eating goal for this day.

If you've eaten 1109 so far, you have remaining 783 to eat.

Now, I'm guessing your non-exercise day goal is actually 1200, and hence my math above is a tad off, but that is what is happening.

If you burn more in the day, and Fitbit has told MFP 392 more in your example, then you get to eat more, to maintain that 1000 cal deficit.

And you should indeed try to maintain it. Bigger is not better.

As to their exact math in your example.

Goal of 1500 includes the extra 392, so without exercise goal would have been 1108, but since MFP stops at minimum for sedentary person 1200, that was likely your goal.

So you have eaten 1109 so far, and either exercise or increased activity from Fitbit has taken 392 calories purely for mechanical movement, leaving your body with 767 to work with, not enough.
So if you keep eating the 1500-1109= 391 to reach your eating goal, your new NET will be:
1500 - 392 = 1108

Close enough.

So think if it this way.
You were willing to blindly follow the eating goal MFP gave you without understanding where it came from or why.
So keep doing that, if MFP says the new goal is 1500 - meet your goals. 50 over is better than 100 below.

Would you get to within 15% of goal weight and say, ah, close enough, I'm done?

I think i finally get it too.... thank you for this thread...

I have to eat more........

I think i might get it. I did not realize that it was calculating the BMR calorie burn for the day based on the information that it has about me. So like you said, My goal at the end of the day is to have no Net calories left. Which would mean that I am still at a 1000 cal deficit for the day.

Thank you

Well, close.
By the end of the day, your Net calories should equal your non-exercise day eating goal.

Gross calories eaten is for everything and not shown (though you can add it up), but would be non-exercise (BMR, eating, daily activity) and exercise.
Net calories eaten is gross minus the exercise or Fitbit adjustment.

So your Gross calories already has the 1000 deficit in it.

The Net calories already has the 1000 deficit in it, and also removes the exercise calories.

That way you can look at your NET goal as always being the same daily, even though the Gross goal will only match on non-exercise days.

Either way, there is a 1000 cal deficit in it.

It is an awkward confusing way of doing it.

I don't eat the calories that I burn excercising. I stick to eating the start goal calories for the day (mine is 1200). It works better for me and you don't tend to eat just because you can. I've lost 20lbs

food - workout = net

Did you even read the whole question?

Short answer: absolutely yes

Long answer: If you workout you have to eat back those calories, optimally within 30-60min of using them. e.g. I workout and burn 600kcal. My next meal, which happens to be right when I arrive from exercising, is 350kcal. 600+350 means that my next meal will be 950kcal to recover what I burned and eat enough for my body to keep going.