Net Calories

JennaNicoleS
JennaNicoleS Posts: 24 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So, MFP tells me that I have a certain amount of net calories after exercise. I guess that's the amount of calories I haven't burned off for the day, but how many is a good amount? How many net calories should be the limit?

Replies

  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    MFP does not include exercise in its calculation for what you need to eat to lose weight. This is for people who can't/don't exercise. When you DO exercise, you log it and it gives you more calories you need to eat. You need to eat more when you exercise. However, people say that the amount burned it gives you is inaccurate so some people do not eat all the calories it gives. Some eat half.

    Example (your numbers will be different):
    1500 -the amount MFP says to eat
    -300 - the amount you burned in exercise
    +300 - the amount more you eat
    =1500 NET calories

    You actually eat 1500 + 300 = 1800 but it is 1500 Net when you cancel out the exercise.
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
    The only issue with this is that MFP can sometimes (often) overestimate how many calories you burn. Many people find eating back half their exercise calories works better for them. Experiment and see how your results are.
  • JennaNicoleS
    JennaNicoleS Posts: 24 Member
    Okay, thanks! You both really helped
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    vismal wrote: »
    The only issue with this is that MFP can sometimes (often) overestimate how many calories you burn. Many people find eating back half their exercise calories works better for them. Experiment and see how your results are.
    Rather than rely on MFP's estimate for calories burned you should get a good heart rate monitor. While the calorie burns are still not absolutely perfect they're much closer to accurate because it takes into account your level of exertion during that workout. You also need to remember that you would have been burning some calories just sitting on the sofa during that time, so not eating back all of the workout calories is a good idea.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    I would just make it a general rule to eat half as it gives you room for the overestimating on exercise and the underestimating on logging.

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