Negative Net Calories
aflies
Posts: 78 Member
Is it okay/healthy to end your day with negative net calories?
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Replies
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NO!!!!!! Your net needs to be positive, and a minimum of 1200.0
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Okay. Thank you. Even if I am eating the 1200? I would need to eat 2400 calories that day?0
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If you want to end up with 1200 net calories, and you do 1200 calories worth of exercise then you would need to eat 2400.
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In the most basic scenario, yes. HOWEVER. I would question your burn, there's almost no one who can achieve a 1200+ calorie burn from exercise in a day. If you're getting your numbers from what My Fitness Pal tells you when you enter your exercises, or from the machines at the gym, you can be assured you're not actually burning as much as it tells you. Chances are you're burning MAYBE 75% of what it says. The reason for that is that MFP and the gym machines don't know your personal stats (age, height, weight, current fitness level; VO2 max, max heart rate, I could go on) so it gives a crappy estimate.
First thing I personally would do is eat the 1200, which is meant to be your goal BEFORE EXERCISE in the MFP model;
Second, when recording exercise, I would personally either manually cut the calories by 1/3, or enter your length of exercise time as less than actual so that the calculation comes in lower;
Third, eat to the goal it gives you, even if it seems ridiculously inflated to you, because...
Fourth, you need to trust the process.
Fifth, follow this plan for a minimum of 4-6 weeks, then assess. If you have lost weight in this time, then it is working. If you have not, then look at making changes.
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Thank you. I enter my strength training and I just leave my fitbit connected. I figured it was giving me more than I deserve... I have seen progress, but it is slow progress. I will keep pushing forward. Thank you both for your words of wisdom.0
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Another option:
I find it much simpler to not log exercise and just set my calorie goal based on my TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) - the amount of calories you burn on average including exercise. That way exercise is already factored in to your calorie goal.
Find out your approximate TDEE and set your goal to that - 20%, try that for 4-6 weeks and adjust as needed based on scale movement.
You can find out roughly what your TDEE by using an online calculator; just google 'TDEE calculator' and there should be a bunch of them. Over time you'll get an idea on what your TDEE actually is based on scale movements vs calorie intake.3 -
OP if you are looking at the red negative number "calories" on the far right side of your diary-- those are NOT "net" calories. Those are how far over your net you have eaten. If it happens to be a green number on the right above "calories" it is how many you went under your daily net goal.2
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Thank you. I enter my strength training and I just leave my fitbit connected. I figured it was giving me more than I deserve... I have seen progress, but it is slow progress. I will keep pushing forward. Thank you both for your words of wisdom.
This may be where things are getting inflated - it's sad and seems wrong but lifting/strength training burns surprisingly little. I see some people with entries of hundreds of calories for strength training and just have to shake my head, it's just not accurate.
What rate of loss did you select? And if you don't mind my asking, how tall are you and how much are you looking to lose? It always seems like weight loss is agonizingly slow, especially if you compare it with how easy/fast you can gain it! But slow and steady is smarter, in the long run, because (assuming you're eating enough protein and lifting) you'll lose more fat and less muscle mass, so you'll look better in the end
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Or use your fitbit - see how many calories you burn in a day on average and eat that -20%. Try for 4-6 weeks and adjust based on scale movement.
Or use a mixture of all the above, none are 100% accurate, so using more than one method to calculate how much you should be eating can help give you a better ballpark figure to start with.
Ultimately the scale is the best indicator of whether you are eating the right amount.2 -
OP if you are looking at the red negative number "calories" on the far right side of your diary-- those are NOT "net" calories. Those are how far over your net you have eaten. If it happens to be a green number on the right above "calories" it is how many you went under your daily net goal.
I am looking at the far right number with the word Net below it. It currently is at -356, but my day is almost over since I work nights.
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Thank you. I enter my strength training and I just leave my fitbit connected. I figured it was giving me more than I deserve... I have seen progress, but it is slow progress. I will keep pushing forward. Thank you both for your words of wisdom.
This may be where things are getting inflated - it's sad and seems wrong but lifting/strength training burns surprisingly little. I see some people with entries of hundreds of calories for strength training and just have to shake my head, it's just not accurate.
What rate of loss did you select? And if you don't mind my asking, how tall are you and how much are you looking to lose? It always seems like weight loss is agonizingly slow, especially if you compare it with how easy/fast you can gain it! But slow and steady is smarter, in the long run, because (assuming you're eating enough protein and lifting) you'll lose more fat and less muscle mass, so you'll look better in the end
Actually, usually after I enter it, it has just a slash beside it with no extra calorie burn given. But I can totally see how that works like you said.
I am 5'3" tall and currently weigh 158.6 pounds. I have set my goal to lose 1 pound a week with a goal to be 120 pounds by next March. I have adjusted my macros to 50% carbs, 30% fat, and 20% protein, only because my body does not handle carbs well and I tend to eat more protein.0 -
Thank you. I enter my strength training and I just leave my fitbit connected. I figured it was giving me more than I deserve... I have seen progress, but it is slow progress. I will keep pushing forward. Thank you both for your words of wisdom.
This may be where things are getting inflated - it's sad and seems wrong but lifting/strength training burns surprisingly little. I see some people with entries of hundreds of calories for strength training and just have to shake my head, it's just not accurate.
What rate of loss did you select? And if you don't mind my asking, how tall are you and how much are you looking to lose? It always seems like weight loss is agonizingly slow, especially if you compare it with how easy/fast you can gain it! But slow and steady is smarter, in the long run, because (assuming you're eating enough protein and lifting) you'll lose more fat and less muscle mass, so you'll look better in the end
Actually, usually after I enter it, it has just a slash beside it with no extra calorie burn given. But I can totally see how that works like you said.
I am 5'3" tall and currently weigh 158.6 pounds. I have set my goal to lose 1 pound a week with a goal to be 120 pounds by next March. I have adjusted my macros to 50% carbs, 30% fat, and 20% protein, only because my body does not handle carbs well and I tend to eat more protein.
Sounds like you have a pretty reasonable approach to things! Bravo, so many don't when they first start out.
Purely out of "it's 3:50 in the morning and I'm bored," I have a question: if you don't do well with carbs - why do you have your macro for carbs at half of your intake? I also don't do well with carbs and manually set mine to be much lower. I do better from a hunger/satiety take, on about 25-30% protein, 15-20% carbs and 55-60% fats (however, protein and carb levels are at the advice of my doctor, and don't work for EVERYONE, either - and it took probably 18 months of monkeying around with things to find my sweet spot)
(edited because it's 3:50 in the morning and my math skills suck this early. Well they suck all the time but it's worse this early)1 -
Another option:
I find it much simpler to not log exercise and just set my calorie goal based on my TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) - the amount of calories you burn on average including exercise. That way exercise is already factored in to your calorie goal.
Find out your approximate TDEE and set your goal to that - 20%, try that for 4-6 weeks and adjust as needed based on scale movement.
You can find out roughly what your TDEE by using an online calculator; just google 'TDEE calculator' and there should be a bunch of them. Over time you'll get an idea on what your TDEE actually is based on scale movements vs calorie intake.
This this this.
Forget logging exercise, it's a wholly inaccurate endevour.
If you want a visual log of your exercise there's plenty of stand alone apps out there, or a notepad works just fine.2 -
In the most basic scenario, yes. HOWEVER. I would question your burn, there's almost no one who can achieve a 1200+ calorie burn from exercise in a day. If you're getting your numbers from what My Fitness Pal tells you when you enter your exercises, or from the machines at the gym, you can be assured you're not actually burning as much as it tells you. Chances are you're burning MAYBE 75% of what it says. The reason for that is that MFP and the gym machines don't know your personal stats (age, height, weight, current fitness level; VO2 max, max heart rate, I could go on) so it gives a crappy estimate.
First thing I personally would do is eat the 1200, which is meant to be your goal BEFORE EXERCISE in the MFP model;
Second, when recording exercise, I would personally either manually cut the calories by 1/3, or enter your length of exercise time as less than actual so that the calculation comes in lower;
Third, eat to the goal it gives you, even if it seems ridiculously inflated to you, because...
Fourth, you need to trust the process.
Fifth, follow this plan for a minimum of 4-6 weeks, then assess. If you have lost weight in this time, then it is working. If you have not, then look at making changes.
I agree that it is difficult for someone to burn 1200 calories in a day exercising. I also agree that some of the MFP numbers are way high.
But "almost no one can burn 1200" is an overstatement-especially if one is really active and sets baseline at sedentary.3 -
Sounds like you have a pretty reasonable approach to things! Bravo, so many don't when they first start out.
Purely out of "it's 3:50 in the morning and I'm bored," I have a question: if you don't do well with carbs - why do you have your macro for carbs at half of your intake? I also don't do well with carbs and manually set mine to be much lower. I do better from a hunger/satiety take, on about 25-30% protein, 15-20% carbs and 55-60% fats (however, protein and carb levels are at the advice of my doctor, and don't work for EVERYONE, either - and it took probably 18 months of monkeying around with things to find my sweet spot)
(edited because it's 3:50 in the morning and my math skills suck this early. Well they suck all the time but it's worse this early)[/quote] I was always told that your carbs should be at least 50%... I have been looking into exactly what you are saying pretty much anyways. The Keto Plan... I am working with a dietician and my PCP due to medical problems, and they both say to wait until my blood work comes back to check on a few things before I go any lower, but thank you again. God Bless 1 -
Very occasionally, when I've had a super active day, I end up in negative calories and that's after eating 2000+. Sorry but I just can't physically eat 3500+ calories any more, not without starting a chocolate binge off. But I bank those calories and use them for little treats throughout the week, especially on days when I'm not so active. Means I can eat at around 2000 calories every day and still lose weight.2
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Very occasionally, when I've had a super active day, I end up in negative calories and that's after eating 2000+. Sorry but I just can't physically eat 3500+ calories any more, not without starting a chocolate binge off. But I bank those calories and use them for little treats throughout the week, especially on days when I'm not so active. Means I can eat at around 2000 calories every day and still lose weight.
Great idea. Thank you. I don't have negative often but was just curious about others thoughts.0 -
There is a huge amount of real estate between 50% carbs and a keto diet. If your body doesn't tolerate carbs well I still don't understand why you have your goal set that high for carbs? Maybe try 40-30-30 for a while? You can still go lower than that without going all the way to a ketogenic lifestyle which requires a tremendous amount of dietary change and diligence in planning.
Also, if you are using a FitBit, what does it say your average calorie burn is? I find mine to be fairly accurate and when I was losing, I set my MFP goal to my FitBit avg cals minus 250 (for 0.5 lb/week) and had good success with that. The numbers weren't far off from what MFP was recommending for my job exercise maintenance cals so I went back to that for maintenance, eating back my FitBit adjustments.0 -
In the most basic scenario, yes. HOWEVER. I would question your burn, there's almost no one who can achieve a 1200+ calorie burn from exercise in a day. If you're getting your numbers from what My Fitness Pal tells you when you enter your exercises, or from the machines at the gym, you can be assured you're not actually burning as much as it tells you. Chances are you're burning MAYBE 75% of what it says. The reason for that is that MFP and the gym machines don't know your personal stats (age, height, weight, current fitness level; VO2 max, max heart rate, I could go on) so it gives a crappy estimate.
First thing I personally would do is eat the 1200, which is meant to be your goal BEFORE EXERCISE in the MFP model;
Second, when recording exercise, I would personally either manually cut the calories by 1/3, or enter your length of exercise time as less than actual so that the calculation comes in lower;
Third, eat to the goal it gives you, even if it seems ridiculously inflated to you, because...
Fourth, you need to trust the process.
Fifth, follow this plan for a minimum of 4-6 weeks, then assess. If you have lost weight in this time, then it is working. If you have not, then look at making changes.
I agree that it is difficult for someone to burn 1200 calories in a day exercising. I also agree that some of the MFP numbers are way high.
But "almost no one can burn 1200" is an overstatement-especially if one is really active and sets baseline at sedentary.
I am not sure how difficult it actually is...
Take for example for each mile walked you burn on average 100 calories.
I walked 5 miles on Monday, then gardened for about 3 hours...hand tilling, digging, tugging etc.
According to map my fitness along with my normal activity my walk and gardening I burned 1300.
I could do that everyday easy if I didn't work.1 -
WinoGelato wrote: »Also, if you are using a FitBit, what does it say your average calorie burn is? I find mine to be fairly accurate and when I was losing, I set my MFP goal to my FitBit avg cals minus 250 (for 0.5 lb/week) and had good success with that. The numbers weren't far off from what MFP was recommending for my job exercise maintenance cals so I went back to that for maintenance, eating back my FitBit adjustments.
How do I find out what my fitbit says I burn? I have the old original fitbit. I thought the only thing it does is count steps.0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »Also, if you are using a FitBit, what does it say your average calorie burn is? I find mine to be fairly accurate and when I was losing, I set my MFP goal to my FitBit avg cals minus 250 (for 0.5 lb/week) and had good success with that. The numbers weren't far off from what MFP was recommending for my job exercise maintenance cals so I went back to that for maintenance, eating back my FitBit adjustments.
How do I find out what my fitbit says I burn? I have the old original fitbit. I thought the only thing it does is count steps.
do you not have the app on your phone?
Sync'd into MFP?0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »Also, if you are using a FitBit, what does it say your average calorie burn is? I find mine to be fairly accurate and when I was losing, I set my MFP goal to my FitBit avg cals minus 250 (for 0.5 lb/week) and had good success with that. The numbers weren't far off from what MFP was recommending for my job exercise maintenance cals so I went back to that for maintenance, eating back my FitBit adjustments.
How do I find out what my fitbit says I burn? I have the old original fitbit. I thought the only thing it does is count steps.
If you have the app on your phone there should be a spot each day where it tracks calories burned, in addition to steps. If you go to the website and go to your dashboard and your profile you can see weekly, monthly, and even 2 month averages I think.
While you are doing that it's important to make sure you have consistent goals between the two systems, if you are set to lose 1 lb/week on MFP make sure FitBit has the same goal. That will help make sure they sync properly and you get accurate exercise adjustments.0 -
In the most basic scenario, yes. HOWEVER. I would question your burn, there's almost no one who can achieve a 1200+ calorie burn from exercise in a day. If you're getting your numbers from what My Fitness Pal tells you when you enter your exercises, or from the machines at the gym, you can be assured you're not actually burning as much as it tells you. Chances are you're burning MAYBE 75% of what it says. The reason for that is that MFP and the gym machines don't know your personal stats (age, height, weight, current fitness level; VO2 max, max heart rate, I could go on) so it gives a crappy estimate.
First thing I personally would do is eat the 1200, which is meant to be your goal BEFORE EXERCISE in the MFP model;
Second, when recording exercise, I would personally either manually cut the calories by 1/3, or enter your length of exercise time as less than actual so that the calculation comes in lower;
Third, eat to the goal it gives you, even if it seems ridiculously inflated to you, because...
Fourth, you need to trust the process.
Fifth, follow this plan for a minimum of 4-6 weeks, then assess. If you have lost weight in this time, then it is working. If you have not, then look at making changes.
I agree that it is difficult for someone to burn 1200 calories in a day exercising. I also agree that some of the MFP numbers are way high.
But "almost no one can burn 1200" is an overstatement-especially if one is really active and sets baseline at sedentary.
I am not sure how difficult it actually is...
Take for example for each mile walked you burn on average 100 calories.
I walked 5 miles on Monday, then gardened for about 3 hours...hand tilling, digging, tugging etc.
According to map my fitness along with my normal activity my walk and gardening I burned 1300.
I could do that everyday easy if I didn't work.
I started today with a 5.5 mile run on the treadmill. I have a 50 minute Taekwondo class tonight. Will spend about 45 minutes mowing a hilly lot with a walking mower not self propelled. I will take a moderate paced 2.5 mile walk at lunch to clear my head.
Like today, I exceed 1200 uumost days,
But this can be difficult for someone working full time and/or just beginning a fitness plan.1 -
even the original fitbit will sync with your computer. You should have a little USB dongle to plug into your computer. Download the fitbit ap from their website and sync your fitbit using the dongle and ap. Just the fitbit website will give you all kinds of fun information. If you have the ap on your phone, you can do stuff there, too.
Once you have it syncing successfully, you can link MFP to fitbit and they can talk to each other.1 -
WinoGelato wrote: »Also, if you are using a FitBit, what does it say your average calorie burn is? I find mine to be fairly accurate and when I was losing, I set my MFP goal to my FitBit avg cals minus 250 (for 0.5 lb/week) and had good success with that. The numbers weren't far off from what MFP was recommending for my job exercise maintenance cals so I went back to that for maintenance, eating back my FitBit adjustments.
How do I find out what my fitbit says I burn? I have the old original fitbit. I thought the only thing it does is count steps.
do you not have the app on your phone?
Sync'd into MFP?
I have it sync'd with MFP, and I have the step counter widget on my phone.0 -
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In the most basic scenario, yes. HOWEVER. I would question your burn, there's almost no one who can achieve a 1200+ calorie burn from exercise in a day. If you're getting your numbers from what My Fitness Pal tells you when you enter your exercises, or from the machines at the gym, you can be assured you're not actually burning as much as it tells you. Chances are you're burning MAYBE 75% of what it says. The reason for that is that MFP and the gym machines don't know your personal stats (age, height, weight, current fitness level; VO2 max, max heart rate, I could go on) so it gives a crappy estimate.
First thing I personally would do is eat the 1200, which is meant to be your goal BEFORE EXERCISE in the MFP model;
Second, when recording exercise, I would personally either manually cut the calories by 1/3, or enter your length of exercise time as less than actual so that the calculation comes in lower;
Third, eat to the goal it gives you, even if it seems ridiculously inflated to you, because...
Fourth, you need to trust the process.
Fifth, follow this plan for a minimum of 4-6 weeks, then assess. If you have lost weight in this time, then it is working. If you have not, then look at making changes.
I agree that it is difficult for someone to burn 1200 calories in a day exercising. I also agree that some of the MFP numbers are way high.
But "almost no one can burn 1200" is an overstatement-especially if one is really active and sets baseline at sedentary.
This isn't the case at all. I burnt 2005 cals on Monday in 4hrs (tracked with my fitbit). If I'd done more hours I'd have burnt even more. You exercise a lot you burn a lot. That was an odd statement, unless you mean cal burn with no activity, I might have missed that point.2 -
WinoGelato wrote: »And does the app view on your phone give you something like this?
I do see that screen, but I do not see where you can get a avg. of a week or month.0 -
In the most basic scenario, yes. HOWEVER. I would question your burn, there's almost no one who can achieve a 1200+ calorie burn from exercise in a day. If you're getting your numbers from what My Fitness Pal tells you when you enter your exercises, or from the machines at the gym, you can be assured you're not actually burning as much as it tells you. Chances are you're burning MAYBE 75% of what it says. The reason for that is that MFP and the gym machines don't know your personal stats (age, height, weight, current fitness level; VO2 max, max heart rate, I could go on) so it gives a crappy estimate.
First thing I personally would do is eat the 1200, which is meant to be your goal BEFORE EXERCISE in the MFP model;
Second, when recording exercise, I would personally either manually cut the calories by 1/3, or enter your length of exercise time as less than actual so that the calculation comes in lower;
Third, eat to the goal it gives you, even if it seems ridiculously inflated to you, because...
Fourth, you need to trust the process.
Fifth, follow this plan for a minimum of 4-6 weeks, then assess. If you have lost weight in this time, then it is working. If you have not, then look at making changes.
I agree that it is difficult for someone to burn 1200 calories in a day exercising. I also agree that some of the MFP numbers are way high.
But "almost no one can burn 1200" is an overstatement-especially if one is really active and sets baseline at sedentary.
This isn't the case at all. I burnt 2005 cals on Monday in 4hrs (tracked with my fitbit). If I'd done more hours I'd have burnt even more. You exercise a lot you burn a lot. That was an odd statement, unless you mean cal burn with no activity, I might have missed that point.
It's early in the day. I didn't express my thought clearly,
I burn more than 1200 every day exercising.
It can be difficult for someone just beginning an exercise program to burn an additional 1200 calories (on top of what they burn through regular activities).
This was more what I intended to say. I shouldn't post after a 5.5 mile run and before coffee or breakfast.1 -
On the website you can get the consolidated report but even if you click on the "calories burned" line it will take you to a screen where you can see your totals for the last several weeks, you can average them yourself.WinoGelato wrote: »And does the app view on your phone give you something like this?
I do see that screen, but I do not see where you can get a avg. of a week or month.
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