Negative Net Calories

aflies wrote: »

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?

SezxyStef wrote: »

RobD520 wrote: »

Phrick wrote: »

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.

RobD520 wrote: »

Phrick wrote: »

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.

Stevo_Ra wrote: »

RobD520 wrote: »

Phrick wrote: »

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.

Phrick wrote: »

NO!!!!!! Your net needs to be positive, and a minimum of 1200.

Minimum 1200 net? I thought it was minimum 1200 gross. Myfitnesspal gives you a stern talking to if your gross goes under 1200, but I don't think it does the same with the net. (pretty sure I've had net calories under 1200 after very heavy exercise).

However, even if your net intake might dip after an all day hike or something like that, your aim should be to keep it above 1200, averaging as close to the goal you've set as possible. And definitely not negative!

Negative net calories is crazy. That would be over 2 hours fast cycling on barely enough fuel to cover basic ticking over. Why would you want to do that to your body? You're trying to make it healthier, not punish it!

Still, for those of us that don't have multiple hours a day to devote to exercise, 1200 is a daunting number. I doubted that I was actually burning 700 calories day when I first started. The thing is the calorie math works in reverse too. I was able to confirm the calorie burn using this method. Divide your pounds lost over a few weeks by the number of days and then multiply by 3500, this is your average daily calorie deficit. Look up your basal metabolic rate on any of the calculators out there. Use sedentary activity level. Subtract your BMR from the calorie deficit your calculated. Then subtract your average daily calorie intake. The remainder is the portion of your calorie deficit attributable to exercise.

I disagree about eating all of your exercise calories back. It's really not necessary. I've been doing it this way for 6 months and am almost to goal (73 lost / 14 to go). I eat 1500 minimum (for a guy) but try to stay under 1700. I typically burn 600 or more per day. The key is to try to eat to goal (including exercise calories) on protein and fat, but ditch all the extra carbs. I'm not talking about keto, just try not to go too far over 100 grams. I plan to increase my calorie intake gradually as I approach goal. If I ate all of my exercise calories back, I would still be 25-30 pounds heavier. Progress is really important to keep yourself motivated.

The most effective diet is the one you can stick to long term. To that end, cutting back on carbs helps with appetite suppression.

aflies wrote: »

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.

It sounds very much like OP has gone OVER their daily calories, mine doesn't say 'net' it says 'remaining' but a minus number will mean you have eaten more than you should have done, not that you've burnt more than you've eaten.... Or am I mistaken? Maybe different on different platforms?

DebSozo wrote: »

sarabushby wrote: »

aflies wrote: »

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.

It sounds very much like OP has gone OVER their daily calories, mine doesn't say 'net' it says 'remaining' but a minus number will mean you have eaten more than you should have done, not that you've burnt more than you've eaten.... Or am I mistaken? Maybe different on different platforms?

That's how mine is on my Samsung phone which is why I was confused.

Yeah, mine too. I have to click on the nutrition tab to see my net calories.