net calories v calories eaten

fitforzoe · May 2016

ok, so i am currently losing 2 lbs per week, i come here to write down my food because i am a person who forgets to eat and so one of a couple of things happen. 1. i don't eat until i am so hungry that i just want to grab something easy instead of preparing anything and i end up close to the calories i need but they all come from one really badly planned meal. or 2. i simply don't eat enough calories in the day.

when i write down my food, i do really well...i think i even raise my metabolism because i feel myself getting hungry at appropriate times, and so i think my body is jump started. plus i can see and plan what i put in to my body and i make the suggested calories.

here is my issue. i am still not making my net calories on the days that i exercise...when i do cardio, my net calories drop to around 800-900...even though i am taking in the suggested amount calorie wise if i were to not exercise. i dont feel more hungry (or if i do, i do eat more).....and so i guess i am wanting to know if it becomes dangerous when the net calories drop too low...or just the calories themselves?

WBB55 · May 2016

I don't know if you're weighing your food on a scale to know for sure that you're eating 1200 every day. And your profile doesn't say much about you. However, unless you're 50+ lbs overweight, you might be doing yourself long-ish term harm by losing an average of 2 lbs per week, if you've been losing over the long term. Also, how are you calculating your exercise burn?

I personally would want to net more than 800-900, myself. My performance at the gym suffers if I don't net an average of about 1200/day at least.

If you're losing 2 lbs per week on average at a net of 900 on average, that means your TDEE is 1900 or so. This isn't very high if it includes 300-400 extra exercise calories per day. That puts your TDEE before exercise at about 1500-1600. At a guess, you probably don't have much to lose. The closer you are to your goal weight, the more important it is to be accurate with your logging and the weight of foods/calories. The closer you are to your goal weight, the more ill effects you might get from losing weight too fast. The most likely is that it will come back fast when you go back to eating "normal." But other things like losing your period, losing your hair, bone loss... these also can happen. So, consider the long term effects of eating so little if you're already close to your goal weight, ok? (But like I said, I'm unsure of your current stats and goals)

RoxieDawn · May 2016

This sounds like logging should be put as a priority into loosing weight first and foremost. Guesstimating foods by just writing them down is not a useful tool. Plus there is no jump starting the metabolism. Your metabolism is already working to its ability, but it will slow down if you put a huge amount of stress on it by exercising and under eating calories for the day for a period of time. Eventually things will happen like the above poster stated.

Your profile and diary is completely private so I do not even have a clue as to your age, so I hope that you are younger person and just learning the MFP process. I would need to know your weight and age before I can assume 2 pounds is too aggressive. I agree with the 50 pounds and over being about right to loose this much a week.

You need to net the calories. Trust me not eating them will reak havoc at some point, maybe not for some time, but it can cause issues. And since you are asking the forums, I think you are concerned about what it may do overall.

I will highly recommend buying a food scale to aid in your food logging and consumption. This will be a game changer in your weight loss journey.

fitforzoe · May 2016

i am sorry if i wasn't clear. i am 42. i do log my food. my question is not *am i eating enough calories* i am eating calories according to my plan. i have been dealing with nutrition and health for most of my life. i was a water aerobics instructor for awhile and so i know basically what i need to do. the issue is...i threw my back out a little over a year ago and i packed on some weight because i couldnt move. i am now trying to get back to normal...i need to lose about 50 lbs still....so i have it set at 2lbs per week until i am within the 30 lb range.

but the thing is the reports show NET calories...this includes the exercise i do, which is 30-60 minutes 3-5 times per week of either speed waling, rebounding, and starting tomorrow water aerobics and pool laps. this is not my issue.

my issue is if the NET calories fall under 1k (which basically the program will tell me if i am not consuming at least this many calories in a day it is dangerous...a thing i already know, but it only does this if my actual food consumed is below it, not my net calories). so i need to know...if someone knows....if the net calories matter more than the calories eaten

but it looks like both of you are saying go by the net calories, which is pretty much what i figured but it so much disappoints me because really i dont crave an extra 300 calories of food per day.

i appreciate your time

geneticsteacher · May 2016

How are you measuring your calories from cardio?

RobD520 · May 2016

fitforzoe wrote: »

i am sorry if i wasn't clear. i am 42. i do log my food. my question is not *am i eating enough calories* i am eating calories according to my plan. i have been dealing with nutrition and health for most of my life. i was a water aerobics instructor for awhile and so i know basically what i need to do. the issue is...i threw my back out a little over a year ago and i packed on some weight because i couldnt move. i am now trying to get back to normal...i need to lose about 50 lbs still....so i have it set at 2lbs per week until i am within the 30 lb range.

but the thing is the reports show NET calories...this includes the exercise i do, which is 30-60 minutes 3-5 times per week of either speed waling, rebounding, and starting tomorrow water aerobics and pool laps. this is not my issue.

my issue is if the NET calories fall under 1k (which basically the program will tell me if i am not consuming at least this many calories in a day it is dangerous...a thing i already know, but it only does this if my actual food consumed is below it, not my net calories). so i need to know...if someone knows....if the net calories matter more than the calories eaten

but it looks like both of you are saying go by the net calories, which is pretty much what i figured but it so much disappoints me because really i dont crave an extra 300 calories of food per day.

i appreciate your time

The one proviso is that some of the calorie burn estimates people get, either from MFP or other means can be very high.

Some people are successful by eating half their exercise calories back at first and adjusting as they get more data. I am ~64 pounds down, with 8-9 to go; and I eat probably 90 percent of my exercise calories back

fitforzoe · May 2016

geneticsteacher wrote: »

How are you measuring your calories from cardio?

i use mapmyrun, and i google ideas of calories burned. also sometimes i will use the built in tool here

@rob. first off...very good job. second, ok that is promising, i think i can manage to eat back 50% without too much stress. thanks for the advice.

net calories v calories eaten

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