Are negative net calories bad
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If you eat the 600 extra you will maintain the original deficit built into the 1200 goal.Sorry, but I'm a bit confused. My calorie intake should be 1200 calories a day. When I complete my workouts, I've burnt off about 600 calories, so does that I mean I should eat 600 more calories or should I not eat anymore?
Worth asking yourself how accurate the 600 is. It's one hour at 100% flat out for me (which I can't do, obviously).0 -
How many?
If you eat 1800 and you had a kick butt workout and burned 2000, that's one thing.
If you eat 500 and work off 2000, then, yeah...problem.
You're talking 2000 exercise calories, right? Then both situations are bad.0 -
The six hundred is based on the calories burned equation (from the livestrong website) and my avg heart rate throughout the exercise. I check my heart rate through out the exercise to try and get an average of how hard I'm working.0
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I started paying more attention my Total Daily Energy Expenditure which calculates the amount of calories you need in a day. It is similar to BMR which measures calories you need to survive. TDEE includes the amount of calories you burn in exercise. There are a few mathematical formulas you can use to calculate both numbers or hundreds of online calculators. This link is one.
http://www.quickbmr.com/what-is-tdee.html#
Your TDEE is the total calories after including exercise so there are no "net" calories or questions about eating back calories. My TDEE is 2,600 calories a day.
If you are looking to lose weight you should reduce TDEE by 20%. For me that would mean cutting 520 calories (1 pound per week).
Remember, All of the information available on the Internet is generic so try eating TDEE for a few weeks and see the results.0 -
Okay. This one is a sensitive one... Especially when you're all set to shred, and you feel like you wanna be in the best shape of your life... And you have that 'I'm on a roll' feeling.
I spoke to a friend of mine who just qualified as a doctor and we thrashed this out. Here is what happened.
I argued that if I wanna shred, real quick, get my results the fastest possible way, net cals are the way to go. When you notice a plateu or the results slowing down... Naturally you wanna kick it up a gear, if you feel like you have the discipline you target the cal intake. If you feel like you have the drive you target the cals through exercises.
He said, your body isnt that simple. There are medical risks attached to what you want to do: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Metabolic_diseases.aspx
After seeing all the potential risks that could happen to me or anyone else attempting the net cal diet... I thought to myself, whats worth doing? Riding out the plateu and holding the cal intake at 1,500 - 300 of exercise? Or taking those fast results? (long term or short term)
I'll leave that to you.1 -
bump0
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chachadiva150 wrote: »How many?
If you eat 1800 and you had a kick butt workout and burned 2000, that's one thing.
If you eat 500 and work off 2000, then, yeah...problem.
Both are bad but second is worse. eating 1800 and burning 2000 would be like eating 500 and burning 700, neither is good. if your goal is 1400 cals an you burn 2000 than that day you should eat 3400, if you only burn 500 you should eat 1900, if you don't exercise you should eat 1400.
Keep in mind the 1400 cals is your daily goal to lose your goal amount of weight per week, with no exercise.0 -
If you don't stay below your net, you're not going to lose any weight. That's the general idea as long as you told MFP that you don't want to lose weight. When you tell MFP that you want to do that and at which rate, it will automatically lower the net it shows you below your actual net.
Just keep in mind that you should eat back most of the cal you burn during an exercise, at least most of the time. It's okay to drop even lower below the net from time to time, but especially if you want to build up muscles and shape up, you have to give your body nutrients to do that. (Building up muscles gains weight, though, so check your measurements once a week.)
Important: Get enough protein. Protein helps losing weight as well, because your body gains energy from breaking it down, but has to put even more energy into building things from protein afterwards. (Which your body will do if you exercise.) Again, no / less weight loss because you transform "light" fat into "heavy" muscles.0 -
in my view, you shouldn't eat if you don't feel hungry. You will soon enough. Keep any eye on a rolling 24 hour period. You can be negative net for today, but NOT negative net in the last 24hours.
And if you do feel hungry but want to eat something special/specific and not something you should eat then recognize that's a food fad and you are not actually hungry. But generally I aim for zero net calories, and sometimes I am over and sometimes I am under by a few %.
Have to keep in mind that the calories burned in an effort is an estimate with error margins, and the calories you need in a day is similarly packed with assumptions and varies by person.
If you are trying to close a gap on any given day to get to zero net calories, close the gap with raw veggies and some natural low fat protein (tofu, fish in no sauce, lean chicken breast) and not with cereals, sugars, snacks, white bread, or other processed or junk food fad foods. Eating just to to close the calorie gap is a time to eat really good choices, or not at all!
If you have sustained days over days when you seem to be at negative net calories then there is math flaw - either the target value is wrong (for your activity level) or the estimates of calories based on food or exercise are wrong.
This is what worked for me: Your experience may vary.2 -
Zombie thread.
Focusing just on a new post and ignoring those from 2012...aufstieg90 wrote: »I argued that if I wanna shred, real quick, get my results the fastest possible way, net cals are the way to go. When you notice a plateu or the results slowing down... Naturally you wanna kick it up a gear, if you feel like you have the discipline you target the cal intake. If you feel like you have the drive you target the cals through exercises.
He said, your body isnt that simple. There are medical risks attached to what you want to do: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Metabolic_diseases.aspx
After seeing all the potential risks that could happen to me or anyone else attempting the net cal diet... I thought to myself, whats worth doing? Riding out the plateu and holding the cal intake at 1,500 - 300 of exercise? Or taking those fast results? (long term or short term)
I'll leave that to you.
What is the net cal diet? You mean going negative net?
Bigger issue that avoids the confusing in how people use net is what the total deficit is -- how many calories are you burning (including but not limited to exercise) and how many are you eating? And also how common it is -- doing something for a day doesn't matter (well, within reason, of course).0 -
aufstieg90 wrote: »Okay. This one is a sensitive one... Especially when you're all set to shred, and you feel like you wanna be in the best shape of your life... And you have that 'I'm on a roll' feeling.
I spoke to a friend of mine who just qualified as a doctor and we thrashed this out. Here is what happened.
I argued that if I wanna shred, real quick, get my results the fastest possible way, net cals are the way to go. When you notice a plateu or the results slowing down... Naturally you wanna kick it up a gear, if you feel like you have the discipline you target the cal intake. If you feel like you have the drive you target the cals through exercises.
He said, your body isnt that simple. There are medical risks attached to what you want to do: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Metabolic_diseases.aspx
After seeing all the potential risks that could happen to me or anyone else attempting the net cal diet... I thought to myself, whats worth doing? Riding out the plateu and holding the cal intake at 1,500 - 300 of exercise? Or taking those fast results? (long term or short term)
I'll leave that to you.
Did you search this post out to bump from 2012?
What if I don't want to "shred"?
I'm not sure what a "net cal diet" is that you are referring to.
There seems to be a lot of confusion around what the OP from 2012 was even referring to and it isn't likely that 4 years later we are going to get an answer.... but I'm also not understanding what you (or your doctor friend) are suggesting. Can you be more specific? What is your TDEE? What calorie intake are you recommending? What is your exercise calorie burn? What rate of loss are you calling "fast results"?
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Recommended minimum intake is 1200/day for females, 1500/day for males, unless under medical supervision.
Thats NET cals, for an average size person of the appropriate sex.0 -
I don't think a lot of people actually eat negative calories... Most overweight people have a TDEE of 2000+ and frankly I highly doubt that most of them actually burn even 1000 from exercise in a day... IMO people who believe that they are eating negative calories WAY underestimate their food and overestimate their burn.0
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Since this thread got revived... figured I'd leave this here and get the community's thoughts.
To give you some back ground, I lost about 90 lbs a few years ago, averaged 2 lbs a week and got down to about 176 lbs. It was healthy and over a good span of time. As working out and cardio increased, I started doing Triathlons to include 3 half Ironman races along with the Vermont Ultra Spartan Beast. Through my training, I would easily burn 2000-2500 calories a day. Sure, I would go into negatives for a day or even two or three.. but my body would eventually tell me to eat more and I did until I felt I had enough fuel to keep going. I maintained pretty well.
Last year, life kicked me in the balls and I gained back about 60 lbs of it very quickly, but I still worked out semi regularly. No where near the volume I once did.... About a month ago my local gym started a "Get Fit Challenge" with a prize of $50K. I figured I was adequately plump enough to have enough fat to shed to show a good before and after image. Add in that EAS, Healthy Loser and Bodybuilding.com all have $5K contests as well in which I'm simultaneously signed up for... $65K in prizes is a hell of motivator. Then to top it off with a the Austin Half IM at the end of October.... I'm back in.
So far in a month, I've lost 18 lbs and 6% BF by eating 1550 cal (very clean foods, five x 300 cal meals / 30% Carb / 30% Fat / 40% Protein) a day and along with exercise, I'm only net'ing about 500 cals on average for the last month. My training is now basically doubling in volume and now I'm running into net negatives.. probably -500 each day. I'm at 217 lbs / 28% BF. Also... unlike my previous weight loss that showed muscle along with fat loss in the beginning before I started lifting weights, my lean mass has stayed the same.
To win this thing, I need to get down to 170ish at about 10% BF by November 8. At my present rate, it's very doable. So far, my energy has been outstanding with what I've been eating. I don't know if this is good or bad, but it seems to be working for me... for now.
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kbuchaniec wrote: »Since this thread got revived... figured I'd leave this here and get the community's thoughts.
To give you some back ground, I lost about 90 lbs a few years ago, averaged 2 lbs a week and got down to about 176 lbs. It was healthy and over a good span of time. As working out and cardio increased, I started doing Triathlons to include 3 half Ironman races along with the Vermont Ultra Spartan Beast. Through my training, I would easily burn 2000-2500 calories a day. Sure, I would go into negatives for a day or even two or three.. but my body would eventually tell me to eat more and I did until I felt I had enough fuel to keep going. I maintained pretty well.
Last year, life kicked me in the balls and I gained back about 60 lbs of it very quickly, but I still worked out semi regularly. No where near the volume I once did.... About a month ago my local gym started a "Get Fit Challenge" with a prize of $50K. I figured I was adequately plump enough to have enough fat to shed to show a good before and after image. Add in that EAS, Healthy Loser and Bodybuilding.com all have $5K contests as well in which I'm simultaneously signed up for... $65K in prizes is a hell of motivator. Then to top it off with a the Austin Half IM at the end of October.... I'm back in.
So far in a month, I've lost 18 lbs and 6% BF by eating 1550 cal (very clean foods, five x 300 cal meals / 30% Carb / 30% Fat / 40% Protein) a day and along with exercise, I'm only net'ing about 500 cals on average for the last month. My training is now basically doubling in volume and now I'm running into net negatives.. probably -500 each day. I'm at 217 lbs / 28% BF. Also... unlike my previous weight loss that showed muscle along with fat loss in the beginning before I started lifting weights, my lean mass has stayed the same.
To win this thing, I need to get down to 170ish at about 10% BF by November 8. At my present rate, it's very doable. So far, my energy has been outstanding with what I've been eating. I don't know if this is good or bad, but it seems to be working for me... for now.
How are you measuring your lean mass? At the restricted numbers you're eating at, there is no way under the sun that you aren't losing LBM as well. You don't know if it's good or bad, I'll be the one to start...if you're netting 500 cals a day (or less) it's bad. Do you have a doctor supervising this? Seriously?0 -
kbuchaniec wrote: »Since this thread got revived... figured I'd leave this here and get the community's thoughts.
To give you some back ground, I lost about 90 lbs a few years ago, averaged 2 lbs a week and got down to about 176 lbs. It was healthy and over a good span of time. As working out and cardio increased, I started doing Triathlons to include 3 half Ironman races along with the Vermont Ultra Spartan Beast. Through my training, I would easily burn 2000-2500 calories a day. Sure, I would go into negatives for a day or even two or three.. but my body would eventually tell me to eat more and I did until I felt I had enough fuel to keep going. I maintained pretty well.
Last year, life kicked me in the balls and I gained back about 60 lbs of it very quickly, but I still worked out semi regularly. No where near the volume I once did.... About a month ago my local gym started a "Get Fit Challenge" with a prize of $50K. I figured I was adequately plump enough to have enough fat to shed to show a good before and after image. Add in that EAS, Healthy Loser and Bodybuilding.com all have $5K contests as well in which I'm simultaneously signed up for... $65K in prizes is a hell of motivator. Then to top it off with a the Austin Half IM at the end of October.... I'm back in.
So far in a month, I've lost 18 lbs and 6% BF by eating 1550 cal (very clean foods, five x 300 cal meals / 30% Carb / 30% Fat / 40% Protein) a day and along with exercise, I'm only net'ing about 500 cals on average for the last month. My training is now basically doubling in volume and now I'm running into net negatives.. probably -500 each day. I'm at 217 lbs / 28% BF. Also... unlike my previous weight loss that showed muscle along with fat loss in the beginning before I started lifting weights, my lean mass has stayed the same.
To win this thing, I need to get down to 170ish at about 10% BF by November 8. At my present rate, it's very doable. So far, my energy has been outstanding with what I've been eating. I don't know if this is good or bad, but it seems to be working for me... for now.
You regularly net -500 cals a day? Dude, this is neither healthy nor sustainable. You'll collapse before you can cash in on the $65K. Please stop damaging your body this way.
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what i always try to do is to eat my maintenance or a bit over it every day, as long as i do that i know that those 1k kcal that i burn in the gym doing cardio wont harm me.0
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