Understanding Cals v Net Cals

kazdav
kazdav Posts: 62 Member
edited November 17 in Health and Weight Loss
Please help me understand. I am for the most part a sedentary middle aged office worker who barely manages more than a couple of thousand steps a day. I am realistic enough to know the body of my youth is probably not going to happen. Have been on and off the wagon more times than I count over the last 25 years. Ideally I would be more than happy if I could just lose 3 stone (42 lbs) which would bring me to about 12 stone (168lbs) which whilst still overweight for my height (5'8") would be a vast improvement.

To achieve this without too much pain I have set my weight loss at 1lb per week which gives me a daily calories total of 1530 cals. I have as of Wednesday got a new fitbit (had the one previously but it died in the washing machine). Ignoring Wednesday as didn't get it until the evening, these are my stats.

Cals Consumed (Thur 1737) (Fri 1728) (Sat 1861)
Exercise Cals (Thur 820) (Fri 416) (Sat 881)
Net Cals (Thur 917) (Fri 1312) (Sat 980)

Does this mean I actually did not eat enough? It goes against the grain to eat back your calories, although admittedly I have done so here as have exceeded my calorie allowance by 207, 198 and 331 cals respectively.

Grateful for your thoughts, my food diary is public and yes I know desserts shouldn't be on the menu but its the thing I can't seem to kick since giving up the weed (by that I mean cigarettes lol) over 26 years ago.

Oh and for the record, am not teetotal but rarely drink, I would say on average it is less than once a month unless I am on holiday.

Thank you

Replies

  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    That's some calorie burn. What did you do to burn all those?
  • kazdav
    kazdav Posts: 62 Member
    I made an effort to walk :D Steps wise (Thur 10879) (Fri 7,626) (Sat 10,651). And let me tell you I am feeling it. I have bought a Fitbit Charge 2. Because I am known to just sit at my desk and not move because work is so full on I have put a reminder on every hour to hit 250 steps and I have that on until 10pm. However as yesterday I had hit my 10k steps I ignored the reminders for the rest of the evening. Am beginning to wonder if I should be working my way up to 10k steps a day but will push on.

    Do you think the figures are wrong?
  • kazdav
    kazdav Posts: 62 Member
    Wish there was an edit function!. I also went for a walk around the grounds of where I work at lunchtime and then walked the dog in the evening. Yesterday being Saturday I walked him twice, normally I would get my son to walk him but during the week he goes to doggy daycare and gets about a 5 mile walk a day. The lady who looks after him showed me her step counter and she was on 19k for the day eek.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/12031-what-are-net-calories-

    "What are Net Calories?

    We set your nutritional target in Net Calories which we define as:

    Calories Consumed (Food) - Calories Burned (Exercise) = Net Calories

    This means that if you exercise, you will be able to eat more for that day. For example, if your Net Calorie goal is 2000 calories, one way to meet that goal is to eat 2,500 calories of food, but then burn 500 calories through exercise.

    Think of your Net Calories like a daily budget of calories to spend. You spend them by eating, and you earn more calories to eat by exercising. We do not recommend that women consume fewer than 1200 calories, or men fewer than 1500 calories, on a given day."

  • LisaEatSleepRun
    LisaEatSleepRun Posts: 159 Member
    kazdav wrote: »
    yes I know desserts shouldn't be on the menu

    Dessert is always on my menu! As long as it fits in your calorie budget, enjoy it often. A 1 lb loss seems like a sensible goal, however, I would subtract 20% of those exercise calories as they seem inflated. It takes me 90 minutes of running to burn 800 + calories. I have found with my exercise trackers, they take time to get to know you and your habits before becoming more reliable. Best of luck with your health journey!

  • kazdav
    kazdav Posts: 62 Member
    I have now reset both fitbit and MFP to 2lb a week weight loss, this is giving me 1200 cals per day so if I want to eat more I need to earn the calories. I am averaging about 1700 cals a day whilst still watching what I eat to a degree (it could be a lot worse) so will see how that works out.
  • TxTiffani
    TxTiffani Posts: 799 Member
    When you tell MFP that you want to lose 1 lb/ week the calories it gives you to eat already has a 500 calorie deficit included based on the activity level you told MFP (I'm assuming you set up sedentary as you are an office worker that didn't get much activity). You will lose on those calories whether you add extra exercise or not. If you choose to exercise for health then you earn more calories that you can and probably should eat at least a portion of.

    I am quite a bit shorter than you (5'0) and also work in an office and am set up as sedentary. What's been working for me is setting up for 1lb loss/ wk I get 1200 cals. I also try to ride my exercise bike for around an hr per day and record 50-60% of the calories MFP gives me and I eat them if I'm hungry:) Losing steadily 1-1.5lbs a week:)
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,242 Member
    I am confused by why everyone is confused.
    Steps are a proxy for a general level of detectable activity.
    10K steps a day is often defined as "ACTIVE".
    In other words if you had set your activity level on MFP as "active" instead of "sedentary" you would have seen a much smaller (or no) exercise adjustment when you achieved your 10K steps.
    So all is working as expected in that you've increased your activity therefore you would need to eat more to maintain the same size of deficit.
    if you do not eat more now that you are more active, your deficit will be larger.
    A larger deficit will result in faster weight loss.
    A faster weight loss is sometimes a good thing.
    However a faster weight loss is not *always* a good thing.
    Correct and sustainable weight loss for your particular case *is* almost always a good thing :smiley:
  • kazdav
    kazdav Posts: 62 Member
    Good morning, I think that I was working on the proviso that if I set it to 1200 cal (2lb loss) then I would need to earn the extra calories to be able to eat at a desirable level rather than set to 1lb per week giving me 1530 cals with the exercise adding an extra 600-700 cals which I then have to eat the majority of to ensure i lose weight correctly. Does that make sense? I guess as a rule my calorie intake is approx 1700-1800 per day so if I set it at 1lb per week I would still be eating a few of the calories back whereas at 1200 I will eat the majority back.
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