Not understanding "net calories" and predicted weight
madirmfp
Posts: 24 Member
I don't understand the whole net calories thing on mfp.
For example , lets say I eat 1400 calories and burn no calories with exercise...mfp says "you would weight "x" in 5 weeks"
And another day I eat 1600 calories and burn 300 but the "x" goes up in value even though my net calories is lower. I feel like calories are calories and the net amount should determine weight loss/gain. I'm confused.
Is this a fluke or is there a reason?
For example , lets say I eat 1400 calories and burn no calories with exercise...mfp says "you would weight "x" in 5 weeks"
And another day I eat 1600 calories and burn 300 but the "x" goes up in value even though my net calories is lower. I feel like calories are calories and the net amount should determine weight loss/gain. I'm confused.
Is this a fluke or is there a reason?
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Replies
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What's your daily calorie goal?0
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1200hlblakeley wrote: »What's your daily calorie goal?
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Okay, so in the first example you were 200 net cals over and in the second you were 400 total cals but only 100 net cals over is that correct?0
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I don't understand the whole net calories thing on mfp.
For example , lets say I eat 1400 calories and burn no calories with exercise...mfp says "you would weight "x" in 5 weeks"
And another day I eat 1600 calories and burn 300 but the "x" goes up in value even though my net calories is lower. I feel like calories are calories and the net amount should determine weight loss/gain. I'm confused.
Is this a fluke or is there a reason?
I don't think most people pay any attention to that predicted weight thing. No website can tell me how much I am going to weigh in a given amount of time. Too many other factors.2 -
hlblakeley wrote: »Okay, so in the first example you were 200 net cals over and in the second you were 400 total cals but only 100 net cals over is that correct?
That was just an example. Sometimes I eat 1200 calories no exercise. And it says I'll weight "whatever number" (it changes)
And sometimes I'll eat 1400 but burn 300 and have a net of 1100,but that number will be more than if I had a net of 1200.
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I don't pay attention to it at all.2
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fitmom4lifemfp wrote: »I don't understand the whole net calories thing on mfp.
For example , lets say I eat 1400 calories and burn no calories with exercise...mfp says "you would weight "x" in 5 weeks"
And another day I eat 1600 calories and burn 300 but the "x" goes up in value even though my net calories is lower. I feel like calories are calories and the net amount should determine weight loss/gain. I'm confused.
Is this a fluke or is there a reason?
I don't think most people pay any attention to that predicted weight thing. No website can tell me how much I am going to weigh in a given amount of time. Too many other factors.
I get that, but I still want to understand the relationship. I'm sure it's a generic number if everything were perfect .
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How often do you enter your weight into MFP? Because if you weighed more on the day that you net 1100 than you did on the day you net 1200, this could be why0
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i do it every other week. I try to look at my progress in inches vs pounds as much as possible. Just so I don't panic when there is clearly progressHow often do you enter your weight into MFP? Because if you weighed more on the day that you net 1100 than you did on the day you net 1200, this could be why
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The "you would weigh X in five weeks" is simply an algorithm based on what you ate THAT DAY. People have mixed reactions to it - some find it motivating, some find it completely irrelevant to their progress and in fact, get frustrated with it because it is not accurate - weight loss is not linear and cant be predicted that accurately.
Personally, I ignore it. It is not possible to eat exactly the same thing in the same amounts every day, so its really meaningless.
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Some people reported issues with that algorithm some time ago, if I remember correctly. Maybe it's still an issue?1
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fitmom4lifemfp wrote: »I don't understand the whole net calories thing on mfp.
For example , lets say I eat 1400 calories and burn no calories with exercise...mfp says "you would weight "x" in 5 weeks"
And another day I eat 1600 calories and burn 300 but the "x" goes up in value even though my net calories is lower. I feel like calories are calories and the net amount should determine weight loss/gain. I'm confused.
Is this a fluke or is there a reason?
I don't think most people pay any attention to that predicted weight thing. No website can tell me how much I am going to weigh in a given amount of time. Too many other factors.
I get that, but I still want to understand the relationship. I'm sure it's a generic number if everything were perfect .
I think you are spinning your wheels bothering with it. Are you going to replicate your daily activity, sleep, bowel movements, urination, food, EXACTLY each day? It's simply not possible to predict a future weight unless you are a science experiment.
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Net is the most important number if it's giving you a higher weight when you net lower there's something wrong with the algorithm. Report it to MFP and ignore it. I'll have to say I haven't noticed the different values because I rarely memorise/write down the "you'll be this in 5 week figure" from one day to the next as I just click straight past since I rarely have two days the same so it's fairly meaningless to me.1
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I haven't paid any attention to that number, as I keep my own projections. But, I wonder if it's based on the weekly average net calories, so a rolling average to the particular day you're logging, rather than a single day. To me that's a reasonable way to approximate it, but maybe there's just flat out a bug in their algorithm.1
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It's not about the weight itself. It's about the relationship between net calories and weight loss in generalfitmom4lifemfp wrote: »fitmom4lifemfp wrote: »I don't understand the whole net calories thing on mfp.
For example , lets say I eat 1400 calories and burn no calories with exercise...mfp says "you would weight "x" in 5 weeks"
And another day I eat 1600 calories and burn 300 but the "x" goes up in value even though my net calories is lower. I feel like calories are calories and the net amount should determine weight loss/gain. I'm confused.
Is this a fluke or is there a reason?
I don't think most people pay any attention to that predicted weight thing. No website can tell me how much I am going to weigh in a given amount of time. Too many other factors.
I get that, but I still want to understand the relationship. I'm sure it's a generic number if everything were perfect .
I think you are spinning your wheels bothering with it. Are you going to replicate your daily activity, sleep, bowel movements, urination, food, EXACTLY each day? It's simply not possible to predict a future weight unless you are a science experiment.
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I usually use inches to measure my progress. I was just confused about the whole thing. Just to know if it would be effecting my progress in general.animatorswearbras wrote: »Net is the most important number if it's giving you a higher weight when you net lower there's something wrong with the algorithm. Report it to MFP and ignore it. I'll have to say I haven't noticed the different values because I rarely memorise/write down the "you'll be this in 5 week figure" from one day to the next as I just click straight past since I rarely have two days the same so it's fairly meaningless to me.
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Maybe it only takes in account your food intake and not exercise ??0
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It is supposed to take everything into account. Like others have said, it is something that can be ignored if it's causing you stress or you can use it to motivate yourself. Since you tend to ignore scale weight and go by inches anyway, I'd ignore it.1
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Yeah that's what I was wondering. I love math so it looks like I have some reading and research to do. ☺️RedSquadronLeader wrote: »I haven't paid any attention to that number, as I keep my own projections. But, I wonder if it's based on the weekly average net calories, so a rolling average to the particular day you're logging, rather than a single day. To me that's a reasonable way to approximate it, but maybe there's just flat out a bug in their algorithm.
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I wish it were accurate I would have been at my goal 6 months ago! Lol
I try not to look at it2 -
Yeah that's what I was wondering. I love math so it looks like I have some reading and research to do. ☺️RedSquadronLeader wrote: »I haven't paid any attention to that number, as I keep my own projections. But, I wonder if it's based on the weekly average net calories, so a rolling average to the particular day you're logging, rather than a single day. To me that's a reasonable way to approximate it, but maybe there's just flat out a bug in their algorithm.
No. It's just based on the day. It is based on your net for the day. So unless you aren't entering your exercises, something does seem off. Can you open your diary?0 -
Oh. Also, you CANNOT go back and look at a previous day and see results based on that days weight. So if you go back 5 weeks, MFP will estimate what you would weigh based on TODAY's weight and your deficit for that day. So If I go back to last September when I started, it tells me I would weigh 238 in 5 weeks. Last September I was 320 lbs or so.
I started noting the 5 week number in the notes after I closed a day.0 -
Im one of those that get motivated when i see .. " you'll weigh x in 5 weeks"cross2bear wrote: »The "you would weigh X in five weeks" is simply an algorithm based on what you ate THAT DAY. People have mixed reactions to it - some find it motivating, some find it completely irrelevant to their progress and in fact, get frustrated with it because it is not accurate - weight loss is not linear and cant be predicted that accurately.
Personally, I ignore it. It is not possible to eat exactly the same thing in the same amounts every day, so its really meaningless.
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Tacklewasher wrote: »Oh. Also, you CANNOT go back and look at a previous day and see results based on that days weight. So if you go back 5 weeks, MFP will estimate what you would weigh based on TODAY's weight and your deficit for that day. So If I go back to last September when I started, it tells me I would weigh 238 in 5 weeks. Last September I was 320 lbs or so.
I started noting the 5 week number in the notes after I closed a day.
I can open my diary if you promise not to judge
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