Total calories vs Net calories

aimos87
aimos87 Posts: 55 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi just wondering when looking at your total for 7 days in mfp do u look sat total or net calories and what should I hope to see? Deficit in total or goal in net?

Thanks

Replies

  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    Net.

    It's like your paycheck - do you care about gross income or net income?
  • jefamer2017
    jefamer2017 Posts: 416 Member
    This is where I get confused too. My net calories always say around 900. I am losing at the expected rate of approximately 2lbs a week. If my net were at 1400 I'd only be losing a lb or so. Something must be off. It's probably my Fitbit.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    jefamer2017 wrote: »
    This is where I get confused too. My net calories always say around 900. I am losing at the expected rate of approximately 2lbs a week. If my net were at 1400 I'd only be losing a lb or so. Something must be off. It's probably my Fitbit.

    They are all just estimates, and depending on how you estimate, any of those numbers could be off by a significant amount. Really, they should just be viewed as starting points... once you have a few weeks' worth of data, you can tweak things so your actual results are more in line with your expected results.
  • jefamer2017
    jefamer2017 Posts: 416 Member
    jjpptt2 wrote: »
    jefamer2017 wrote: »
    This is where I get confused too. My net calories always say around 900. I am losing at the expected rate of approximately 2lbs a week. If my net were at 1400 I'd only be losing a lb or so. Something must be off. It's probably my Fitbit.

    They are all just estimates, and depending on how you estimate, any of those numbers could be off by a significant amount. Really, they should just be viewed as starting points... once you have a few weeks' worth of data, you can tweak things so your actual results are more in line with your expected results.

    This is why I don't eat back my exercise calories either. I do eat more on days I work because I'm constantly moving. But on days where I only exercise I eat around 1400 calories.

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