Negative net calories

Loads of info here for you in a better way than I could ever explain http://www.shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com/

Imagine you've eaten 1000 calories but you've burned 500 at the gym, this means your body is running on just 500 calories to perform all of it's functions. This is not enough and as a result your body will start to burn muscle before fat as energy is more readily available from your muscle. Burning away lean muscle means that although your weight will decrease, so will your metabolism (as muscle is an active tissue actively burning calories through the day) If you continue with this pattern your metabolism will eventually slow down so much to reserve energy and you will stop losing weight. The amount of calories you net per day must be no lower than 1200 to allow your body to carry out all of its functions properly. I probably haven't explained this very well, I'm sure others will do a better job.

Good luck!

I try to eat 1200 cal and then a bit of my exercise calories. Never eat all of them... But I'm only 5'0 so I dont need as much food as a 6'0 person, so it depends. Also, a very overweight person can get away with not eating them back. It just depends. Some people eat them back, some dont. Do what works for you. But I wouldnt eat less than I burn, my net calories tend to stay at about 600-700 mark.

Some days you're eating less than 700 calories, please eat more!

MFP automatically factors in a calorie deficit to lose your target amount already, so you can eat all your daily allocation plus all or most of your exercise calories and still lose weight steadily, healthily and sustainably.

I find this hard also as I exercise daily and try to eat healthy, snack on fruit etc, but find I have to many calories left in the evening but dont want to eat rubbish just to use them up, but have had enough to eat so dont really want any more healthy stuff, the main time I go over slightly is probably weekend if I have a drink or eat out, but when I look at my diary through the day seems like I have eaten loads?????

I'm on 1650 caleries per day as suggested by MFP. I never eat my exercise calories and I've done fine losing weight.
The way I see this whole thing... we don't exercise so we can eat more calories every day. We exercise to build muscle and burn calories to lose more weight, or at least maintain our current weight. It doesn't make any sense to eat your exercise calories. It's counter productive.
I can do 45 minutes on the ellptical machine and burn over 1000 calories at my current weight and with the resistance at 100%. I'm certainly not going to eat an extra 1000 calories that day, but I will burn off approximately a 1/4 pound.

I find this hard also as I exercise daily and try to eat healthy, snack on fruit etc, but find I have to many calories left in the evening but dont want to eat rubbish just to use them up, but have had enough to eat so dont really want any more healthy stuff, the main time I go over slightly is probably weekend if I have a drink or eat out, but when I look at my diary through the day seems like I have eaten loads?????

I had a look at your diary and your lunches are tiny, sometimes only a banana and a yogurt. Have a sandwich too and you'll be sorted.

Agree my lunces are small, but usually have reasonable amount fryit in the afternoon to and to be honest feel satisfied after my lunch, if I have a sandwich like am doing today I cant eat yoghurt and banana to as I feel bloated, but I also drink the majority of my water while at work

I'm on 1650 caleries per day as suggested by MFP. I never eat my exercise calories and I've done fine losing weight.
The way I see this whole thing... we don't exercise so we can eat more calories every day. We exercise to build muscle and burn calories to lose more weight, or at least maintain our current weight. It doesn't make any sense to eat your exercise calories. It's counter productive.
I can do 45 minutes on the ellptical machine and burn over 1000 calories at my current weight and with the resistance at 100%. I'm certainly not going to eat an extra 1000 calories that day, but I will burn off approximately a 1/4 pound.

It's NOT counterproductive!!
MFP has already taken off the calories you need to NOT eat to lose weight.

I find this hard also as I exercise daily and try to eat healthy, snack on fruit etc, but find I have to many calories left in the evening but dont want to eat rubbish just to use them up, but have had enough to eat so dont really want any more healthy stuff, the main time I go over slightly is probably weekend if I have a drink or eat out, but when I look at my diary through the day seems like I have eaten loads?????

I had a look at your diary and your lunches are tiny, sometimes only a banana and a yogurt. Have a sandwich too and you'll be sorted.

Agree my lunces are small, but usually have reasonable amount fryit in the afternoon to and to be honest feel satisfied after my lunch, if I have a sandwich like am doing today I cant eat yoghurt and banana to as I feel bloated, but I also drink the majority of my water while at work

Tinks, you're not too far off where you should be. The OP is WAY too low, but you could get by by just adding a little more protein here and there. Don't be afraid of fats, fat doesn't make you fat. Good fats will bump your calorie intake and get you where you need to be. Add a handful of almonds, and a tbsp of peanut butter, or add a tbsp of olive oil to the pan when you cook your dinner. Any one of those things would put you just high enough not to be in danger of undereating. Check my diary for Monday and Tuesday (yesterday) for examples. low cal, TONS of food, and I was FULL all day. Sunday I was sick so don't look there, and before that I wasn't logging everything, just using a some quick adds as I am in maintenance and getting lazy about it. But the last 2 days are great examples.

I'm on 1650 caleries per day as suggested by MFP. I never eat my exercise calories and I've done fine losing weight.
The way I see this whole thing... we don't exercise so we can eat more calories every day. We exercise to build muscle and burn calories to lose more weight, or at least maintain our current weight. It doesn't make any sense to eat your exercise calories. It's counter productive.
I can do 45 minutes on the ellptical machine and burn over 1000 calories at my current weight and with the resistance at 100%. I'm certainly not going to eat an extra 1000 calories that day, but I will burn off approximately a 1/4 pound.

Eating back calories is for people with pretty low maintainence - maybe YOU exercise so you can burn calories, but people who have no problem eating just their minimum still need exercise to be physically fit, so they need to make up those calories to stay at maintainence. I used to think, why would I eat them back? the thing is, if I exercise and burn 300 cals for the sake of physical fitness upkeep, I am below maintainence and will go into starvation mode if it keeps up. Everyone has different numbers and some people can afford larger deficits and not eating back their exercise. Some cannot.

I agree with you 100%. If you're in maintenance you need to eat your exercise calories. I was referring to those of us still trying to lose weight.
I also agree that everyone is different. This is just what's been working for me so far.

oh, no, woops I didn't mean maintainence, I meant maintaining at the MFP cal limit (usually 500 under maintainence). sometimes I get confused, my bad But still, If I am eating what MFP says, I am still 500 cals under ACTUAL maintainence, and 400+ more from exercising is just too much of a deficit. I need to eat 1200 cals a day, but I like exercising, so I need to eat that back to STAY at 1200 a day. Anything less would start a starvation mode before long.

If you listened to people (and that includes me) you will be pulled back and forth, left and right.
Do what works for you. Is eating back the calories proven to work for you then do it. If having a huge calorie deficit made your body apply the breaks, e.g. plateau, then eat a little more than you were eating.
I made the mistake of 'listening' to the advise of well intention MFPals and confused me and frustrated me, more importantly halted my progress.
Pay close attention to what you do. Use the food diary and exercise notes to write about how you felt and highlight things that you think will make a difference and later come back to see if you were right. This technique proved to be more healthful than thousands of opinions from people who wasn't there. You are 100% of the time with you.

depends on what you mean by net. for most people on MFP when they say NET they mean the amount of calories MFP gives you without any exercise, PLUS the exercise calories.

I.E. Say you want to lose 1 lb per week, and MFP puts you at 1500 calories a day to do that (which would mean in order to maintain your weight you need 2000 calories), if you exercise for 500 calories, then your NET for the day is 2000 (1500 PLUS the 500 exercise), now in order to maintain that 1 lb per week you need to eat that 2000 calories.

Here's the thing, you can't just keep reducing and reducing the amount of calories you eat, the body will reject that notion. At a certain point your body won't be able to make up the difference and it will start messing with your metabolism and storing fat because it thinks you're starving and that's the body's response to starvation.

Of course this all depends on how much body fat you have, and all the other factors involved in the human metabolism. I.E. someone with 10 lbs to lose can't expect to lose 2 lbs a week, where as someone with 100 lbs to lose could easily do this.

After reading the post linked below, I now have a better understanding of how MFP is set up.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

Ok, so I will probably get hammered for this, but I will say it anyways. I NEVER eat back my calories for a variety of reasons:

1) I dont have money for an HRM so I never know exactly what I burned, so I never know exactly what to eat back.
2) This to me, defies a simple concept of calories in vs. calories out.
3) Away from this site, I have NEVER heard about eating back what you have lost.
4) On a personal note, I have lost 93 lbs (i think thats where I am at, I stopped counting) in a little more than 6 and a half months, by doing it the good 'ole fashion way.
5) Starvation mode to someone that is at 200 lbs seems a little ridiculous to me. Obviously, they are not starving- they are probably (and at least) 30 lbs over weight.

Thats it, and thats all. I am no expert, but I do have common sense. If it works for you, then work it.

Alot of people swear that you absolutely have to eat back every single exercise calorie, and are very adamant about it.

But I say do what feels right.

First of all, if you are not hungry, then you are not hungry. Alot of us are on here because in the past, we had a habit of eating when we weren't hungry, so why would I let some random number in my tracker allow me to continue that habit? I listen to my body now. After I tracked everything (calories, workout) and at the end of the day, I feel good and I'm not hungry, then I don't worry if my net calories are low. I do always eat more than 1200 calories per day - usually it's between 1300 and 1400, as a rule. But I don't pay attention to my 'net calories' and let it dictate my behavior. I listen to my body instead. There are some days, where I am hungry after I eat my base 1200 calories, and I want to eat more, and I do. But there are others when I'm completely satisfied and I leave it at that, because for me - this journey has been more about not letting food rule my behavior or use it as a comfort, and instead see it as what it is - fuel. I don't want to use 'net calories' as an excuse to eat more than I should. And I'm not saying that other people do that, but for me - that's what it would be - an excuse to eat more even when I'm not hungry.


Second of all, I don't have a heart rate monitor, and while I'm thinking about getting one, in the meantime, I don't know how accurate the calorie expended estimates are. I don't want to eat back all of the calories and then end up gaining weight because the estimates were too high.

Third, if you have a lot of weight to lose, from what I've read, your body will still burn the excess fat for energy even if you are low on 'net calories'.

And last, if anyone is really concerned about whether or not they are in 'starvation mode' by not eating back their exercise calories, here is a way to check: Track how many calories you've eaten over a period of time (say 2 weeks) and compare it to the number of calories you SHOULD have burned (exercise plus your BMR). This will give you a total deficit over that two week period. Divide that total deficit by 3500 to get the total number of pounds you should have lost, mathematically. How does that compare to the amount of weight you actually did lose over that period of time? If it's close, then chances are your BMR hasn't decreased and you are burning calories at the rate that is expected, so you likely aren't in starvation mode. If the amount you lost is a lot lower than what you expected based on the calorie deficit, then chances are your metabolism has decreased and you should probably be concerned about being in 'starvation mode'. Of course, all of this assumes that daily fluctuations in water weight do not come into play.

With all that said, I've lost 90 lbs so far without being concerned about eating back 'exercise calories'.

.....The amount of calories you net per day must be no lower than 1200 to allow your body to carry out all of its functions properly......

Ya? So a 305 lb college linebacker has the same caloric requirement as a 98 lb office worker?

No.... Your minimum caloric requirement is based on your weight, activity level, age and lean mass.

I wish people would stop the mis-information