Calories or net calories

chloehodkin1x
chloehodkin1x Posts: 3 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Should your net calories ever be in the minus (-) I do quite a lot of exercise, but should my net calories ever be in the minus numbers.

Replies

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,108 Member
    I presume you mean the number on the right hand side, the number of remaining calories?

    You should aim as close to zero as possible (but still a positive number).
    Sometimes calorie burn for exercise can be overestimated, so some people here encourage people to not eat back all the calories from exercise, only half or so.
  • chloehodkin1x
    chloehodkin1x Posts: 3 Member
    Not exactly. I mean the net calories of when you click on exercise and it gives total calories eaten. Net calories and goal. So the net calories there, should they be close to zero or do the net calories need to equal your goal

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,940 Member
    Well, we don't know what you're looking at...but in general your Net calories on the Home page dashboard should equal "0"

    If your calorie goal first thing in the morning is (for instance) 1700 and you do some exercise and burn 300 calories, your Goal is then 2000, and your Net still needs to be "0" - so you are essentially eating 2000 calories for the day.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,030 Member
    OK, another variant of the clarifying questions: Are you looking at the Nutrition page in the phone app, in the day view of the calories part, where there's pie chart near the top, then total, net, and goal calories near the bottom? If so, that "net calorie" number should be close to your "goal" number (plus or minus a little is fine).

    If that net caloire number is zero, you are profoundly, seriously, dangerously undereating. A zero there would mean you have (between daily life and and exercise) done the equivalent of eating nothing. Eating nothing (or doing the equivalent via exercise) leads to a bad place, and quickly.

    Assuming you have your MFP profile set up correctly, you want net calories on that page to equal goal calories, or close to it. You do not want that net calorie number to be lots lower than your goal calories, because if you do that even somewhat regularly, you are creating a serious health risk.

    If you're looking at something else, somewhere else, then please clarify.
  • Terytha
    Terytha Posts: 2,097 Member
    Net calories on MFP is your goal.

    If your goal is 1500, and you eat 1500 but then burn 1500 with exercise, you need to eat another 1500.

    A negative number would be crazy dangerous.

    On the app, it shows you a calories remaining number, that's the only number that should be near zero.

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