Net Calories vs Gross Calories?
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elisacueva183
Posts: 6 Member
HI MFP community,
I'm a bit confused between these two concepts. Well, I understand them but what I'm not sure if I need to net 1260 calories or just eat 1260. Currently, I have been tracking my food at 1260-1300 calories a day but I'm burning around 500 working out that will be around 750 net calories. Is this fine or am I eating too little to put my body into starvation mode?
Any help will be greatly appreciated!
I'm a bit confused between these two concepts. Well, I understand them but what I'm not sure if I need to net 1260 calories or just eat 1260. Currently, I have been tracking my food at 1260-1300 calories a day but I'm burning around 500 working out that will be around 750 net calories. Is this fine or am I eating too little to put my body into starvation mode?
Any help will be greatly appreciated!
0
Replies
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No it's not fine to net so little - but no you won't put yourself into the mythical starvation mode.
Your goal is only 1260 on a day you do no exercise. When you exercise you should eat more, just like you would put more fuel in your car if you drove it further.7 -
You want to *net* your original calorie goal.
So if your goal is 1,260 and you do additional exercise to burn 500, you will want to eat 1,760 so that you *net* your goal.
"Starvation mode" isn't real, but 750 calories net isn't enough to run your body, your exercise, and your additional activities. You run the risk of low energy, muscle loss, food cravings, and potentially serious side effects.
So if you're confident that you're burning 500 calories in exercise (some calorie estimators give inflated rates, so it depends how you got that number), you will want to eat those back.3 -
You should eat to net calories. If you burn 500 calories in exercise, you should eat those, or at least a portion fo those. It isn't healthy to eat under 1200 calories, net. You won't go into starvation mode, that's a myth, but you won't have the essential nutrients you need to stay healthy and after a while you won't have the energy you need to do your exercise. You will also soon begin to feel deprived, which will make it more likely that you will end up cheating or ending the weight loss endeavor entirely.1
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Thank you so much all for your responses!!! Just one thing, I'm not hungry at all or have less energy that's why I was wondering. I feel if I eat more than what I have been eating I will be so full but I have also been struggling with lose weight and now I think I know the answer. I guess I can complement, my workout calories with peanut butter or nuts that are good fats and have a lot of calories right? Do you think that may be a good idea?0
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elisacueva183 wrote: »Thank you so much all for your responses!!! Just one thing, I'm not hungry at all or have less energy that's why I was wondering. I feel if I eat more than what I have been eating I will be so full but I have also been struggling with lose weight and now I think I know the answer. I guess I can complement, my workout calories with peanut butter or nuts that are good fats and have a lot of calories right? Do you think that may be a good idea?
It's useful not to conflate "I don't feel hungry" with "my body has sufficient fuel to function properly". Even if you are not hungry, it's important to eat the minimum recommended net calories: 1200 women, 1500 men.
Eating peanut butter, nuts, etc., is an excellent idea. Guacamole, high calorie granola bars, too; there are plenty of higher calorie healthy things you can eat to get to your calorie target.
How sure are you about those 500 calorie workouts? Many people find the calorie estimates from MFP and machines too high and eat back 1/2 or so of their exercise cals. 500 is doable but more than the typical calories burned for one workout - for most people that'd be well over an hour of continuous cardio, for instance. I do an hr of cardio every day; MFP reports it as 482, my exercise machine says 600 (!), and I log 420 and then eat them back. So I only knock around 20 % off the reported number not the 50 % that some people do, but the principle of the thing is that a lot of these exercise estimates are inflated, so you don't really need to eat back 500. If you ate back 300 and therefore ate gross 1500 cals for the day (i.e. 1500 cals worth of actual food) you'd probably be in fine shape.7 -
elisacueva183 wrote: »Thank you so much all for your responses!!! Just one thing, I'm not hungry at all or have less energy that's why I was wondering. I feel if I eat more than what I have been eating I will be so full but I have also been struggling with lose weight and now I think I know the answer. I guess I can complement, my workout calories with peanut butter or nuts that are good fats and have a lot of calories right? Do you think that may be a good idea?
It's useful not to conflate "I don't feel hungry" with "my body has sufficient fuel to function properly". Even if you are not hungry, it's important to eat the minimum recommended net calories: 1200 women, 1500 men.
Eating peanut butter, nuts, etc., is an excellent idea. Guacamole, high calorie granola bars, too; there are plenty of higher calorie healthy things you can eat to get to your calorie target.
How sure are you about those 500 calorie workouts? Many people find the calorie estimates from MFP and machines too high and eat back 1/2 or so of their exercise cals. 500 is doable but more than the typical calories burned for one workout - for most people that'd be well over an hour of continuous cardio, for instance. I do an hr of cardio every day; MFP reports it as 482, my exercise machine says 600 (!), and I log 420 and then eat them back. So I only knock around 20 % off the reported number not the 50 % that some people do, but the principle of the thing is that a lot of these exercise estimates are inflated, so you don't really need to eat back 500. If you ate back 300 and therefore ate gross 1500 cals for the day (i.e. 1500 cals worth of actual food) you'd probably be in fine shape.
Thank you so much this is really helpful! I've been using my watch to estimate the calories burned. I do two sessions of Insanity Max 30, one in the morning and another one at night. But now that I understand that I should be eating net 1200 calories definitely I'm missing on nutrients. Again! Thank you so much for all your help!!!2 -
elisacueva183 wrote: »Thank you so much all for your responses!!! Just one thing, I'm not hungry at all or have less energy that's why I was wondering. I feel if I eat more than what I have been eating I will be so full but I have also been struggling with lose weight and now I think I know the answer. I guess I can complement, my workout calories with peanut butter or nuts that are good fats and have a lot of calories right? Do you think that may be a good idea?
This is a sign that you might be undercounting your food calories (and/or overcounting exercise).
I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm trying to share experience to help you reach your goal.
People take all kinds of approaches to this, men who are heavy might be eating 2K+ calories a day and can lose weight even if they're sloppy in their numbers. But 1,200 gives you less margin for error. It's extremely helpful to weigh everything you eat on a food scale - you don't have to do this always, but it for sure helps to calibrate your understanding when you get started, and it can be helpful long term for a lot of people too. If you're eating packaged food, the numbers are allowed to be off, by 10% I think?, due to things like every package isn't exactly the same weight, there are tolerances at the factory. If you're cooking a lot, things like cups and tablespoons aren't super accurate.
A lot of people when they go on a weight loss journey also decide to get healthier in a more general way, which includes exercise and also eating healthier foods. Changing what you eat can help you feel less hungry - macros that help you feel satiated, more fiber, stuff like that So that might be why you're not feeling hungry. But if you've been netting 750 kCal per day that's just not enough and is harmful for your body, and your body will let you know by being hungry. If that didn't work our ancestors would have died out from starvation in the hunter and gatherer days when getting food took a lot of hard work.
Finally, starvation mode isn't really a thing. Your metabolism is a bunch of chemical reactions in your body that keep you alive. There isn't a whole lot of room to turn that down, and still keep you alive. What happens when people starve is they feel terrible, get lethargic, and lose weight very quickly in very unhealthy ways.4 -
NorthCascades wrote: »elisacueva183 wrote: »Thank you so much all for your responses!!! Just one thing, I'm not hungry at all or have less energy that's why I was wondering. I feel if I eat more than what I have been eating I will be so full but I have also been struggling with lose weight and now I think I know the answer. I guess I can complement, my workout calories with peanut butter or nuts that are good fats and have a lot of calories right? Do you think that may be a good idea?
This is a sign that you might be undercounting your food calories (and/or overcounting exercise).
I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm trying to share experience to help you reach your goal.
People take all kinds of approaches to this, men who are heavy might be eating 2K+ calories a day and can lose weight even if they're sloppy in their numbers. But 1,200 gives you less margin for error. It's extremely helpful to weigh everything you eat on a food scale - you don't have to do this always, but it for sure helps to calibrate your understanding when you get started, and it can be helpful long term for a lot of people too. If you're eating packaged food, the numbers are allowed to be off, by 10% I think?, due to things like every package isn't exactly the same weight, there are tolerances at the factory. If you're cooking a lot, things like cups and tablespoons aren't super accurate.
A lot of people when they go on a weight loss journey also decide to get healthier in a more general way, which includes exercise and also eating healthier foods. Changing what you eat can help you feel less hungry - macros that help you feel satiated, more fiber, stuff like that So that might be why you're not feeling hungry. But if you've been netting 750 kCal per day that's just not enough and is harmful for your body, and your body will let you know by being hungry. If that didn't work our ancestors would have died out from starvation in the hunter and gatherer days when getting food took a lot of hard work.
Finally, starvation mode isn't really a thing. Your metabolism is a bunch of chemical reactions in your body that keep you alive. There isn't a whole lot of room to turn that down, and still keep you alive. What happens when people starve is they feel terrible, get lethargic, and lose weight very quickly in very unhealthy ways.
You left me like this
with the thing of cups and tablespoons aren't super accurate. I guess I'll start to weight more my food. And you are definitely right. I have been eating fiber and protein more now so probably that's why I feel fuller. You are not being a jerk, this is so helpful as I have been frustrated with no losing weight even though I was doing everything "right" but now with all this info I can change and start to increase my number of calories to finally see that drop on the scale!
Thank you so much ! 2 -
elisacueva183 wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »elisacueva183 wrote: »Thank you so much all for your responses!!! Just one thing, I'm not hungry at all or have less energy that's why I was wondering. I feel if I eat more than what I have been eating I will be so full but I have also been struggling with lose weight and now I think I know the answer. I guess I can complement, my workout calories with peanut butter or nuts that are good fats and have a lot of calories right? Do you think that may be a good idea?
This is a sign that you might be undercounting your food calories (and/or overcounting exercise).
I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm trying to share experience to help you reach your goal.
People take all kinds of approaches to this, men who are heavy might be eating 2K+ calories a day and can lose weight even if they're sloppy in their numbers. But 1,200 gives you less margin for error. It's extremely helpful to weigh everything you eat on a food scale - you don't have to do this always, but it for sure helps to calibrate your understanding when you get started, and it can be helpful long term for a lot of people too. If you're eating packaged food, the numbers are allowed to be off, by 10% I think?, due to things like every package isn't exactly the same weight, there are tolerances at the factory. If you're cooking a lot, things like cups and tablespoons aren't super accurate.
A lot of people when they go on a weight loss journey also decide to get healthier in a more general way, which includes exercise and also eating healthier foods. Changing what you eat can help you feel less hungry - macros that help you feel satiated, more fiber, stuff like that So that might be why you're not feeling hungry. But if you've been netting 750 kCal per day that's just not enough and is harmful for your body, and your body will let you know by being hungry. If that didn't work our ancestors would have died out from starvation in the hunter and gatherer days when getting food took a lot of hard work.
Finally, starvation mode isn't really a thing. Your metabolism is a bunch of chemical reactions in your body that keep you alive. There isn't a whole lot of room to turn that down, and still keep you alive. What happens when people starve is they feel terrible, get lethargic, and lose weight very quickly in very unhealthy ways.
You left me like this with the thing of cups and tablespoons aren't super accurate. I guess I'll start to weight more my food. And you are definitely right. I have been eating fiber and protein more now so probably that's why I feel fuller. You are not being a jerk, this is so helpful as I have been frustrated with no losing weight even though I was doing everything "right" but now with all this info I can change and start to increase my number of calories to finally see that drop on the scale!
Thank you so much !
My recommendations:- Make sure your settings regarding activity level are correct
- Make sure your weekly loss goal is not too aggressive
- Start being more accurate in your food logging. Weigh all solids and semi solids (like peanut butter or mayo) and measure all liquids. Log everything that goes in your mouth.
- If you are using a tracking device, start by eating all exercise calories it gives you. Eat back 50% of calories from exercise you log separately (especially if you use MFP's database or the calorie estimator on a machine like a treadmill)
- Do this for several weeks (4-5 is usually good). If you are losing faster than you expect to, eat back more calories. If you are losing slower, eat back fewer. Make these adjustments in small-ish increments.
3 -
elisacueva183 wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »elisacueva183 wrote: »Thank you so much all for your responses!!! Just one thing, I'm not hungry at all or have less energy that's why I was wondering. I feel if I eat more than what I have been eating I will be so full but I have also been struggling with lose weight and now I think I know the answer. I guess I can complement, my workout calories with peanut butter or nuts that are good fats and have a lot of calories right? Do you think that may be a good idea?
This is a sign that you might be undercounting your food calories (and/or overcounting exercise).
I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm trying to share experience to help you reach your goal.
People take all kinds of approaches to this, men who are heavy might be eating 2K+ calories a day and can lose weight even if they're sloppy in their numbers. But 1,200 gives you less margin for error. It's extremely helpful to weigh everything you eat on a food scale - you don't have to do this always, but it for sure helps to calibrate your understanding when you get started, and it can be helpful long term for a lot of people too. If you're eating packaged food, the numbers are allowed to be off, by 10% I think?, due to things like every package isn't exactly the same weight, there are tolerances at the factory. If you're cooking a lot, things like cups and tablespoons aren't super accurate.
A lot of people when they go on a weight loss journey also decide to get healthier in a more general way, which includes exercise and also eating healthier foods. Changing what you eat can help you feel less hungry - macros that help you feel satiated, more fiber, stuff like that So that might be why you're not feeling hungry. But if you've been netting 750 kCal per day that's just not enough and is harmful for your body, and your body will let you know by being hungry. If that didn't work our ancestors would have died out from starvation in the hunter and gatherer days when getting food took a lot of hard work.
Finally, starvation mode isn't really a thing. Your metabolism is a bunch of chemical reactions in your body that keep you alive. There isn't a whole lot of room to turn that down, and still keep you alive. What happens when people starve is they feel terrible, get lethargic, and lose weight very quickly in very unhealthy ways.
You left me like this with the thing of cups and tablespoons aren't super accurate. I guess I'll start to weight more my food. And you are definitely right. I have been eating fiber and protein more now so probably that's why I feel fuller. You are not being a jerk, this is so helpful as I have been frustrated with no losing weight even though I was doing everything "right" but now with all this info I can change and start to increase my number of calories to finally see that drop on the scale!
Thank you so much !
I also don’t want to be a jerk. But if you’re not losing weight, eating more is almost never going to make you lose.
On rare occasions you may be eating so little as to be so fatigued (knowingly or not) that you move much, much less in your daily life and as such, burn fewer calories. Eating more can provide energy such that you move more in your daily life (and burn more calories).
It sounds like you are doing 2 intense workouts a day which would be nearly impossible at that level of fatigue, and you have some sort of tracker/watch/device (on which you would see a significant drop in steps/movement/calories burned/etc.).
So it’s highly unlikely that you are in that situation.
When I was using cups and spoons to measure my food intake, I was logging 1200 calories. When I started weighing my food, I realized I was actually eating 1600-1800. Start with weighing your food.1 -
elisacueva183 wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »elisacueva183 wrote: »Thank you so much all for your responses!!! Just one thing, I'm not hungry at all or have less energy that's why I was wondering. I feel if I eat more than what I have been eating I will be so full but I have also been struggling with lose weight and now I think I know the answer. I guess I can complement, my workout calories with peanut butter or nuts that are good fats and have a lot of calories right? Do you think that may be a good idea?
This is a sign that you might be undercounting your food calories (and/or overcounting exercise).
I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm trying to share experience to help you reach your goal.
People take all kinds of approaches to this, men who are heavy might be eating 2K+ calories a day and can lose weight even if they're sloppy in their numbers. But 1,200 gives you less margin for error. It's extremely helpful to weigh everything you eat on a food scale - you don't have to do this always, but it for sure helps to calibrate your understanding when you get started, and it can be helpful long term for a lot of people too. If you're eating packaged food, the numbers are allowed to be off, by 10% I think?, due to things like every package isn't exactly the same weight, there are tolerances at the factory. If you're cooking a lot, things like cups and tablespoons aren't super accurate.
A lot of people when they go on a weight loss journey also decide to get healthier in a more general way, which includes exercise and also eating healthier foods. Changing what you eat can help you feel less hungry - macros that help you feel satiated, more fiber, stuff like that So that might be why you're not feeling hungry. But if you've been netting 750 kCal per day that's just not enough and is harmful for your body, and your body will let you know by being hungry. If that didn't work our ancestors would have died out from starvation in the hunter and gatherer days when getting food took a lot of hard work.
Finally, starvation mode isn't really a thing. Your metabolism is a bunch of chemical reactions in your body that keep you alive. There isn't a whole lot of room to turn that down, and still keep you alive. What happens when people starve is they feel terrible, get lethargic, and lose weight very quickly in very unhealthy ways.
You left me like this with the thing of cups and tablespoons aren't super accurate. I guess I'll start to weight more my food. And you are definitely right. I have been eating fiber and protein more now so probably that's why I feel fuller. You are not being a jerk, this is so helpful as I have been frustrated with no losing weight even though I was doing everything "right" but now with all this info I can change and start to increase my number of calories to finally see that drop on the scale!
Thank you so much !
Here's a bonus: If you learn the tricks for doing it, weighing food is usually quicker and easier than using cups/spoons.
Despite the joke-y clickbait title, this thread is about how to use a food scale most efficiently, once you decide to weigh food:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10498882/weighing-food-takes-too-long-and-is-obsessive1
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