Still confused about Net Calories after reading other forums

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emilyluksic
emilyluksic Posts: 9 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Sorry all but I am still confused about Net Calories even after reading most of the posts in previous forums...

I am 27, weigh 213 now and have a goal weight of under 140. I have started last week exercising every week day and I range from burning 400- over 1000 calories each time I go.

For example today I burned 1042 calories at the gym and MFP allows me 1200 calories/day for intake... For the net calories and to lose the most amount I can each week does this mean I would take 1042+1200= 2242 calories I should eat for today??? Is this what I'm suppose to do each day?

Replies

  • rockerbabyy
    rockerbabyy Posts: 2,258 Member
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    Yep :) I saw it explained like this earlier:

    Here is how it works, in a simplified manner:

    You tell MFP: I want to lose 1lb per week.

    MFP says: Okay, you need to eat X calories per day in order to lose 1lb/week, without exercise.

    You do what MFP says, but then you decide to exercise and you burn an additional 400 calories. MFP then says "Hey, I told you to eat X per day to lose 1lb/week without exercise. You exercised, now you're going to lose it too fast and that's not ideal. Now I want you to eat X+400".

    that said - you want to make sure that you're getting accurate counts too. calories consumed and burned. weighing/measuring food and having a heart rate monitor
  • _GlaDOS_
    _GlaDOS_ Posts: 1,520 Member
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    Yes, it is. :flowerforyou:
  • CMmrsfloyd
    CMmrsfloyd Posts: 2,383 Member
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    Yep. Net calories are whatever you eat minus whatever you burn through exercise. MFP wants you to be a close to 1200 after you subtract exercise calories from what you've eaten that day. You could sit around all day, not exercise, do nothing but eat your 1200 calories and you will lose weight - MFP gave you that 1200 goal in response to however much weight you told it you want to lose when you adjusted your settings. So, if you exercise, you've worked to earn the right to eat more that day. :-)
  • chuckyp
    chuckyp Posts: 693 Member
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    That is correct. Just enter all your food and exercise and eat the number of calories in big numbers at the top of your home page every day.
  • emilyluksic
    emilyluksic Posts: 9 Member
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    Thank you! I should have asked this earlier in the day because the way Ive been eating its hard for me to eat close to 2200 because I had a huge burn today at the gym. haha
  • Dexy_
    Dexy_ Posts: 593 Member
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    If you don't eat back at least some of your exercise calories, especially if you're burning as much as you are (way to go!) you'll end up what we call "skinny fat". You don't want that! :)
  • frugalmomsrock
    frugalmomsrock Posts: 1,123
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    That is right, BUT-how are you coming up with your calorie numbers??
  • rockerbabyy
    rockerbabyy Posts: 2,258 Member
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    Thank you! I should have asked this earlier in the day because the way Ive been eating its hard for me to eat close to 2200 because I had a huge burn today at the gym. haha
    one day wont hrt - but try to plan better in the future :) i usually log my exercise in the morning that i will be doing later in the day so that i can spread my "exercise" calories throughout the day instead of trying to cram them in after the workout
  • emilyluksic
    emilyluksic Posts: 9 Member
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    My calorie numbers that I burn at the gym?? I go by what the machine says calories burn for the time spent.
  • abharris24
    abharris24 Posts: 1
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    Just be cautious- i have noticed the calories burned for most exercises in the database are really high. Best to get a heart rate meter and get an actual amount of calories burned.
  • emilyluksic
    emilyluksic Posts: 9 Member
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    Just be cautious- i have noticed the calories burned for most exercises in the database are really high. Best to get a heart rate meter and get an actual amount of calories burned.

    I take the numbers off the elipitical machine at the gym. I type in all my own exercises and dont go by the database for MFP unless I go for a walk or something where it doesnt tell me the calories burn
  • TonyG111160
    TonyG111160 Posts: 48 Member
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    Hi Emily.

    We all have a "basal metabolic " energy requirement. This is the amount of energy your body would require to carry out normal bodily function such as breathing etc even if you lay in bed all day. The 1200 calories goal that MFP has given you is based on that. IN other words eat less than this and you should lose weight even without doing exercise as your body will make up the shortfall by burning off your fat reserves.

    If you do exercise then your energy requirement is obviously greater. In your case you burned off an extra 1042 calories today, meaning that your body requires a total of 1200 + 1042 calories of energy today. Take in less and as before you will burn off fat and eventually lose weight.

    It is a simple equation really take in less energy that your body requires and it will make up the shortfall by burning fat and you lose weight.

    Hope this makes sense
  • Crystal817
    Crystal817 Posts: 2,021 Member
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    I take the numbers off the elipitical machine at the gym.

    Those numbers aren't really accurate either!
  • kristelpoole
    kristelpoole Posts: 440 Member
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    I take the numbers off the elipitical machine at the gym.

    Those numbers aren't really accurate either!

    Yeah, but not everyone can afford a HRM right off the bat. (Like me, for example.) Regardless, it's an estimate and at the OP's current weight, a couple hundred calories over the 1200 here and there won't ruin her weight loss at all.
  • emergencytennis
    emergencytennis Posts: 864 Member
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    Hi Emily.

    We all have a "basal metabolic " energy requirement. This is the amount of energy your body would require to carry out normal bodily function such as breathing etc even if you lay in bed all day. The 1200 calories goal that MFP has given you is based on that. IN other words eat less than this and you should lose weight even without doing exercise as your body will make up the shortfall by burning off your fat reserves.

    If you do exercise then your energy requirement is obviously greater. In your case you burned off an extra 1042 calories today, meaning that your body requires a total of 1200 + 1042 calories of energy today. Take in less and as before you will burn off fat and eventually lose weight.

    It is a simple equation really take in less energy that your body requires and it will make up the shortfall by burning fat and you lose weight.

    Hope this makes sense

    I am new myself but I am pretty sure that this is not quite correct. The net calorie goal that MFP gives you AUTOMATICALLY FACTORS IN a calorie deficit, and many thanks to the people who helped me understand this when I joined. It is not your base metabolic rate, it is figure which has been calulated by MFP to give you a safe weight loss.

    For instance, it reckons my BMR is 1234, and my daily needs are 1540. 1200 net already gives me a deficit of 340, and I would lose a nearly a pound in 10 days if I netted that.

    If I netted only 1000, I would have a calorie deficit of 540, which is more than a third of what I need to survive, and is less than my BMR! That has got to be bad for you.
  • frugalmomsrock
    frugalmomsrock Posts: 1,123
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    My calorie numbers that I burn at the gym?? I go by what the machine says calories burn for the time spent.

    I just want to give you an example. Today, I went to the gym and did 40 minutes of elliptical. I was wearing my chest strap for my HRM. I burned, according to my HRM, 389 calories; however, according to my machine, it was almost 700! That's a huge discrepancy. I'd be very cautious using the machine as your calculator. It would probably be better if you took your HR every so often and averaged them out and then used this calculator: http://www.braydenwm.com/calburn.htm This calculator has been pretty accurate for me.

    I'm not saying your machine is necessarily wrong, but it's possible that it's off-like mine are.

    Good luck!!
  • jmvh59
    jmvh59 Posts: 97
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    My calorie numbers that I burn at the gym?? I go by what the machine says calories burn for the time spent.

    I just want to give you an example. Today, I went to the gym and did 40 minutes of elliptical. I was wearing my chest strap for my HRM. I burned, according to my HRM, 389 calories; however, according to my machine, it was almost 700! That's a huge discrepancy. I'd be very cautious using the machine as your calculator. It would probably be better if you took your HR every so often and averaged them out and then used this calculator: http://www.braydenwm.com/calburn.htm This calculator has been pretty accurate for me.

    I'm not saying your machine is necessarily wrong, but it's possible that it's off-like mine are.

    Good luck!!

    Many machines have heart rate monitors built in to the handles. Presumably, they are accurate at calculating calories burned, or are you saying that those machines are off?
  • CMmrsfloyd
    CMmrsfloyd Posts: 2,383 Member
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    My calorie numbers that I burn at the gym?? I go by what the machine says calories burn for the time spent.

    I just want to give you an example. Today, I went to the gym and did 40 minutes of elliptical. I was wearing my chest strap for my HRM. I burned, according to my HRM, 389 calories; however, according to my machine, it was almost 700! That's a huge discrepancy. I'd be very cautious using the machine as your calculator. It would probably be better if you took your HR every so often and averaged them out and then used this calculator: http://www.braydenwm.com/calburn.htm This calculator has been pretty accurate for me.

    I'm not saying your machine is necessarily wrong, but it's possible that it's off-like mine are.

    Good luck!!

    Many machines have heart rate monitors built in to the handles. Presumably, they are accurate at calculating calories burned, or are you saying that those machines are off?

    Do those machines let you program in your height, weight, etc?
  • frugalmomsrock
    frugalmomsrock Posts: 1,123
    Options
    My calorie numbers that I burn at the gym?? I go by what the machine says calories burn for the time spent.

    I just want to give you an example. Today, I went to the gym and did 40 minutes of elliptical. I was wearing my chest strap for my HRM. I burned, according to my HRM, 389 calories; however, according to my machine, it was almost 700! That's a huge discrepancy. I'd be very cautious using the machine as your calculator. It would probably be better if you took your HR every so often and averaged them out and then used this calculator: http://www.braydenwm.com/calburn.htm This calculator has been pretty accurate for me.

    I'm not saying your machine is necessarily wrong, but it's possible that it's off-like mine are.

    Good luck!!

    Many machines have heart rate monitors built in to the handles. Presumably, they are accurate at calculating calories burned, or are you saying that those machines are off?


    Mine are WAY off-despite my putting in the info. My HRM consistently has me a few hundred calories lower than the machines have me at. If I went off the machines every day, I'd give myself an extra 600 or so calories (with the 90 to 120 minutes of cardio that I do)! That could equate to a no-loss or even a gain for me if I were eating all those calories "back" thinking I'd actually burned them...

    *edit to add: my machines program my weight, and they have the little hand things for my HR, but when I'm wearing my chest strap they wirelessly receive the info and still come up with a huge discrepancy of numbers from my HRM.
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
    Options
    Hi Emily.

    We all have a "basal metabolic " energy requirement. This is the amount of energy your body would require to carry out normal bodily function such as breathing etc even if you lay in bed all day. The 1200 calories goal that MFP has given you is based on that. IN other words eat less than this and you should lose weight even without doing exercise as your body will make up the shortfall by burning off your fat reserves.

    If you do exercise then your energy requirement is obviously greater. In your case you burned off an extra 1042 calories today, meaning that your body requires a total of 1200 + 1042 calories of energy today. Take in less and as before you will burn off fat and eventually lose weight.

    It is a simple equation really take in less energy that your body requires and it will make up the shortfall by burning fat and you lose weight.

    Hope this makes sense

    I am new myself but I am pretty sure that this is not quite correct. The net calorie goal that MFP gives you AUTOMATICALLY FACTORS IN a calorie deficit, and many thanks to the people who helped me understand this when I joined. It is not your base metabolic rate, it is figure which has been calulated by MFP to give you a safe weight loss.

    For instance, it reckons my BMR is 1234, and my daily needs are 1540. 1200 net already gives me a deficit of 340, and I would lose a nearly a pound in 10 days if I netted that.

    If I netted only 1000, I would have a calorie deficit of 540, which is more than a third of what I need to survive, and is less than my BMR! That has got to be bad for you.

    It's almost correct., you just missed one step in the equation... MFP does a few calculations to work out how many calories you should eat each day.
    - It works out your BMR (the cals you burn each day just to stay alive)
    - It multiplies that number by an activity level (where you have specified that you are sedentary, lightly active etc. If you are sedentary it multiplies your BMR by 1.2). This give you a number of calories that should keep your weight stable - maintenance calories.
    - It subtracts calories to create a calorie deficit (if you have said you want to lose 2pounds a week it subtracts 1000)
    - If this number is under 1200 it will increase it up to 1200 as this is commonly recommended minimum calorie level for women. For men I think it goes to 1500 but I'm not sure.

    All of this maths goes to give you your daily calorie allowance. It hasn't factored exercise in at all.
    At this point if you exercise for 300 cals, then it gives you these extra calories to eat so that the cals available for your body to function remain at your recommended calorie allowance.

    ALL of this is an estimate. The food and exercise numbers you add are also an estimate, none of it is absolute and "correct" for everyone.
    My personal opinion is that you may as well try MFP the way it has been designed to start with and then if you find you aren't losing weight at a steady rate then you can change things around a bit to suit your own body.

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