confused about net calories

food eaten minus calories burned equals net calories. you want your net calories to be as close to your daily goal as possible.
for example, your goal is 1500.. you exercise and burn 600, so your net calories would be 900. you shold eat 600 more calories to net your goal of 1500

No, actually you want your NET as low as possible if your goal is to lose weight! Eat close to your goal and then exercise to get your NET as low as possible! Results will be bigger and faster if it's well under your goal. That is why the lower your net calories when completing your diary every night are the lower " your weight in 5 weeks will be".

I suggest taking a multi vitamin to insure you are getting the proper nutrients though.

This tool is useful if you lookup the food you are thinking of eating BEFORE you eat it...you may decide you do not want to work that hard to burn the excess calories and make better choices. You may also decide it's your birthday and dammit i'm eating that cake, go over your goal and then hit the bike for an hour to rip it back off!

I know I just started here on MFP and I have only lost "6"lbs here but I was 299 in September and I gotta tell yah, 286 is feeling good so far, can't wait to hit 250. Don't set time limits just keep your head in the game and do the work.

hope I helped.
JM

id also like to 2nd that net calories should try and remain above 1200 calories for as long as you can. you need to experiment and work with your body, but i can tell you from my personal experience that ive remained around 1250/1350 grosse calories for about 8 or 9 months, working out and not eating back any of my exercise calories-therefore putting my net calories between 800 and 900 for an extended period of time. ive slowed my metabolism down a lot, my weight just will not move. its not until i joined MFP this week that i realised the damage id done and im now on day 3 of drastically upping my calorie intake to help reboot my metabolism.

there are people on MFP who lose weight without eating back exercise calories, and there are people who continue to lose weight and break plateau's by eating all of their exercise calories. find what works best for you, but if you're working out hard and you're going hungry, you need to eat. contrary to popular belief (and something ive believed for a long time) sometimes you've got to eat more to lose weight.