NET CALORIES - HELP!!!

hi i cant answer cause i want to know the answer too so writing this so i can read what everyone else writes

You need to eat as close to 1200 cals a day as possible, if you exercise and burn 200 cals you should be eating those as well.

Very true. It's really, really important to eat those 1200 calories above all so you will still lose weight and you should yes, be eating your extra workout calories too - but it's not a huge deal to leave a few of those every day if you wish, I think most of us do do that. Heck many times I've gone over my 1200 and then gone over my calorie ones too, but I am still losing weight very steadily. Very happy about that. :blushing:

Basically, you're aiming to eat 1200 if that's your daily goal if you don't burn any more by exercising. If you do burn more by exercising, you add those on and aim to eat those too. So, if you burn 400 cals your calorie goal for the day is 1600, and you should be eating them.

If your net is 800, that's really low. Your net calories are what calories you've had against your aim. So if you've burned 400, your net would be -400. Then when you eat it gets more. So every day your net should be about 1200, but your total calories will be different. MFP works it all out for you, so whatever calories you have left according to it, eat them

I hope that makes sense, it's pretty early!

yeah!...

it just sounds weird to me that you have to eat MORE in order to lose weight. lol

It isn't weird at all. If you don't eat then your body goes into starvation mode and starvation mode doesn't = skinny or healthy. Snacking is a godsend!

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If the numbers are green eat them, once you get to 0, stop eating

People will argue that leaving a deficit will help speed up weightloss - it may well do in the short term but it is not a healthy way to lose as you're more than likely losing muscle rather than extra fat.

Bottom line is:

MFP gives you a goal according to what "goal weightloss" you are aiming for - so if you said you want to lose a lb a week, it will adjust your calorie goal to reflect this.
So when you exercise, your calorie allowance goes up to make sure the overall "net calorie" figure shown on your home page is the figure you would have started with in the morning, before any exercise cals were added.

SO:
Eat all of your calories covered in your daily allowance (eg the basic 1200).
If you exercise, eat the calories you have earned back!

I heard a phrase on here that helped me get my head around it -

Think of exercise calories as calories "earned" not "burned" - so eat them up! Feel free to msg me if I can help anymore

1200 cals and 2 lbs per week is the max MFP will allow us probably based around safety concerns so people don't start or perpetuate and eating disorder and starve themselves. 1,200 cals per day appears to be the minimum cal allowance if you're trying to be healthy based on most anything I've read online or elsewhere, so you shouldn't consume under that. Does that mean you're going to lose 2 lbs per week though. No, probably not, especially if you don't have a lot to lose. Let me explain:

My doc told me weight loss is simple. Calories in, calories out. If you eat more than your body needs to survive, you're going to store fat. If you eat less than it needs, you're going to lose weight. 1 lb = 3500 cals so in order to lose 1 lb per week, you have to net 3500 per week less than your body requires just to run. The less you have to lose, the closer you get to your goal weight, the less you're going to be able to lose safely per week.

Your BMR will tell you how many calories your body would burn if you were lying in bed all day doing nothing (of course this number is not exact, but should be pretty close) so this figure indicates what your body needs just to survive. Let's say your BMR is 1,450 (just picking a number). That means you should be eating 10,150 cals per week to maintain your weight (no loss, no gain). That's 1,450 cals per day x 7 days = 10,150. If you want to lose 2 lbs per week that means you'd need to create a 7,000 calorie deficit based on your 1,450 BMR per day (or 1,000 cal deficit [green, cals remaining] per day) in order to lose 2 lbs per week). Well, if you can't net under 1200 and be losing in a healthy way, that means you'd only net 200 cals per day (plus the 250 MFP is already taking out) so 450 total per day.... starvation mode (your body's natural defense to keep you from starving to death quickly) would kick in and you won't lose anything and you'd probably get sick. This is why I say once you get closer to your goal, you'll have to be satisfied to lose less per week.... 1/2 or 1 lb max. When I had 114 lbs to lose and a BMR of about 1,650 daily, I could create a bigger deficit easier. MFP was giving me a 450 cal deficit per day when set for 2 lbs or 1200 cals per day and I would leave a few hundred extra remaining... now with 57 gone and 57 to go and a BMR of about 1,440, I can't create a large enough deficit to safely lose 2 lbs per week, so the weight is coming off more slowly and MFP is only giving me a 240 cal deficit per day factored in, so 240 x 7 = 1,680 per week deficit... about 1/2 lb weekly.

If you think of this in terms of money, it's easier to conceptualize (in my opinion). I know every day is going to be a bit different, but just for ease of figuring:

You get paid 1,200 cals per day as your base salary (GROSS)
You exercise and get 400 cal in vacation pay (GROSS)
You are then paid 1,600 cals per day (GROSS)

Keep in mind your BMR of example 1,450.
This means MFP will have figured you in a 250 cal deficit per day. 250 x 7 days in a week is 1750. That's just about half of the 3,500 cal deficit you have to create to lose 1 lb per week, so you're only going to lose 1/2 lb per week, even though you're set up for 2 lbs.This is why many people get confused on here. They think if they bring it right up to, or just under 0 cals remaining daily that they should lose the weight they set this site up for....not necessarily because they're not going to tell you less than 1,200 per day, even IF it will take you netting less than that to lose 2 lbs. It's just too risky and unhealthy to do that.

If you were to eat 1,800 cals per day then your NET would be 200 cals OVER what you need to have a loss (ANY loss).
1,800 - 1,600 = 200 NET and you'd pretty much just maintain your current weight (because MFP will have factored in 250 cal deficit based on my earlier model). Eat more than 1,800 with only 400 cals of exercise and you'll probably start gaining.

If, instead, you were to eat 1,400 cals per day your NET would be 200 cals UNDER (green cals remaining) and you'd create a deficit of 200 cals per day or 1,400 per week and lose about 1/2 a lb plus the 250 MFP is already factoring in, so now you're netting 450 per day less than what your body needs to run (BMR). 450 x 7 = 3,150...much closer to the 2 lbs per week you want. I know they say you shouldn't net less than 1,200 to be healthy, but as long as you're eating 1,200 and exercising, I wouldn't worry if your doc is OK with that. For me, and I'm not a doc, I just try not to net less than 1,000 per day but I always eat quite a bit (probably 1,500 to 2,000 cals per day) and exercise hard (between 500 and 900 cals per day), so I net about 1,000 per day and I'm finding this combination works for me. (1,500 cals in, 500 cals burned off = 1,000 net (this will look like 240 cals remaining at the end of the day (green)... approximately 440 per day less than my body needs just to survive, so I create a 440 cal deficit and lose about 1/2 lb weekly). I never go to bed until I'm at least at 0, but usually 150 - 250 in the green daily. I will exercise until that number is where I want it. That's just how I do it. There are other ways... but I hope this makes sense.

I hope all this helps!
Veronica

bethxx1234 wrote: »

So I got question which is related I just want a yes or no to see if I understand what you guys are saying in the comments! so basically the app tells me I have to eat 1840, as I workout hour a day and walk 10,000 steps 5 out seven days! I burnt 636 off for example minds

and my net is saying 1,441 so I’m on the right path to I can lose weight or is my net bad which I put on the pounds

The best way to get an answer is not to add a comment to a thread that's over 11 years old, probably, but to start a new thread.

If you set up your MFP profile accurately, and told it you want to lose X pounds (or kg) per week, it gave you a calorie goal that will accomplish that, if you stick to that calorie goal, and if you're statistically average in your calorie needs. Setting up your MFP profile includes setting your "activity level" based on your life excluding intentional exercise, so just things like home chores and job.

If you set it up that way, you then log exercise when you do it (or sync a fitness tracker), and eat the exercise calories, too. If the exercise calorie estimate is accurate, you'll lose weight at the same rate you asked for.

I don't know how much you told MFP you want to lose, but let's pretend it's a pound a week.

MFP assigned you 1840 calories, not including exercise. This implies that MFP thinks you burn 2,340 calories daily, because it has cut 500 calories daily below your needs to cause that pound a week estimated weight loss.

On a day when you don't exercise, you should eat close to 1840 calories - ideally not lots fewer or lots more . . . let's say plus or minus 50 calories. MFP thinks that in that situation, you'd lose about a pound a week.

Now, let's look at a day when you do exercise. If you burned 636 exercise calories, that implies that your total needs to maintain your weight (regular stuff plus the exercise) would be 2,340 calories of regular stuff plus 636 calories of exercise. That would be a total of 2,976 calories. But you still want that 500 calorie shortfall (deficit) to create the pound a week weight loss.

Therefore, MFP takes your base calorie goal, 1840 calories, adds the 636 exercise calories, and tells you to eat 2,476 calories. Since 2,476 is 500 calories less than the 2,976, you'd still expect to lose that same pound per week.

This is assuming you have MFP set up accurately, you're logging your food accurately, and you're statistically very average. (Those are big assumptions, but it's where we all start.)

Note that the pound (or whatever) isn't going to show up evenly on the scale every week, so don't expect that. Look at the trend in your weight over 4-6 weeks, or compare your weight at the same relative point in at least two different menstrual cycles, if you have those.

As an aside, 2,340 calories (before exercise) is a fairly high calorie need for a woman. It's not impossible, but you haven't said how tall you are, how old you are, or how much you currently weigh, so we can't give you feedback on whether that's realistic (whether it's likely you have MFP set up correctly). You don't say whether you're logging your exercise by hand in the MFP exercise database, vs. getting it from a fitness tracker sync-ed to MFP, and you don't say what kind of exercise it is. 636 is a fairly high number of exercise calories.

From your other threads, it sounds like you've included your intentional exercise in your activity level (workouts, maybe the steps unless those are part of your job - those should not be part of your activity level setting, if you're going to log exercise separately). For most fitness trackers, it'll still work out OK if your activity level setting is inaccurate, as long as you have negative calorie adjustments enabled in MFP. If you're logging your exercise by hand, and included your planned exercise in your activity level, then you're double counting your exercise calories, and are unlikely to lose weight at the rate you asked MFP for - you might not lose weight at all.