What the heck are Net calories?

"Net calories" is just accounting for your exercise and doing some math...

Calories from food eaten - the calories burned from exercise = how many "true" calories you've consumed in a day.


So, If I eat my exercise calories than my net calories would look like this

1800 (eaten) - 500 (exercise = 1300 NET calories

or if you don't eat your exercise calories

1300 - 500 = 800 NET calories

Net calories = calories consumed - calories burned

So if you've consumed 1400 calories and burned 500 you've consumed 900 net calories. Your net calories should equal your daily calorie goal. So, eat those exercise calories!

idk. i don't understand. mine are usually either negative or don't go much past 100-300. Idek what this means. LOL

um yeah, that's really not good for you. It means you're starving your body. You should try to push your net calories at least up to 1000 - 1200.

What I find interesting about this is that when you are on your food page and you have a 1200 calorie goal.. and only eat 1198 you will get that message that you might go into starvation mode. Net calories do not show up there... so if you eat 1200 and exercise and burn 300 you only had 900 net... but that food page won't give you that message cause on that page it says 1200 consumed. Make sense? I tried to explain it well.. but anyways.. yea net is what you get once you consume your calories the subtract your exercise cal burned.

idk. i don't understand. mine are usually either negative or don't go much past 100-300. Idek what this means. LOL

Dude, you are not eating enough. This means that your body only has as much as 300 calories to function outside of your workouts- it could slow you down if you keep it up like that.

hmm, now Im kinda confused here as well.......I thought I had this thing figured out....

If you exercise 1440 a day , and MFP gives you a goal of 1560, you have to eat 3000 calories a day?

I was more or less keeping about 50 % of my exercise calories reserved. I thought you were supposed to have some calories left over, either the net calories or the goal calories?

Ill keep reading, hope I figure this out........thanks for the post, Lloyd

hmm, now Im kinda confused here as well.......I thought I had this thing figured out....

If you exercise 1440 a day , and MFP gives you a goal of 1560, you have to eat 3000 calories a day?

I was more or less keeping about 50 % of my exercise calories reserved. I thought you were supposed to have some calories left over, either the net calories or the goal calories?

Ill keep reading, hope I figure this out........thanks for the post, Lloyd

You don't have to eat ALL your exercise calories back but it would be in your best interest to keep an eye on the net calories and keep that number around the 1200 mark. If you exercise a lot you need more fuel for your body.

If you want the body to be healthy you have to put fuel in it! I read an article (I don't remember from where) about a medical school that tested foods and nutritional values, they found that it was difficult to get your RDA of vitamins and minerals in with less than 1300 calories a day, unless you were consuming foods that had been "enhanced". Many other articles use the 1200 amount for women and 1500 for men minimum for healthy body functions. Even the US food pyramid is based on 2000 a day.

Yes I am here to lose weight, but I don't want to ruin my health to do it. I have done that enough in the past. Going to do it right this time and be done with it!

hmm, now Im kinda confused here as well.......I thought I had this thing figured out....

If you exercise 1440 a day , and MFP gives you a goal of 1560, you have to eat 3000 calories a day?

I was more or less keeping about 50 % of my exercise calories reserved. I thought you were supposed to have some calories left over, either the net calories or the goal calories?

Ill keep reading, hope I figure this out........thanks for the post, Lloyd

I am assuming you have a 1 lb per week goal in my math here...

MFP took your starting weight and lifestyle and said "If you slept all day because of your build/body, you would burn about 2000 calories. If you eat 1560 calories and sleep the rest of your day, you are still burning 500 calories more than you eat. That means you are burning 3500 calories more than you eat weekly and will lose 1 lb per week JUST by staying at 1560."
When you exercise, you are adding to the calories burned... by 1440. That means your body burns 1440+2000 daily = 3440. If you are only eating 1560 and your body is burning 3440, you have a deficit of 1880 daily - which means you should be dropping a pound every other day. - That may mean your body is underfueled and holding onto weight for later fuel...

Net calories are essentially "calories that count" and should be in the range of your calorie deficit (1560 for you) otherwise you are burning way more than you take in.

I think we are using two different concepts at the same time here and it is getting confusing for some. MFP will give you a calorie goal that takes your wishes into consideration of losing 1-2 pounds a week. What ever that number is, is what you need to consume to cover the NUTRITIONAL needs of your body and to lose weight at the same time without doing anything else.

Now when you get into the NET calories, you are adding in the exercise and the burning of calories. If you just consume the number that MFP gives you, AND do more exercise, you will lose weight faster. HOWEVER you are now in the area where your body needs more NUTRITION than you are giving it by using the original MFP number alone. Studies have suggested that for a healthy body to function they NEED 1200 net for women, 1500 net for men to cover the NUTRITIONAL needs alone. If you do not FEED your body, it will get the nutrition it needs from ITSELF. Meaning that your body will start to break down un-used lean muscle tissue inside itself to meet the current nutritional requirements. You burn off weight yes, but it is not the fat you wanted to burn off, it is the muscle tissue that you wanted to keep.