Beginning to think it's Calories consumed vs. NET instead

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  • christenwypy
    christenwypy Posts: 335 Member
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    Glad you said something about Sugar!How come most people don't track their sugar?Once i started tracking it and staying under 25g daily the weight started falling off.I see some people on here eating 85-100 g of Sugar a day and can't figure out why their not losing.For some reason they don't want to put sugar on their diary????

    How do you stay so low on sugar?? Even when I have what feel like perfect days- healthy all day long, I still go over on sugar either from a protein shake or mainly from fruit and cherry tomatos!
  • dlwyatt82
    dlwyatt82 Posts: 1,077 Member
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    I am a nerd number tracker and I have recently found a site that works like mfp (still free) but it takes this topic off the discussion boards all together and it shows it to you based on your daily calorie intake vs expenditure with consideration of your current weight and bmr levels. It simple they spell the equation out for you...

    calories eaten - calories burned - bmr = net calories so for me .. today it looked like this: 1340 calories consumed - 221 expended - 1724=net calories so my net calories is around 690.... and then the site will tell you what you will lose per week based on that info. Mine came out to 1.2 lbs (based on today) but I can't post the exacts on the net calorie total because I am posting this at midnight and I am new to the site.

    I am still experiementing with the site but I think its better than this in how robust it is... not to mention when you join a group it even reports how much weight people have lost in that group... I think that is a big motivator as well... I hate to say it, I love MFP but I think this other site is more robust... I will make a post on my friends/update page to inform others if I decide to jump ship. I am still in testing mode.

    Same numbers, different way of showing them. MFP's true draw is the food database; so far, I haven't seen any other site with content to match it. Otherwise, I'd have just switched to using FitBit's site (which has all the same calorie-counting features, but not the database) instead of synchronizing and using both.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Isn't BMR what we need to maintain weight? How can we lose if we eat that?

    No. Go to Tools - BMR calc to read at least a simple explanation of what it is. and find out what yours could be if not slowed down.
  • johnnybutt76
    johnnybutt76 Posts: 16
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    I see this question all the time and I have never seen a fat starving person in the 3rd world. Tell someone in the 3rd world if they don't eat enough they are going to lose anymore weight or get fatter and put on weight.
  • ExplorinLauren
    ExplorinLauren Posts: 991 Member
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    bump :)
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Ok, I might seem really dim asking this and I know it's been asked many times before but can someone please explain this system to me?

    My mum and I were doing fine until a few weeks ago and we put on a little bit of weight, why would this be? We were eating healthily doing loads of exercise and keeping our net total below what was set by MFP. I am currently on 1320 so should I be using that as my calories and not counting the exercise? I obviously mark iall my calories and exercise down but I am confused as to where I am going wrong?

    Can anyone help, can it be on this thread as I have been redirected before and I didn't really understand the explanation

    Thanks

    So how do you put on weight when you are eating at a deficit to what your body is burning from all your daily activity?

    Easy.

    Energy stores.

    You are working out and asking your body to make improvements, right? Why else workout afterall.

    So it sees you burn carbs for energy, so it starts storing more of them for when you need them.

    500 cal's of carbs with water attached weighs 1 lb. Usually store about 1500 in muscles. If you have been running depleted carb stores until a break finally, you'll gain weight. Much needed weight. Because without those carbs stored, your body has to break down muscle during exercise to convert to glucose to keep blood sugar up, and if really bad, to give to muscles to burn with fat.
  • FrugalMomsRock75
    FrugalMomsRock75 Posts: 698 Member
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    Glad you said something about Sugar!How come most people don't track their sugar?Once i started tracking it and staying under 25g daily the weight started falling off.I see some people on here eating 85-100 g of Sugar a day and can't figure out why their not losing.For some reason they don't want to put sugar on their diary????

    How do you stay so low on sugar?? Even when I have what feel like perfect days- healthy all day long, I still go over on sugar either from a protein shake or mainly from fruit and cherry tomatos!

    She has completely eliminated real, whole foods like fruits and vegetables and only eats 800 calories a day....

    I'd rather eat my fruit, thanks.

    (and don't let my ticker fool you. I cancelled my other account and just came back-I've lost about 60 pounds so far).

    -poster formerly known as frugalmomsrock :)
  • dlwyatt82
    dlwyatt82 Posts: 1,077 Member
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    I see this question all the time and I have never seen a fat starving person in the 3rd world. Tell someone in the 3rd world if they don't eat enough they are going to lose anymore weight or get fatter and put on weight.

    Completely different situation, but thanks for trying. Sooner or later (when you're truly starving), your body will wind up consuming all its fat stores and a lot of muscle as well. On this site, I doubt anyone is in that situation; they're still eating food, but low enough calories to make their body think that starvation might be right around the corner. It screws up your metabolism, and isn't necessary.
  • SaraTN
    SaraTN Posts: 536 Member
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    To me it just makes perfect sense to eat at your maintenance level or between your BMR and TDEE and exercise..... and then leave it at that.... let exercise create your deficit.....don't eat it back, no matter what amount the deficit is...

    If you don't exercise than I am not sure what to say as I have not tried to lose weight by diet alone...

    It is really simple you exercise to burn excess calories... why you would eat those calories you burned to lose weight is beyond me... but every BODy is different... and I think its being over generalized... people at different fitness levels are looking toward people that have more lean body mass established (after being on here for years) and reading eat your exercise calories back... NO ... just run a 500 calorie plus deficit through either diet or exercise or both per day or averge it out weekly to compensate for extras or days off. It really is that simple... follow that and you will lose a pound a week with a 500 calorie deficet from your BMR per day (I set it at sedentary and then record activity) on average... some days it might be a 250 calorie deficiet others it might be 1000 but it averages out to 500 calories per day per week
  • atjays
    atjays Posts: 798 Member
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    I eat my maintenance on work out days, not worrying about what the net is at the end of the day and eat a small deficit on my off days. I may not be losing 5 lbs a week but I feel great, steadily losing about a pound a week and probably best of all the mirror is showcasing the hard work. I'll have my six pack before the pools open for summer :D
  • lisakyle_11
    lisakyle_11 Posts: 420 Member
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    I think everyone is different and you have to find what works for you. Eating a lot even though I exercise a lot doesn't work for me to lose weight unfortunately either. I wish I didn't have sucha big appetite. I thinking eatin around your BMR is a good way to do it.

    yep... eating 'more' to lose just added additional weight and frustration for me.
  • tsh0ck
    tsh0ck Posts: 1,970 Member
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    Glad you said something about Sugar!How come most people don't track their sugar?Once i started tracking it and staying under 25g daily the weight started falling off.I see some people on here eating 85-100 g of Sugar a day and can't figure out why their not losing.For some reason they don't want to put sugar on their diary????

    because sugar has nothing to do with pure and simple weight loss. I don't track sugar. or sodium, for that matter.
  • Calimama123
    Calimama123 Posts: 128 Member
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    bump
  • SaraTN
    SaraTN Posts: 536 Member
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    Glad you said something about Sugar!How come most people don't track their sugar?Once i started tracking it and staying under 25g daily the weight started falling off.I see some people on here eating 85-100 g of Sugar a day and can't figure out why their not losing.For some reason they don't want to put sugar on their diary????

    because sugar has nothing to do with pure and simple weight loss. I don't track sugar. or sodium, for that matter.

    For some people sugar actually does have an impact... sugar = carbs and that effects insulin levels. Chances are they are carbohydrate sensitive so if they notice a plateau it is important for them to track and analyze. With respect to sodium, I can say that for me and my body it does have an impact.... if I eat out or consume too much sodium, I can see it when I weigh myself the next day.... it is not a lasting effect as I work to correct it.. consume more water etc.

    For ME, what works is tracking all the data I can, weigh myself every day and realizing as a woman there are several contributors to fluctuation but I take the daily weights and average them out and report the average as my weekly weigh in since I think that is more accurate for me... just throwing it out for others to consider.
  • aminakhan1980
    aminakhan1980 Posts: 105 Member
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    bump for later
  • OccupyFitness
    OccupyFitness Posts: 147
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    I keep trying different adjustments and it seems like I naturally want to fall back to eating about my BMR regardless of exercise but sometimes I eat them if I feel hungry (or at least I feel like I have a buffer zone if I eat something that I have a hard time calculating).
  • baycat107
    baycat107 Posts: 165 Member
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    bump
  • redcat17
    redcat17 Posts: 267 Member
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    I keep trying different adjustments and it seems like I naturally want to fall back to eating about my BMR regardless of exercise but sometimes I eat them if I feel hungry (or at least I feel like I have a buffer zone if I eat something that I have a hard time calculating).

    Yeah, I seem to do the same. I don't pay that much attention to my net. It seems like most days I'm eating about my BMR, or maybe a bit more on the days I work out. Also, sometimes I know I'm off on my eating and exercise calories. Pretty much I just eat healthy and when I am hungry. So long as I'm losing weight (and not losing too quickly), I don't worry too much about "net".
  • pigsfly1975
    pigsfly1975 Posts: 2
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    Sometimes we burn more calories than we think in a given day and some days we are just more active than others. Cutting grass , cleaning house and so on and so fourth. I eat my daily 1,200 and that is usually if I exercise or not. Somedays I am starving and I try to listen to my body. If I know I have worked out and have been a busy bee , I will eat . I think it is better to eat when you are hungry than starve yourself. Or only worry about matching the numbers on here. After all this is a journey . The exercise and the diet on here is close but not exact. I also notice a lot of people don't count seasonings, or bites here and there. Or over measuring or weighing so your daily counts are never right on.
  • ThinUpGirl
    ThinUpGirl Posts: 397
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    I only struggled with net calories when I started working out. Before I was working out, net calories were fine because I had no exercise to speak of, which meant calories consumed = net calories.

    My TDEE is 2600 and my BMR 1600. MFP used to set net goal for 1700 net calories. I would try to reach that goal, but found myself eating about 2500-2600 calories a day to do so. This seemed counter intuitive since that's how much I would eat to MAINTAIN and I wanted to lose.

    Now I ignore net. I pay attention to my TDEE and BMR. I always consume above my BMR and I take my deficit from my TDEE. I eat about 2200 calories a day which is a 400 calorie deficity from TDEE. Basically I target somewhere less than TDEE but more than BMR for calories consumed.

    Here's another way I think of it:

    I have 12 lbs to lose, which means I have 42,000 calories in excess storage (3500 calories = 1 lb, so 12 lb x 3500 = 42,000 calories). I need to burn those storage calories off.

    I burn a total of 2600 calories from living/breathing/pumping blood (BMR) and exercise/normal life. But I feed my body 2200 calories a day and then it uses 400 calories from my 42,000 calories of storage to cover my energy needs of 2600 calories. I am whittling my 'storage' calories, or excess pounds away at 400 cal/day.

    ETA: And I meant to say that this took trial and error over a 2 month plateau for me to figure out. Once I figured out that I was eating enough calories to maintain my weight, it was no suprise I wasn't losing. Then it took a few more weeks to find the sweet spot. At a 400 calorie deficit I lose about 0.5 lb/week. I'm also doing heavy lifting and very close to my goal weight, so I'm not surprised.

    How long did you lose before you reached your plateau.

    This is the best explanation I've read so far in regards to NET.

    Thanx for sharing :)

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