Net calories vs. calories consumed

net calories is what you eat minus your exercise

so eat 1350 burn 800 (really ?) and you have a net of 550. If you are trying to net your BMR of 1350 then you need to eat another 800 ie 2150 total, So the answer is "yes".

I know this has been posted several times but I'm still VERY confused.

I consume roughly 1250 per day, but after calculating my bmr I've increased it to 1350, however I'm still confused about net calories vs. total calories consumed.

Should my net calories be over 1200 regardless of the calories that I burn through exercise?

So if I eat 1350 calories, then burn 800 at the gym, should I eat back those 800 and then have consumed a total of 2150?

Sorry if my question isn't clear. I'm just very confused!!

Net calories are bad, and somewhat confusing. Stick to your gross caloric intake for the day. And allow the "exercise calories" to simply get you to your goal faster.

MFP works on the net calorie idea - meaning you eat back the calories you exercise. Also, doctor's recommend this too, as long as you aren't eating them back late at night and as long as the calories you eat back are HEALTHY calories.

I know this has been posted several times but I'm still VERY confused.

I consume roughly 1250 per day, but after calculating my bmr I've increased it to 1350, however I'm still confused about net calories vs. total calories consumed.

Should my net calories be over 1200 regardless of the calories that I burn through exercise?

So if I eat 1350 calories, then burn 800 at the gym, should I eat back those 800 and then have consumed a total of 2150?

Sorry if my question isn't clear. I'm just very confused!!

Net calories are bad, and somewhat confusing. Stick to your gross caloric intake for the day. And allow the "exercise calories" to simply get you to your goal faster.

I dont know... I see a ton of people who have calories intake goal of about 1300 and then ALSO eat back at least half of worked out calories and they lose weight. I Think if you have that low of a calorie goal you shoul eat back some of the calories you burn working out because you probably also want to build muscle. There is a danger of loosing muscle mass if you don't eat enough calories. Also wear a HRM or something to caculate how much calories you burn. Just my 2 cents:laugh:

I know this has been posted several times but I'm still VERY confused.

I consume roughly 1250 per day, but after calculating my bmr I've increased it to 1350, however I'm still confused about net calories vs. total calories consumed.

Should my net calories be over 1200 regardless of the calories that I burn through exercise?

So if I eat 1350 calories, then burn 800 at the gym, should I eat back those 800 and then have consumed a total of 2150?

Sorry if my question isn't clear. I'm just very confused!!

Net calories are bad, and somewhat confusing. Stick to your gross caloric intake for the day. And allow the "exercise calories" to simply get you to your goal faster.

With all respect, this is poor advice. This would have this person netting 550 calories for the day. That is below what is generally recognized as a healthy daily intake. This should not be done.

I know this has been posted several times but I'm still VERY confused.

I consume roughly 1250 per day, but after calculating my bmr I've increased it to 1350, however I'm still confused about net calories vs. total calories consumed.

Should my net calories be over 1200 regardless of the calories that I burn through exercise?

So if I eat 1350 calories, then burn 800 at the gym, should I eat back those 800 and then have consumed a total of 2150?

Sorry if my question isn't clear. I'm just very confused!!

Net calories are bad, and somewhat confusing. Stick to your gross caloric intake for the day. And allow the "exercise calories" to simply get you to your goal faster.

I agree

I've noticed that when I eat back my calories, I don't lose as much weight as when I don't.. sometimes I don't lose at all, because I'm just eating my way through the exercises I'm doing - which is rather silly.
Sometimes though, I want a treat, or I don't want to be consuming all healthy foods. I use my net calories to allow myself those guilty pleasures without feeling bad for it.

Are you using MFP to calulate your daily calorie intake?
If so, then YES, you need to eat more when you exercise in order to get to the recommended healthy daily intake of calories.
If you choose a realistic weight loss goal and eat extra when you exercise, you are bound to be eating at least your BMR.

Are you using a different method to calculate your calories (ie. something like fit2fatradio) which already includes exercise calories?
If so, then the answer is NO.

Every calculator I've seen suggests that you eat more if you are more active. MFP just adds the cals on after you've done the exercise instead of making an estimate for the week and spreading it evenly out over each day. It isn't a radical MFP plot to make you gain weight, they are just using a different method to get to the same conclusion.

I have been trying to make sense of net calories for the past six months. Your advice is smartest thing I have come across! Thank you!!!

bump

Finally, this makes sense to me... thank you for clarifying!!

Ok, I'm confused too...
This is what I'm doing, please let me know if it's ok

Since I've read that you're supposed to eat your BMR I upped my calories to eat above it, mine is 1,602
My age is 27
Female height 5'7
My current weight is 176.8
My Goal weight is 140


Calories consumed 1,620
Calories Burned 420 (with HRM every day)
Net Calories 1,200

So, are my consumed calories supposed to match my BMR, or my Net calories need to match my BMR????
What about the rule of netting 1,200 calories (that's what I was trying to do)
I need help

Your net calories (i.e. Calories eaten - calories burned through exercise) should be equal to or higher than your BMR. There are situations where this general rule can be broken, but for the vast majority of people, this is the minimum amount of food you should be eating in a day for healthy sustainable weight-loss. Also, make sure you recalculate your BMR every 10 or so pounds you lose.

However, as a caveat, most people over estimate calories burned during workouts and underestimate calories consumed from food, so keep this in mind and as with anything like this, adjust and customize until you find something that works for you. Everything here is just a general guideline and not specific to your body, so you need to be flexible and experiment a little until you find what works for you.

So you mean I need to eat those exercise calories back? I would have to eat a total of 2,040 calories a day (when I burn the 420 calories)?

Assuming you're lightly active (on your feet for a few hours a day not including your workouts), then your TDEE is about 2200 calories. Add your 420 calories a day from exercise and that brings you up to 2620 calories per day to maintain your weight. If you ate 1600 calories, you'd have a 1000 calorie per day deficit which would give you about 2lbs per week of weight loss. With 30+lbs to lose, this is probably alright, but once you start to get to lower body fat levels, you should up your calories and slow down your weight loss a bit. If you ate 2040 calories per day, you'd have a 600 calorie per day deficit, which would have you losing a little over a pound per week and it would be pretty sustainable. You could likely keep to that kind of diet all the way down to your weight loss goal without too much trouble.

Calories burned tend to be inaccurate, and so I don't recommend eating back your exercise calories.

They may not be perfect estimates. Neither are calories - even when you measure and weigh carefully. Neither are the models of our bodies that give us BMR estimates.

But if you are exercising hard you need to eat back your calories or you know it because you get VERY hungry and feel VERY weak. Trust your body.

I'm not fanatical about eating back all my calories - but then again I don't exercise that hard most of the time. But when I hike all day I'm starving and need to eat and feel completely comfortable eating any of those calories back that I want. Or if I work in the cold. Or if I do hard work out in my back yard cleaning out the chicken pen.

You can't run a body without fuel.

You also can't maintain muscle mass at a calorie deficit if you don't exercise.

Hi, I'm sorry but what I'm super confused about is all these acronyms!
What is a HRM?
What does BMR and TDEE mean?

Thanks~

P.S. While I'm here, I might as well confirm whether what I'm doing is okay.
Current Weight: 223
Goal Weight: 130
I want to lose about two pounds per week and I was given 1,300 calories by MFP.
I'm a teacher so I'm lightly active during the day outside of my workouts.
Say I burn about 600 calories a day. If I don't eat them back at all, this would be bad for me, correct?
If I eat about half or so of those 600 calories back, that is good?

I'm worried that I'm sabotaging myself somehow by not doing this correctly....

All of our bodies are a little different.

As a teacher, you might put yourself down as 'active', eat those calories, plus log any EXTRA exercise like going to the gym or walking. Eat enough so your net calories average about what they recommend - 1300 calories per day. Do that for a few weeks and see if you are losing what you want.

If you are not losing enough and you aren't that hungry, drop down your activity level to lightly active or even sedentary. But keep logging those exercise calories and eating them up. Again, try it and see if its working.

That way you are fitting the general model to your very real body. I'm a professor and run around a lot. But at moderately active I wasn't losing. Changed to sedentary (and logging my exercise) and the weight came right off. That's because I'm older and my metabolism is probably slower than someone who is younger than me.

When you are closer to your goal you'll have to drop back to a pound a week as it will get harder. Good luck!