Net calories?

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Bastiencade
Bastiencade Posts: 81
in Health and Weight Loss
I hope it's not a dumb question, but I'm a bit confused about what our goal net calories should be if we're doing a workout program. According to my chart, I need to be getting 1550 calories a day for my nutrition goals, but along with my workout, my net calories are around 700. Do we make up for those calories in food?
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  • lauren3101
    lauren3101 Posts: 1,853 Member
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    I think the general idea is that the more you exercise, the more you burn so the more you can eat.

    However I see little point in doing all that hard work then stuffing your face!

    Listen to your body - you will undoubtedly eat more if you are doing exercise, but if you are not hungry and you have got the nutrition you need, then stick with it. :)
  • ColleenRoss50
    ColleenRoss50 Posts: 199 Member
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    I checked your stats in another post and, at your weight, age, height and gender, 1550 calories is already a bit on the low side so you should definitely be trying to make sure to eat back your calories expended in exercise. So, for example, if you expend 800 calories in exercise on a given day you should be eating 800 additional calories (or as near as possible) above the 1550 to compensate. You will still reap the health benefits from doing the exercise.
  • ElizabethRoad
    ElizabethRoad Posts: 5,138 Member
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    Your calorie goal is supposed to be your net goal. If you have it set to 1550 then you should be netting 1550.
  • 130annie
    130annie Posts: 339 Member
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    I hope it's not a dumb question, but I'm a bit confused about what our goal net calories should be if we're doing a workout program. According to my chart, I need to be getting 1550 calories a day for my nutrition goals, but along with my workout, my net calories are around 700. Do we make up for those calories in food?

    Okay this is how I sort it....Not very scientific....I have a base cal...1200....Add cals from your workout....Then add and eat food until you get down to base again....
  • Healthymom207
    Healthymom207 Posts: 67 Member
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    Think of it this way if your calorie goal is 1550 calories for the day (which is low) and you burn 1000 calories from working out
    (1550 - 1000= 550 net) this means your body has only 550 calorie for the day to live off of. Your body is going to say WTF and slow it's metabolism down, store it's fat instead of expell it and energy levels are going to go down. Your not going to see much progress if your starving your body. You need to eat your exercise calories, if you know how much your burning then you need to eat the calories back, especially with your extremely low daily calorie goal.....you really need to raise that. Another important factor is to drink plenty of water, you should be drinking a minimum 8 cups (take your weight and divide by two, that's how many ounces you should drink in a day). The importance of water, besides the fact that it flushes out toxins, is that it speeds your metabolism, speeds your fat loss and feeds your muscles (muscles are 70% water and if they don't get enough they SHRINK). Hope this info. helps, good luck.
  • Bastiencade
    Bastiencade Posts: 81
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    Thanks so much for the responses, guys. I'm going to really need to figure out a way to reach that many calories in a day, as I'm already having trouble getting up to the 1550 I'm supposed to have.

    I know your body goes into starvation mode if you're not eating enough, and apparently I was right to worry that that could be happening to me. Luckily I'm only a week in, so I guess I'll be changing my eating patterns.

    Do we eat even if we aren't hungry? I've had no issues keeping the 1550 it says I need, but I can barely surpass that. I don't get hungry that much, or at least haven't been these past few weeks.

    I had no idea my goal calories were low, I simply put in the amount of weight I want to lose along with my stats, and that's what it told me I need a day.

    What would the recommended calories (from food) be for someone who is 22 years old, 210 pounds, and 6'3 in height?
  • Healthymom207
    Healthymom207 Posts: 67 Member
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    Depending on your daily physical activity here is round about what your body is burning on a daily basis.

    Example 1: Moderate Exercise 5x a week
    For fat loss- need to eat 2387 calories a day
    For Extreme fat loss- need to eat 1790 calories a day

    Example 2: Exercising moderately everyday
    For fat loss- need to eat 2673 a calories a day
    For Extreme fat loss- need to eat 2004 calories a day

    I know it seems like a lot for you, but your a man......men needs more calories than woman....you need to eat more, just clean options....not cheeseburgers (:

    Try going to freedieting.com and using the calculator on there, and as you lose weight these figures will change. Why don't you try this for a month and see what happens, cause right now your eating like a girl (: Your eating the amount of calories that I should be eating and I'm 124lbs.
  • bluejones
    bluejones Posts: 25
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    Great question, I was actually having the same issue, trying to understand Net Calories, my daily calorie requirements, as well as reaching my daily caloric intake. I was doing a little research last night and after reading this forum today, I feel like I have a better understanding of it.... I used something called the Harris Benedict Equation to calculate my caloric intake.

    http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/

    It seems to be more accurate, it takes a lot more into consideration than other calorie calculators I've used so, we'll see how it goes....
  • sarahrbraun
    sarahrbraun Posts: 2,261 Member
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    I know it seems like a lot for you, but your a man......men needs more calories than woman....you need to eat more, just clean options....not cheeseburgers (:

    Try going to freedieting.com and using the calculator on there, and as you lose weight these figures will change. Why don't you try this for a month and see what happens, cause right now your eating like a girl (: Your eating the amount of calories that I should be eating and I'm 124lbs.

    THIS girl eats like 2400 calories a day on the days she works out, and she STILL loses ~1lb a week. If you pick healthy foods, it is hard to eat enough, but gosh darn it, I LOVE to eat...So I make sure I have lots of healthy choices available for snacking on. On days when I know that I am going to be really active, I will supplement my diet with Atkins or Metrx bars 1-2 times a day ( they are like 200-300 calories each, and low carb)
  • bikinisuited
    bikinisuited Posts: 881 Member
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    bump
  • steph71195
    steph71195 Posts: 6
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    I think the first comment was right, you should eat when you are hungry and listen to your body. If you struggle to eat enough you can get things like Luna bars which have ~200 cals in them. try eating little and often to keep your metabolism fast :)
  • lauren8660
    lauren8660 Posts: 1
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    awesome explanation!!
  • pedraz
    pedraz Posts: 173
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    Think of it this way if your calorie goal is 1550 calories for the day (which is low) and you burn 1000 calories from working out
    (1550 - 1000= 550 net) this means your body has only 550 calorie for the day to live off of. Your body is going to say WTF and slow it's metabolism down, store it's fat instead of expell it and energy levels are going to go down. Your not going to see much progress if your starving your body. You need to eat your exercise calories, if you know how much your burning then you need to eat the calories back, especially with your extremely low daily calorie goal.....you really need to raise that. Another important factor is to drink plenty of water, you should be drinking a minimum 8 cups (take your weight and divide by two, that's how many ounces you should drink in a day). The importance of water, besides the fact that it flushes out toxins, is that it speeds your metabolism, speeds your fat loss and feeds your muscles (muscles are 70% water and if they don't get enough they SHRINK). Hope this info. helps, good luck.
    Thanks! This is perfectly explained! :smile:
  • badgirlturnedgood
    badgirlturnedgood Posts: 7
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    no no do not eat them back , working out & burning cals is the object just learn to feed your body with the right stuff to give it the energy it needs to sustain the workouts you require it to do ,your body will not long term be able to keep burning through workouts if it does not get the fuel ,its not down to filling up & eating all the cals its doing the workouts ,keeping the cals under & most important of all ,to eat very small & healthy regular snacks & a meal to keep it ticking over & burning at its best all day long .
  • badgirlturnedgood
    badgirlturnedgood Posts: 7
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    Think of it this way if your calorie goal is 1550 calories for the day (which is low) and you burn 1000 calories from working out
    (1550 - 1000= 550 net) this means your body has only 550 calorie for the day to live off of. Your body is going to say WTF and slow it's metabolism down, store it's fat instead of expell it and energy levels are going to go down. Your not going to see much progress if your starving your body. You need to eat your exercise calories, if you know how much your burning then you need to eat the calories back, especially with your extremely low daily calorie goal.....you really need to raise that. Another important factor is to drink plenty of water, you should be drinking a minimum 8 cups (take your weight and divide by two, that's how many ounces you should drink in a day). The importance of water, besides the fact that it flushes out toxins, is that it speeds your metabolism, speeds your fat loss and feeds your muscles (muscles are 70% water and if they don't get enough they SHRINK). Hope this info. helps, good luck.
    Thanks! This is perfectly explained! :smile:
    hi hope you do not mind me asking but i have done over 1000 cal burn today so going by what your saying i should eat an extra 1000 cals in a day to cover the burn off ! just checking understand you right ,always take on board any advice people pass on ,it just is the opposite to what i have already been told therefore i am now confused !
    thanks pedraz
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,411 MFP Moderator
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    I think the first comment was right, you should eat when you are hungry and listen to your body. If you struggle to eat enough you can get things like Luna bars which have ~200 cals in them. try eating little and often to keep your metabolism fast :)
    You can't listen to your body always as hunger signals can adapt to frequency of meals. If you want to test this theory, it's pretty simple. Start doing interim fasting for a month. The first week is brutal, especially for someone who did 5-6 meals a day, where you only eat meals within a small window. Eventually, your body will adjust and you won't be hungry during your 16-20 hour fast. Then go back to eating 6 meals a day and you will realize you are hungry every 2-3 hours.

    Your body has specific nutritional requirements to sustain your metabolism as well as your muscle. Starvation mode isn't the issue, allow your body to go catabolic should be a bigger concern as you don't want to lose muscle. Losing muscle makes it harder for long term weight loss as your metabolism will slow down and adapt.


    If you don't want to stress net calories, include your exercise into the TDEE calculation. For example i workout 6 days a week and work a desk job but I am not labeled as sedentary but rather am label as moderately active. This way, I dont' eat back exercise calories.
  • rose313
    rose313 Posts: 1,146 Member
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    To put it simply, if you let MFP calculate your recommended calorie intake for you then eat your exercise calories back.
  • geordiegirl27
    geordiegirl27 Posts: 307 Member
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    now this is interesting, I struggle most days (exception of weekends) to eat my 1260 that MFP has allocated me per day, I then do a reasonable amount of exercise and ignore those calories, except like I say on a weekend when I do have a few glasses of wine or a more calorific meal.

    I dont have a big appetite anyway, so to try to make up some extra cals today I've put a bit of butter on my jersey potatoes and some dressing on my salad and even a dessert spoon of light mayo, I'm still 210 calories short of the basic and I've burnt off over 800 cals with running.

    I cant see the point in eating if I'm not hungry but the concensous does seem to suggest that not eating enough isnt good for losing weight, its partly why I joined this site.

    Right I will try harder to eat more or maybe use the extra calories for the occasional snack. Who said losing weight wasnt difficult its downright confusing :ohwell:
  • geordiegirl27
    geordiegirl27 Posts: 307 Member
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    A daft question what is a TDEE?
  • ladyraven68
    ladyraven68 Posts: 2,003 Member
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    no no do not eat them back , working out & burning cals is the object just learn to feed your body with the right stuff to give it the energy it needs to sustain the workouts you require it to do ,your body will not long term be able to keep burning through workouts if it does not get the fuel ,its not down to filling up & eating all the cals its doing the workouts ,keeping the cals under & most important of all ,to eat very small & healthy regular snacks & a meal to keep it ticking over & burning at its best all day long .

    I'm afraid that is not how MFP works,

    It sets a calorie defict based on the loss you chose, 1lb, 2lb etc, and sets a calorie goal without exercise.

    so , a defict of 500 for 1lb or 1000 for 2lb.

    as you chose those goals, MFP thinks that if you say you want a defict of 500, you mean it, so if you exercise and burn 400 calories you make your defict 400 larger, it tells you to eat those 400 calories, to get back to the 500 deficit you originally chose.

    I recommend you read all the stickined threads at the top of this forum. Starting with this one.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/23912-links-in-mfp-you-want-to-read-again-and-again

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