Net calories vs food calories. Which is more important?

jlefkof08
jlefkof08 Posts: 2
edited December 25 in Health and Weight Loss
I am new to dieting and calorie counting, been trying it for 4 weeks so far, but I am confused!

I am a 34 yr old female, 5'2'', started at 134 pounds now down to 129. Would like to get to 120 (love to see 115, but that seems unrealistic, as I am an athletic build.)
I was told to only eat 1200 calories in order to lose weight.
I exercise 6 days a week. I typically burn 900-1100 calories a day (cycling class, rowing class, body combat, body pump, swimming, walking, arc trainer, seated elliptical and high interval intensity training, I like to mix it up so I don't get bored.)

In the Diary, it lists Goal calories, Food calories, Exercise calories, Net calories and Remaining calories.

I didn't know if I should stick to my 1200 calories, regardless of what I did that day, or if I should focus on the net calories (taking into account my exercise) and make the net calories 1200. My net calories for the past week and a half have been under 400 and I don't feel like I am losing any weight. However I am afraid if I eat more, I will gain all my weight back!

Please explain to me which numbers I should be focused on.

Thanks!

Replies

  • mydeloo78
    mydeloo78 Posts: 328 Member
    If you filled up your cars gas tank and drove so that it was 3/4 empty you could not then drive home on that amount of gas, you would have to refill it. You are eating 1200 calories and using up 1100 with exercise, you are then expecting your body to work on only 100 calories. Which is probably why you are not losing weight, your body needs to hold onto every last scrap of body fat for energy stores! You want to focus on net calories being no less than 1200 calories.. otherwise you won't have the energy to keep up those workouts!
  • rose313
    rose313 Posts: 1,146 Member
    Since you exercise a lot, focus on net. If you eat 1200 and burn 1100 your body is only left with 100 to use.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    the basic idea of this site is to set a calorie goal for your target weight loss given your routine daily activity, then to log exercise calorie burn separately and increase the food allowance to match, thereby keeping the original deficit of calories for weight loss.

    If you eat the goal calories (Food Calories = Goal calories) you're following the plan. That should give you 1200 net calories if your target is 1200.

    Overestimating exercise calories and a mathematical glitch in MFP may catch you out if you eat back all of them, so making an allowance for that might be wise.
  • jasminecandle
    jasminecandle Posts: 50
    You need to eat back the calories you burned.
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    the basic idea of this site is to set a calorie goal for your target weight loss given your routine daily activity, then to log exercise calorie burn separately and increase the food allowance to match, thereby keeping the original deficit of calories for weight loss.

    If you eat the goal calories (Food Calories = Goal calories) you're following the plan. That should give you 1200 net calories if your target is 1200.

    Overestimating exercise calories and a mathematical glitch in MFP may catch you out if you eat back all of them, so making an allowance for that might be wise.

    ^^^^ Well put.

    Where I can verify MFP's calorie burn (either through calculations based on heart rate or using other more specialized sites for specific exercises, like MapMyRide for bicycling), I eat them all back. Most of MFP's calculations I only use when I am performing at the very high end of performance for the exercise, and/or I adjust MFP's numbers down by about 25-30%.

    I routinely burn a (verified) 1200-1400 calories a day bicycling 28 miles in hills (my daily commute to and from work), but MFP would have me believe that I burned almost 2,000 calories. Since my deficit is set for one pound a week (500 calorie deficit per day), if I ate back everything MFP recommended I'd be slowly gaining weight.

    On the other hand, if I can't manage to eat back at least 1,000 of that 1200-1400 calories, by Thursday I get sore and tired and not at all enthusiastic about my ride in, and my average speeds start dropping off rapidly. The hills get steeper as the legs get weaker.
  • jlefkof08
    jlefkof08 Posts: 2
    Thank you! I was afraid to eat all my calories back, but I have been pretty hungry :)

    I wasn't sure how they estimated the calories burned, I don't even trust the machines at the gym when it tells you your calorie burn! I guess I am confused because I used to eat around 2500 calories and exercising (bruned around 400-600 calories a day) and I was slowly gaining weight. So if I allot too much for the calories burned, I am not really doing much different (still eating 2100 calories) and I won't lose any weight.

    Hoping to lose 9 more pounds. I clearly have no clue what I am doing. I REALLY appreciate the responses!
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