NET CALORIES?!?!?!? GOOD OR BAD?
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i think what people are trying to tell you is that your body uses energy everyday regardless of what you are doing. you burn calories when you sleep and with every single second that you are alive you are using calories. your basal metabolic rate is the amount of calories you burn without doing any activity in the day. so you should net 1200 as in
the amount you eat - the amount you exercise should = 1200 calories. to supply energy for your basal metabolic processes
a simplified why to think about it is aim for 1200 calories a day. and if you exercise then you can eat some of those back or not depending on how hungry you are. but no matter how much activity you do in a day you should aim for 1200. that way your body is getting the fuel it needs to run and that way you can maintain your weight loss. you can't eat 650 calories forever or burn 1000 calories everyday forever. choose something you can maintain. good luck
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Ok, so if your calorie goal is 1200 net calories, you want your final net number at the end of the day to be as close to 1200 as possible. If you eat 1200 calories and burn 1000 through deliberate exercise, your net is 200, and that's very bad for you. If you burn 1000 calories in deliberate exercise, you need to eat a total of about 2200 calories that day. You really need to eat MORE in order to lose weight. If you look at MFP's food diary page on a computer, it will factor in the calories burned from exercise, and show you how you "earned" extra calories to eat.
Oh, and the TDEE thing is accurate, but very confusing for a newbie :-) if you're curious, google a TDEE calculator. It was too confusing for me until I understood how MFP was setting my goals, and that I needed to eat back exercise calories, but it might help you understand what's going on if you look it up.
A dietician might also be able to help you, but when I tried that, I was told to try counting points, like Weight Watchers, and I had already tried that and failed, so my experience with them is a bit jaded. Take my advice in that regard with a grain of salt :-)
I hope this helps, and if you have any more questions feel free to shoot me a message.0 -
You need 1200 calories a day. If you burn off 500 calories, (1200-500), then you are at (700). THEREFORE, you have to eat the calories you burned off (500) back.
Example: you decided to eat a burger and fries or something (1200 calories), then you realize, "Oh shi**, that was all my calories for the day. I better go for a run!" Then, you run 5 miles and burn 500 calories. (1200-500) That puts you BACK to (700) calories for the day. So after your run you would have to make yourself a nice big salad with some lean protein. Let's say it's (500) calories, (700+500=1200)! Then you are done for the day. YOU MUST HAVE 1200 NET CALORIES, 200 net is not enough!0 -
I'll look for it! 0
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I am new to the message board thing- but I want to try and help because it seems like you are very frustrated and that is never good when starting to diet! Let me try and make it as simple as possible.
Your goal is NOT to have your calories burned during exercise alone=your calories ate. If you are burning 1000 calories in an exericse, that means your need to EAT 1000 more calories to lose weight. I know that sounds crazy, but I found out I was no where near eating enough calories and once I started eating more I started consistantly loosing weight.
I suggest going to your Goals page (under the home tab) and look at the "your diet profile" section, it lays it out nicely. Here is what mine says:
Daily: I burn 1,520 calories a day (just living- not with exercising at all)
I need to eat: 1200 calories a day (to keep my metabolism up)
SOOOOO with that being said I am burning more (320 calories more) a day than I am eating...without setting foot in a gym. Now if I work out and burn say 250 calories I can eat an additional 250 calories because my body needs at least 1200 calories. Make sense? The "net" number on your tracker you want to be as close to zero as possible...not over and not under.
I hope that helps you out.0 -
I am new to the message board thing- but I want to try and help because it seems like you are very frustrated and that is never good when starting to diet! Let me try and make it as simple as possible.
Your goal is NOT to have your calories burned during exercise alone=your calories ate. If you are burning 1000 calories in an exericse, that means your need to EAT 1000 more calories to lose weight. I know that sounds crazy, but I found out I was no where near eating enough calories and once I started eating more I started consistantly loosing weight.
I suggest going to your Goals page (under the home tab) and look at the "your diet profile" section, it lays it out nicely. Here is what mine says:
Daily: I burn 1,520 calories a day (just living- not with exercising at all)
I need to eat: 1200 calories a day (to keep my metabolism up)
SOOOOO with that being said I am burning more (320 calories more) a day than I am eating...without setting foot in a gym. Now if I work out and burn say 250 calories I can eat an additional 250 calories because my body needs at least 1200 calories. Make sense? The "net" number on your tracker you want to be as close to zero as possible...not over and not under.
I hope that helps you out.
You do NOT want the NET to be 0 but the big blue number on you homepage should be close to 0 each day and you net number should be close to 1200, I think this is what normajean was trying to say, just used a wrong word....
Sorry the number is green not blue... says calories remaining0 -
you should never ever ever ever have a negative net calorie intake. your heart pumping and your body functioning requires calories. if you are eating too little for even those to take place, on top of exercising, those functions could potentially stop. this is why mfp sets a minumum of 1200 calories per day.0
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People who burn more calories than they eat end up in the hospital because their organs stop working.0
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No, you don't need to "net" 1200 calories. My dietitian told me DO NOT EAT BACK EXERCISE CALORIES. Not to mention the calorie burns on MFP are high anyway. You need to ask a professional. Remember, you get what you pay for, and free information in a forum is going to get you exactly what you pay for.0
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No, you don't need to "net" 1200 calories. My dietitian told me DO NOT EAT BACK EXERCISE CALORIES. Not to mention the calorie burns on MFP are high anyway. You need to ask a professional. Remember, you get what you pay for, and free information in a forum is going to get you exactly what you pay for.
Yeah DEAD if she listens to this!! If she burns EVERYTHING she eats by exercising and tries to keep that up she will be in the Hospital soon!!!
Looking at your tracker you have more body fat to live on than she does!! She is only needing to lose a very small amount!0 -
No, you don't need to "net" 1200 calories. My dietitian told me DO NOT EAT BACK EXERCISE CALORIES. Not to mention the calorie burns on MFP are high anyway. You need to ask a professional. Remember, you get what you pay for, and free information in a forum is going to get you exactly what you pay for.
you need to stop giving people this advice.0 -
No, you don't need to "net" 1200 calories. My dietitian told me DO NOT EAT BACK EXERCISE CALORIES. Not to mention the calorie burns on MFP are high anyway. You need to ask a professional. Remember, you get what you pay for, and free information in a forum is going to get you exactly what you pay for.
you need to stop giving people this advice.
What advice exactly? To ask a professional? Or not to listen to people in a forum? Or the bs about having to eat back exercise calories?0 -
No, you don't need to "net" 1200 calories. My dietitian told me DO NOT EAT BACK EXERCISE CALORIES. Not to mention the calorie burns on MFP are high anyway. You need to ask a professional. Remember, you get what you pay for, and free information in a forum is going to get you exactly what you pay for.
you need to stop giving people this advice.
What advice exactly? To ask a professional? Or not to listen to people in a forum? Or the bs about having to eat back exercise calories?
You had about 150lbs of fat for your body to live on according to your tracker, so you can SAFELY, for a while, not eat exercise cals back. She is losing 10lbs, she does not have the safety net that you and I do!!!!!!! She can NOT live on negitive cals for long her body will shut down!!!!0 -
It confused me at first, too. Okay, here is the very simple breakdown:
If you do absolutely nothing but lie in bed all day without moving at all, like you were in a coma, your body would still burn around 1200 calories all by itself, by breathing, making your heart beat, etc. This is called your BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate.
If you actually do move during the day, as everyone does, your body will burn even more calories crom just walking around. Probably another 600ish, without any formal exercise at all. So now, you have burned 1800 calories from just everyday living. That is your TDEE, or Total Daily Energy Expenditure, or the grand total of calories burned that day without extra exercise.
Now, if you do exercise, and burn, say, 200 calories, you have now burned 2000 calories for the day, because 1200 (from your bodily functions) + 600 (from walking around) + 200 (from exercise) = 2000.
Food-wise, in order to be healthy, you absolutely HAVE to eat approximately the same amount as your BMR (probably approximately 1200 calories, but you can look up formulas to help you find a more specific BMR for yourself all over the Internet). To eat less than your BMR all the time is going to cause problems for your organs and metabolism. So, you need to be eating at least your BMR. In the above case, where you burned 2000 calories, to lose 1 pound per week, which is a nice, steady and safe loss, you need to eat approximately 500 calories less than you burned. So that day of the 2000 burn, you would actually eat 1500 calories, giving you a "net" of 1500.
If you exercised more, and burned 700 calories, you'd add 700 to your TDEE of 1800 to get 2500 total calories burned for the day. So that day, you would eat 2000 calories in order to stay at 500 below your total burned. 2000 would be your "net" that day.
Hopefully this makes sense. Add me as a friend if you want, and I'll help you all I can!0 -
No, you don't need to "net" 1200 calories. My dietitian told me DO NOT EAT BACK EXERCISE CALORIES. Not to mention the calorie burns on MFP are high anyway. You need to ask a professional. Remember, you get what you pay for, and free information in a forum is going to get you exactly what you pay for.
you need to stop giving people this advice.
What advice exactly? To ask a professional? Or not to listen to people in a forum? Or the bs about having to eat back exercise calories?
You had about 150lbs of fat for your body to live on according to your tracker, so you can SAFELY, for a while, not eat exercise cals back. She is losing 10lbs, she does not have the safety net that you and I do!!!!!!! She can NOT live on negitive cals for long her body will shut down!!!!
Where did you get your medical degree? Have you measured her? Do you know her BF%? Do you know her RMR?0 -
yeah this thread clears everything right up. lol0
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No, you don't need to "net" 1200 calories. My dietitian told me DO NOT EAT BACK EXERCISE CALORIES. Not to mention the calorie burns on MFP are high anyway. You need to ask a professional. Remember, you get what you pay for, and free information in a forum is going to get you exactly what you pay for.
you need to stop giving people this advice.
What advice exactly? To ask a professional? Or not to listen to people in a forum? Or the bs about having to eat back exercise calories?
You had about 150lbs of fat for your body to live on according to your tracker, so you can SAFELY, for a while, not eat exercise cals back. She is losing 10lbs, she does not have the safety net that you and I do!!!!!!! She can NOT live on negitive cals for long her body will shut down!!!!
Where did you get your medical degree? Have you measured her? Do you know her BF%? Do you know her RMR?
Where did you get YOUR degree? Bull**** academy? Don't spread your ignorance to others.0 -
http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html
Hopefullly this will help. You are young and eating healthy now is a great way to stay healthy as you get older. Losing fast means gaining it back fast. And it usually means gaining more than you started with. Good luck. Getting angry is not the answer. Reading will help you. One day at a time and one pound at a time. P.S. It will really help if you open your diary in this instance.0 -
Just go read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
It explains EVERYTHING you need to know, how much you should be eating, and how to find all the numbers you need to know. I've started finally losing weight after setting my intake number to my BMR (1780 cal) and doing my best not to net below it. Just follow what he says and you'll do great.0 -
No, you don't need to "net" 1200 calories. My dietitian told me DO NOT EAT BACK EXERCISE CALORIES. Not to mention the calorie burns on MFP are high anyway. You need to ask a professional. Remember, you get what you pay for, and free information in a forum is going to get you exactly what you pay for.
you need to stop giving people this advice.
What advice exactly? To ask a professional? Or not to listen to people in a forum? Or the bs about having to eat back exercise calories?
Don't take this the wrong, but someone who is your size probably doesn't need to eat back exercise calories. You have a good 150 pounds to lose, so lots of reserves for you body to pull from. This is completely different from the OP who is trying to lose like 15 pounds and is small already. This advice you are giving is horrible for people who are already fairly small and trying to lose a small amount of weight.
OP-Do not eat 1200 calories and exercise off 1000! You will kill your metabolism and lose lean body mass. You burn calories just by living and doing daily activities. Here are my numbers. Your numbers will be different, but this is just an example-
I burn 2300 calories every day just by living, walking, running errands, playing with my kid, cleaning, etc. I eat 1600 calories a day. This would create a 700 calorie deficit in a day, and I would lose 1.4 pounds in a week. If I exercise, I eat those calories back. So, if I go for a run and burn 300 calories, I would then eat 1900 calories.0
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